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EMG456

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Posts posted by EMG456

  1. I've been setting up my own basses since the mid 70s and have never taken a measurement once. I know what works for me and how far I can push each instrument probably better than the luthier or company that manufactured the instrument.

    That said, I can certainly see the value of a standard spec for manufacturing purposes or for setting up an instrument for someone else but again in my experience, no matter who's doing it, the best setups for a player will always involve a bit of "slightly up on the D string" trial and error refinement.

    Of course, because I like the ability to induce a bit of clank and buzz as required in my playing, it's crucial to me that the action is as near as possible to how I like it. If I favoured a high, very clean action, the setup by numbers would be more likely to succeed.

    • Like 1
  2. If you've got a use for it, make it 10 string. A straight octave pedal can't come close to the harmonic complexity you get with interacting octave strings.

    It will give you a very distinctive sound in your armoury but it's one which I personally find limited use for so if you're constrained in terms of numbers of instruments you can own/ store then it may not be worthwhile.

    If you have a big say in arrangements or work with band members who have an open mind to unusual things then that will help.

  3. So the folk band I play with wanted to do some lockdown things - guess who had to put it together!

     

    My schoolboy error in the first one is not pressing record properly on the phone for the first bass take that I liked lol - vid is from the take before! I'm a bit seat of the pants and never play anything the same twice so the fingers don't always match what you hear. I'll watch out for that in the future so go easy on me!😀

     

     

     

     

    • Like 4
  4. I'm having what I call a "Jaco" moment here - when you unexpectedly discover that it's the bass doing something you didn't think it did.

    I have always assumed that those crazy slidey noises in I Wish were dubbed by Stevie on some kind of synth but it actually is Nate Watts playing a cranked up Jazz Bass?

    Off to rethink my entire existence...

    Thanks for posting these.

  5. I’m not saying this will happen but a Resolve installation trashed both Cubase and all my Arturia V Collection instruments on my MS Surface Pro 4 pc. Taking it back to an earlier system restore point didn’t help and I ended up having to restore a full backup. I never managed to get to the bottom of what happened but after then installing Resolve on my desktop PC and it proving a bit flaky there also, I gave up with it. A shame as I did like the interface, workflow and features. From memory it was Resolve v 16xxxx

    So I’m suggesting a full system backup before you install. Let us know how you get on.

  6. Shotcut is free, doesn’t have all the bells and whistles but runs reliably for me on Win10. Will output HD resolution and has versions for Mac and Linux as well. 
    When you bring in variable bit rate videos from phone footage, it will offer to convert to a more edit friendly format.

    Good luck. Half the battle is getting everybody to provide useable video and audio. I used to get involved in this stuff for a living so I know what I’m doing if a bit rusty but remotely coaching folks who have no video/ audio recording knowledge and are using phones I have no practical knowledge of is really like herding cats! That said, we’re all learning lots and enjoying it so it’s proving to be worthwhile. 

  7. On 06/06/2020 at 07:58, CamdenRob said:

     

    However all of the above are trumped buy my current raging GAS for one of these as a result of working from home for the last Two months sitting on a £20 Argos office chair all day... The Herman Miller Aeron. The Grandfather of office chairs 👍 ... My back keeps trying to order it for me when I’m not looking... 😕

    mh_prd_ovw_aeron_chairs.jpg.rendition.48

    Lol'ing at this. My birthday last year was that exact chair and a sit/stand electric desk frame. Both brill and sourced from ebay, not so expensive.

    • Like 1
  8. Where does the aircon come from/ go to? This is crazy at the moment.

    What a lot of folks don't seem to get is that the guidelines are just that- chaos systems like the world don't work in absolutes.

    2 metres is a guideline distance that is achievable generally outside. 1 metre wouldn't be as good, 3 metres would be better. Could the virus transfer at 2 metres? Yes- it's unlikely but not impossible.

    2 metres apart for several hours in a small enclosed space would count as a close contact for the purposes of contact tracing. If there is singing or horn blowing involved the risk becomes much higher.

    I don't honestly expect to be in a rehearsal room or at a gig this year.

    • Like 2
  9. That brings a special smile to my face because strangely, I always fancied doing it.

    Never managed though. I still have the unicycle and at my peak unicycling proficiency I could reliably go for about 50 metres but unfortunately in a completely unpredictable direction.

    So it will remain now an unattainable dream for me, but I'm pleased to see someone doing it with such aplomb.

  10. 16 minutes ago, AndyTravis said:

    While I can’t afford to pursue the plan with the natural - I’m not destitute.

    When I owned my old MM - I used to tape over the bridge pickup polepieces, I seem to press into the strings and catch my fingertips on the raised polepieces.

    Now I’m older, and wiser - I can see the pickups aren’t sealed into the covers. 

    That's always been an annoying issue to me. I'm not suggesting this if you have expensive pickups and are worried about damage but on the restoration of my old Aria Jazz which has pickups epoxy potted into the covers, I found that you could carefully push the pole pieces down till they were flush- didn't affect the sound at all and kept the appearance.

  11. Firmly in the PC camp here but then again I've worked with them both at home and professionally for over 30 years. If you're familiar with Windows and some of the ins and outs of keeping a system like that running, it would have to be a very compelling argument to change. 

    As far as if you've had a Mac, you'll never go back, my wife wanted something nicer looking than her aging desktop pc back about 2009 and had heard about how the Mac was much easier to use etc. etc. so I got her a Mac Mini and set it all up. She *hated* it with a vengeance to such an extent that after about six weeks I relented and it then ran Windows for the rest of the time she had it! She still uses the keyboard though- pretty keyboard!

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