WinterMute

This kind of parallel master processing is more often seen in Mastering than in multi-track mixing, it allows a more aggressive compression/limiting to be used that can then be blended with the uncompressed master signal to retain clarity but add required loudness. It's a perfectly legit technique for mixing too however, I tend to run 2 sub-masters, one a return from my summing mixer and one ITB master, the summed return will have a limiter attached and then blended underneath the main mix till I get the loudness I'm looking for, both are then run into the Master I'll add a general EQ to the Master, in case I need it, but it's not used often. Personally I'd never add time-domain effects to a master, they will be handled in aux sends and returns, and I can EQ or dynamically control the stem signals going out to the summing mixer if needed, this can be very useful to add a bit of control to the drum overheads or the kick generally before it hits the summing mixer. In the end all you gain is a measure of control of the amount of limited or compressed signal you add to your main mix buss, but that can be invaluable.

Not sure where the idea the Volt has a fixed DI gain comes from, spec says 55db of gain for the TRS input, both UA and SSL use combo input and neither have a dedicated DI input. I've spent a little time with the Volt 4 and have spec'ed SSL desktop stuff for Uni builds, there's very little to chose between them really. I prefer the "vintage" Pre-amp sound to the SSL "4K" but it's so subjective. Both will do exactly the same zero latency or direct monitoring. Both come with a range of software, and the Volt include the Ampeg equation found in the Apollo range, which is very useful. What the Volt ange won't do is play with UA's Luna DAW, which is a excellent bit of software that comes free with the UAD2 age of hardware.

I've got the Quad Cortex, there's a bunch of ways to kick in whatever gain or tone changes you want, song by song, section by section, I can change amps for choruses if I need to. My point was more that fuzz or distortion pedals have never been able to deliver the kind of sound that I want.

I'm another one for amp distortion (or the modelled versions these days) I've never found a pedal that gives me the sound I want, but I have found a couple of amps that sound the dogs. Don't know if that's an active/passive thing, haven't had a passive bass for 30 years, but all my MM and ACG basses sound great through the QC with nary a distortion pedal model in sight.

The musical context is going to matter, you'd not want Lee Rocker's tone on a Ron Carter session I suspect... Most (but by no means all) jazz is recorded ensemble, and the room plays an important part in the sound of such sessions. I find getting the best room reverb signature you can for the track and adding it (sparingly) to each instrument can create the illusion of an ensemble playing in a common space. YMMV.

Bloody ridiculous, sort yourself out man...

You need one of these in your rig.

Following with interest, great choice of wood grain.

I loved the tweeter in my Big Twin T, treble is an essential part of my sound, I'd not buy a backline cab without a tweeter.

I’m surprised anyone could hear it over the noise your jacket is making…

I would have said Jazz or P, but I’ve never played a Fender 5 string version of either that was worth a damn (maybe the Roscoe Beck) and the “super jazz” types like Sadowski are brilliant all-rounders, so maybe I’d have to go with something like that. I play rock and a Thumb or SR5 has been my go-to before the ACG turned up, so if your asking personally, a late 80s German built Thumb or a 20th Anni SR5 please, and my ACG fretless Krell.

On a hopeful note, aikido buddy of mine had a similar op a year or so ago, much the same context, fused vertebrae being supported with new hardware, lots of titanium and a deal of Black n Decker work, proper do or die stuff to save his ability to walk, and he came through it with greater mobility and less pain once the actual op wounds had healed. Very best of of luck.

I played a Warwick Thumb 5 for 20 years, sold it when I thought I'd done with playing bass, now have a couple of EBMM SR5s. a Bongo 5 and a beautiful ACG Krell fretless, I didn't plan on playing MM, it's just the way it came out. I did plan the ACG, meticulously, and I may well drop the SR5 fretless and the Bongo in order to fund a fretted ACG in the future as Alan's work is so spectacular. So Warwick to ACG by way of MusicMan.

It's not how well the bear dances, it's that the bear dances at all... I love seeing these kids doing their stuff, I used to see all the Chinese and Korean kid violinists coming over executing the most challenging scores flawlessly, but ask them to improvise, not a hope. The Taylor Hawkins concert proved just how difficult emulating players like Peart is, even Omar Hakim struggled with YYZ, and he's a monster player. Watching Nandi and Shane play with such energy is a pleasure, and they may go on to great things, I hope so. The young girl is great for her age and experience, she can certainly play, but no-one plays with the aggression and attack that Geddy Lee plays with, always just on the edge of chaos, it's a thing of beauty. Long may there be videos of kids playing challenging music on YT and TikTok or wherever, more music makes the world a better place. Maybe one of them will be the next Geddy or Eddie VH, who knows.

Logic is the obvious replacement for Cubase, Protools not so much, it doesn't have anywhere near the built in synths or samplers, it's not as easy to do the dynamic loop stuff and it's expensive. It's easy enough to add all that functionality but thats very expensive in plug-ins. Protools still offers a lot to people who are looking for a DAW that operates the way a studio does, it appeals to me immensely in that respect and all my production work is in Protools, my writing partner uses Logic, so I have that on the system as well, but I find it's not as good for editing audio or doing some of the donkey work that band production needs. Logic is brilliant for synths and beats and EDM stuff though, and is perfectly capable of audio editing and mixing. Abelton might be worth a look too.

That's a bit of history right there... £42K though, it'll go in a glass case somewhere rather than being played down the Dog and Crackpipe of a Friday night.

The whole thing was on YouTube after the live broadcast, all 6 hours or so of it, in very good quality, I expect there will be a release of an official compilation once they've done the US version next week. The YT version has gone now, but there are loads of clips of all the performances.

Tons of processing power, limited connectivity, and you can’t increase the RAM so if it came with 8Gb, you’re stuck with 8, which isn’t really enough. if you’re spec’ing a new one and can live with the ports, 16 or 32Gb is a definite advantage.

I played a Warwick Thumb 5 for many years, with 16.5mm spacing, it remains the most comfortable bass I’ve played for spacing, I now have MusicMan basses with the 17.5mm spacing which aren’t bad at all, but needed adjustment, I don’t really get on with anything above that. When Alan built my fretless ACG, i had him go with a 17mm spacing, which works very well indeed, the combination of the spacing and the bias cut necks makes it a very comfortable instrument to play. I played a Stienberger 5 string a while back, which was (I think) 15mm, that was too close, very difficult to play smoothly on, so generally I’d say string spacing is important.

Headless, fretless, all the same, Alan makes great basses.

You going headless? This is the only single cut design that I really like, if I get around to having Alan build me a fretted bass to go with my Krell fretless, it'll likely be a Salace E type. That looks like it's going to be a stunner.

Sorry, perhaps I wasn't entirely clear, my bad, we had one in on appro and ran it in live sessions against some of the mics it's modelling and frankly the results were excellent, certainly within the bounds of the differences between 2 models of the same mic in normal use. I'd not be unhappy using one in a session at all. It's actually a very capably mic without the modelling, a little neutral but very capable. it's the same price as a Sontronics Mercury or a second hand U87ie, both capable mics but without the range of the L22. There's one on Reverb for £950 currently.

That's very sad news, yeah I knew him, we played gigs at the Arts Centre together in the early 80's. RIP.

Tamworth has a history of oddly named bands, Fetch the Comfy Jigsaw, Those Attractive Magnets and Badger, to name 3 from my time there.

I had a good play with this and with the same tech in the UAD plug-in, the mic is very good anyway and the modelling just adds a layer of tonal variation to the mics capabilities. The plug-in is less successful unless you have a very good mic in the first instance, nothings going to make your beaten up old 58 sound like a U87 sadly. If you don't want to buy multiple mics, it's an interesting option. Addition: I was thinking about this after I posted, the Sphere is actually a lot more sophisticated than the Slate for instance as it models off axis response and polar pattern colourations as it's a dual capsule mic, it needs 2 mic pres and records to a stereo channel, it is capable of replicating the sound of some of the most iconic mics very well indeed, but you are completely at the mercy of the developers maintaining the software and the plug-in, I doubt people will be using their Sphere's 30 years from now... I loved the tech, it's the best modelling option on the market, but it's the price of a U87ie, which is an iconic studio mic and will serve you well for decades. If I was in the market for a studio mic and one came up 2nd hand for a good price, I'd consider it.