mcgraham

[quote name='Lozz196' timestamp='1352729026' post='1866584'] Well one of the bands I`m in, The Tuesday Club, are putting out an album and single, on vinyl, and we are releasing one of them - can`t remember which - on National Vinyl Day. And we`re intending to play a gig that day in a record shop to promote this. Vinyl-mungus! [/quote] Love it. This is a goal of mine, to release a CD/EP but have a pack with a proper pressed vinyl to go with it. At the very least it just 'feels right' to do this as a project

Eh? Bass DISappearing from pop? Frankly I just don't agree. I hear particular sub-genres of pop with less bass than others, but by and large I'm hearing faaaar more music now where the bass is at the fore-front of what is on the radio. Bass (even if it's not a bass guitar) is now the FOCUS of much music, dubstep being a prime example of this. Dance-based pop doesn't survive without a driving bassline. Listen to drivetime radio and I think you'll struggle to find songs without some serious bass to them. Amen to Bruno and the like already cited above.

Great thread. Love hearing how others are getting on with their band I'm mainly playing as part of a larger church band, or doing covers/originals for open mic and solo acoustic material. I'm happy with one of them After watching some smaller acoustic arrangements I'm now keen to get a small group together for playing out, probably just a keys player and some backing vocals, as a group that want to get better and have fun as a group. The challenge is finding such people!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lkndl8pLEHE Just discovered these guys the other day. Searched the forum and it seemed no-one had brought them up before. This is a particularly cool version of one of their songs. There's another 'acoustic' version of it, with just the two singers and the brass player on a canalboat in Amsterdam. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lpNfpoXb8Rs

I used to be pretty cynical about all of it, til I viewed a seminar about what it takes to write a hit song... and I found a great deal of respect for the commercial work that goes into (at the very least) the writing of a hit song. X-factor is slightly different, but I do have a new-found respect for them making money this way. I'm not saying I like the way it works, or even approve of it, but I do respect that it still takes a great deal of work and industry-smarts to make it work and stay afloat in a relatively competitive marketplace.

Well it DOES go to 11 And it comes in black. But I struggle with playing things in Dm through it. My fault. I just tend to burst into tears.

Well, given I've been using this rig for 4 years without change, I thought it was worth a short review explaining why. [i][b]What is it?[/b][/i] Bergantino are a high-end and highly-reliable small cab operation in the US. The IP series was their idea of a 'complete' amp solution - a great quality cab with a built in power amp optimised for use with THAT cabinet and tweaked to be optimal for bass playing. It's got subtle EQ and compression built in to make it just work with whatever you plug into it. It's so subtle you just won't notice. It saves all that jiggery pokery with modular setups to ensure a seamless setup, but with enough flexibility that allows you to 'colour' the system with your own preamp. It's small, relatively light, very portable, and sounds huge. The IP112 also works with an extension cabinet EX112 to turn it into a line-array setup. Both are the same size, maybe an inch difference in depth. Jim Bergantino produced this series for a number of years but IIRC it's been paused for the moment. [i][b]What initially made me buy it?[/b][/i] I like simplicity. This is about as simple as you can get without buying a combo, but even then as the only control on the amp itself is 'power amp volume' and 'tweeter control', it's far simpler than most combo amps. I also like controlling everything from my bass. I don't like having to set-up multiple pedals or settings, or footswitches, etc. I just want to be able to plug into an amp and then it's up to me to make it work for whatever the application is. With a good bass, the IP is an uncoloured route to bass heaven. [i][b]What made me keep it?[/b][/i] I simply cannot overstate how good this sounds, but the real killer is how little work you have to expend to make it sound good. As Mark Stickley at Bass Direct puts it, 'whatever you put in, you get out - plug in a crap bass you'll just get crap tone out, plug in a great bass and you'll be rewarded'. I'd invested heavily in my technique and gear (specifically a bass that matched my playing) before getting an IP, and it is an immensely rewarding cab to own and play. The biggest benefit is when you plug in the EX112. THe IP on its own sounds great, but it's when you plug in the ext cab that the low end REEEEALLY jumps out at you. I have done gigs with hundreds of people in dead rooms with no subs, and the rig's bass output could still overpower the rest of the band - even with guitar amps and normal PA support. [i][b]What makes me keep using it?[/b][/i] It does everything I need it to do. It breaks down into component parts small enough to be packed into the boot of a small hatchback. It's portable enough to take it on the overland trains and tubes for those who travel to and in London. It really cannot be overstated how good this is as a one-cab/two-cab solution. [i][b]Niggles:[/b][/i] I have no build or sound niggles per se. But if i'm going to rate it so highly I may as well tell you what features I'd like for my uses- Tweeter defeat switch - sometimes i like a more vintage sound, and would love to be able to defeat the tweeter - you can only turn it down a few dB. Doesn't look as cool as the IP310 - despite it being the most portable rig in the world, it doesn't look as cool (to me) as the 310 version. But then if I'd done a review of that it would've had the niggle it wasn't as portable as the IP/EX stack! Power cable is unique - the power cable is not a kettle lead, and a powered speakon cable. Another user on here once drove half-way across the country to a gig, started setting up, then realised he'd left the power cable at home. With no chance of buying another in the area he had to drive back to get it. To be fair, the guy was a muppet, as the cover for the IP has a pocket for the cables so there's no excuse to forget it... nevertheless, it's feasible that this could happen to anyone. Other than that, I'd give this a 8.5-9/10. I can't give something 10/10 cos it's impossible to achieve, but this comes pretty close. While they are presently not being made, they are worth checking out 2nd hand if you get a chance.

Where is the Retweet button?

Just wanted to report back and reinforce the idea of 'getting one oscillator to sound good'. I was just fiddling with my Microkorg XL and trying to work out how one patch I've made sounds so good to me. I just fiddled til it was 'right' and dont' really remember what I did to it. I've had a look and it's literally just a single sawtooth with a mid-range cutoff point. No 2nd oscillator. What 'makes the patch' IMO is a bass boost at around 140Hz. It gives it all the balls you need to sit nicely in a mix. I imagine an dedicated analog bass synth like a Moog Minitaur has that bass 'heft' inherent in the imperfect VCOs, whereas the digital ones are perhaps 'too' ideal.

Nice rig! Any chance of a bigger picture? I think these are a great introduction to analog synthesis and makes you realise what it can offer over/instead of digital synths. For example, I absolutely LOVE the sawtooth on the Mono. If I could have that sound on a keyboard I'd be immensely happy. Similarly, the two oscillators on the Duo can be tuned to the same pitch octaves, but then blend in cross-mod to get additional filth and mild detuning. The filter reeeally breaks up and screams on both, but the Duo takes the prize (IMO) for how it behaves when oscillators are blended together w/ cross-mod... stupendous.

To the OP, try listening to each of the oscillator wave types with the filter wide open, no resonance etc. Get a feel for what each one sounds like in the bass frequency range. Each wave type has it's own characteristic sound. Personally I really really dig sawtooth if you're going for a single oscillator. It's got the heft and weight of triangle (without being as soft as sine) but with the edge and growl of pulse/square without the edginess dominating the overall sound. That's just my personal taste though. Try fiddling with the Gaia to get ONLY one oscillator and go through each type, try and get a feel for what each one sounds like, in the same way you can identify a Telecaster vs a Stratocaster or a Les Paul, etc. [quote name='Green Alsatian' timestamp='1350936318' post='1845362']A lot of people think you need multiple oscillators (which produce the 'voice') for a great bass sound, but in reality, if you have one good oscillator, you can do very good synth bass sounds. I had a Yamaha CS-5, which had one oscillator and I was able to wring decent bass sounds from it (you only need one bass string to play one note!).[/quote] Spot on Green Alsatian. In fact, often having more than one oscillator going can damage a good bass sound unless you know what might be going wrong and know how to fix it. E.g. if you've got two oscillators, then detuning one relative to the other can cause phasing effects that cancel out important harmonics, such as weakening the fundamental frequency or even cancelling out the frequencies in the low mids that give you the punch you want from bass sounds. Of course this can be avoided by careful tweaking but it's a real risk. Like many guitarists find out, a setting that sounds great in isolation can totally disappear or fail in a live mix.

The Bleep Labs Nebuluphone (sp?) looks AND sounds amazing! Onboard programmable sequencer?!? arpeggiator? multiple VCO shapes? MENTAL! Tenori-on looks really cool. I'm really wanting something it, as I'm hearing (at least in my head) a lot more sounds where a sequencer is needed, where the sonic 'movement' and progression within the song comes from tweaking the settings rather than changing the notes per se.

Got the Monotron and Monotron Duo the other week - THOROUGHLY enjoying them both. The Duo in particular is a great instrument. The original Monotron is an excellent outboard analog synthesis tool. People might call them toys, but their sound is anything but. Also they have particular quirks and idiosyncrasies that you would associate with real instruments, so it's as much about learning 'what happens when you ... ' as it is about just touching the ribbon strip. Felt the need to post this just because of how much I'm enjoying them. Planning on doing a short YT vid to explain what I'm doing with them. Anyone else enjoying them?