WinterMute

There's an interesting theory about young intelligence verses old intelligence, the former is a fluid, changeable and learning form and the latter is a crystallised, change resistant and learns slowly if at all. The theory posits that the longer you can remain in the fluid form by learning and challenging yourself, the better your mind and health will be in old age. Given the number of old musicians I know who are still inquisitive and keen to learn I think this is close to the truth.

Hopefully not, but sometimes it happens. Discussion from opposing viewpoints in good faith is not a bad thing, provided the arguments are engaged with honestly. We can agree to disagree about almost anything, given good faith, bigotry and more especially fascism does not operate in good faith.

Old people can't change their minds? My 85 year old mother, a lifelong unquestioning Tory voter, will never vote for them again after seeing the mess they've made of the county. Being old is no excuse, neither is being young or uneducated or poor or rich, Bigotry is born in ignorance and grows in darkness, it poisons young and old alike. Drag it into the light and kill it.

Not everyone whose planning on voting Reform is a racist bigot, but all the racist bigots will likely vote Reform. I don't care if it is cuddly Uncle Albert, if he's a racist bigot who is incapable of changing his mind, he can f*ck off.

This is a clear straw man argument and I think you play 4 string basses without ever questioning why.

No, of course not, that's what makes the world interesting, but certain demographics want nothing more than to control and destroy anyone who doesn't agree with them, those f*ck*rs need a slap. With a Tomahawk.

I've read this thread with interest, and not a little disquiet... In a band with bigots? No. None in my life either, and that includes family, they get called out and told why they're being cut loose and then they go. It's a hard and fast rule. I'm minded of the current meme "You're looking for the tolerant left? They're down the hall, this is the f*ck off and die you f*sc*st m*th*rf*ck*r left." Carl Popper coined the Paradox of Tolerance, in that if a tolerant group tolerates an intolerant group, the tolerant will be disrupted and destroyed by the intolerant. Fascism, racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, the list goes on. These are not tolerant people and should be confronted and combated wherever they appear. Fascism in particular, with it's rising profile again across the world, is not to be tolerated or debated, it is to be fought and destroyed. We learned that a lesson in 1939-45 and it cost millions of lives, that we are having to deal with it again simply means nearly all the people who remember the bitter evil of Nazism are now dead, and the people in power are making that same mistakes of appeasement or co-operation. "No politics" is a great rule for a forum of bassists, so let's get back to discussing how many strings is the right number, and what they should be made of... Tonewoods anyone?

You generally get what you pay for in these cases, sure the Behringer will give you a signal, but a Rupert Neve Designs will sound better. I had an old BSS box for years, doing exactly what you describe, worked absolutely fine till I ran through an RND box at a mates studio, then I had to change up. Remember, all a DI box does is change the impedance of your bass output to match the mic level required by whatever mic pre-amp you have available, which will have a more significant effect on your tone anyway. Generally, I shy away from the likes of Behringer, and would suggest BSS, Klark Technic, Radial, Palmer etc. but if it's not going to be integral to your rig on a permanent basis, then try the cheaper ones.

Proper jealous of your natural light mate, that's a lovely little place.

This has been on the site a few times, not least last month when I tore it all apart to install new racks, cabling and new toys, so it's a bit neater than usual. Too small to let it get messy though.

So, the class action against multiple LLM's by authors who had their work ripped to train AI's is now open to authors outside the USA and is gathering pace, there are a number of ways to sign up for the action. A few commentators who are over this think that this may bankrupt the developers entirely as the penalties for IP theft are high. I wonder if such a class action could be brought over music that has been used to train AI music compositional algorithms, those Record labels and publishing boys sure do love a lawsuit...

Same issues came up when sampling became commonplace, and the courts had to rule on where the law drew the line. However, in the case of sampling there was an existing copyright owner to make a claim and a record company to pursue it, with an AI system, there is no copyright license as the LLM isn't a legal entity (they may well become legal entities in the future), so if I use one to create a song that goes on the make a pile of cash, who is going to claim the copyright infringement? In the case BigRedX supposes, an AI based song with original (human) elements, it's almost entirely the same as the sampling cases, except there is no legal entity to claim the copyright or IP on the "original" work. Who is going to sue you? There is also an argument to say that the LLM's base their output on other peoples work in any case and cannot create "original" work. You'd be well advised to check the small print on the end user agreement for any LLM you use for creative purpose, as I suspect there will be copyright and IP claims in there somewhere.

They said the same things about Dylan going electric, synthesisers, MIDI, Non-linear recording systems, Autotune... They were all the death of music at one point or other. AI will end up being a tool in the hands of people making music, and if it ever gets to the point where it comes up with anything as good a While My Guitar Gently Weeps or Tom Sawyer or Birdland or Beethoven's 5th by itself, then all the better, more good music to listen too. Frankly, there is too much chaos and random chance in the creation of masterworks, I don't think AI will ever come close to rivalling that.

One of the first gigs I played in around 1980 I think, Polesworth Working Mens Club. Last gig I played, charity event for Capital 1 in a big tent in Nottingham somewhere around 2020.

Warwick Thumb NT 5 string without a doubt, ACG Krell is very close, with MM SR5 as a very decent runner up. The Thumb is definitely "thunderous" but you'll need backline/PA support capable of accurately reproducing that low fundamental. I had a Barefaced Big Twin T that was absolutely brilliant. All of these are 34" scale and I tend to use 130 B strings, I've played 125 too, doesn't seems to make much difference. Alan Cringean quite rightly identifies rigidity of construction as being vital for sustain and clarity, which jibes with what many people are saying about build quality and construction. That said, I played a 5 string Steinberger which didn't sound great, but had huge rigidity. I'd go play some good 2nd handers, you can't afford to get into Fodera, Alembic etc territory, but there are plenty of very good old basses around for £2500 ish, my thumb was about that I think. In theory, any decent luthier's work should produce a B string of quality, but there's more to a great 5 string than a big B.

New Birkins start around £23K, and head North, very, very quickly... Bass prices don't compete... Be careful what you wish for gents.

yeah £7,000,000 for the original Birkin bag If you can afford £20k for a bass, why would you deny your wife the same for something that makes her happy? Sorry, this was supposed to be funny, getting a bit philosophical now.

Surely one of the criteria for being a keeper is tolerance of said wood-based purchases...?

That's called a win-win isn't it?

You can always get another wife...

Some lovely basses there fella. I have 2 fretted and 2 fretless currently, my main fretless is a beautiful ACG Krell 5 string Alan built to my spec a few years ago, it's a work of art, seen here with it's fretted brethren.

Off to the recycling centre in the morning, please lock tomorrow.

It lives...!

It's perfectly capable as a buss comp, I had it on the master buss for years, but it also works as a pair of tracking comps, which is now its main function, maybe as a drum or guitar buss comp in the mix. It's a very versatile unit, sounds great.

Chased the power in for the rack and the desk, used some extra sticky gel tape to secure the annoying PSU's to the underside of the top shelf, very useful stuff that. Re-ran all the signal for the main interface and the summing mixer, then re-did the patch-bay. A slight redesign needed a new patch-bay template, came from Printographic who do custom labels for a range of patch-bays, a very good service. Checked the power for the desk and rack, all good. I'll put the desk back in position tomorrow and run the interconnects, the UAD comms cabling and all the USB stuff, then testing.