The Funk

[quote name='Oscar South' post='809397' date='Apr 17 2010, 01:26 PM']A good musician makes a good player of any instrument, likewise a bad one a bad player on any.[/quote] Tangent: I agree with the second part but not the first. I know the likes of Stanley Clarke and Herbie Hancock (heroes of mine) would agree with you but I think there's a reason most musicians are drawn to and then settle on a particular instrument. I don't think it's chance - it has all to do with personality and approach to music.

I woke up in a cold sweat in the early hours of this morning. The first thing I did was check the bed next to me. Thank goodness - the 5 string was still there. I'd dreamt that some dodgy former client of mine had set me up in an elaborate plot to steal all my bass guitars. I woke up when I had my Keyser Soze moment and realised that I'd been conned out of them. The cases and gig bags were all still there - but they were empty! Have any of you had any bass-related dreams/nightmares? I have from time to time dreamt of playing amazing gigs or sitting in with heroes of mine. Anyway, that's the first bass-related nightmare I've had so I thought I'd share it with all of you. Do you think there's any deeper, hidden meaning in there? The day job stealing away my basshood or some such?

Agree massively with Bilbo's post. When we started dropping some covers into our multiple set gigs, I did arrangements of the tunes to suit us, sometimes with subtly different accents in places, sometimes with different instrumentation (eg. a clavinet to play Lenny Kravitz's rhythm guitar part on [i]Always On The Run[/i]). After going through that process of tweaking songs to suit the band I went back and did the same thing to our original compositions.

Good sh*t! Have a great gig!

[quote name='TheButler' post='789874' date='Mar 29 2010, 08:31 PM']My band are starting to get lots of reviews at the moment, just before the album is released next month.[/quote] Getting reviews at all when noone knows who you are is a brilliant result. Only one bad review is pretty good going. If the review doesn't criticise anything in particular (eg. being derivative of particular things or not having any hooks or riffs), then it is simply a question of someone disliking it. If you don't agree with the criticisms (if there is anything specific), then it means you believe in what you're doing and the reviewer either doesn't get it or doesn't like it, or that you're on the wrong track or not achieving what you're trying to achieve.

[quote name='lojo' post='788539' date='Mar 28 2010, 02:43 PM']Technically I am not a musician[/quote] If you play music you're a musician. Learning is always a good thing too.

[quote name='OutToPlayJazz' post='790811' date='Mar 30 2010, 05:12 PM']I don't care what other people think as long as I'm happy with my gear [/quote] I think that's how most people feel - but some people need their gear to look cool too. I know I do.

[quote name='bumnote' post='788943' date='Mar 28 2010, 10:19 PM']the original grease band bass player was Alan spenner. he was rumoured to be the only white bass player offered a job by motown[/quote] Bob Babbit? [quote name='chris_b' post='788949' date='Mar 28 2010, 10:28 PM']I believe Chris Stainton played bass on With A Little Help From My Friends. That was recorded before, but released after, Alan Spenner joined the Grease Band.[/quote] Clappers' keys player?

[quote name='The Burpster' post='788903' date='Mar 28 2010, 09:30 PM']When out of curiosity I wiki'd Radle to find out what he was doing now, I discovered he died in 1980 at 38 from drugs and booze abuse...... What an absolute waste and a crying shame.[/quote] Derek & The Dominoes were notorious for overdoing it. Sad loss.

I quite like the cheap Samson studio bits n' bobs. They have the Samson Servo 200 (100W a side @ 4ohms), around £125-130. [url="http://www.google.co.uk/products?hl=en&q=samson+servo+200&um=1&ie=UTF-8&ei=_TiuS8fgA4qu4QaCncS8Dw&sa=X&oi=product_result_group&ct=title&resnum=3&ved=0CCwQrQQwAg"]http://www.google.co.uk/products?hl=en&amp...ved=0CCwQrQQwAg[/url] The German thing you were looking at is 1U.

My drummer played there last year. Looks good!

I really like my first ever Jazz. It sounds big, clear and defined through anything.

[quote name='The inglourious bass turd' post='787504' date='Mar 26 2010, 10:26 PM']So, just congratulating myself on getting the 144 rock pace, and my long awaited 'rock bass cover' book arrives with The ace of spades in it, which is all I've ever wanted to play! Suggested metronome setting? 288! How in the name of Lemmy am I going to get that fast?[/quote] 288 bpm for 1/8th notes (quavers) is the same as 144 bpm for 1/4 notes (crotchets). Or is it the other way round? I'm sleepy!

That's great. I prefer Pro Tools. The software comes free with the hardware btw.

An ear for music is a gift. I'm cursed without a good natural ear.

Nothing wrong with just using a hi-fi stereo amp. It won't give you XLR ins/outs but you can still find ways of hooking it all up. Another alternative is powered monitors.

Pro Tools doesn't care what preamps you use via ADAT. I have a Digi 002 with a Focusrite Octopre giving me 8 preamps via ADAT optical. I also have a pair of Samson S-Valve preamps hooked up via SPDIF coaxial. As long as you can connect your Alesis io26 in standalone mode without hooking it up to the computer using firewire or something, you should be just fine. My cousin has a similar set-up but with a Mackie 8 x preamp unit instead. Does that help? EDIT: If you decide you don't like Pro Tools, you can always use the Digi 002/ADAT 8x preamp set-up in Logic.

If you're not organised, your life will fall apart. Your vocalist's life, however, is all worked out for him.

[quote name='silddx' post='786120' date='Mar 25 2010, 06:00 PM']I have that on disc I think [/quote] It'll take you minutes to get the vocoder part down but provide years of fun.

[quote name='OldGit' post='786276' date='Mar 25 2010, 08:20 PM']I'd add that lighting is crucial.[/quote] I'd agree with this as well. The lighting on both shows was wrong. On the first one the venue didn't turn on the stagelights until halfway through the set! On the second one the venue didn't turn down the houselights enough. The trouble is that we didn't have control over that at either venue. I wonder if there are still ways in which bands can take this into their own hands to an extent, even when playing on a packed bill of several bands.

[quote name='OldGit' post='786276' date='Mar 25 2010, 08:20 PM']However, film can't capture atmosphere and the vibe of the audience[/quote] It's funny you should say that. Of the two gigs that were filmed, the most exciting and entertaining one was the one with the better crowd. Somehow the vibe comes across. (I think it has something to do with the yelling and screaming). [quote name='OldGit' post='786276' date='Mar 25 2010, 08:20 PM']you (the bass player) should not really worry overly that anyone in the audience is watching you and all you do. Well they won't be watching you as much as you are in the replay. So if you look a bit off the planet sometimes don't worry about it[i] too[/i] much. Don't tell the rest of the band that, though, or they will never address their shortcomings [/quote] Very true - I agree with all of this.

[quote name='silddx' post='786084' date='Mar 25 2010, 05:35 PM']Anyway, I meant to say I bought a MicroKORG synth and it's being delivered tomorrow, so I will start learning the basics of the keyboard which I have wanted to do for a while. And it will give me a bit of motivation to start writing and recording again. How exciting![/quote] Don't lie. You got it so you can play the intro to Earth, Wind & Fire's [i]Let's Groove Tonight[/i]. (That's what I would do!)

Well, upping the power rating can't really improve anything on its own. It's more about finding cabs with the right kind of frequency response and a head with the right kind of EQ. I dislike Ashdown on both counts for my purposes. Sounds like it's not right for you either. A different workaround solution would be for you to buy a good DI and an amp stand and just leave it at that. From the sounds of things your guitards and dummer don't listen to what you're doing anyway. Go straight into the PA with your DI and use your amp stand to angle the amp up at your head so that you can hear yourself. If the others can't hear you they'll have to turn down.

[quote name='crez5150' post='785865' date='Mar 25 2010, 02:30 PM']5. At the Bridesmaid with the massive norks who has had one too many to drink and is about to be unleashed in front of everyone.....[/quote] Hah, very, very useful advice! [quote name='51m0n' post='785888' date='Mar 25 2010, 02:55 PM']I'd agree with all the above. My only point of contention (if it could be called that) is with number 2. Its even better to have no dead air at all, just run striaght from song to song, zero silence, zero talking other than an brief "Y'alright!" between say the third and forth song of the set... Thats proper hard to do, and tbh I've only seen one local band manage it really well, but they just blew everyone else away whenever they played as a result, the audience energy would just lift with each intersong segue. Very very skilled at their craft they were....[/quote] That's what I was originally going for with my band. It works well for some bands. If you have a kind of band philosophy that runs through your band name, look, sound, lyrics etc., the audience might miss out on a lot of that if you don't let them in on it. You have to figure out which way works best for your band. I think we can all agree that dead space works for noone.

Oh, just something about where you should be looking: 1. Into the crowd - when you're vibing off their energy; 2. At your fellow band members - when you're vibing off how locked into the music you are; 3. At your fingers - when you're intensely focused on your playing (this one is overdone by most people); 4. Up at the ceiling - when the whole performance is taking you off onto a higher plane of consciousness.