SumOne

Earlier today I played a £4,550 Yamaha Nathan East, it is better than my £175 Yamaha RBX765A.....but not that much better! As well as the Yamaha shop I also went to the Denmark St shops and played all sorts of Basses but nothing made me think they are worth getting, none were enough of an improvement over the RBX to justify it. I might get an Ibanez EHB 1005 MS (again!) though, mostly as it is lighter and fretting is easier. I don't expect to make better sounding music from it - but it'll be more comfortable to play, and I spend a lot of time playing so I reckon that's probably a worthwhile reason.

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I just watched the Graceland ('Classic Album' series) documentary last week and he discussed this: He said it was about a point in his life where he was feeling down and unsure about life, had recently split from his wife and the Garfunkel partnership, but then he finds redemption in S Africa recording the Graceland album. A lot of the lyrics are depressing and he sort of regrets the jokey video. A man walks down the street He says, "Why am I soft in the middle, now? Why am I soft in the middle? The rest of my life is so hard I need a photo-opportunity I want a shot at redemption Don't want to end up a cartoon In a cartoon graveyard" .....that's him writing about himself, feeling irrelevant - like the famous version of him is a cartoon caricature, a 'cartoon' joke that'll die Bonedigger, Bonedigger Dogs in the moonlight Far away in my well-lit door Mr. Beerbelly, Beerbelly Get these mutts away from me You know, I don't find this stuff amusing anymore ......... again, fairly depressing stuff: graveyard, dark, dogs after him, unfit, he's had enough of feeling afraid and worrying about death. If you'll be my bodyguard I can be your long lost pal I can call you Betty And Betty, when you call me, you can call me Al ...........he needs help (he doesn't mention why the Betty/Al in the documentary but other places say it was him and his wife being mistakenly referred to as that at a party) A man walks down the street He says, "Why am I short of attention? Got a short little span of attention .......aparently a Richard joke. And, whoa, my nights are so long Where's my wife and family? What if I die here? Who'll be my role model Now that my role model is gone, gone?" ...........dark. He ducked back down the alley With some roly-poly little bat-faced girl All along, along There were incidents and accidents There were hints and allegations If you'll be my bodyguard I can be your long lost pal I can call you Betty And Betty, when you call me, you can call me Al Call me Al A man walks down the street It's a street in a strange world Maybe it's the third world Maybe it's his first time around Doesn't speak the language He holds no currency He is a foreign man He is surrounded by the sound, the sound Cattle in the marketplace Scatterings and orphanages He looks around, around He sees angels in the architecture Spinning in infinity He says, "Amen and Hallelujah!" ......recording 'Graceland' album in South Africa and finding redemption.

It's very unscientific as I didn't have the others to directly compare it with, but I'm often after quite a specific tone (a slightly saturated low-mid heavy slightly compressed Reggae/Dub sound) and I found the Boss got me a tone I was happy with and I stopped adjusting it, with other multi-fx I've always been constantly adjusting and trying different things like IRs and never quite being happy with them. (As individual pedals, an FEA Opti-Fet compressor + Creation Audio Grizzly Bass + Q-Strip got me there too). For more distorted sounds I get the impression that the Zoom and Line 6 things are basically different EQ & gain versions of the same thing, the Boss ones felt a bit more individual to me - closer to having individual pedals. I find most multi-fx are pretty good at modulation and delays so there isn't much in it there, and none are much good at filters (which is odd seing as Source Audio do it so well digitally, so it is possible). I suppose the ability to have multiple split paths with dynamic switching and huge amount of fx available for long chains set the Boss apart as a more powerful multi-fx, most of what I'm after was simpler than that though - just a good solid Reggae tone, but perhaps that does actually take some powerful processing to sound really good.

I'm fickle with multi-fx. I've owned the Zoom (B1-four, MS-60B, MS70 CDR), Line 6 (Effects, Stomp, Stomp XL, Pod Go), and recently the Boss GT 1000 Core. I think Zoom are the best value, Line 6 the nicest interface, Boss the most powerful and best sounding. Just as I've sold all my pedals I've joined up to a new band that uses a PA so am considering my pedal options again though (I've been using an MPC Key 61 as a Bass multi-fx at home - that might not be practical live though). As I'll be playing through a PA I think Amp/Cab sims and IR loader would be good, 2x inputs (keyboard and Bass) and a way of splitting the output signal would be useful - one to mixer and one to a monitor. It looks like the Valeton GP 200 is a relatively cheap contender, downside being it only has one input....the Boss I've just sold would probably be ideal so @Al Krow bear that in mind it you don't get on with it!

No way! Norway

It hasn't been confirmed, but reports that Jah Shaka has died. ☹️ https://www.clashmusic.com/news/jah-shaka-soundsystem-legend-has-died/

That's a good interview. I'm a big fan of Barrington

The experience of dozens of people (including me) would beg to differ though. A good proportion of this talkbass thread is people complaining about it. Perhaps it was bugs that have since been fixed though.

Reggae morning!

Tapper (at least that's how it's spelled on the record, half the YouTube videos say 'Tappa' though) Zukie, Escape from Hell ♨️

You might as well get a Zoom 2nd hand to try out, can sell without much loss if you don't get on with it..... Then again, the same argument can be made for expensive individual pedals! I don't think the Zoom compressors are as good as high-end ones but it does the job fine. Similar with the Rat and other effects but there isn't a huge amount of difference.

I like mucking about with pedals and think good analogue envelope filters are hard to beat but everything else gets close enough with a decent multi-fx, especially if playing with a band and through an amp and cab where subtleties get lost. And if playing at home or recording then a clean recording and then using a laptop to add effects gives more control than most pedals - not as immediate or fun though. ....then again, pedals are fun and can be more inspiring than multi fx and laptops. Logical vs emotional parts of the brain battling! It keeps me on a cycle of buying/selling pedals.

My pedalboard has grown keys! (Akai MPC Key 61) It's not exactly portable!... but can plug the Bass into it and use it to add live effects (including compressor, amp and cab sims, modulation, complex delays etc. all are as good as any other multi fx I've used), it also has a tuner. Can only apply 4x effects to the live input channel at one time, but can add another 4x to the main output (and can quickly change presets). And obviously can also use the keys for synth stuff, and the drum pads for drum sounds and samples, and can record and play loops etc. It's not practical for all situations (although some pedalboards seem a similar size!), and I don't fancy stomping on it! But I'm moving house so am bandless for now and it's great for home Bass practice and I reckon it could fit in some band situations - especially if there are songs that need synth bass/pads/samples/loops etc. and can switch back to using it like a Bass multi fx for other songs. I also have a Boss GT 1000 core but it has been sidelined since I got this so I think I might sell it and go back to a trusty Zoom B1 four for backup/portability etc.

Frank bought a pedal from me and all was good, thanks!

A bitsa Precision I put together won't be going anywhere, mostly as I can't imagine anyone will want to pay for my workmanship!

I went for the free trial of Flowkey. It is clever how it can use your phone mic to hear if you have played the notes correctly and it'll only move on with the song when you have played them - I'm not sure that is great for learning good timing though, it is the main selling point but I turned the feature off. Without using that there is a lot of similar content on youtube for free so I won't be subscribing for the €10pm app. I've gone with old trusty: Hal Leonard Piano method.

You're right, yes- Reaper is great for that. Having used just about all the major DAWs it's the only one I use now.

This is one of the things that puts me off with software: It was only after I bought EZDrummer 2 that I realised it doesn't have a grid editor ('superior drummer' needed for that), clearly they thought it was lacking as they have released EZ Drummer 3 which includes grid editor, but it'll cost €99 to upgrade. I suppose that's fair enough, but it just feels like buying software/updates etc never ends, everything sort of follows a paid update/subscription model. On a related note, the new subscrition model of 'Waves' plugins looks like it's really P!$$ed off its existing customers:

I've recently got an MPC Key 61 which I think is great. The positives that most reviewers say (hardware, workflow, sounds) are all true. I don't agree with the downsides that a few reviews point out (Bugs, slow to load sounds, cheaper to get an MPC One and add a midi keyboard). 1. Bugs: I haven't experienced any bugs. Akai are known to release things with bugs and then quickly release updates to fix them, so if you get something thats been released for a few months it is fine - the reviews complaining about bugs seem to be testing shortly after the release date. 2. Load times: Some plugins do take upto about 6 seconds to load, most are much faster though and there are no load times for plugins within the loaded project. I don't think it's an issue for most keys players, possibly an issue if used as a stand-alone DJ type performance tool and you want gapless transitions between songs. In demos criticising load times people seem to be navigating around the main menu and into different large plugins to switch sounds for live keys use - that kind of seems like user error, the equivilant of standing up to make a presentation and complaining it takes time to navigate folders in Windows and then load up your overly large Powerpoint files - rather than using a combination of shortcuts, reducing excessive file sizes, and files already loaded and open and ready to use. The MPC is instant to select between plugins you've put within a project (upto 8 plugins per project, plus many more sample based things with keygroups and drum programs), you scroll through them and the sound changes instantly. Or in key layout view you can also use the drum pads to instantly switch multiple plugins: e.g. on that screen it's set so drum pad #1 turns piano on/off, #2 to turn Clav on/off etc. (pad #2 is red so Clav is turned off). Can also touch on the screen to turn them on/off and drag the bars for overlap & playing multiple sounds at once. I'd have thought that's plenty of instantly accessible sounds - at least for quite a few songs for most live keys players. Admittedly, if you are a keys player and need switch between more than those 8 plugins without loading/overwriting then you'll need to switch between projects - there is a 'setlist' shortcut to make navigation fast but project loading can take up to about 10 seconds with large projects and the sound cuts out while loading. I don't imagine that is much of an issue for most keys players though as they probably don't need large project files (and 8x plugins and multiple keygroups is possibly enough for a whole set so they perhaps don't need to change program at all - or at least not every song), and generally that type of performance has gaps between songs anyway. ....where it is more of an issure is if wanting gapless transitions for a stand-alone DJ type performance where you have large project files that include sequencing and automation and drum tracks and multiple samples and plugins etc because you'll have to have silence as you switch between those large projects. This is potentially an issue for some as the MPC Key sits in that grey area of 'keyboard/stand-alone DJ type performance tool' and if using it for the latter you don't want to be forced to have 10 second silent gaps between every song. In an ideal world you'd be able to load up a setlist with a few projects and there would be no load times between them, or some way of allowing limited sounds (even just triggering a single sample, or allowing trails) to play while the new ones load. Adding a delay pedal after the MPC to trail off through project transitions could be a solution (I've been eyeing up the Boss RE-202 for a long time!). 3. Value vs adding keyboard to MPC One: There's more to it than just being an MPC One plus a keyboard: £350 of additional decent plugins (Piano, Organ, Strings, 2x synths), extra buttons and touch strip (with things like dedicated 'note repeat' button and lit up note division values along the strip - not things you'd get on an external controller), many more ins/outs, 4GB RAM (vs 2GB), 32GB internal storage (vs 4GB), internal SSD instead of SD slot, wifi (which makes it genuinely 'stand-alone') and bluetooth, kettle lead (vs external adapter). I agree with a review that said it is more than the sum of its parts, workflow and usability are key and having everything in one dedicated unit really helps with that.

It's well known that the MPC series is great for finger-drumming/drum machine/sampler stuff but nowadays they also have decent synth/vst type plugins and work well as a stand alone DAW to do full production and organising of songs. What I didn't expect is the MPC One now also works pretty well as a live Bass guitar multi fx. It has a tuner and you can add upto four effects to whatever is going into it live through the input, those FX include bass amp/cabs, compressors (including side-chain compression, the 'mother ducker' is great fun) and all the usual things like delays, modulation etc and no noticable latency to it processing it live: .......or obviously instead of live use, you can record it clean and make multiple exact copies to play back simultaneously - each with 4x effects applied, so you can fairly easily do stuff like having one version with clean LPF sound mixed with one that has a HPF and drive and modulation (and then could re-record them and add 4x more FX on top etc.). So the possibilities of adding FX to Bass guitar recordings are almost limitless with a bit of tinkering, (not like the old days when I tried this sort of thing with tapes and ended up with mostly hiss and muffle!)