WinterMute

<cough> Geddy Lee </cough> I started out as a singer, picked up bass when we needed a bassist, never thought it was an odd thing to do until we started gigging and lots of people asked "how do you do that?" If I learn a bassline and then try to learn the vocals I fail big-time, always try to learn both together, so that it becomes second nature to sing along with the line and rhythm, then you can refine both separately. Then practice. A lot.

[quote name='Rimskidog' post='609201' date='Sep 26 2009, 01:11 PM']No need for it to be in a tom shell. Mount it on a stand[/quote] mounting it in a shell approximates a cardioid pattern, open backed it's decidedly omni... I jest, although it does sound a bit tighter in the shell, and it's easier to store.

[quote name='Rimskidog' post='609044' date='Sep 26 2009, 09:25 AM']That's absolutely right. I had a home made job for a long time. I didnt 'buy' a subkick until that one died.[/quote] Mount any 8 or 10 driver into an old 10" tom-tom shell, stick it on a stand, voila!!

if I get the ability with the gig: Rush, Zep, Gabriel or with Joni for Shadows and Light. If the ability has to come from me: Leonard Cohen's current tour (although thats probably stretching it a bit...) Sh*ts and giggles: AC/DC

OK, I think I'm missing something, I have the license on my iLok, but not the plug-in, and I can;t seem to find where the download is, I just get shunted back to the iLok license generator. Any ideas? edit: Forget it, I found the DL link... Thanks for the heads up. :-)

When I went to 5 strings, I sold all my 4 string basses, a Wal Pro 1 fretless, a JD supernatural and a precision, never thought I'd go back. Well, I sold the Warwick last year and now have a Geddy Lee and a VMJ fretless, I really miss the Wal, and to some extent the others too. Never say never. GAS'ing for a Wal fretless or something in that league. 4 strings, 5 strings, 6 strings.... Who cares? It's what you do with it that counts, only having 4 strings never slowed Geddy or Tal down, and Jaco did more with 4 than most will ever do with 5 or 6. That said, advances in amps and speakers mean that 5 and 6 string basses are perfectly acceptable in more genres these days.

[quote name='Rimskidog' post='601552' date='Sep 17 2009, 06:31 PM']are you running an API then? Which one?[/quote] Sadly not, we have an Otari Elite, a Raindirk Symphony and a stack of the Audient ASP's which are very decent desks for the little money they charge, we also have Digi C24's and a few Mackie DXB's. Our main problem (as ever) is financing big desks, I can build a couple of new rooms fully fitted for the price of a decent API. I've used API desks in pro-land, lovely chunks of kit that they are. You can see some of our rooms here: [url="http://music.tvu.ac.uk/index.php/virtual-studio-tour.html"]LCM Studios[/url] These are a few yers old now, and we have updated the labs and some of the other rooms, but not the website as yet, we don't have the Sony desks anymore.

[quote name='Rimskidog' post='601139' date='Sep 17 2009, 11:06 AM']Wow! That's huge! Is that a teaching facility of some kind? Love the Adams. Stuff just translates[/quote] Yep, its the music tech department of the London College of Music, which is part of Thames Valley University. We use Dynaudio M1 and BM5a's for near-fields, a few PMC's too, mainly PMC and ATC for mains, I've been meaning to get some Adams in for comparison for a while, Pip Williams lectures with us and he has Adams near-fields, swears by em.

[quote name='Rimskidog' post='600650' date='Sep 16 2009, 07:57 PM']thanks man though I don't use 192s. I have 32 I/o of lynx aurora and a cranesong hedd on the mixbus midfields are Adam s3a. Mains are dynaudio m3s[/quote] Good choices all round there! We're stuck with 192's as we have a job lot from Digi, we have 14 HD rigs and 24 studio rooms, I can't afford to even begin thinking about changing the I/O...! How are you getting on with the Adams?

[quote name='molan' post='600826' date='Sep 16 2009, 10:27 PM']Go for the box set - it's always my 'reserve' on the iPod playlist whenever I can't think what else to listen to [/quote] A friend of mine at Uni in the 80's was a big Dan fan, I was a total Rush head at the time and there were often audio duels in the corridor between Signals/Permanent Waves and whatever overcomplicated bilgewater Fagan had produced at the time (spot the irony). Oddly I bought the double Greatest Hits compilation (Kids something?) at a boot sale and I'm happy to say much of it made perfect sense this time. Ewen, you weren't the deaf uncultured Welsh bugger I thought you were mate, sorry about that. Now playing Everything Must Go.

Looking good mate, the API is a cracking desk to run PT through, makes the 192's sound good! Couldn't see what monitoring you use (admittedly on a cursory glance) what's in the control room?

[quote name='YouMa' post='599827' date='Sep 16 2009, 03:42 AM']I saw the making of aja on telly i still think more slap than pop.[/quote] Sort of slop then?

[quote name='bilbo230763' post='594709' date='Sep 10 2009, 01:20 PM']My recollection is Karn is completely untrained and doesn't know what he is doing, he just does it. Or was that just 'anti-establishment' posturing? Who care? He pushed the envelope and that is always a good thing. I'll read it. And he had great taste in basses [/quote] ...but often no eyebrows...

When I was playing in bands in the 80's and 90's my 5 sting Thumb was a perfect beast for the job, particularly for the more proggy stuff I used to play, the B lets you work under the layers of guitars that wold inevitably appear as if by magic.... Now I'm just noodling around for my own pleasure I've gone back to 4 strings, and bought a fretless again, I have no need for the 5th (or 6th or 7th....) string, and I get to play a Geddy Lee Jazz with that perfect neck. The point has been made, you choose the tools for the job in hand, and no amount of expensive kit will make you a better player than you actually are.

[quote name='Bay Splayer' post='590778' date='Sep 5 2009, 04:27 PM']tried out the marcus miller today.....what a lovely bass, then tried out the geddy lee...... WOW! EVEN BETTER!! (imo) just ordered online from GAK, cant bloody wait [/quote] Good man, tbh you'd be more than happy with either. I'm seriously considering a fretless MM to replace my Squire VMJ.

The MOTU if you can afford it, and then add the Focusrite Octa pre (with the optical interface) for another 8 or 16 inputs if you need them (I do). Oddly the old Digidesign 002 rack is a good buy, as long as you have FW400, which some of the new MacBook Pros don't have. You don't need to use Protools with it and they are very reasonable off ebay.

I had a headless double neck built in about 86, fretted and fretless mainly to switch between the two during songs (it was a proggy band tbh). Damn thing nearly killed me, waaaay too heavy and unwieldy, ended up stripping it for the hardware and skipping it. How long does it take to switch a bass over with a good footswitch switcher? Alternatively, buy an Chapman NS Stick half-fretless and string it like 2 bases on 1 neck!!! A steal for £2500.

[quote name='Bay Splayer' post='536554' date='Jul 9 2009, 04:12 PM']is the truss rod adjustment in the headstock or at the body end of the neck reason i ask is that i have read some [i]"internet reviews" [/i]posted a few years ago that moan about difficult truss rod adjustment yet the pics i have seen look like it adjusts at the headstock end[/quote] It's at the body and it's partially covered by the scratchplate, which needs ro be removed to get to the truss rod, so yes it;s a bit of a pain. That said, mine's straight as an arrow and hasn't moved all through the summer in a loft conversion.

I own a Geddy Lee and have played and recorded both, the Geddy's neck is slim and very nice, the MM's neck is a little heavier, but not by much, I thought about getting an MM before I played the Geddy Lee. Tone wise the GL is pure 70's Jazz, plenty of lovely passive grunt with good variation, the Badass on both helps them sustain, and the sound is great for rock and pop, it slaps reasonably well if you have a good amp EQ and fresh strings. The MM is a more versatile beast, it's pre gives it the ability to cover more tonal range from the bass than the GL, but it seemed to need just a little in the low end for heavier rock, might have been the player though. Play both, choose the one that you like the feel of, they are both great instruments.

USB 2 will deliver 24/96 in stereo, and multiple channels of 24/48. FireWire is the better option for multiple input channels, but only at hi res really. If you can find an interface with "hardware monitoring" or "zero latency monitoring" you'll be able to record without the latency delays that bug some interfaces. Most of the good ones do. It's a bit of a false economy to buy a cheap interface if you intend to get some use out of it, as you will replace it later.

Onboard interfaces are rarely earthed as well as exterior, and the PSU for a PC is not rated for Mic amps etc. Much better to get an external box, but make sure it has it's own power supply, a 9v or direct 240v is fine, but don;t get one that powers from the USB of FireWire buss, they simp[ly don;t have the voltage to power the mic amps properly. If you can find a MOTU 828 cheap they are the dogs. I use an M-box Pro and a 003 desk currently, both self powered.

A couple of tips: 1-2Khz is where the "presence" of the electric bass usually sits, if you want to accentuate the sound of the strings boost here. Unless you're going for an exceptionally bright snappy sound, there is nothing above about 10Khz that will help in an ensemble. The frequencies around 120-140Hz will make basses (and kick drums) sound "boxy", for a cleaner LF, cut here, but for Motown/60's thud boost here. The Smile or Frown settings are almost useless in many situations, but remember, you have 2 or 3 EQ stages in your signal chain, one on your bass, one (maybe more or less) in your pedals and effects and one in your amp, all will effect the shape of your sound. It is as useful to cut frequencies as it is to boost them. The frequencies below 40Hz are going to be very difficult to amplify cleanly unless you have some very serious backline or a pro PA, rolling off the bass at 35hz (or filtering if you have a filter) is a good way to clean up your bass sound and allow the other frequencies room to breath, you will not notice these frequencies missing in a band, but may hear them solo. Do not boost below 35Hz with a "shelving" EQ, if you have the option use a "bell" shape. Every bass sound is different, learn to listen to your bass in the context it finds itself in, unless you are world famous for your tone, one sound will not work in all situations.

It'd be more telling to post a thread counting the number of basses we've owned [i]in our whole lives[/i]!!

[quote name='waynepunkdude' post='526420' date='Jun 28 2009, 12:29 AM']Plus my 11 = 1348[/quote] +2 = 1350

I have a VMJ with the ebanol board, it marks up quite early with roundwounds (as does everything not epoxied to within an inch of its life), but it;s not bad by any means. I think its brighter than ebony or rosewood (thats just a suspicion however) and I've nener played a maple fretless. It feels very slick, sort of between a very good Ebony and a graphite. I like it a lot.