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Equipment used for learning by ear?


CobiaMatt

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Something I don't find myself very good at but always wanting to improve. 

I have a VOX amplug thing which i use with my mac as the AUX and some Phil Jones headphones, This seems to be my go to at the moment but thinking of investing in some monitors as I imagine it would be a lot easier to hear the bass in tracks

Always curious to what other setups people use and what they find best 

Thanks

 

 

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Good quality closed-back phones (such as you have) will usually give much clearer insight into bass lines than the majority of monitors that are available at affordable prices. Definitely try/compare before buying. You may find it better to stick with what you've got (and you'll save some money).

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In terms of equipment, not much really. I find headphones are better than speakers because you can separate out the various studio sounds going on a bit better and often pick out the bass more easily. 

Other than that, just patience and lots of listening. 

I tend to listen to a track a few times so I know roughly how it goes, and start to notice phrases and runs that help me understand how it's working. 

Then try playing along a few times, stopping to write down anything off the wall or tricky. Learn those parts, then run thru again.

Once I've got it sketched out nicely, I tend to listen on the bus to work etc (without playing along) to then pair up what I'm playing to what's on the track, and gradually keep refining until I'm happy we are playing the same. 

Then just keep practising along to it until you can play it without the track for guidance. 

Edited by bassbiscuits
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I always use headphones, I find I can hear the bass clearer  as opposed to listening through speakers , and  I can also hear small pickup notes and mutes which i may otherwise miss . Also if the track is on YT  and has a difficult section, I slow down the playback speed until I’ve got all the notes  and  just keep playing it until I’ve got it  down 😀

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just done a load of this to learn an hour's set of originals for a band.  Found that different set ups changed the mix so much that the bass lines, and other guitar lines that I was using as cues, dropped in and out.  Ended up with a cheap and cheerful solution.

iTunes on my laptop, HDMI'd into my TV/AV receiver's 5.1 set up.  itunes is very good for being able to track back and forward through the songs to repeat phrases and passages (albeit that you have to do it manually) and the 5.1 set up provided plenty of good, clear bass, depending on the mix of the original i was learning from.

I'd also endorse a lot of what Bassbiscuits said.  What worked for me was to listen to the track that i was learning as much as possible in the preceding days to get to know how it goes, without the bass in hand - walking to work, that sort of thing.  Then, pen and pad in hand, sit down and play the song on the laptop and break it down into different sections.  Then pick off the easier or more interesting bits first.  Quite often that then made it easier to get the trickier bits as the relationship to the parts I knew was now clearer.  And if i wasn't getting some of the trickier bits, work on something else, or take a break and come back to it: it was amazing how many times I'd be sweating and slogging over a song that I just couldn't get after a couple of hours, walk away in despair, then the following morning it all made sense

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7 hours ago, lowdown said:

A decent App for slowing down  the tempo has been just as useful for me.

Something like the link below is worth considering (plenty of others out there).

https://www.halleonard.com/ASD/

Yes, this is a good app. I use the iPad version.

Slowing down and looping difficult passages is useful, and another good trick is to pitch shift the track up an octave, which can make the bass line stand out.

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I use my laptop with a interface and headphones through GarageBand for a bit of compression and sound sculpting.

Then I normally drag the track up on YouTube and play along. The best thing about YouTube is that you can slow the music down and really hear sections and play along to fast sections and build up. There isn’t a huge range of speeds but it’s enough for me.

Next stage for me will be something like a Phil Jones big head with headphones and my phone for portability.

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23 hours ago, CobiaMatt said:

 

I have a VOX amplug thing which i use with my mac as the AUX and some Phil Jones headphones, This seems to be my go to at the moment but thinking of investing in some monitors as I imagine it would be a lot easier to hear the bass in tracks

 

Me too. Dead handy for popping in and out of the bass case.

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On 31/12/2018 at 07:09, lowdown said:

A decent App for slowing down  the tempo has been just as useful for me.

Something like the link below is worth considering (plenty of others out there).

https://www.halleonard.com/ASD/

 

I downloaded the Lite version of this app and discovered that it only works with Hal Leonard instruction CDs.  Not surprising really but I wonder if the paid for version will work with FLAC files stored on my computer system?  If it does, I will probably get it as it looks a very good bit of software.  I have Audicity downloaded but it is a complex app that is way too much for what I need.  ASD fits the bill perfectly if it can play FLAC files.  Replies appreciated, thanks.

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12 minutes ago, Rocker said:

...I have Audicity downloaded ...

You have Audacity..? In the 'Effect' menu, choose 'Change Tempo', type in the percentage change required (-50 for half-speed, for example, or use the slider control...) and that's done. It takes a few seconds; you can save the result if required. I've just done a FLAC file this way; there's no need to look at all the 'complicated' gubbins it can do if that's all you want. No good..? o.O

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2 hours ago, Rocker said:

 

I downloaded the Lite version of this app and discovered that it only works with Hal Leonard instruction CDs.  Not surprising really but I wonder if the paid for version will work with FLAC files stored on my computer system?  If it does, I will probably get it as it looks a very good bit of software.  I have Audicity downloaded but it is a complex app that is way too much for what I need.  ASD fits the bill perfectly if it can play FLAC files.  Replies appreciated, thanks.

Sorry, I actually use the iPad version, but yes that was the link for the lite version (which can only read the HL CD's)

More details below for the full version (it reads just about everything).

You can get it for all the platforms. Some of the platforms you can use Spotify (subscription) Playlists as well.

https://www.ronimusic.com

http://www.ronimusic.com/slspcdtr.htm

 

To be honest, Dads Audacity option above is free, and pretty simple. Actually, you should be able to do what you want in most DAW's.

It's just the iPad/iPhone or Android versions of ASD make the whole thing more portable, especially if you are on the road, or away from where your Desk top DAW is located.

 

 

Edited by lowdown
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I took a little longer to be any good at this and three tips that I'd give (i.e. where I went wrong years ago) are 1) make sure you are always in tune, 2) make sure your bass is going through an amp so it's audible and 3) don't even attempt to do it listening through laptop speakers (or presumably a phone these days!) - you need a decent stereo so you can pick out the bass.

Personally I plug the laptop / MP3 player into the practice amp and play along. Or if it is a record, I just turn the record player up and play along. 

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I use a Boss eBand JS10 for learning by ear. I convert the song to an MP3 either by ripping from CD, recording from vinyl or converting a leeched YouTube video. As well as being able to slow the tempo, it has the facility to record small snippets which can also be slowed down. That comes in very handy when working out tricker bits where the bass isn't that audible.

It's a nice, albeit pricey bit of gear. The only downside is the 3.5 mm headphone socket - the weight of an adapter plus headphone jack strains the socket making it cut out intermittently - but I hook that up to my practice amp's aux input and plug my cans into that instead. It works well.

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