Boodang

Well, a brand new Spectracomp is £111 and has one knob, the Drawmer has 16 knobs. So per knob the drawmer is better value for money!

This thread has made me realise what I really need is a Drawmer 3 band compressor. So I'll be going from a one knob Spectracomp to a 16 knob rack unit!

Mistakes are fleeting moments in time…. Until the audience films you in glorious 4k on their latest phone and posts it on social media to be replayed for ever, and ever…. I gave up worrying about it years ago though.

Absolutely go with the singer. Mistakes on other instruments are negotiable on the fly depending on the focal point. There's a couple of songs that regularly trip up our vocalist, where he comes in too early. If we didn't go with him you'd have the band playing the chorus while he's on the verse and it would be horrendous!

Of all the compressors I've owned, the Spectracomp is the best, especially with the toneprints, each one is like a brand new pedal.

I'd never really bothered with compression until a few years ago when I went on a pedal spending spree and now I can't live without it. Currently switch between three comp pedals depending on my mood; the Spectracomp, purely because of the 3 band setup, it eq's the bass nicely (wouldn't mind an analogue 3 band compressor, might look into that) : the Aguilar TLC for when I want that over compressed 80s sound : and a Doc Lloyd photon death ray for when I want great artwork (actually it's a really subtle compressor, works well for the jazz gigs where I don't want anything too aggressive).

I found the TC Electronic spectradrive to be a good choice. Reasons I like it; 4 band eq gives you better control over the mids, and the Spectracomp and drive toneprints mean it's not a one trick pony, and there are lots of presets to try out. Plenty of variety in the toneprint app to find something that suits, each one is like loading up a new pedal. Very flexible piece of kit.

Last weekend's gig was a great reminder that your brain is capable of letting you down at the most inauspicious of moments without warning. Playing a party gig, quite big and swanky, outdoor proper stage, sound system and engineer, separate dancefloor area for the DJ, fully catered and about 500 people. First number was going to be Sunshine of Your Love as it's a good starter for 10 to get us warmed up, no tricky bits and just gets us settled in. The host gives a big announcement to kick off proceedings and introduces the band with great fanfare (he knows us, so he was quite enthusiastic), all eyes turn to our guitarist for the starting riff.... try one, wrong key, we laugh, try two, wrong riff, not so funny, try three, complete garbage, now not funny.... so, started the riff on the bass, band joins in, guitarist remembers riff, all is well. Easiest riff of the gig but as the guitarist said afterwards, for some reason he had a brain fart with a complete disconnect between brain and fingers. The rest of the gig went really well, so not long before we got into our stride and put the start behind us. Amusingly, I was recording the gig on a new Zoom Q2n 4k I''ve just bought (this was its first outing), so much to the embarrassment of the guitarist we now have the worst start to a gig in glorious 4K! Happily things like this don't happen too often but I'm sure others here must have had some excruciating moments like this!

TC Electronic HoF2. Has some great toneprints for bass from artists such as Gwizdala and Minh Doky, plus some shimmer and chorus options. Very versatile and, imho, sounds great, especially for the $.

Custom paint and led colours.

For a long while it was reverb, especially as I played mostly fretless. Then, i came across a blog by Gwizdala where he was talking about why he uses delay rather than reverb. Got a tc electronic flashback and experimented, and now my reverb pedals are in storage. Delay, all the way!

You mention what effect’s pedals you’re using, but out of interest what amp / cab setup do you have? And for that matter, what bass are you using?

Going back to basics and ditching multi fx's for a while is good advice. But as well as experimenting with eq, I would definitely throw compression in the mix. Our new bass player (I play drums in this band) has just bought one of the new Steinberger's, it's got a very mid heavy sound. I've added a bit more mid boost at 800, and some presence at 3.6k, a tad reduction in the bass around 80hz, and really sits well in the mix. To help this I added a tc electronic Spectracomp with the 3 band toneprint and it really adds some punch and drives the band. I highly recommend the Spectracomp, cheap and has some great toneprints so all the hard work is done for you. So good I'm thinking of buying one of the new steinbergers for myself.

Always a difficult one. EQ is probably everything here, and not just yours. When you record, a sound engineer will be looking at the frequency spectrum of every instrument and try to give them space.... so the left hand of the keyboard isn't obscuring the bass, or the rhythm and lead guitars have separation etc. This also applies live and something the whole band needs to be conscious of. As for your sound, very simply, a scooped mid eq can sound nice in isolation but lost in context, whereas a mid heavy tone will stand out but can sound very nasal. Hmm, a dichotomy I hear you say! But, some things to take into account; bass cabs, unless you have double 18 bass bins, are not very efficient at 41hz (typical specs would be -10db at 80hz which basically means your cab doesn't really work very well below that), so boosting that low can end up in an unfocused sound. 80hz will work better but can be boomy. Differentiat between low, mid and high, mid frequencies. Rather than treat mids as a general l block, try cutting at 400 and boosting at 800. Focus in on specific mid frequencies between 200 and 1k to see what affects that makes... both in cut and boost. Passive pickups? If so there's not a lot going on above 4k. 2.5 - 3.6k has a nice presence lift, but boosting above that will just increase background noise. Basically you're going to have to get quite surgical with your eq.

I play drums as well as bass so I use my Roc 'n Soc throne with a backrest. The backrest is essential for me otherwise I suffer badly. The throne is not cheap but I figured I would be using it for hours everyday so I'd get my moneys worth plus it is supremely comfortable. I also use it when I'm recording as it's the right height when I'm at the mixing desk. There might be cheaper alternatives but I certainly don't regret getting it and it seems like it'll outlast me.

The last time I used this skateboard I fell off it while trying to get a beer from the fridge. On the basis my skateboarding days are long gone (by several decades) I've decided to turn it into a pedalboard instead. Doorstops on the bottom give enough clearance to fix a psu underneath and I love the flamingo art work. Not the flatest board in world and the pedals are a bit wonky as a result, but I quite like the idea of skate/pedalboard. My fav 5 pedals of the moment, the surprise being the grape phaser which is almost on permanently.

I was in a band where I used to play this on DB. They wanted it to be the first song of the gig but it had to be the last as I had nothing left after all the extended solos they would put in!

Stratus - Billy Cobham Once you start playing the groove you just don't want to stop!

Ron Carter Ray Brown Stanley Clarke Eberhard Weber Charlie Haden Janek Gwizdala Percy Jones Brian Bromberg Jonas Hellborg Christian McBride All have been on albums and/or created music that has influenced me profoundly.

Streaming has transformed my listening experience. I've discovered so much new music and artists, something that's just not possible the traditional way of having a collection. Having said that I still enjoy putting on vinyl and listening to an album but it's not an either/or situation, so I do both.

I put Babicz bridges on my jazz basses. Perfect fit and easy to install. In terms of setup, a way better engineered product than the original.

It gets worse! I've always worked on the equation that the result has to be worth the birth pains. Hopefully you get to play with musicians you like and the result is great but at least one of those has to be worth it. You probably need to decide if any of it stacks up anymore.

We've just taken on a second guitarist with some very irritating habits. He treats rehearsal time as 'time to start learning the songs', although after a friendly word that has hopefully changed. But most bizarrely, and a first for me, he reads the charts from an ipad which he props up on top of an amp in the rehearsal room against a wall, then faces the wall with his back to the band! Quite comically, our keys player waves at him with futile gestures to try and direct the nuisances of the song whilst the guitarist carries on in ignorance reading his chart. I've loaned him a music stand which seems like a revelation to him.

Now you've moved to Warwick do you get free bass guitars?

Try the TC Electronic Spectradrive. Has comp, 4 band eq and drive but with the added advantage of toneprints so you can try many types of overdrive and comps.