bass(es) for sessions?

[ian61]

19 minutes ago, peteb said:

They do another take with a P bass and suddenly, everyone is happy.

Been there and the simple truth is its the P basses dullish low mid thump that kinda overloads the board giving the sound guy a ton of signal to play with.

[chris_b]

Unless you are very lucky, when someone is paying you to play the sound in their head is the one they want. It's pointless going into someone else's session with your sound. The real pro's know that and start by giving the producer what he wants. The focus is then on the real objective of a session players day, playing faultlessly and coming up with memorable lines.

 

The sound in your head only becomes important when its your project.

[chris_b]

50 minutes ago, ian61 said:

Been there and the simple truth is its the P basses dullish low mid thump that kinda overloads the board giving the sound guy a ton of signal to play with.

 

If your Precision has a "dullish" low mid thump you need a different bass. The better Precisions have a lively and resonant low mid thump.

[Burns-bass]

17 minutes ago, chris_b said:

Unless you are very lucky, when someone is paying you to play the sound in their head is the one they want. It's pointless going into someone else's session with your sound. The real pro's know that and start by giving the producer what he wants. The focus is then on the real objective of a session players day, playing faultlessly and coming up with memorable lines.

 

The sound in your head only becomes important when its your project.

The real aim of every session bass player is a lucrative book tour filled with anecdotes. We all know that. 

[Terry M.]

4 hours ago, peteb said:

 

Unfortunately, in many situations (especially at the higher-end, well paid sessions), you would be wrong. 

 

I'm keeping to the topic. This thread isn't about higher end well paid sessions or did I read it wrong?

[peteb]

1 hour ago, Terry M. said:

I'm keeping to the topic. This thread isn't about higher end well paid sessions or did I read it wrong?

 

To be fair, I'm not too sure what the thread is about and I'm not convinced that the OP is either! People talk about how they are busy 'doing sessions', but there is very little paid session work about. The old days of people being called to go into a recording studio to play on albums, demos, jingles and film scores has pretty much disappeared and the work that is around seems to be dominated by a handful of very experienced guys in London. 

 

I do know a few guys who still regularly do sessions, even if it isn't normally their main source of income these days. They all have their own (pretty sophisticated) home studios and virtually all of the work they do is online. They are all knocking on a bit, varying degrees of eccentricity, great players and tend to have a bit of a reach / name in certain genres.  There isn't a lot of work for bass players and even less for drummers (their parts tend to be programmed). I also know guys who have studios and make a living producing library music. Again, they may occasionally call in a singer or guitar player, but they tend to cover most of the parts themselves. 

 

Edited 7 hours ago by peteb

[Owen]

10 minutes ago, peteb said:

 

To be fair, I'm not too sure what the thread is about and I'm not convinced that the OP is either! People talk about how they are busy 'doing sessions', but there is very little paid session work about. The old days of people being called to go into a recording studio to play on albums, demos, jingles and film scores has pretty much disappeared and the work that is around seems to be dominated by a handful of very experienced guys in London. 

 

I do know a few guys who still regularly do sessions, even if it isn't normally their main source of income these days. They all have their own (pretty sophisticated) home studios and virtually all of the work they do is online. They are all knocking on a bit, varying degrees of eccentricity, great players and tend to have a bit of a reach / name in certain genres.  There isn't a lot of work for bass players and even less for drummers (their parts tend to be programmed). I also know guys who have studios and make a living producing library music. Again, they may occasionally call in a singer or guitar player, but they tend to cover most of the parts themselves. 

 

Sadly, this is the truth. That ship has sailed.

 

Anyone with half a musical brain can programme a bass line which will do all they want it to do. Will it be what we crave and enjoy? Unlikely. Will it fill that gap they need filling? Yep. 

[tauzero]

3 hours ago, Terry M. said:

I'm keeping to the topic. This thread isn't about higher end well paid sessions or did I read it wrong?

 

Difficult to tell. The OP referred to starting bass for sessions, but they're not new to bass as that might imply as their first post was nine or ten years ago with a Youtube video, second one in 2023, and this is their third post.

[BigRedX]

The handful of times I have been asked to play on someone else's recording, I have been chosen specifically for my sound and playing style. 

 

Therefore I turn up with the bass(es) required to replicate what they have heard me do previously.

 

The most recent session I did was for Rodney Bakerr (Wax Trax! Records) where I used a 1960s Burns Sonic and a 5-string Gus G3.

[ian61]

10 hours ago, chris_b said:

 

If your Precision has a "dullish" low mid thump you need a different bass. The better Precisions have a lively and resonant low mid thump.

Dead chromes, a light touch straight into the board on a good few recordings disagrees with that statement 100%. My P bass records with a thick gritty tone that studios have found very easy to deal with.