The Dogs B****cks

[Kaiu]

Not sure where i should put this, but I just want to say the Vox Amplug is an incredible piece of gear.

I use this together with Transcription ( [url="http://www.seventhstring.com/xscribe/overview.html"]http://www.seventhstring.com/xscribe/overview.html[/url] ) which is essentially a software version of a Tascam Bass Trainer.
It allows you to highlight certain areas of the track to repeat, slow down, change pitch, [color="#FF0000"]*isolate the bass (or any other instrument for that matter)*[/color]. And all your markers, loops etc can be saved so you can open up the track and work certain parts immediately.
I believe there is a trial version as well so you can check it out.

Using a stereo mini jack I just connect my laptop to the Vox and use a good quality pair of headphones. It's all battery powered (including laptop, obviously!) so you can paractice anywhere and it's completely silent. Plus if you are like me, and have all of your music on your computer, it's a lot easier than loading up individual tracks onto an external unit such as the Tascam.

Here is a picture of the Vox:
[attachment=25191:Vox_Amplug.jpg]

And a screenshot of Transcribe:
[attachment=25192:Picture_1.png]

This has made transcribing so much easier.
Transcribe works out at about £32, and the Vox Amplug is £40. Which totals £72. That is still cheaper than a tascam bass trainer.

Ed

I have never used a Tascam so feel free to voice your opinions!

[color="#FF0000"]Edit * It doesn't actually isolate instruments, it just attempts to by isolating frequencies, obviously you will still hear parts of other instruments that occupy the same space. It is helpful though.[/color]

Edited May 20, 2009 by Kaiu

[Bilbo]

I have used Transcribe for several years now and it really dioes make the job so much easier. At the price quoted, its a must have. After years of rewinding cassettes, this was, for me, a blessed release. I can now hear stuff I previously struggeld with because, by slowing it down with this software, it has become familiar enough for me to recognise it on the fly.

Marvellous tool and its costs less than the average PC game (and you know what I think of THEM!!)

[Golchen]

I was going to say does it work on a mac, but I just looked at the screenshot .............

I presume that you can just get Transcribe, without having to use the VOX thing. Actually, that doesn't need an answer, I'm just off to have a look at the site ............ thanks for the heads-up.

[enty]

[quote name='Kaiu' post='488118' date='May 14 2009, 05:50 PM']Not sure where i should put this, but I just want to say the Vox Amplug is an incredible piece of gear.

I use this together with Transcription ( [url="http://www.seventhstring.com/xscribe/overview.html"]http://www.seventhstring.com/xscribe/overview.html[/url] ) which is essentially a software version of a Tascam Bass Trainer.
It allows you to highlight certain areas of the track to repeat, slow down, change pitch, isolate the bass (or any other instrument for that matter). And all your markers, loops etc can be saved so you can open up the track and work certain parts immediately.
I believe there is a trial version as well so you can check it out.

Using a stereo mini jack I just connect my laptop to the Vox and use a good quality pair of headphones. It's all battery powered (including laptop, obviously!) so you can paractice anywhere and it's completely silent. Plus if you are like me, and have all of your music on your computer, it's a lot easier than loading up individual tracks onto an external unit such as the Tascam.

Here is a picture of the Vox:
[attachment=25191:Vox_Amplug.jpg]

And a screenshot of Transcribe:
[attachment=25192:Picture_1.png]

This has made transcribing so much easier.
Transcribe works out at about £32, and the Vox Amplug is £40. Which totals £72. That is still cheaper than a tascam bass trainer.

Ed

I have never used a Tascam so feel free to voice your opinions![/quote]

thx for the heads up - Transcribe looks excellent. Have tried the Tascams which are also very good, but this is much easier to navigate, which for me is the pain of transcription. cheers...

[Thunderthumbs]

Our guitarist's got the AC30 version of this headphone amp and absolutely loves it.

[dave_bass5]

Ive been meaning to get one of those Vox things since last year. Thing is i cant think of when i would actually use it.
I use guitar rig for learning stuff on my PC and have a Pandora PX4D for times away from the PC.
Its a great idea though. Might still pick one up this year.

[PauBass]

[quote name='Kaiu' post='488118' date='May 14 2009, 05:50 PM']Not sure where i should put this, but I just want to say the Vox Amplug is an incredible piece of gear.

I use this together with Transcription....It allows you to highlight certain areas of the track to repeat, slow down, change pitch, isolate the bass (or any other instrument for that matter). And all your markers, loops etc can be saved so you can open up the track and work certain parts immediately.[/quote]

Can you isolate the bass? Really? How do you do it?

[Kaiu]

[quote name='PauBass' post='492779' date='May 19 2009, 10:28 PM']Can you isolate the bass? Really? How do you do it?[/quote]

Sorry, that statement is rather misleading. I'll edit it. Unintentional, I just used their words. The reality is, you can try to isolate the frequencies in which an instrument sits. For example, the 'bass select' looks like this:
[attachment=25587:Picture_1.png]

It can be tweaked, depending on the sound of the bass, and you can save your eq settings. Not exactly isolating the bass, as you still hear parts of the other instruments, however it does help if a particular line is difficult to hear.

Ed

[webby]

For mac users I would also recommend Capo, here [url="http://supermegaultragroovy.com/products/Capo/?from=certificate"]http://supermegaultragroovy.com/products/C...rom=certificate[/url]

[endorka]

Another user of Transcribe here - wonderful software. One of my favourite features of it is pitch shifting the track up an octave without changing the speed, it's great for working out what is going on with mushily mixed basslines.

Jennifer

[PaulWarning]

I may be wrong but I think you can do all this with audacity and it's free!

[51m0n]

You'd certainly get very close with Reaper, not that I'm suggesting anyone buy Repaer instead, but I think it can do pitch changes, slowdowns, eqing etc, plus has a midi keyboard that (with a couple of vsts) makes it dead easy to match the pitch.

It can't write out the dots though, can this?

[spinynorman]

I've never really understood why you need an Amplug or anything similar if you're using a laptop. I just plug the bass straight into the mic input. It works well enough that it's not worth spending £40 to fix.

[spinynorman]

After reading this thread I downloaded the trial version of Transcribe. Have to say it does a very good job of isolating the musical bass frequencies so even the bass drum doesn't get in the way of hearing the bass line. Much better than Best Practice and much easier to use (though BP is free). Slowing down also does a better job of maintaining the pitch - the vocals do actually sound something like the original. Not sure about chord identification, that seems like it's going to be too much like hard work, but being able to hear the bass line clearly almost removes the need for that anyway.

As a result spent an hour on a small part of Pink's "Try Too Hard", which had completely eluded me in the past, and cracked it. Pity we don't play that any more.