jmstone

[quote name='Musky' post='393551' date='Jan 28 2009, 11:54 AM']That's not really a problem when recording - the idea is to capture the sound of the instruments on different tracks and mix them to your taste rather than the sound in the room. My band has done this (powerbook/cubase/fostex usb mixer). The Fostex could only handle two tracks at a time so we ended up putting the drums down with the rest of the band playing as quietly as possible and overdubbing the rest of the instruments. There was just enough spill on the drum tracks to use as a guide without screwing up the mix. Not my favourite way of working, but it did the trick. Edit: Just checked and it was actually a Tascam 428, not that it makes any difference really. [/quote] Hmm. that sounds pretty complicated. How do you monitor the drums when you are overdubbing the rest of the band? Did you do 1 instrument at a time while wearing headphones? I really don't want to overdub each instrument separately. If nothing else, I don't think we are up to it technically. If I was going to record each instrument on different tracks, mic'ing the amps, how would be the best way to get the drums recorded? I have the feeling that even with using something like an SM58 the drums would still bleed through onto the different parts.. James

[quote name='urb' post='393388' date='Jan 28 2009, 08:45 AM']Hi James Sounds like you'd be better off saving your dosh and getting hold of/borrowing a Macbook with Garageband on it and getting hold of a mixer, and just record in a rehearsal room or someone's house, i.e. in a room that sounds good and you guys feel comfortable playing in. Check out the thread below that I posted re my jazz funky band, the results are quite impressive for a recording made in someone's front room. Pro studios are great but with a few bits of the right gear you can do a very good job yourselves, alternatively is there a local music technology college near you? If so the student engineers need bands to practice on, so if you can find one you should be able to get in a great studio and not pay a penny. Just a suggestion, hope it helps Mike[/quote] Yeh.. that's a pretty good idea. I really like the sound of your recording. The problem we have at rehearsal is the drums are way too loud, and the vocals are too quiet, and turning up the vocals leads to feedback on the PA. I did experiment with recording from the mixing desk in the rehearsal studio, but to date I haven't been too successful in balancing the sound. I must confess I didn't spend that much time on it tho. Any suggestions to get round this problem would be very helpful. I do have a mac powerbook (and definitely used to have a copy of garageband somewhere). James

[quote name='Luther Blissett' post='390290' date='Jan 24 2009, 11:35 AM']Hi, It's been a while, But I finally am back on basschat. first lets tackle the standard introduction among bass players bass: 1996 Ibanze ATK 300 amplifier : carlsbro something... (looking for a gbe 600) efx: EHX pulsar, nano smallstone, BMS, Bass Big Muff, LBM, Stereo Electric Mistress; Behringer Bass Overdrive, Bass Flanger and BDI 21 ; Boss PH-3, PS-3, DD-20; DOD FX 25 The Music: I play in Karen Eliot, en improv duo / trio / fivepiece (depends on the occasion). Usually guitar and bass, microphones an a lot of effects. If you're curious: you can listen to it here: www.myspace.com/wearekareneliot The question: well, I want to order some new equipment (headphone, verbzilla, some studio stuff), and I was wondering if I could profit from the low pound. But 'im looking for an online shop in the UK which ships to the continent and has good value on it's prices. Anything you can advise? thx! Luther[/quote] Hi there and welcome! Not sure if they ship to the continent, but over the last couple of years I have used dv247, imuso and dolphin music. All three seem pretty reliable, and reasonable prices. James

Anyone have any suggestions for cheap (and preferably reasonably OK) recording studios in London? (not that I'm sure our skills really merit being recorded for posterity!) So far we have been making do with recording the band through the build in mic on my mp3 player, but the myspace page is becoming a bit embarrassing! James

I think joinmyband.co.uk is ok.. got current guitarist and drummer from that site. In the end I tended more towards gumtree though.. James

[quote name='beerdragon' post='376133' date='Jan 10 2009, 01:53 PM']It would make a great winter project. yeah like a good fire.[/quote] Yeah. Bet it Burns Weill! James

[quote name='dannybuoy' post='380250' date='Jan 14 2009, 01:52 PM']Fortress Studios in Old Street are good, they have a massive Trace stack with 2 4x10s that absolutely kicks, and their PA is massive. Rooz in Old Street has Orange valve amps which are cool, and the place is pretty funky for a rehearsal studio - it has a bar, and sometimes the rehearsal rooms open up and turn into mini gigs! Terminal Studios in London Bridge is pretty good with decent equipment (Ashdown mostly). I used to use Unit 9 in Balham (who also have Ashdown amps), mainly because it's close to me... There's one in Streatham by the kart track that's meant to be pretty good too. If you use Scar in Camden, be prepared to either take your own amp or use a farty Behringer or an even more farty fossil of unknown origin from the seventies![/quote] .. Also Unit9 are about half the price of Fortress (£30 for a 3 hour session incl. backline) (not sure about Rooz - they don't seem to have a website). Unit 9 have a Trace combo too, but I think the Ashdown stuff there sounds better. James

[quote name='Pookus' post='374392' date='Jan 8 2009, 08:11 PM']Is the Premises still going on Hackney Rd? That is where I used to rehearse when I lived in London. They had a great cafe too.[/quote] That's the one!

[quote name='northstreet' post='374365' date='Jan 8 2009, 07:46 PM']Carrying on with this thread, anyone know of any places in east London - preferably somewhere accessible by car? Cheers[/quote] Depends what you mean by East London, and how much you want to spend. The Premises are in Bethnal Green, and are good, but a bit pricey [url="http://www.premisesstudios.com/"]http://www.premisesstudios.com/[/url] James

Only just got round to listening to this, but it sounds really fantastic! Brilliant musicianship and you all gel so well. I love the DnB vibe on real instruments.. great sounds!

Good to see you here Ron. Good luck with it! Hope it works out. James

[quote name='Feelgood' post='365406' date='Dec 29 2008, 12:22 PM']Thanks - I bookmarked that a while ago. Will go back for another look! I'm sure I must have progressed but I think I need a bit more external input! I'm not in a band, so lessons may be the way to go. I bought 'Bass Guitar for Dummies' which has been useful but I think the structure of lessons might help too. What sort of stuff are you playing with the band?[/quote] Well, it started off as Indie Pop, but we have now (with a new singer) taken a turn towards a more dark bluesey sound that I think is really working.. Not quite up to performance standard yet, but good enough to be exciting! I would strongly recommend joining a band whatever your standard though - I don't think I would have the persistence to practice and improve without that impetus.. And it is a lot of fun!

Unit 9 down in Balham are very good.. around £30 for a 3 hr session inc. drums, 2 guitar amps and 1 bass amp.. (although times are set to be fairly awkward).. I like them a lot though.. enough to trek down there from Archway!! (maybe also 'cos most of the rest of the band live in South London). Bush Studios run a similar kind of deal - pretty good for the money.. in Shepherd's Bush. Scar, I think is pretty terrible for the money (despite being cheapish)... The rooms are pretty small, and the equipment is close to broken. Bona Fide were even worse (unless you like your rehearsal room to be growing mould on the walls!) For a bit more cash, "The Premises" are excellent... but a bit hard to get to. Would be interested to hear about others though... James

[quote name='Feelgood' post='358076' date='Dec 18 2008, 04:50 PM']But isn't it tho' Itching to learn more. How have you progressed: books, lessons or just playing, playing playing?[/quote] I am not really sure I _have_ progressed to be honest! But I have been going through some online lessons: [url="http://www.studybass.com/"]http://www.studybass.com/[/url] (anyone else have any thoughts on the quality of these? They seem pretty good in my inexperienced opinion!) Practicing at home (trying to do 1 hour a day.. but it seems to be more like one session of 3 hours followed by a couple of days of not managing to find a spare moment... although once I pick up the bass, I seem to not be able to put it down -- several very late nights as a result!) ..and, of course, playing with the band... How about you? James

[quote name='leschirons' post='357471' date='Dec 18 2008, 12:22 AM']One of my last replies was about remembering Spangles, but welcome aboard anyway.[/quote] Wasn't it Mark E Smith who said "Spangles were always crap!"... at least that was my experience of them. Welcome to the forum!

Welcome from another late-starter newbie. No advice from me, but isn't bass fantastic!?

[quote name='thepurpleblob' post='355353' date='Dec 15 2008, 08:52 PM']Get a Mac. It will cost you LOADS of money but you won't look like a sado with a Packard Bell. Everything just works, the keyboard is nice to type on and you'll still be able to use it in 5 years time when all your mates' PCs are long in the bin.[/quote] This is completely true.. (well in my case anyway!).. The machines are pretty solidly built... although I have heard horror stories of HD failure in some Macs after 1 year. Personally I use Linux at home, Mac at work, and Windows when I have to. They all have their place, and I guess I would recommend each to different people depending on what they want to do. Personally, after using Linux for 5 years as my only OS at home, using anything else is like torture... but there is a fairly steep learning curve (although as mentioned above, it is so much easier now than it ever has been in the past). You can't do things like use the iTunes store (but I use emusic), some proprietary formats are hard to play (although still eminently possible), but there is some of the most amazing software on the planet available for free.. As a multitrack drop-in replacement for protools, Ardour is pretty much ideal (and completely free). Above all, the OS is rock solid stable, and you don't have to do things the way Bill Gates or Steve Jobs thinks you should! ... Oh, and I would never buy a second hand laptop ever again, after being seriously stung with the first one I got.. basically prices of computers drop so fast, it is hard to find anyone to sell the laptop at the price it is worth.. they are swayed by the price they paid for it 6 months or a year ago, when in reality it should be worth a tiny fraction of its original value. Also, if anything goes wrong (as usually seems to happen on second hand computers) you are stuck with a hefty repair bill. The only exception I might make to this is buying one of the original lightweight IBM thinkpads - they were very solid and stable computers, perhaps nothing amazing by todays standards, but very portable and good at what they do. James

[quote name='Musky' post='353653' date='Dec 13 2008, 03:41 PM']I did this years ago with a Lords of the New Church b side. I wrote a bassline, and the guitarist came up with his part for it. We thought it was quite good. And then I revisited the single - not only was 'my' bassline almost the same but the guitarist's part was virtually identical as well. The weird thing was that I'd only ever played the song once, maybe 9 months beforehand, and the guitarist had never heard it. The only thing we could do was ditch the entire thing...[/quote] Yeh.. I must say it's a bit weird 'cos I don't even like the White Stripes that much, and I certainly haven't been practicing any of their basslines! Still, it must have seeped into my consciousness through the constant bombardment from the radio etc... Or maybe it's such an obvious bassline it just emerged on its own.. Another of my songs (when I was writing songs on the guitar) sounded a bit like "what's happenening" by The Byrds... although my song was a lot more interesting!! (heh heh)... Still, not as blatant as Elastica's "Waking Up" rip off of The Stranglers "No More Heroes", I hope!

Anyone else had this problem? I was playing through a new song with the band at our last practice, and came up with what I thought was a pretty cool bassline for part of it, until one of the other guys pointed out it was "quite like" a White Stripes track.. I then realised it was pretty much the bassline from 7 Nation Army with maybe one note different.. So what do you do? Come up with something else? Keep it in as a kind of kitsch reference to the White Stripes (it's not as if it makes up a major part of our song)? Give up on playing in a band and look for a job as a shoe salesman? Thoughts?

Great songs! Great playing! The way the vocals mix sound a bit weird - could it be that they are too dry? The "ambience" seems to be lost... I am sure with a decent engineer it would sound fantastic tho. J Edit: by the way, the name is really great

Fantastic stuff! I love it James

Haha! Thanks Gaf! It was great to meet with you today.. The Warwick is absolutely fantstic! As I mentioned in my other post, I'm not allowed to play it until Christmas. The anticipation is going to be a nightmare, but it will be worth it! Only a couple of more weeks of playing the Ibanez!

Hi everyone, seems like a great place I have been playing bass for the grand total of 3 weeks, but I think I have fallen in love! I was previously on some other kind of smaller stringed instrument in our band (indie/blues type mix) but we had no luck finding a bass player, so I decided to take the plunge.. so happy I did! Currently playing a borrowed and trashed 1979 Ibanez Roadster.. Quite a nice bass, but I am looking to get a bass of my own! I am not completely sure what I need though - I think I will be disappointed if I get a cheap bass having been used to the Ibanez.. Looking for a nice growly tone. Any suggestions would be gratefully received. James