SumOne

As his brother said: 'he's like a man with a fork in a world of soup'

^^^ Yeah, exactly. I think singing something like 'Is it worth the aggravation, to find yourself a job when there's nothing worth working for' basically needs a punky/boozy/aggro/attitude/don't give a shit....sing-shout in the street after a few too many beers sort of delivery, which is what Liam does. Someone with a powerful pitch perfect operatic five octave range isn't gonna really deliver the same message/character.

It's like saying Bob Dylan, Kurt Cobain, Johnny Rotten, Kanye West, Britney Spears etc. can't sing. Sure, they can't sing like an Opera singer but that's not what they are doing.

I'm possibly tempting fate, but I don't take a backup Bass. I've never had a Bass suddenly stop working on me, they're fairly basic and sturdy things really (when compared to electronic things like my stage keyboard or DJ setup, which I don't backup). If I was backing up anything then I think it'd be the Amp, they seem to be the most likely point of complete failure.

Lucky Dube, Guns & Roses He reminds me of Peter Tosh, which is no bad thing.

I used the Alpine ear defenders at band practice last night and they didn't really work out for me. Seemed to make the Bass too quiet, but certain notes from the sax really boomy, wasn't an even reduction in sound like I get with the ACS PRO17.

'The world exists as you perceive it. It is not what you see, it is how you see it. It is not what you hear, but how you hear it. It is not what you feel, but how you feel it.' Rumi ..... The perceptions of audiences might well be different to drug induced perceptions of the bass player that perceives themselves as a playing genius though!

Rock n roll is an old man’s game.

Dragons Den idea! Basically the opposite of hearing aids. High-end active noise cancelling headphones have decent microphones built-in and can be set to varying levels of 'transparency' to play outside noises through the headphone speakers, perhaps having that sort of technology built into passive isolating (ear defender type) headphones could work. Sennheiser is owned by a hearing-aid company, Sonova.

You're not wrong....didn't have to say it like it is though! I mean, life is futile, and Basschat more so, passes the time though!

I found this Bass player online review of the Vic Firth Headphones: .....so it seems they are actually too good at isolation to just use them over-ear alternative to earplugs, you'd need to plug them in to monitor whatever you want to hear (that wouldn't work for me as we don't mic up the drums or mic/DI the bass). I've ordered some Alpine Defender over-ears as they are reasonable cheap (£25) and via Amazon I can return for free if they don't work out. They are -26db though which seems like it'll be too much (my ACS in-ears are -17db, which is about the right amount).

You're ready already! Just need to find the right people and the right music. Bass is definitely a social instrument that works best playing with others. Luckily, one of my best friends is a drummer, so just doing boozy rhythm section practice/jam sessions was my starting point. Then I joined a 3 piece that just did practice stuff, then onto bands that were a bit more serious and played live, now I also do some Dep stuff so can have very little practice time before playing live. I'm yet to play anything bigger than pubs and small festivals though so there's still hopefully a progression. The gradual progression seemed a good way of doing it.

Each to their own, but I reckon that was a golden age (possibly as those were my late teenage years). Robson & Jerome, Vanilla Ice, Boyzone, Menswear, Aqua, Hanson. It had it all! Seriously, though, the best 90s UK music was Electronic stuff: Orbital, Underworld, Chemical Brothers, Leftfield, Aphex Twin, The Prodigy, Boards of Canada, all the Jungle/DnB stuff and UK Garage. Like it or not, it was genuinely world leading, innovative, original sounding stuff. Whereas Britpop was always a bit of lame nostalgic/throwback radio-friendly/Saturday morning kids TV sort of stuff. And there was the really pop sort of stuff like boybands for the 13 year old girls, which in hindsight was perhaps quite good to have that quite clear boundary, nowadays pop is a bland mush to try to appeal to as many people as possible.

Are there such a thing as a decent over-ear noise defender for musicians i.e. one that basically keeps stuff sounding the same but quieter (rather than muffled)? I have ACS custom earplugs that I'll still use for live stuff, but using them for weekly band practice sessions there are a couple of issues: They are a bit of a faff to get in/out (and need lubeing up!) and cleaning, and I've lost one pair so far, whereas over-ear are immediately straight on/off and a bit more tricky to loose, and for the second time in recent years I have needed to get my ears un-blocked via microsuction with different ear specialists telling me that regularly pushing the ACS earplugs into my ears is probably causing the issue (best not to push things into your ears if it can be avoided). Over-ear defenders tend to seem to be designed as workplace ear defenders, or for children - rather than for musicians and preserving the sound. Perhaps the Alpine Defender? Or, perhaps a good passive noise isolating headphones, the types Drummers tend to use , perhaps Vic Firth isolating headphones? ...I guess if they are too good at passively isolating stuff I could plug them into the mixing desk to monitor.

Perhaps something like this and add some red knobs: Although, for me, THE Reggae Bass look is a slightly knackered Fender Jazz with a sunburst/tobacco burst. e.g. Aston Barrett: Robbie Shakespeare: Flabba Holt: .....all of them played all sorts of other Basses too, but that's what I always assume a Reggae Bass to look like.

There's a lot of hate from people who play in guitar bands towards the likes of Oasis, Foo Fighters, Coldplay, Nickleback etc. I'm not a big fan of any of them, but surely the fact that they have actual Bass players on stage is a good thing? I mean, have a look at the top 40 and I'm pretty sure there isn't hardly a single 'band' in it. If Oasis play to 100's of thousands of people then hopefully a few of them will pick up instruments and there will be some type of revival for bands and live music in pop charts.

standing on the shoulder of giants

Yeah, I suppose it is they were so blatant about the heavy influence for a while - with look and sound (even through to Liam naming one of his kids Lennon). They also covered a few Beatles songs . But I agree, that is how music works and I wouldn't say they are really any more 'influenced' than a lot of say, metal bands are influenced by Black Sabbath etc. I'd say, if you like Oasis, then you'd like a lot of Beatles stuff. They certainly do anyway. Supersonic’ – “Sail with me in my Yellow Submarine” ‘Morning Glory’ – “Tomorrow Never Knows what it doesn’t know too soon” ‘Fade In-Out’ – “Get on the Helter Skelter” ‘Be Here Now’ – “Sing a song for me, one from Let It Be“ ‘She’s Electric’ – ‘With a Little Help From My Friends’ outro ‘D’You Know What I Mean?’ – lyrical references ‘The Fool on the Hill’ and ‘I Feel Fine’ https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/the-beatles-references-in-oasis-songs/ And copied from Reddit:

I'm not a big fan, but also I don't get why quite so much hate. Sure, they rip off the Beatles, they are arrogant, and a lot of the time the lyrics make no sense. But they do also have some very memorable songs, do a good live show, and have some rock n roll/punk attitude. And this song is great:

For me it has been preamp pedals, I've owned quite a few but now it seems that in just about any situation I tend to find myself in there are other things that cover those duties: Playing live through an Amp/Cab: No need for a preamp pedal. Playing live wanting stomp on/off a particular tone and distortion: Distortion or EQ pedals or multi-fx with presets cover this. DI to mixing desk: I do that from my Amp (clean or post). To mixing desk and wanting to add different Amp and Cab sims: multi-fx is much more versatile with presets for HPF/LPF/IR/Amp/Cab/EQ/Distortion. Recording: I record a clean signal and then process it, at home - a Multi-fx with a Laptop USB interface does this (and can re-amp and change the sound).

All it seemed to enhance for me was hiss and perhaps a bit of 'clank'. I just kept it fully off. Perhaps you have no hiss in your signal chain for it to 'enhance', or your Amp/Cab isn't reproducing that frequency, (or your high frequency hearing has gone!)

I do actually like preamp pedals and have owned quite a few, but I suppose it's just my situation that I usually find I don't really need them as I play through an amp/cab, or use multi fx as an recording interface. I can definitely see the use of individual pedals for things that get stomped on/off a lot or need a lot of live adjusting.

I'm gonna be contrary and say I can't see much point in preamp pedals. Perhaps they are useful playing through a PA with no backline and not wanting to DI from an Amp, but multi-fx would seem a more flexible option to me for that most of the time. Even a cheap multi-fx unit will do a better live job by having Amp/Drive/Cab/IR/EQ/HPF/LPF and presets all available. And if playing live at pub sort of level then most players still go through an actual Amp which includes a preamp so not much need for a pedal version. And if home recording then a clean signal generally seems best (to then edit later) - multi-fx can act as an interface to your Laptop for that whereas many preamp pedals can't. I dunno, but they kind of seem to be a solution to a problem that doesn't exist for 90% of situations.........perhaps why so many are for sale on here?!

Not exactly a great VST deal, but anyone on the fence upgrading EZ Drummer v2 to v3 I'd say it's worth it: €99 if upgrading from v2, or €179 if buying for the first time. v3 can go full screen, has grid editor, sounds good - some good new kits and presets and midi patterns, seamlessly integrates with the v2 libraries and with my DAW (Reaper). It can be almost too easy to make decent sounding full song drum tracks - it feels like cheating! Can do stuff like drag in files or input a basic rhythm and it will suggest drum patterns that will work with it, it'll then also suggest all the other parts of the song to fit (intro, bridge, fills etc), then you can select a different feel for each part (e.g. amount of snare hits, velocity etc) add some 'humanizing' and change drum kits and preset sounds/fx etc. can have enough control that it feels like you've had artistic input to make something reasonably original while all of the technical drum programming work is done for you (like I imagine a producer/musical director that can't drum but knows what they want to hear, telling a drummer 'play a 120bpm funky breakbeat with no kick drum, use a tight kit, loud snare with reverb, add a fill here, then a swung bridge' etc.). Can have a decent quite original full song drum track made in a few minutes with no technical drum programming skills. Or, you could do all the programming via the grid editor if you want. The downside is potentially being sucked into buying expansion packs and midi files, e.g. there aren't Reggae drum kit presets or midi patterns, Reggae drums are €89 and reggae midi files €29. Do that with a few different genres and it could get pricey.