
synaesthesia
Member-
Posts
516 -
Joined
-
Last visited
Content Type
Profiles
Forums
Events
Shop
Articles
Everything posted by synaesthesia
-
[quote name='cheddatom' post='251894' date='Jul 31 2008, 10:40 AM']This is a strange attitude from someone who loves Jazz so much! Surely it should be "there's no logic to music, you just have to learn to groove like a cat who's in touch with his soul".[/quote] In actuality you can play anything, and you can play any note - if you are talking about note choices. The notes chosen do not matter as much as the harmonic context in which they are played against, and the duration & frequency for which these notes are played. So Messrs. Scofield and Corea et al, or for that matter Messrs. Wooten and Berlin in this context, can go outside the harmonic context, but it resolves in the end or ends as may be in modern jazz structures. How the improvised notes work against the harmonic context as a spur of the moment composition is how you'd judge it. Frankly you do not find this in jazz only, you'll find it in pop, country, blues, rock etc. The suspension of the out of traditional harmonic context is usually at endings or in passing in pop music - you hear it all the time.. .from Roy Orbison to John Lennon. For the bass player, whose role in establishing or implying harmonic structure, outside of taking a solo, you'd hear a lot of jarring notes particularly with slappers who play repeated patterned licks with dominant 7ths when the harmonic contexts are anything but. You are right that there is no logic to music, music has never been prone to think or operate like Vulcans. But there is harmonic structure in music, whether it is ancient Babylonian reed flutes or Ornette Coleman's supposedly free jazz.
-
[quote name='tauzero' post='245194' date='Jul 22 2008, 11:06 AM']The Bassix? Depends if you want a full-scale or a bass guitar scale - that was a 34" scale IIRC, like several of the BSX models.[/quote] Actually Dino only makes one model in 34" scale, the Flip bass. The half note is not full 41" but 38" or thereabouts. The mini Allegro is 36". My lefty Allegro is 41" and is part of the main stable of his basses that derived from the early BSX's which were also 41" scale.
-
OK, I confess, my phone rings to the riff in "Spain". I'll go see Chick Corea anytime, and he always thrills. The only bass player these days who will make me get up and get tickets is Steve Swallow. See below if interested in part Bitches Brew reunion, + Vinny C , C McBride and Kenny G (not that one) --- Royal Festival Hall Chick Corea & John McLaughlin Five Peace Band With Christian McBride, Kenny Garrett & Vinnie Colaiuta Sunday 23 November 2008, 7.30pm John McLaughlin and Chick Corea have created some of the most explosive electric jazz of all time. They join forces for the first time since they were an essential part of the seismic days, some 40 years ago, when Miles Davis brought the language of jazz into collision with the technology of rock and funk. Their own bands of the 1970s, Mahavishnu Orchestra and Return to Forever, were further landmarks in the evolution of a post-acoustic vision of jazz. Reunited, they play music from past, present and future with a stellar band. Kenny Garrett continues the Miles connection, the saxophonist from the trumpeter's latter-day bands; and Vinnie Colaiuta and Christian McBride are the drum and bass team providing irresistible power and groove. book tickets Select your preferred date and time below. If a performance is no longer available it will not be clickable.
-
It depends on the the construction, the nature of the bridge suspension, the action and the electronics. Whilst many argue that a hollow body sounds closer to a real DB, some advances have been made with creating some give between the bridge and the surface that supports it. The Palatino modification is essentially this, some rubber underneath the bridge and some modification to the tailpiece. The Palatino is actually hollow but sounds like an electric fretless bass for various reasons. The Merchant vertical bass is solid but uses spruce suspension bars to support the bridge, therefore offering some give. A French design, the name escapes me now, has a similar suspension design and it is completely solid. It got some very good remarks for some seasoned symphonic players. Before the onomatopoeia 'mwah' was popularised via the American press, the desired electric bass tone was referred to as fingerboard buzz. For this reason, Pedulla refers to his fretless models as "Buzz' basses. This, contrary to popular misconception, is not derived by any magical fingerboard material, coating or bass construction, but purely low action and a relatively flat fingerboard... the lower the nut height and the bridge height, the more buzz, and the steeper the angle of the string to the fingerboard, the less buzz you get. Try these adjustments on your fretless now if you don't believe this. Most traditional DB players will recognise this and when playing pizzicato, they usually avoid too low action. You can listen to DB players who play with low action, such as Brian Bromberg (sometimes, when he does his typewriting licks) , and Stanley Clarke (usually low action) and you can hear a greater, dare i say it, "Mwah". Listen to Marc Johnson and you will hear little if any fingerboard buzz. A parallel to this is the Coral electric sitar, the bridge is a flat piece of plastic and instead of a fulrum point for the string to bend over, it buzzes against a length of solid phenolic to create the sitar like sound. Lastly - electronics, if you have a magnetic pickup, it will sound more like a typical EB. A piezo electric pickup system, can be installed to sense the different phase waveforms for arco and pizzicato playing. The placement of pickups also affects the sound. So far most Db like tones have ben achieved via piezos mounted in the bridge, usually in some kind of perpendicualr arrangement.
-
FA: Soundtech PS 802 Power Amp 1u , 800W
synaesthesia replied to synaesthesia's topic in Amps and Cabs For Sale
-
Moving on with studio clearout, I've built my own custom racks and have 2 of these free to go to a good home. A bit rusty and beat, they will adjust and lock. The wheels will also lock. The bottom of each takes 10U and the top another 10U. These were from the days when I had a BRC, a few ADATs, and lots of rack FX in my studio..... total 40U racking capacity. Collection only, from Notts. No money wanted, but it would be nice if you can light a candle in a church/temple somewhere for more measured sanity in the world, or give some money to a charity of your choice. Pic is a generic pic of what these things look like.
-
Sad news. Who would have known, last video I saw of him he had gained considerable weight.
-
[quote name='bilbo230763' post='249440' date='Jul 28 2008, 10:55 AM']That's not what I am talking about. I am refering to his stated position on things like metronomes and 'you can't teach groove playing' type stuff. Gary Burton, who I consider to be one of the most competent improvisers in jazz, does advocate for metronome usage and I personally believe you [i]can[/i] work with someone to enhance their groove playing. His thinking on some of these issues is concrete. I have exchanged correspondance with him on some of his views and his responses were astonishing (not offensive in any way but indicative of concrete thinking). I have no doubt that he means well but I find his position on some things to be too inflexible and ill-argued. I do agree with him on TAB tho' - bl***y useless! [/quote] Ill-argued is the correct description. If Wittgenstein was around, he would say it was a problem of language. Do you remember the "You can't practise without an instrument debate?" The operative word "Practise" was largely misunderstood in the American context. If you think about music, it is not physical practise, sure the mental gestation may help you but the physical practise is not the same. I can imagine things I 'd like to play but I can't physically execute them. I don't believe Jeff Berlin is precise with language, but then the community his arguments are mainly put to aren't either. So what you have is chickens and ducks attempting to talk about how to be a better bird. It won't be long before I think I would probably stop reading bass player magazine. I find the forced and mannered street language from the editors rather imbecile. re: other comments, Jeff Berlin is a great player and probably the one person you'd go to if you need to get a sub who can read ink spatter at short notice and cut it; but as a bandleader in the traditional old school jazz sense.... he is not ready. He is not in the same league as a composer, arranger, producer. God knows he needs an editor for what he types and says. I think the same applies for his solo records. In the old days, you'd take a while and worry about 'coming out' as a bandleader in your own right even if you have played for umpteen years with TommyDorsey/TitoPunete/MilesDavis/whomever... these days all you need is a computer and you are a 'solo artist', in all probability without a voice for music, as opposed to musical voice in bass, which Jeff Berlin certainly has.
-
[quote name='bilbo230763' post='249403' date='Jul 28 2008, 09:58 AM']His teaching methods are uncontentious - he is just doing what 1,000s of standard music teachers do. Teaching the dots and basic music theory. Where he irritates me is when he starts talking in absolutes.[/quote] I'm not sure that's particularly true of the electric guitar and electric bass guitar. What's got his goat is the fact that there are many teachers who teach via TAB, and 'ape my fingers' techniques. All power to those who need to do that, and all power to those who oppose it. I don't know that he talks in absolutes - he does say you are unlikely to be called into a studio session and be given a TAB sheet; I've worked sessions internationally since the mid 80s and I have never seen a TAB sheet in a pro studio situation. The only different system I've encountered is the Chinese pop music studio sessions in East Asia, there is an internal numerical system, not the roman numeral system, but it is not TAB.
-
Frankly in terms of attitude, Anthony Jackson is probably worse. He insists of editing interviews, insisting on post interview insertions and pseudo intellectual langauge, his disdain is greater - he refuses to engage. Jeff Berlin on the other hand, makes time and goes out of his way to engage the 14 year old TAB stenographer. Larry Carlton was quite similar in attitude and approach, all were abrasive characters, except that Jeff Berlin is NYC Queens in your face abrasive. FWIW, he is honest to the core for all his abrasion. He walked out of Chick Corea's band because of the imposed Christian Scientist practices, whilst others would oblige for the gig. Sometimes in a business situation or to remain in a business situation you have to suck up to big time sycophancy, some people don't want to do that.
-
-
[quote name='dave_bass5' post='246593' date='Jul 24 2008, 08:14 AM']We have a 400watts per side vocal PA. It fits in the cars and can do all our gigs other than if we have to hire one in. And the gigs im talking about certainly dont need that. We use the PA for vocals, a bit of guitar and bass and kick and snare drums. Mainly relying on our amps for the main sound. The plces im talking about are not huge venues but they are busy, noisy ones with the audience close up near the stage. Played them a few times so i know that ill need to turn up quite a bit.[/quote] That's the problem. Doubling your wattage, assuming you have the speaker cabinets that can take it, will give you +3dB or so. If you are already hitting speaker compression with your head, a larger power amp will not give you much if at all. You could carry another cab, assuming you have pack space and your head or power amp can feed it, it would give you that 3dB boost and reduce your speaker compression. Get in a aproper arrangement and your dispersion would be better, and your stage intelligibility would clean up. Contrary to popular belief, stage intelligibility does not increase with greater volume. If you are maxed out on pack sapce, use a wired IEM, it is the cost & space of a small behringer mixer, a pair of ear pods you already most probably have, and a few cables, one long one to your pods, one from your rig, and one from your board giving you a bandmix.
-
Suggested steps: a. get PA support to do the work for you b. get better PA support, with better monitoring c. if stage intelligibility of your bass rig is a problem, get a rig that gives you clarity d. get IEMs e. learn to hear yourself at an optimum volume that gives you intelligibility There is a certain elegance in the Allan Holdsworth "I wish the electric guitar were as loud as a saxophone" theory - there is no need to vary your stage volume if you play a bigger arena, after all anyone playing an acoustic instrument, acoustic drums included, cannot really change their situation much - they can blow harder or hit harder as much as they can - but they rely on Public address and stage monitoring to do the work for them. There was a time when drummers would take bigger drums thinking they sound louder for larger stages. There is a limit to that idea and in the main there is little difference. Ringo went from 20/12/14 Ludwig kit to a 22/13/16 in the beatlemania days - do you think he could hear himself any better? The drummers who went to a 26" got a different tone - that's all. I've done big shows where a properly tuned and mic'ed 18" BD is all you need to sound thunderous. The point? Get a rig for the tone you want, then get the PA to make it louder.
-
StageClix Digital Wirelss - legal for worldwide use
synaesthesia replied to synaesthesia's topic in Accessories and Misc
[quote name='dood' post='245651' date='Jul 22 2008, 08:20 PM']No Compander!!!!!! This I have GOT to hear!!! - Every wireless I have ever tried has let me down.. cos I am soooo fussy! Could this be something decent at last?[/quote] The X2 dgital wireless don't have companders either. -
I went to the show. It were bloody great. It was Al Di Meola's birthday. He came on in an Arsenal shirt for the encore, no 54 for 54 years with his name on. Loved the tone he got from his Fuchs rig. He was a bit distracted, a couple of the unison runs with Chick Corea were off - he is supposedly very exacting of his stage craft and of his fellow musos on stage. He was running to get to his axe in time for one tune, when he went off stage for a while. Made it back just in time and did some complex unison lines with keyboard, as you do. Didn't care for Stanley's tone from his SWR cabs, it was foster tweeter night, clickity clicktiy clack. It would be nice to see him with SMV, Messrs M & V play with more mid range and you can hear the notes, Mr Clarke seems to play muted percussive notes a lot. I suppose if you have Chick Corea's left hand on stage you might as well just do that. There was a time he used EV speakers and sounded better. I've certainly heard him sounding better on electric. Last time I saw him he wasn't using the SWR cabs, I think they were EBS. Mica Wickersham posted some pics of Stanley's modified F-1Xs at the Alembic club. BTW, he was using a Gerald Reese Slapstrap on one Alembic. He doesn't use straploks, they are screwed on to the bass. His upright intonation was effortless, but I 've seen our Stanley many a time, he always does the same upright 'solo', same structure of antics. His fast electric runs are always the same Stanley Clarke licks. But it were bloody great.
-
[quote name='bnt' post='242705' date='Jul 18 2008, 01:54 PM']I've been doing a little GK reading today, and the answers to those queries are basically "it depends". For example, on the RB-II heads and combos the tweeter amp is always after the 5kHz active crossover (natch), while the woofer stage can be switched between pre-crossover (full range) or post-crossover (hi cut at 5kHz). (That's not the wording they use in the manual, but it's what the block diagram describes.) The tweeter stage has its own switchable hi-cut at 10kHz, which sounds like it would be useful to reduce string noise etc. I don't have a problem with the 50W tweeter amp - at 5kHz and up, 50W might be too much, but the amps have separate master volumes. The cabs are switchable between bi-amp mode to match the amps, or an internal crossover.[/quote] Thanks for the update, good to know. I use one in a drummer's studio where we rehearse, it is a 700 whatever model, with the 2 X 10s....he owns it, it's there and I don't have to take an amp. I'll look for the crossover switch next time I use it. I think it is a RB II series combo.
-
[quote name='bilbo230763' post='242496' date='Jul 18 2008, 10:56 AM']I just got hold of a book called 'Sibelius: a comprehensive guide to Sibelius Music Notation Software' by Thomas Rudolph and Vincent Leonard. Got it from Amazon Marketplace for less than £12. Its incredibly easy to use and has really opened some doors (and reduced a lot of wasted time) on the software for me. I just wanted to register how useful this software is, not only in preparing charts and composing, but also for transcribing and study. Highly recommended to anyone who hasn't got it already! Probably a lot more use than a third, fourth or fifth bass!![/quote] Sibelius is probably the best, but a little OTT for most players unless you need scoring capabilities. FWIW, these days I use Finale Printmusic, it has the jazz fonts, it will do midi, chords and transposes all my charts. You can even play live to it, but it does not track low register well. £50 or $50 USD, depending on who you buy from.
-
Heads up About 400 quid. Nifty mix of AKG bug +X2. [url="http://www.stageclix.com/Products"]http://www.stageclix.com/Products[/url] They are Dutch, so they are honest enough to publish latency specs at <3ms, which is certainly not Ferrari specs in the digital world. I don't recall X2 publishing their latency specs, and there is some minor latency in the X2 I can hear.
-
[quote name='dougal' post='242272' date='Jul 17 2008, 11:41 PM']I have the Zeller, though not bought from Footes (I went the second hand route). Be aware that when I went into Footes with exactly the same idea, the deal he offered wasn't the same (or as good) as advertised on the net: YMMV.[/quote] That's true about the deals they seem to be geared toward institutional rentals, as an individual you might as well pick up a cheap upright, or a used one. You'd find one easily enough for £400 if you are willing to set it up yourself, and add the cost of some decent strings. The shops are not really renting you the £5- 10K models, but usually the £900 - 2000 models, if that.
-
[quote name='alexclaber' post='242499' date='Jul 18 2008, 10:58 AM']for biamping - the usual 4x10" plus 1x15" rig is not a good candidate.[/quote] Very true, even crossing at 100hz the 1X15 + 4X10 is an unnecessary load. Further the 4X10 is not really very good as a mid range speaker.
-
[quote name='Peaty' post='240617' date='Jul 16 2008, 09:23 AM']sound wood at craft supplies I have bought good ebony boards from them in the past. [url="http://www.craft-supplies.co.uk/cgi-bin/psProdCat.cgi/Finger===Boards,2,,,Guitars===/===Sound===Wood"]http://www.craft-supplies.co.uk/cgi-bin/ps...===Sound===Wood[/url] Their printed catalog is a lot better than their web one so worth getting hold of a copy All the best Pete[/quote] They are restructuring at their 'tonewoods' section at the moment, though you can still buy what they have and there is a helpful fella there. The person who managed their tonewoods sections left and left them scratching their heads a bit.
-
[quote name='The Funk' post='242232' date='Jul 17 2008, 10:27 PM']See. It'd be tri-amping then if there were three separate cabs powered by three different power amps, each fed by a different output from an active crossover?[/quote] 1 bass signal split into 3 frequency bands, each bandpassed signal goes into one of 3 power amp sections feeding 3 different speakers. You do not need a separate amp, a stereo power amp will be 2 channels of power, and you do not need a separate cab for each speaker section, they can be in the same box. Your typical powered 2 way studio monitor is one box, taking in one signal, splitting it into 2 bands, and there are two power amp sections in that box, one feeds the woofer and one feeds the tweeter.
-
[quote name='phsycoandy' post='242179' date='Jul 17 2008, 09:31 PM']Ive trie the ebs one twice now and was totally unimpressed as it seemed to do nothing much, i was after a life changing experience for a 100 notes and i didnt get it. Recommendations please..........[/quote] Pop over to Talkbass and have a look at Bongomania's Compressor reviews. He's checked out probably 80 - 90% of common compressors that bass players would use, ar some really high end studio ones.
-
[quote name='bnt' post='242060' date='Jul 17 2008, 07:33 PM']Another name I think of re Bi-Amping is Gallien-Krueger, who do amps with low power horn drive stages e.g. the 1001RB has 700W + 50W amps. I just looked it up and they're still making it, it seems. That, and the 2001RB, which has 2x540W + 2x50W = quad-amping![/quote] If my memory serves me, the GK tweeter 'crosses over', probably high passed at 5Khz. For manufacturing ease they use the same 50W tweeter system whether it is the 700 or the 2001 model. I can't remember if the woofer sections are actually low pass only, I suspect they are not and are full range; and by 5Khz you would not have much if at all anyway coming from the woofers.