Grimalkin

10 minutes ago, SteveXFR said:

If I was using an all valve amp wouldn't I want it running near max on the master volume to drive the valves and get a nice bit of dirt? 

There's no point if it drowns out the band. Around 20 years ago the guitarist from Iron Maiden Janick Gers used to pop down and see the band at what must have been his local from time to time. The singer/guitarist asked him what Steve Harris was using in power ,"About 3000 watts." he said. I know they are big stages, but there is a big bank of monitoring there too.

Pubs that should be classed as small clubs, without sound reinforcement apart from the DJ, with whom you are competing. You don't want it to drop flat as soon as the band starts up.

It's better to have it and not need it, than it is to need it but not have it. That I do know.

6 minutes ago, Cuzzie said:

Orchestral music - yes live is a different beast compared to recorded (which I bet has compression), but, depending on the piece and make up you will have critical numbers of violins, violas, cello’s Double basses plucking vs bow, percussion, a plethora of horns and woodwind instruments (using mutes) pianos (using the dampener pedal) all hitting specific areas to create a mix as well as first, second parts etc.

 

Mutes and dampers are an integral part of the instrument. Not external compression. I don't see orchestras using compression...  and I've seen enough of them. They all know how to play to dynamics, that's part of the job.

39 minutes ago, Osiris said:

 

But that's exactly what a compressor does!

 

See the previous links I posted.

 

Anyway, nobody has to use one. But when used properly compression makes the bass (and all other instruments, vocals, drums etc) sound more consistent and allows them to sit together more evenly in the mix while still retaining dynamics, transients, overtones etc. As a result the whole sound is improved, so why wouldn't you use one?

 

I often leave my EQ set flat but would never consider telling anyone they should never use an EQ on their bass. It's the same principle. 

 

Any decent sound engineer, and we all know they're a rare breed, and certainly studio engineers use compression all the time. But just because some bass players don't or won't use one it doesn't invalidate the idea or make it pointless. I use them all the time and if someone wants to believe it's like riding my bike with the stabilisers on I'll just have to learn to live with it 🤷‍♂️

Being able to play to musical dynamics is quite a part of what being a musician is. Take orchestras for example...

It's a full-time job being a purist, and a very tedious one too.

Jaco's funk style with the dead notes, you want to play the dead notes louder and harder than the played notes to get that rhythmic feel and get them to cut through. That's going to be a problem for a compressor.

I remember talking to an African bassist years ago at a venue I was playing, he played there too, very influenced by Bakithi, by Jaco etc. At one gig he was playing there he asked the sound engineer not use any compression on the bass, just for the night.

Later the engineer came up and said: "Wow I could hear everything you were doing..."

Indeed...

30 minutes ago, Osiris said:

 

But if you were to use a compressor it would remove those overtones... 🤣🤣🤣

If I saw a bassist using G on the 15th as the root note for the whole bass line, I'd think it was amateur night.

8.46 - 9.00.

I'm not the first person to think there was something up with the playback @ 8.52. That's dynamic control:

14 minutes ago, Osiris said:

 

Making sure your technique is consistent as is humanly possible is fine, but how do you deal with playing the same note in different parts of the neck? For example, if you were to play a G on the 15th fret of the E string, it will have sound more dense and weighty than playing an open G string. Same note, same pitch but one contains much more energy than the other. How do you control that? Play the 15th fret G quieter? In which case it could get lost. Play the open string harder or maybe pluck it further up the neck? 

I'd choose a different position. G on the 15th works in soloing, because you're not there for long, but as a vamp? No, I'd choose a different position and avoid the overtones.

In over 30 odd years of playing as a job, I've found it's better to work on your right hand dynamics and touch than rely on the little boxes.

"I ate civilization. It poisoned me; I was defiled. And then," he added in a lower tone, "I ate my own wickedness."

Aldous Huxley - Brave New World.

Which was the inspiration for the track.

He must be brassic lint or something. The few studio tracks I like heavily rely on the musicians that composed, programmed and played on them. Take that away and he's at a big disadvantage. He won't be adored.

The cheeky monkey.

Can they still pull it off to an acceptable level, that's the question.

If you know you're selling a dud, you oughta shouldn't.

2 hours ago, Baloney Balderdash said:

Bizarre for sure, but I actually kind of really like it.

 

Like a piece of modern art.

 

As for ugly, by far most "whale hump" single cut basses, only ever seen a couple of those that I actually liked the look of, otherwise it looks like something that has been deformed by some sort of horrible decease to me, like suffering from elephantiasis at an advanced stage, also those kind of speckled/splashy/smeared color finishes, which gives me bad amateur abstract painter with absolutely no sense of aesthetics, or "fresh" mass produced 80's wallpaper, vibes, especially when the colors used are blue and yellow mixed, which seems to be a very common choice for some reason for this kind of finish, strangely enough most often seen on high end boutique basses, I also have kind of an aversion against very pronounced flamed maple top basses as well.   

 

To me the above mentioned looks like very bad and somewhat kitschy, in the worst possible sense of the word, taste, like wannabe artistic, but being a completely talentless absolute cliché failure at it.

 

Like these:

 

Especially the first one though.

 

Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately) I couldn't find a picture of the one that had me banned from Talk Bass for speaking my honest mind about it looking horribly ugly (it wasn't even owned by the poster, just a random image they found on the internet ), trust me it would have beaten any of the above pictured basses in butt ugliness, however that is even possible.

 

Also this thread would have earned everyone participating in it a permanent ban had it been on the Talk Bass forum.

 

 

The Age of Aquarium...

23 minutes ago, Newfoundfreedom said:

 

Looks like someone put strings on driftwood. 

5 string smoked haddock.

Well this is what we're going to get when we've run out of design, basses that look like sea creatures.

They're making it up haddock.

I've found in a gig situation, you need quite a bit more wattage to get that sound from the rehearsal room to a full on gig. The mids are the definition in your sound, everything has top and bottom but the mids are the 'voicing' if you like. If you take out the definition, you need more volume. Quite a bit more.

38 minutes ago, Rich said:

Lowenherz.

[/thread]

 

"O Christmas tree

O Christmas tree..."

7 minutes ago, Quilly said:

I cant unsee that  

"Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!"