Commando Jack

....well??? What did you spend it on? You've already had it a day!

Lefty playing all his instruments righty. Sometimes I wonder if I am only left handed because the teacher at the front of the class said "hold your pencil in your right hand" and, not knowing what "right" was, I just held it up on the same side as her. Of course, that would be the mirror image, and my left! The only reason I wonder this is because whenever I approach a new task, I feel at least as comfortable using either hand, and tend to use the more convenient hand or the first one I attempt the task with. For intruments, the more convenient way is right handed for the many reasons discussed above. Oh and the left handed piano has been around for a while ([url="http://www.lefthandedpiano.com/"]Link Here[/url]), but is not a commercially available instrument. It is essentially a mirror image of a normal keyboard, with the higher keys on the left. And to the OP, where's the poll???

[quote name='ahpook' post='1164928' date='Mar 16 2011, 08:21 PM']why sisn't you stop him and say you wanted to try it out ?[/quote] I would laugh out loud if you turned around and said "Sorry mate I didn't ask you to try it out, I asked could [b][i]I[/i][/b] try it out..."

[quote name='cheddatom' post='1163235' date='Mar 15 2011, 03:51 PM']Surely if you can't keep to a constant clicking, you're not much of a drummer?[/quote] There are many qualities that make a drummer worth having. Dynamics, musical sensitivity and groove are arguably as important as timekeeping, if not more so. The exception is in a sequenced band, where if you don't play in time, you sound completely terrible, no matter how good your dynamics are. I The reason I don't like clicks when drumming is that, as has been previously mentioned, you tend to lose the click under your drums when you are bang on time, which can be confusing. I solve this by having the click louder than everything else in my ear, until it becomes almost unbearable. Then you have a bloody awful noise in your ear all night! The other problem is that all your power is taken away by a robot - song seems to drag? Too bad. That rock song just a bit too fast so that on a cold night in February the guitarist can't keep up with the solo? Too Bad. Singer misses his cue and you have to swing round the chorus again? TOO BAD!! Aarrgh! The solution? Act like you can't play to a click!! (NB, I haven't tried this and doubt many would, but it's amusing to think that some would do it to get out of the situation)

Ah grace notes, the word I use for when I accidentally hit the wrong note and quickly correct it!

[quote name='Doddy' post='1139733' date='Feb 24 2011, 11:20 AM']I'm not having that. I know guys with awesome technique who have have used Ahead sticks from time to time,and have no problems. If you lack technique,you'll suck whatever sticks you use-using Ahead sticks won't help. Anyway,how can a stick help poor players and hinder good ones?[/quote] This

[quote name='Skol303' post='1120109' date='Feb 8 2011, 02:12 PM']^ Err... yeah, or Propellerhead ReCycle, which is exactly built for this kind of thing! ;-)[/quote] Ableton Live gets bundled with a lot of audio interfaces, so there would be chance he already had it. It's unlikely he'd have a copy of recycle kicking about, unless bought specifically for that purpose.

You might be able to sort it using a pedal sampler like a digitech jamman. The one I have (Jam-man stereo) allows for tap tempo changes on the fly (if the sample is pre-recorded), and you can send a feed with click to the drummer. Software-wise I would think that Ableton live is the one that is built for this kind of thing, but I haven't tried it. If it's only for one song I'd seriously consider a rearrangement. For instance if a guitarist could cover it or keys as mentioned above? Or how does the song sound without the sample? I know the Hillsongs band has the luxury of a bajillion musicians (ok maybe a million ), but it would be difficult to cover with a smaller band. To get up and running with loops can take a lot of money and effort, so I wouldn't want to do it unless I was making a habit out of it. Good luck though, it does sound class. A wee bit hypnotic until the rest of the band kicks in. Edit: You might need an extra control pedal for the jamman to do on the fly tempo changes, but it definitely can do it.

[quote name='Fiorenza2' post='1119194' date='Feb 7 2011, 06:11 PM']Hi guys, I ended up getting a Mackie Blackjack, as I've had good experiences with the Onyx preamps before, and was attracted by the high quality headphone amp that it comes with (the inbuilt soundcard in my laptop is abysmal). I'm fairly happy with it, but there seems to be some driver issues with my OS, Windows 7 64-bit. I'm not the only one with problems, so hopefully this is something Mackie will sort out sooner rather than later (although Mackie haven't replied to any complaints on the issue), but I can live with it for now. Basically, depending on how many background apps I have running, I tend to get crackles/pops etc. when playing back or recording in Reaper. It seems to calm down a bit when I change the API to DirectSound from ASIO, but I feel the sound quality worsens. Will using something like ASIO4ALL sort this out? The crackles don't seem to be in the actual recorded files. Thanks again, Phil[/quote] If the pops and clicks aren't in the recorded files then its only the outgoing sound that you have to worry about. Are you sending your output through the Mackie as well?

While not a pub landlord, I always assumed it was based on the idea that band on a Saturday night equals more people through the door, which results in a bigger crowd that buys more drinks increasing the profit. Sometimes there is a door charge but the principle of more people = more money would remain the same. Basically, I always viewed a band as an "attraction" and, having been on both sides of the fence, would rather go to a bar with a live band than a bar without entertainment. The bar with the band will get my money and the money of like-minded individuals, while the bar with no entertainment will get sod all as no-one is in it!

Ok so over the weekend I sat down with the bass and checked a few things out on the bass: - The open, 12th fretted and 12th fret harmonic were all in perfect harmony with each other, but lower end frets were all sharp. - resetting the neck seemed to help a good bit, and reduced the sharpness at the 5th fret a good deal. However the tuning still wasn't quite there and still noticably sharp. - I took a close look at the nut and the two worst offenders (E and A) did have noticable gaps between the strings and the nut. The neck came with the nut pre-cut, so I think this might be where the final part of the problem lies. Needless to say the bass will be visiting a luthier this week! Thanks again for all the help and suggestions, and I'd add that Grand Wazoo's link was incredibly useful and should be made into a sticky if it hasn't already!

Thanks for the replies folks, I'll get right on it and let you's know what it was!

Hi everyone, I've done a search on the forums and found nothing relating to this issue so here goes: I'm having issues with the intonation on my bass. The bass is set up so that it is perfectly in tune both when the open strings and 12th frets are played (which is usually sufficient when I'm setting my guitars up). However, when played around the middle frets, the notes are quite sharp. The worst offender is the 5th fret, where the strings are audibly out of tune and have had me running to the tuner between songs over the last couple of gigs. Now, the guitar is a cheapy korean P copy, but the neck has been replaced and I have seen this problem in a mate's more expensive bass that was professionally set up. Does anyone know the reason for this intonation problem and whether it can be fixed? This bass has served me well except for this and I'm not really ready to hear that I should buy another bass! Any thoughts?

[quote name='phil.mcglassup' post='1071945' date='Dec 29 2010, 05:42 PM']What a wonderful philosophy you guys have!! When I worked out my bass parts for the covers that I used to do I would spend a lot of time working them out by watching Youtube videos and tab scores etc. I can't read bass score but I can work out a decent bass line -and play it competently!! Is it or can it be the same for drums? Could I get away with basic fills? I can play a basic 4/4 time bass-snare with high-hats (eights?) in decent time so maybe that's a good starting point. What on earth is a paradiddle?[/quote] Its definitely a good start, but you have to be able to do it without really thinking about it or getting distracted etc. Most other players prefer that you play more basic fills and beats etc (i.e. underplaying the part), because its easier for them to follow and allows them to shine more when their solo comes up! A paradiddle is one of the main "rudiments" of drums and is very useful for pulling off certain fills or patterns. It's not something you need to be able to do if you're programming a drum machine as it is really a means to an end, and how you mechanically play the part wouldn't matter to a machine. If you consider that the normal way to play a fill on the drums is to play alternating with right ®, left (L), R, L strokes (either in 8ths or 16ths), so that you're playing R L R L R L....., a paradiddle is two single strokes followed by a double stroke. So instead of playing R L R L R L R L.... You're playing R L R R L R L L.... When you describe it phonetically, it sounds like par - a - did - le, hence the name paradiddle. If you google "drum rudiments" you will find many sites/youtube videos/charts devoted to all the rudiments, including paradiddles. Some are more useful than others for drumset, but are worth knowing if you plan on learning to play, because they will help you get around the kit easier. Hope that's not all too confusing!

[quote name='phil.mcglassup' post='1071159' date='Dec 28 2010, 06:40 PM']You've got me thinking about taking up drumming....but then we might struggle to find a bass player!! As a semi-competent bass player in cover bands would I find it easy to learn? How long might it take to master the basics, to gigging standard, after a few initial lessons? Decisions, decisions!![/quote] I think you should really consider either drum lessons or a book to learn from. Even if you don't ever gig, it will help you know what the drummer is doing, which is possibly one of the overlooked aspects of bass playing! Plus, if you want to program a drum machine well, know how to play drums. If you've got the time, it's worth it to expand your horizons musically. However, I'll add that it is physically demanding and the practise can be very tedious. I know a guy who packed it in because he didn't respect the drums as an instrument and couldn't be bothered to practise. He couldn't get into a band because he wasn't tight enough and gave up. If you're prepared to put the time in, you might find it very rewarding, but you have to treat it like any other instrument.

It definitely sounds lazy. If its on your dime then he should have at least justified the DI by A/Bing the mic'd cab with the sansamp, pointing out why you couldn't use your rig. Why not just record both i.e. the sound you want and the DI for a safety in case your sound doesn't work in the mix? It's not like he's only got one input.

Another vote for EZ drummer as the best choice. Pretty simple to operate and not as expensive as the big brother superior 2. I think Superior is out of the "a bit cheapish" category, but does all I've ever needed. I used Superior for our band's demos practically straight out of the box with a little tweaking (bit of reverb and compression etc). When we went to record the EP based on those demos the engineer was like "I really loved your drum sound, how did you record that?" He looked a bit sheepish when I told him they were samples. As far as I know EZ drummer uses the same or similar samples except it doesn't have as many layers as Superior. And you can always expand it with different sample sets if you like it.

One band I'm in rehearses in the lead singers garage, partly because he has the space and partly because he's a lazy bum! The deciding factor though is a set of neighbours who don't complain although we play at about 80% gig level (for the bar gigs which are admittedly quite quiet by normal standards) The other band I'm in doesn't practise at all. Never. I'm actually slightly proud of the fact and will use this smug looking smiley

[quote name='Mr. Foxen' post='920098' date='Aug 9 2010, 09:33 PM']I recommend every string hoarder cable ties sets together. I have a couple of vastly different sized green ball ends here, different style of ball, so someone else must colour them.[/quote] If I recall, there used to be sets that had a metallic type finish, and the current sets look like they've been dipped in normal paint. I couldn't say what the actual difference was, but the sets were all D'Addarios, and the colour codes were the same. Maybe they just changed their mind at some point?

I have an Epiphone G400 too and the Grovers that were factory fitted aren't the best either. Apparently the locking versions are much better, but I'm pretty disappointed with the standard ones. Just letting you know that it doesn't seem to be a faulty set anyway.

I'm kind of confused, because a drummer who is not using his bass drum is a percussionist! I am also wondering what the practise/gig volumes and setups are like. If you're playing at full gig volume then an unmiked bass drum can easily disappear. Also, some drummers will stand on the kick pedal during sound check, and when they settle in to play, they ease off and it gets lost again.

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[quote name='Sarah5string' post='901940' date='Jul 22 2010, 02:19 PM']Not impressed. He's missed out the beat! Where's the drums!? Although not sure what else is left to use... apart from, well, [i]that[/i]...[/quote] I agree, it's good and all that he can do all that at the same time, but I'd be more impressed if he had an octapad at his feet or some form of monkey sized drum kit!