stevie

[quote name='The Bass Doc' post='479160' date='May 4 2009, 05:49 PM']I'm a tad surprised that no-one on the side opposite the 'should read' part of the discussion hasn't mentioned the talents of Stevie Wonder 'cos apparently he doesn't (read that is - unless there is a form of braille 'notation'? - Serious query that BTW)[/quote] BINGO! I was wondering how long it would take.

[quote name='maxrossell' post='476955' date='May 1 2009, 12:57 PM']Ah aha ha. Very funny. University of Central Lancashire. Joint Honours, Bachelor of Arts in Music & The Creative Arts and Performance Technology. And you can save whatever Mickey Mouse comments I'm sure you have in store, because I'd rather you didn't unwittingly insult the former tutors and now close friends of mine who wrote the course.[/quote] OK - I'll leave the Mickey Mouse comments (tempted though I am). [quote name='maxrossell' post='476955' date='May 1 2009, 12:57 PM']And scored as in written the music for. Variously, horns, strings, percussion, keys and vocals. On a couple of occasions for an orchestra, although if by "full" you mean 100+, not really. more like 25 at most. However we made it just fine without a single piece of written classical notation.[/quote] I'm trying to imagine how you got a 25-piece orchestra to play together without any written music, although the fact that you were able to do this at all is a tribute to your abilities. But my question is - wouldn't it have been easier to have arranged the music in standard notation and printed out parts for everyone to read?

[quote name='BigBeefChief' post='476982' date='May 1 2009, 01:24 PM']But again, its the Skegness Theatre argument. Good for you, but I have no desire to play those songs. The musicians I play will will never have heard of them. If I were to play them, I wouldn't play the bass line as recorded.[/quote] There's all kind of stuff out there. You should be able to find whatever music you're interested in. But being able to read - even if it's just a bit - is the key. Works for me anyway.

I wonder how many of you non-readers realize how much music is available for free on the web. There are literally thousands of midi and Guitar Pro arrangements all over the place with a full bass line. For example, following the recent thread here on Blues tunes, I downloaded the following midi files earlier today for a practice session tonight – me and my trusty laptop orchestra. Crossroads Born under a Bad Sign Thrill is Gone Into the Night Cocaine I Shot the Sheriff Lay Down Sally Tears in Heaven Wonderful Tonight Need Your Love So Bad Pride and Joy Texas Flood And while I was at it, I picked up a few others that I fancy playing. Jessica Walking in Memphis Don’t Let Me Be Lonely Tonight Birdland And some some others including a few jazz standards and Air on a G String for string quartet. I’ve only played two or three of these before but I will probably get most of them 90 percent down this evening. I certainly couldn't do it without the dots. It takes longer to actually memorize them, of course. I’ve only been playing for two years but I decided right from the start that I was going to learn to read. It’s made all the difference. I suspect that reading from the very outset is the way to do it, rather than learning to read once you can already play. As this thread makes only too clear, it is easy to find a perfectly reasonable excuse why you need not bother.

[quote name='maxrossell' post='476296' date='Apr 30 2009, 06:58 PM']I have a 1st class degree in music. I have written, produced and co-produced four albums and a half-dozen EPs or original material all in association with exceptional musicians. I'm going on for my fifteenth year as a performing musician. I even briefly had a publishing deal. I've scored three plays and two short films. And yet I have never learned to read music.[/quote] There are plenty of fine musicians who can't read but I suspect that a first-class degree in busking isn't worth the paper it's written on. What college is it from? And what do you mean by 'scored' - written out the chord charts? Nothing wrong with that, but if you wanted to arrange music for a full orchestra you'd be a bit stuck not being able to read. Unless you were Paul McCartney, of course.

[quote name='AM1' post='468598' date='Apr 21 2009, 02:47 PM']Are you off again?! It's like the Grand National this, except usually when a horse falls, it doesn't get back up! I'm getting strange looks here because of how much I'm laughing! [/quote] He's running in the pompous stakes and winning by a length.

[quote name='mildmanofrock' post='468557' date='Apr 21 2009, 02:27 PM']Agreed - well put. Thanks for your thoughts folks - you all confirm why I think this forum is bloody fantastic.[/quote] Don't you just love a happy ending?

[quote name='ped' post='468483' date='Apr 21 2009, 01:52 PM']Sorry AM1 I thought you said you hadn't been playing for very long, so got confused. Not that having played for a long time makes ones opinions any more valid.[/quote] I agree it's irrelevant. People are entitled to their opinion if expressed sensibly. If you want to disagree, disagree. But there really is no need for some of the insults that have been flying about. If AM1 prefers to maintain some degree of anonymity, he's entitled to it without having to put up with being quizzed about his background. What's with the lynch mob mentality today?

[quote name='alexclaber' post='467315' date='Apr 20 2009, 11:21 AM']Interesting that B&C don't even mention the arithmetic method![/quote] They include the information in every datasheet. [quote name='alexclaber' post='467315' date='Apr 20 2009, 11:21 AM']Also I believe Xlim is very important (though Xvar is probably even more useful though rarely quoted) - when you push a bass rig hard you are guaranteed to be frequently running past Xmax (maybe not with the Big One but with just about every other cab at least!) and so you want Xlim to be much higher than Xmax so you can get plenty of output without risk of damage.[/quote] I'd be happy if there were one single definition of xmax that everyone could agree on and stick to - preferably one that cannot be manipulated. But the industry has been trying to find one for decades and hasn't succeeded. This plethora of xmaxes in spec sheets doesn't help anybody except the marketeers who are happy to pick the biggest number and run with it. Xlim certainly gives you a good idea of how much abuse a speaker will take. I note that the Eminence 3015 in the Compact has the same Xlim as the Beta 15.

[quote name='escholl' post='467135' date='Apr 20 2009, 12:40 AM']see, to me, that Klippel method makes a lot more sense, as does BC's method of obtaining their parameter Xvar. Both of these analyses take into account the actual performance of the speaker. on it's own, voice coil overhang is meaningless, other than to tell you what i would assume is roughly how far the driver can move within a the fairly stable area of the magnetic field. it doesn't take anything else into account though in the actual performance of the speaker itself. unless i've missed something?[/quote] I do agree with you that xmax @ 10 percent is a more meaningful spec, but it has been the subject to some controversy because it has been misused, especially in the car audio sector where xmax has become a unique selling proposition. However, don’t underestimate the value of voice coil overhang. It is useful because it tells you exactly when the coil starts to leave the gap. It’s an accepted, commonly available specification and it is also relatively easy to check and virtually impossible to fudge. System designers continue to use voice coil overhang because they can find the distortion information they need by measuring (across the driver’s entire bandwidth rather than at the single frequency measured by Klippel).

[quote name='benwhiteuk' post='466392' date='Apr 18 2009, 09:40 PM']Opinions? Seen these retail online at £899; worth the cash?[/quote] Hughes and Kettner are one of the few serious companies in the business. They have their own full-time electronics designers. They have their own in-house woodworking plant, which makes cabs for companies like JBL and others. They also build their own electronics, and last time I looked, were still making everything in Germany - unlike much of the rest who have shipped production (and jobs) to China. The guy in charge of production (and part owner of the company) has a master's degree in horn design. I could go on... I have a lot of time for them and did once own a Fortress preamp and power amps, until a so-called friend borrowed it and disappeared. (Dougie McKendrick, where are you now?). Quality gear.

[quote name='bassace' post='466943' date='Apr 19 2009, 08:00 PM']Ella, married to Ray Brown.[/quote] Yes. In a class of her own.

[quote name='4000' post='466663' date='Apr 19 2009, 12:26 PM']Karen Carpenter (bassist - no idea),[/quote] Joe Osborne - my kind of player.

[quote name='escholl' post='466437' date='Apr 18 2009, 11:43 PM']how do eminence measure then?[/quote] Their xmax measurements are based on how far the coil can travel before the speaker reaches 10 percent distortion. It’s a perfectly valid method, but it will always give a higher result than the voice coil overhang, which is why it is favoured by marketing departments. You calculate the voice overhang by taking the voice coil length, subtracting the height of the gap and then dividing the result by 2. Eminence provide an explanation here: [url="http://www.eminence.com/resources/data.asp"]http://www.eminence.com/resources/data.asp[/url] B&C has a good explanation of the different methods of quoting xmax. Go to their website at: [url="http://www.bcspeakers.com"]http://www.bcspeakers.com[/url]. Click on Products at the top and look under Excursion Limits.

[quote name='alexclaber' post='465976' date='Apr 18 2009, 10:57 AM']I'm using the 3015 in the Compact, Xmax=5.9mm and extended upper frequency response. The Schroeder 1212L cab no longer uses the Deltalite II 2512, it uses the Celestion BN12-300S, Xmax=2.5mm. Excursion limited output is basically dependant on your total cone area x excursion, so the older Schroeder 1212L cabs can match the Compact for this, whilst the newer ones have only half this volume displacement.[/quote] When comparing specs for drivers from different manufacturers you really should make sure they are measured in the same way. The Celestion xmax is the voice coil overhang, a figure that is quoted by every other speaker maker except Eminence. Eminence uses a method that can give a figure up to twice this.

[quote name='steve-soar' post='464544' date='Apr 16 2009, 11:11 PM']Is this the McIntosh, or Krell, or Mark Levinson, or Audio Research of bass amps?[/quote] You mean overpriced, overhyped and over here?