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Practice recording, Fretless in a doom influenced metal band :)


Shockwave
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[url="http://www.mediafire.com/?sharekey=39d2cb8e10161b70d9d5c56d04dfa8b0e04e75f6e8ebb871"]http://www.mediafire.com/?sharekey=39d2cb8...04e75f6e8ebb871[/url]

Hey guys.

Heres a recording of a song at practice a week ago. To demonstrate that a fretless can work in a metal band to some extent! I still believe the Bartolinis are working against me as its still not as cutting as i would like it to be, But plenty of bottom end. I feel that when i play very very fast the notes get lost easily. During the second part of the chorus (The bit with vocals) I am playing along to the double kick drums, just doesant seem to be cutting through there.

This was recorded using a single condenser mic, sounds pretty decent considering a bit of clipping near the slow middle parts. Ignore the vocals as the practice room is far too loud to hear any. You may note a Dave Ellefson influence near the end :) The intro is a tad muffled, so ignore that too.

Equipment used.

Pedulla Pentabuzz 5 string fretless, Fingers, Ashdown Little giant 1000, Turned halfway up, Peavey Black Widow 1x15 and 4x10.

What do you guys reckon? Would the material lend itself more to a fretted bass? We start recording in the next few weeks and i am unsure how it will turn out in a professional recording.

Rob.

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My Zon Legacy Fretless with Bartolinis has a ridiculous amount of top end, to the extent I keep the treble rolled off as much as possible (and I like a toppy sound) - maybe it's your preamp rather than the pickups that's the culprit?

You'll probably get more attack from a fretted bass - I play heavyish stuff on my fretless but it definately has less initial attack to the notes than my fretted bass.
I also nearly always play heavier styles of music with a pick so that helps crisp the notes up a bit too IMO

Edited by RhysP
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[quote name='RhysP' post='536620' date='Jul 9 2009, 05:32 PM']My Zon Legacy Fretless with Bartolinis has a ridiculous amount of top end, to the extent I keep the treble rolled off as much as possible (and I like a toppy sound) - maybe it's your preamp rather than the pickups that's the culprit?

You'll probably get more attack from a fretted bass - I play heavyish stuff on my fretless but it definately has less initial attack to the notes than my fretted bass.[/quote]

I am sure its the Bartolini Pre-amp more then the pickups.

I see a number of heavy bands getting away with a fretless and it sounding great, under the condition the music is mixed to accomodate it.

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[quote name='RhysP' post='536636' date='Jul 9 2009, 05:45 PM']I'm not able to play back your sound file. I keep getting an error message that says "The input media format is invalid".
What format is the file?[/quote]

Just your standard MP3 format :)

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Definitely something weird with the file- Windows Media Player doesn't like it at all. I d/led it and Foobar 2000 plays it though.

Certainly no probs with the fretless as far as I can see- pretty good tone overall IMO (obviously a bit necro but that's to be expected from one mic).

[quote name='Shockwave']I feel that when i play very very fast the notes get lost easily. During the second part of the chorus (The bit with vocals) I am playing along to the double kick drums, just doesant seem to be cutting through there.[/quote]
I think this is pretty common- the only solution would be to EQ each differently so they're not competing for the same space in a mix- a lot of metal drummers use a trigger with a pretty clicky sound so their double pedal cuts through, and you can hear the bass in the low end a bit more.

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I have a bart pre in my Sei and it's something I want to change, it's not the most effective pre i've used, I've had far better results from East pre's in the past, for example, tghe top end seems all or nothing at times.

I would wait for a second hand east to show up just to give it a go, if it doesn't work then you will be able to pas it on easily.

My pentabuzz works well in my band with stock pre, wish it had a mid control though, but I can get what I want out of it with a slight mid boost on my TD650. Running through 2 x 4x10's does give it some punch as well

Hows the poly coating holding out on your buzz, I've just had mine removed, there was somewear and it was buzzing too much, had to roll the top end off to make it palyheable, now it's back to ebony and it sounds sweet. Probably gonna try some ground wounds to see how they sound and protect the neck as I do like to dig in a bit!

Cheers

Tony

Edited by sshorepunk
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