WinterMute

Most engineers I've known work in mono and stereo all the way through the mix process, some more than others, John Leckie does a lot of stuff in mono for instance. I switch between the two modes as and when required, it's a tool or technique to solve specific problems just like EQ or compression, but the idea of staying in mono for most of the mix process doesn't appeal. As you say each to their own.

The only issue I've found with referencing mixes in mono is that you can overdo the separation in the EQ a little bit and end up with your instruments not meshing together and blending to form the overall mix. Frequency masking is a problem, but EQ isn't the only way to deal with it, panning works well, which you can't do in a mono mix obvs..! I prefer mixes to be dense and integrated, and I'll sacrifice a bit of separation to get that integration if I have to particularly in the low mid area. Some good advice though, and great delivery.

Journey at the NEC a couple of years back, supported by Foreigner who were surprisingly decent and Styx, who were definitely present. Left after 3 songs of the journey set, sound was abysmal, Schonn wouldn't stop bloody widdling even between songs and they completely ignored the poor Phillapino guy they'd drafted in after Perry fell to pieces. To be fair, he was working his derrière off to make it work, but they just looked like the wished Perry was still with them. Extremely poor, went home. Left Karnivool's roundhouse gig about halfway through cos the sound was so bad and I fell asleep in the balcony. Left Alter Bridge's Albert Hall gig about half-way through too, the engineer couldn't reconcile a full orchestra with a rock band and victorian acoustic, couldn't hear anything until the solo number with the orchestra and Kennedy, by then I was bored. Generally it's bad sound that does it for me.

Most of it's been rescued from No. 2 boys collection as he gets into building the bigger stuff, although the Lunar Lander was for me...! He's just started the Technic Porche 911, we did the Lambo and the Land Rover last year, both really fun builds.

Al Murray, when not pulling dodgy pints, is a very decent drummer, his band The Fat Cops don't do much for me but they can play and he's a great bloke, I used to run his shows at the Cosmic Comedy club in the old Greyhound pub.

props...

No, it was a smaller venue than Bingley, saw Fleetwood Mac there on the Tusk tour, it was something like West Brom town hall or the like, they were headlining. Saw Budgie at the Odeon supporting Blizzard of Ozz, that was a gig.

Saw Angel Witch in Brum somewhere, wasn't the Odeon, probably 1980, briefly dated Raven's Gallagher brothers sister Elaine at college and ended up playing in a band with Jackie Bodimead late of Girlschool for a while in the early 90's.... Tenuous connection city, Arizona.

As mentioned before in this tread: Geddy Lee: Moving Pictures/Permanent Waves era Jaco with Joni Mitchell, particularly Hejira but also his live work on Shadows and Light. Also: Karnivool Roquefort, love that aggression.

Ain't that the truth. Find a take you like most of, edit the rest to fit, move on.

Engineers tend to listen for different things, producers are more aligned with musicians and performance, the best engineers will pick up timing inconsistencies etc. as a matter of course, but are really listening for tone, clipping, any technical issues that might affect the recording. If you've got someone doing both jobs stuff gets missed and needs fixing later usually. All these things are academic if the clock wins however.

This is why good engineer/producers will always be useful. Although, as other have noted, sometimes "good enough" isn't. However I'm a firm believer in not sacrificing the good on the alter of the perfect.

Do what everybody else does, fix it in post... I've recorded some serious bassists over the years, and not a single one has ever said, "I want the whole performance, warts and all" and many have said "you can tidy that up in the edit, right?" Unless you're Dave Grohl deliberately tracking to 2" tape for stinky poos n giggles, all recordings will be edited. Get it as close as you can paying more attention to tone, groove and character, then fix the fluffs later. I remember spending hours punching in bass lines, sometimes phrase by phrase, on a 2" 24 track, how is protools different? Having said that, nailing a one-taker is still a thing of wonder.

Could be almost anything connected to your system, could be coming top the earth to. Get your system set up so you can see it happening and then start turning stuff off unit by unit (might want to mute your speakers.) start with instruments/amps then go through till you've just got the MBP and the interface turned on, that should tell you where it's coming from. It doesn't look regular so it could be a dry joint in a cable.

I had to get rid of the barefaced Big twin for lack of space, my studio is a converted single garage circa 1920 I think... small anyway. I do try to keep the clutter down and the loft above holds all the cases etc. Works for me.

SNAP! Well, almost... I have the stomp and the 12.2 (on a Gramma pad, natch) and I parallel the DI through a Shelford channel into an Eden UAD model with one side of the Stomp DI'd and one driving the wedge, gives me 2 distinct tone feeds and plenty of output for the studio and for live. I don't bother taking the Shelford out live, just the Stomp straight into the QSC, I used to have a Pod Pro into a Barefaced Big Twin, which was suitably awesome, but the little edge and the Stomp work wonders really.

The 6 string looks great, I think it looks more balanced than the 5 or the 4 (don't much like the 4 string tbh) but my hands are too small for a 6 string neck, the 5 string Bongo, being a tad wider than the SR5 is abut my limit.

I've had a stealth 5 string bongo for s few years now, it's a great bass for the kind of music I play, yes the 18v pre-amp is hot, but as long as the system you're running it with has enough headroom on the input, you're golden. I use mine with a Helix Stomp and a Shelford Channel in the studio and it provides a real contrast in tone to the SR5 and the fretless. It's got a real presence in the low end that cuts live. The G is a little close to the edge of the fretboard on first playing, but you get used to it, can't say I've noticed any problems with comfort, standing or sitting.

Used to have the whole 9 yards, Quad 303's, 405 mk2, pre's etc. KEF 105.4 refs, B&W 802's, Garrard deck... Aquired a second family with small boys and a living room that simply won't suit that kind of rig, so I've gone with ATC SCM11's and the C1 sub powered by a Cambridge Audio CXA80 amp for the digital and USB inputs etc. plus a Bluesound Vault 2i for the library. All the CD's are now in the loft, and I can run the lot from the phone. Easy to throw things from the studio Mac onto the Vault over the network, so checking mixes etc. is really easy now. The ATC's are cracking speakers, the sub integration is seamless. I'll probably change the amp out for something a bit more characterful at some point, but the CXA80 is a workhorse and doesn't let the side down. The Vault rips everything to lossless and will handle the usual streaming service up to Tidal's HD master stuff if I could be arsed.

If you can find one the OLP Tony Levin 5 string MM is a cracking bass, paid £250 for one a few years ago, dropped a Bart in and away it went.

Bought a QSC K12.2 from Jamie, delivered it personally, great comms, first rate bloke. Thanks mate.