Boodang

Expensive acoustic treatments are about making a studio perfect, 31 band graphic eq's are about making a room workable in a live situation, and hopefully less awful than it would be otherwise. As well as playing bass I also engineer for some local bands that include venues with some very interesting acoustics and eq'ing for the room is most definitely a thing. The sound would be far worse if we weren't using the tools at our disposal on the digital desk... 5 band master comp on the FoH, notch filters on troubling frequencies and taking care of broad eq needs like making sure the bass has definition (some mids), eq'ing the bass drum/snare/cymbals to give space for other instruments etc. You can't cure bad acoustics in a venue but you can do a lot to mitigate. Interestingly, two cover bands I do the sound for, one uses an expensive Spector bass, the other one of the new, cheap, Steinberg headless basses. The Steinberg has a nasty nasal sound on it's own, but sounds perfect when in the context of the band and requires no eq, the Spector has a great solo sound, very full, and gets lost in the mix until we add some upper mids.

No band I get... well sort of, for this music. But miming, surely not! That's not even karaoke!

The Aguilar octamizer has a great tilt eq. Even if I'm not using the octave function, the tilt gets used.

I prefer a bridge pickup, mid heavy tone, so room boominess not such an issue but I do think a mid heavy tone is easier to eq for a room. I used to use a compressor and an SWR baby blue semi parametric pre amp, but now I use an xr18 with a Fairchild comp and Pultec mid eq. If the room eq is proving difficult I've got a fully parametric eq at my disposal but to be honest it's rarely necessary.

I took up drumming about 10 years ago. When my enthusiasm for bass is on the wane, I do more drumming, and then after a while the need to play bass comes back and the emphasis swaps. It seems that between the two instruments I’ve alway got enthusiasm for one and it keeps it fresh as there’s always a challenge. I’d say playing drums has made me a better bassist as well.

Passive vol/tone from Starr Guitars with 'vitamin' capacitors, old style. Had a series/parallel switch added.

...and, I know I've already mentioned it but it's a cracking bit of kit, a Bodyrez pedal to polish off the tone.

At the end or over the fretboard?

Mostly I’d say technique is the key. I play over the fretboard, around the 17th fret. As for eq, leave some definition (mids) in there. Also, and I use this with an EUB, a TC Electronic Bodyrez helps with the sound. Designed to put the body back into piezo guitars, actually works great on bass.

The NS profusion of dots is utterly mental! In a deranged moment I had this dot system put on a 5 string I was having converted to fretted. It’s funny watching people play it for the first.

This all reminds me of something I watched on one of those 'fly on wall' traffic cops shows. A police car following a vehicle, he notices theres a large amount of sandwiches in the back. He pulls over the hapless driver who says, oh yes, I'm delivering them for my sisters cafe. The policeman, having already done a check on her insurance and confirmed its only s,d&p, and much to the disbelief of the driver, then writes her a ticket.

I totally agree, pub gigs suck. That's why we don't have them here in Pakistan.... pubs that is!

I totally agree. On your 40th birthday the music police should come to your house and confiscate all your music equipment and spotify should ban you from listening to any new music from that point on to accelerate your transformation to an old git!

I've used all types from unlined to the mentalness that is the NS Design dots on the EUB. There's a certain freedom to the unlined which I like but my favourite is fully lined with dots in the usual places (bottom pic). I used to be an 'unlined' snob but in all honesty I play better with lines so I've given up worrying about it. However, if you want to encourage your ears to do the work, go fully unlined, no side markers, nothing, the way double bass players do it. That'll be fun for you!

Stunning visuals and why not if you can afford to do it... and I'm sure they can! Also interesting is the lack of on stage amps & sparse monitoring, very clean. Complete with a perspex cage for the drummer! Love or loath U2, they don't take their audience for granted. Can't believe how many people are watching through their phones!

Desolate, haunting and isolation are the themes that come across for me in the picture and ones that inspired this melancholy, and hopefully atmospheric, piece.

Actually the moment we were announced and I went to the tablet to unmute was one of those, thankfully, rare moments where your entire body feels like a gut punch as your brain realises what I giant pink torpedo up you’ve engineered!

There is one way to turn down the drummer but it’s not very rock n roll! I play drums as well and last year started using an E kit because of A. late night practice and B. small venues. As much as it’s not the same it’s made a massive difference to giging.

Yeah, my fault for being lazy and complacent. Have ordered the x touch and a second tablet! I do like to be able to wander around and mix remotely but I’m needing the comfort blanket of the x touch now. Plus, back in the home studio it’ll get a lot of use (I keep telling myself that to justify the expense!).

Aaaaahhh, what a painful Oktoberfest gig! Used our trusty xr18 and my trusty tablet, but as the gig was just around from where I live I didn't bring any backup. All setup, great sound, muted the main outputs before taking a break... then as we're announced the tablet decides it wants to do an update, I press 'not yet', it loses sync with the xr never to return. Now we have no sound! We had a small old desk with us, so a quick repatch, awful mix, half the monitors not working and that was the first set. My wife went and grabbed my laptop from home so all restored for sets 2 & 3, but still very stressful. So, lesson learnt, always have a backup but after tonight I can feel an x touch coming on so we're not dependent on software.

Nah, just hard core metal!

The board itself seems to be a sofa... do you not have problems fitting that on stage?

Brilliant! After Janek's last album which was based around pedal noises, I'm loving the return to the classic trio format. And he has such a lyrical voice when he solos. I got his Giant Steps book and in it he talks about all the Pat Metheny solos he transcribed and how much of an influence he was on his playing. I've always thought of Gwizdala as the Metheny of the bass.

Unfortunately that flipping Killers song goes down so well it ends up getting played most gigs, but... the audience reaction is so strong it always puts a smile on my face. Worse for me is the colour tv/ microwave oven song, so I've turned it into a challenge to make it as funky as possible without the audience noticing.