WinterMute

My 2 SR5's a 20th Anniversary and a very hybrid fretless based on a EBMM SR5 neck, an OLP body and Bartolini pups/pre.

I was at that concert, when he performed "Thousand Kisses Deep" as a poem, the place was silent, 25000 people hanging one the words of one old bastard in a suit... Utterly unforgettable.

Decent mic preamps are pricey in the general market, anything with a name attracts silly money. You could do worse than picking up an Audient ID14 USB interface and using it in stand alone mode, the mic amps on those are identical to the ones on the ASP8024 console and are very serviceable indeed, if slightly lacking in the kind of character a Neve 1073 might possess. They do a 4 input version, the ID44, but it's newer and more expensive as you'd expect. You can run it as a hardware input mixer without the USB attached, and route the mic pres to the line outs. The ID range are great interfaces in their own right, built like tanks and very capable indeed, under-rated IMO.

Proggy self-indulgent studio band: Newton's Wake after the Ken Mcleod novel. Imaginary Post-ironic Indie band: Putin's Tiny Horse.

I have DB25 on my UAD2 A16, once they're set up they don't get moved much, which is where patch bays come in handy, and yes they're fully balanced as the others have noted. VDC make excellent D-sub looms to any specification, I'v had VDC looms in my room for years and often spec them in audio designs, they are not cheap but they are 99.9% perfect at manufacture and they last.

XLR balanced connections won't make the sound any better, unless you've been using properly poor cables before, but they do eliminate hum and EM interference. They also allow signals to pass over longer distances as the impedance doesn't factor as much. I'd need to look at your system to decide what might be the best way of approaching the problem, it's not an academic exercise...

If your balanced cables are in good order (XLR), it shouldn't matter, but it's not a great idea passing signal though multiple connections, as each one is a point of failure and can induce problems, you may also unbalance the signal with a poorly or wrongly soldered cable, which will leave you open to EM interference. That said, mic signals get passed through multiple patch bay connections in your standard TT or Bantam patch-bay as a matter of course in most studios, with no ill effects, but the patchbays and patch cables are all balanced and checked. I'd try to keep it down to as few cables as possible, even if that means a bit of creative rewiring on the fly.

It's usually described as 3db per meter from the point source, but speakers are complex sound generators and small rooms have nodes that will interact with some frequencies. Bottom line: it'll be as loud as it was before but might sound a bit different.

Yes, physically, you can always turn the amp up and down. The further you are from the speakers the lower the SPL and the more the room plays a part in the sound you hear as reflected sound become a larger component reaching your ears. You will have altered the acoustics in the room as the sound will be active in the space behind the speakers, which will depend on the design of your speakers, rear v front port etc.

There you go, Mumford's on the songwriting team... I knew I detected his dreary style... 😉

I don't know, the performances are great, and the story is interesting enough, but I can't help thinking that the original songs composed for the show just aren't very good... Maybe they are going to get better as the show progresses to indicate the growing experience of the band, the song at the end of the 3rd episode isn't bad. That would be quite impressive... I'll probably watch all of it, but Spinal Tap is the only mockumentary I can think of with "decent" songs and they were all pisstakes.

You could do worse than this Lakland on the marketplace I think...

I worked with Mike when we were lecturing together at UWL/LCM in London, not only is he a fine bassist and producer, but he's a thoroughly decent fellow too. Weird in that 70's slightly spaced out way, but a genuinely fine human being.

Yup, that was my rig for a while now have the Quad Cortex into the K12.2, it's absolutely perfect for rehearsals and the like, I've even taken to recording it for a bit of room. The RCF and FBT variants are equally good, and anything with a decent sub is going to move serious air.

Could I have continued to play a £250 OLP Tony Levin and had a much fun? Oh yes. Do I enjoy plugging the 20th Anni SR5 is and making a racket? Oh yes. Can I afford to pay a craftsman like Alan Cringean to make me a fretless bass that is a work of art and sounds brilliant? Oh yes. Are all three lumps of wood (bits of metal, bits of wire, bits of plastic, carbon fibre, fanatical devotion to the pope...) Oh yes. Lucky me eh?

This is not helping me...

I had a GK800RB bi-amped into an ampeg 8x10 and a TE 4x10 and I could get it all into a Renault 19... Played havoc with the fuel economy...

Fingers crossed for a boring recovery from this point then. Do the physio, even when you think you can't, it's not fun but it's absolutely essential.

Blimey, SM666 cheaper than the SM665 sets... Looks like I'll have some spare 30s kicking around if anyone needs them.

There's just no point in trying to claim any single player is "the best", too many variations, best at what? Jazz? Soloing? Spitting blood while wearing ridiculous boots? I think uniqueness of voice is the most important element, and that is just behind serving the needs of the song, which McCartney always seemed to do very well, as did Entwistle, as does Geddy Lee, depends entirely on context. No-one gallops like Steve Harris, no-one hit 16s like Pastorious (maybe that odd bloke in Vulfpeck), no-one one is as versatile and creative as Tony Levin, no-one is a dependable as Carol Kaye and no-one, but no-one held it down like Cliff Williams... Who's best? No way of telling. I don't like the Beatles, I have no time for McCartney's solo work, but he's a phenomenal songwriter and bassist. This isn't Pokemon, there can be more than one.

Another nod to Sonarworks Reference for hearing curve adjustments, works a treat, but makes the room a difficult listen for anyone else...! Try investing in a good Spectrum analyser as a visual representation, I use the Nugen Audio Visualiser https://nugenaudio.com/visualizer You can look at the reference tracks and compare the output curves.

Tried a few 6ers, always find the neck profile too wide for my small hands or, if the profile is ok, the string spacing is too tight. I love the idea of more strings, if I were a braver man I'd buy a Stick, but time and opportunity are no-ones friends these days. Kraftwerk and The Human League et al didn't need strings...

BBE sonic maximiser is an aural exciter, not a compressor, it uses EQ and phase cancellation to enhance higher harmonics and clean up mud. I'd not expect one to have much effect on bass unless you're going for some ultra clean fretless Micheal Manring type sound.

Global EQ, very useful. IR loader block, very useful. The different performance modes don't help me much as mine is a studio tool first and foremost, but I can see how they'd be great for live work. The modified capture process is working very well I think. A good update so far.

I'm 58, most "modern music" of any era is crap, time dissolves the rubbish and leaves us with the good stuff. The main problem today is the ease of music production, I say "problem" because it really isn't as the world needs more music, but anyone with a laptop can throw a tune together in any number of apps that sounds like anything else out there. More power to them, but as we all know, there's a deal more to great music than a few loops and a mixing algorithm. Talent will out eventually, but the signal to noise ratio has been going the wrong way for a couple of decades now, and it takes time and effort to sift through the rubbish to find the great music that is still being made.