WinterMute

Great result, congrats

Grab a second hand Line 6 Bass Pod XT, if you can find one, I've used mine in reserve for donkeys, it works brilliantly for emergencies.

1 hour ago, Happy Jack said:

Straight into a hardcase in a climate-controlled store-room, never again to see the light of day, let alone be gigged.

 

Manufacturers have spent years trying to accelerate the Vintage (they call it relic'ing), so now they're trying to accelerate the Rare.

 

Yep, instant investments, never be played in anger, what a shame.

5 hours ago, Bolo said:

Sounds like there's a bit of chorus on the main signal, and they dubbed flanger/distortion for that part. You hear the main track continue nearly unaffected.

Chorus on the main part, and distorted flange on the section you reference, it sounds like the flanger is feeding the distortion, not the the other way round, as flanged distortion sounds different.

Sorry, but if your bass sound is interfering with the mix so much that it need turning down one of two things is happening...

1. It's too loud, well done for spotting that.

2. You've not got your sound dialled in for the overall sonic footprint of the band/venue.

1. is a player issue, 2. is a mixing issue. 

There is absolutely no reason why a bass sound can't be present and aggressive and still play nicely with everything else, similarly there's no reason a good bass sound can't cut in a mix whilst being quiet and supportive. These are mix issues. Employ a HPF to remove anything under 25Hz (maybe as high as 40Hz) in the PA, watch your amplification of the 1-3Khz band, which is where a lot of clarity and articulation happen in vocals, don't boost HF with a shelf EQ, use a bell shape or a LPF to remove HF above 10-12k.

You can employ similar approaches to guitars and keys, especially heavily distorted guitars that have a ton of LF in them, try HPF set to 75-150hz to let the bass sit underneath the guitars. HPF on keys is really useful, allowing space for all instruments to work in their natural ranges means you don't have to try so hard to get stuff to "cut".

The Coles are great, nit just for double bass, I use them as ambient room pics for kits and guitars too, lovely units.

The Rupert Neve SE Electronic ribbons are good too, but the standout for me is the Sontronics Sigma 2, which is excellent, but not what you'd call cheap.

Some ribbons are picky about their pre-amp pairings, certainly the Coles come alive with a variable impedance pre like the Neve 1073.

Rule of thumb is that your OS HD houses your plug-ins and DAW software etc, another HD holds libraries for synths samplers as they can get very big and a third drive is allocated as the project drive and holds all the audio/MIDI and arrangement data files. I think thats generally what you are planning to do anyway.

Buss controllers become an issue, even USB 3 is a serial buss, so watch what you've got on the buss that your audio HD is on.

I'd try to keep the Project HD off the common USB buss that the OS uses for keyboard and mouse etc. if you can. Try not to run external HD's off USB hubs unless they are low priority back up drives.

Anti-virus software, or indeed firewall etc. can cause issues with DAWs, but you can usually resolve them. 

When I was gigging, rack kit was simply more useful and easy to transport, I used the Bass Pod XT Pro for a few years, then the GED2112 Tech21 preamp with a Crown power amp and a Barefaced Big Twin, but after I stopped playing live they took up valuable space and slots in my small studio, so I swapped them out for an HX Stomp and a QSC K12.2. I think I sold the GED2112 for pretty much what I paid for it, same with the Big Twin but for a few quid, the Line 6 not so much...

My Packhorse 4U rack case is now a cable and connectors box in the loft.

McCartney has to be on this list surely?

Otherwise, Geddy Lee was the reason I picked up a bass, I was already singing, so learning to play whilst singing just made it natural for me, it's a skill I've neglected of late.

Jack Bruce, Burke Shelley, Phil Lynott, Lemmy and Greg Lake.

11 minutes ago, ped said:

I played my Stingray at the weekend and it just sounded perfect. I'm really happy with my rig, too, which I don't use very often (Blackstar 2x10 and 1x15)

 

I swear 'Rays have the punch and thump of a P combined with the snap and texture of a Jazz... hard to explain, but it's so clear and expressive sounding and works great with effects. This was the first time I used my Mu-Tron and Danelectro Cool Cat 'live' and was absolutely delighted. OC2 into the filter was magical!

 

If you're finding it a touch quiet, can I suggest plugging the amp in?

That's a thing of beauty, the detail that Alan brings to his work is absolutely first class.

What a great outcome, congrats.

It's just the gig, you play what the song demands that you play, if that's 16s in the pocket, you'd better be IN that pocket.

I heard Angus Young say that his brother was a much better guitarist than he was, but didn't want to play lead as that would have interfered with his drinking.

Rock n roll Cliff, rock n f*ck*ng roll.

2 hours ago, naxos10 said:

Looks good and even features Robert Fripp's kitchen (did'nt see Toyah though)😁

We've all seen quite enough of Toyah in that kitchen I think....

Really looking forward to this.

I'm running an HX Stomp into a QSC K12.2, and I have to say, it's brilliant, I play 5 string and it handles the B very well, I was a bit sceptical about it as I came down from a Barefaced Big Twin T and a Crown power amp, but it's been faultless so far. I can't comment on the 10" version, I'm sure it's very good, I like 12" speakers...

Currently all my basses are keepers for various reasons, the Bongo was a surprise 50th pressie from my best mate and is such a beast it'd be a keeper anyway, the 20th Anniversary SR5 is a brilliant unit that I waited a decade to get hold of and has proved to be almost perfect, and the Frankenstein fretless SR5 isn't a bass anyone would want probably, so it'll hang around until it doesn't, it's a surprisingly good guitar for being cobbled together from bits and pieces.

I've always found playing fretless changes my playing style somewhat, I'm a very aggressive player on a fretted bass, striking the strings very hard to get attack and plenty of clang. Playing fretless makes me back that off a bit and get more laid back and (possibly) more melodic... 

I played unlined to begin with, had a lovey Wal Pro 1 at one point in the 80's, but now have a defretted SR5 and I found the lines do help with my less than perfect intonation. I've gotten used to having them now and the rather beautiful fretless that Alan at ACG is building for me has lines.

Of late I've been working with much more distortion in my fretless sound, which I'm really getting behind. It's a different way of playing for me, I like it a lot for some tracks, not so much for others.

EBMM SR5 20th anni or an SR5 fretless DI'd into an RND Shelford Channel linked to an HX Stomp.

Before that it was a Line 6 Bass Pod XT Pro rack.

Been down the modelling rabbit-hole for a while now, haven't recorded with a stage "rig" for a decade.

Quite a lot of work in the mix, usually the UAD2 Distressor comp, or an LA2A limiter, a touch of Thermionic Culture Vulture and OXFR3d EQ for HPF and shaping.

Latest results here: https://distrokid.com/hyperfollow/newtonswake/non-est-deus-ex-machina

Tone is contextual, if I'm playing on a 60's track, I'll probably not use the same sound as a 90's pop track....

That said, for originals my tone has become a lot dirtier over the years, I always like a zingy sound with plenty of string, but as I've got older the distortion levels have come up quite a way, even for fretless.

Late 80's I took up as bass player/BV/programmer with a brother and sister who'd had some success in the late 70's and with various projects in the 80's and they knew plenty of names, they had some decent original songs and we found a good young drummer and set too arranging and learning the set, recording some demos, looking to gig. It became apparent that the gig side of things would just never happen, constant reviews of tiny details, endless rehearsals and demands for better gear, more effort...

Don't get me wrong, it was working musically, but the siblings couldn't seem to agree on anything and bickered a lot, we learned to ignore them but it eventually got to that inevitable moment when they came to blows, a proper punch up in the street, over who was going to sit in the front seat of the van...

The drummer and I sat and watched a years worth of hard work disappear in about 5 minutes.

I recorded an album for a later incarnation of that band 15 years later, no sister this time, same drama, his bands always fall apart and it's never his fault.

!987 Thumb 5 string, one of the first 5 strings I think, a thing of beauty.

Some interfaces have DI inputs, but in absence of that, a good DI into the mic amp will ensure the right impedance for your bass signal into the pre-amp.

Plugging a bass directly into a line input will yield a signal, but it won't be the best signal you can have, most bass outputs are instrument level, very few have balanced line level outputs.

Been working on this project for a few years (6 in total I think) it started as a vanity project basically, something to keep the creativity moving along and as some material to build and test my studio to, it sort of accidentally became an album and we decided to "release" it before it broke out of captivity in search of food.

Original drums tracked at Monkey Puzzle House Studios by Rupert Matthews, along with some guitar and bass parts and some guide vocals, I did the rest in my studio and at the guitarists house, all the editing, programming and mixing was done in my room.

It's up on some streaming platforms via DistroKid, which works well I find, so if you've got an Apple Music, Amazon Music Unlimited, Spotify or Tidal account, give it a spin on whatever platform you have available. This was never intended to make us rich or famous, it was done for the fun of doing it and turned out to be worth the effort. 

I'm an old duffer so I'm having a few cd's printed up and I've a curious hankering to get it on vinyl, we'll see how that pans out...

Click through for the streaming platform links.

https://distrokid.com/hyperfollow/newtonswake/non-est-deus-ex-machina

Bat Out of Hell, obvs...

Full 10 minute rock opera magnificence, someone need to remix that sucker though.

On 14/01/2022 at 19:58, 4000 said:

I once tore a muscle in the front of my neck putting on my extremely neck-heavy Alembic Stanley Clarke while I was very, very cold. I sold it soon after and I still have problems with that muscle to this day; that was probably 20 years ago.
 

Not an injury to me, but to one of the guys in my band many years ago when we were in a funk band together. We were both leaping about the stage, him going one way, me another, until - in slow motion - we both realised his nose was just in range of the headstock of my Jaydee and connection was unavoidable. I saw his eyes go wide just before impact. There certainly was blood. 😂  

Didn't Rhino Edwards smack Judy Tzuke in the nose with the headstock of his bass? 

I imagine his particular style of dancing could produce any number of bass-related injuries.... in other people.