Skol303

This is great! Thanks Si, and equally thanks to Nige and Kit for donating the stems - very cool I'm going to struggle to do this one - work is crazy for me at the moment (mid-August to mid-September is a total wipeout), but I'll do my damndest to have a go at it. Be a real shame not to. Failing that I may revisit these stems at a later date with a cheeky remix or some such... Anyway, I heartily recommend that anyone interested has a crack at this one. It's a fantastic track and a good opportunity to work with some proper material, so go for it!

Wow, that's a steal for £23! Good one Here's a thread on my own attempt at something similar-ish. I gave up on stripping the finish ('cos what lay beneath turned out to be MDF!), but the thread contains some great advice from folks on here about removing poly finishes and such like: http://basschat.co.uk/topic/196051-how-easy-is-it-to-remove-a-polyresin-finish-update-project-finished-photos-added/ Keep us posted on how you get on with it...

Good call! I don't own one myself but it's got great reviews in the music tech press. Seems like a very useful device for both performing live and getting ideas down quickly at home. Let us know how you get on with it

[quote name='BassTractor' timestamp='1376049551' post='2169005']... a classic that I think segues rather nicely into "Wake Up" by RAtM.[/quote] Indeed! Good call, Bert

Isn't this a bit like goldfish (bear with me!), in that our abilities tend to grow in proportion the size of the 'bowl' - or the skills of the band - that we're in? I'm not speaking from experience - it's years since I've been in a conventional band - but in other areas of life I find that I usually improve to the level of my most able peers and then 'plateau' (that is if I improve at all!). With regards to ranking ability; to me a 'professional' player is a 'good' player who makes a living out of what they do. And a 'good' player is someone who can handle whatever is required of them with minimal preparation - be that by ear or through sight reading. 'Intermediate' implies that you require practice to achieve what a 'good' player can manage immediately (but that you'll get there eventually...), whereas a beginner is someone who requires practice to do pretty much everything - like me

Really enjoyed that! Cheers for posting Bubs

[quote name='Balcro' timestamp='1375901246' post='2167223'] Wow, I can't believe it. It's Ian Hunter before he was permed! Balcro. [/quote] Nice one! I hadn't spotted that myself, but now I see the resemblance.

Got home before Mrs Skol and Skol Jnr tonight... and managed to sneak in a super-loud airing of this classic track by the Beastie Boys. Still makes me wanna mosh it up crazy even now R.I.P. Adam Yauch. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z5rRZdiu1UE

I don't have the dots, but if it helps there are only four chords (Bm – D – F#m – E) which repeat throughout, so there's plenty of scope to just happily jam along to it This guy nails it very nicely with some interesting fills: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lRdRSNQdWMM

Well done Si, good to hear it went well mate! Sounds like a cracking gig. If you've got any links to vids/recordings then please post 'em up, I'd be interested to have a listen

^ Good replies above above. I think disco also suffered from the same plight as modern pop music, in that it was seen by some as being too "fun and frivolous" and didn't reflect the plight of the average working Joe (especially given the social and economic unrest that was happening during the 70s). The phrase "dead as disco" stills crops up today - and in many ways it's true; the original disco vibe is a thing of the past. Although that said, Daft Punk have done something to help resurrect it a little in recent times (I was DJ'ing at a friends 40th birthday recently and 'Get Lucky' proved to be a guaranteed floor-filler and a great link to play some Chic tracks ). And besides, our very own lowdown (Garry) has been keeping the disco fires a-burning only last month in the composition competition... check this out: [url="http://soundcloud.com/garrycribb/club-retro-75"]http://soundcloud.co...b/club-retro-75[/url]

[quote name='charic' timestamp='1375871004' post='2166634']If I manage to get my studio out of boxes then I'm probably going to do a live improvised piece on keyboard. No worrying about timings then[/quote] [quote name='lowdown' timestamp='1375872800' post='2166666']I like charic's approach, improvise, then tidy up the transitions afterwards.[/quote] Definitely good thinking... it'll save you a lot of fiddling around with MIDI and stretching/pitching audio, which has been my approach. I'd love to try an improvised piece, but I'm too poor a player to make anywhere near a worthwhile job of it. That's one reason why I'm excited to be working with Mike (urb) on some new material - his improv skills are superb Maybe I'll have a stab at it one day, once I've time for more practice and am feeling confident. [quote name='RockfordStone' timestamp='1375874046' post='2166697']i wont be getting involved, too much other sh*t to deal with at the moment [/quote] [quote name='Bilbo' timestamp='1375875200' post='2166723']Not interested and waiting for the September competition.[/quote] Fair enough guys! If I was being sensible I probably should have skipped this month too, but I've started and am too stubborn to turn back now I need to nail it in the next week before a tsunami of work obliterates my free time until September.

[quote name='charic' timestamp='1375867371' post='2166570']They should actually be all the same length but I used the stock windows movie maker thingy.[/quote] Nah, they vary from 27 - 30 seconds or so but it's no big deal mate. Adds to the "fun" And besides, I don't imagine it's crucial to get the timings spot on as it would with a sound FX track for some film footage, or whatever. Douglas seems to have made a decent job of the transitions, so it's clearly do-able.

[b]So... how's everyone getting on with this month's challenge?[/b] Anybody started yet? Who's in and who's out? (conscious that Douglas finished this back in July - swot! - and that Bilbo, Discreet and possibly Lurks are skipping this one). I'm pretty much knee deep in mine without a paddle. Something like that. I've set out to produce a mini-remix of each of the tracks I've produced thus far and then mix them together as seamlessly as possible, so they make some kind of sense as a whole. I thought this was going to be a time-saver as I'm stupidly busy this month, but I'm now realising that I've created a rod for my own back and would have been much better off just writing something from scratch, as per usual. Oh well. Live and learn. I'm producing the audio in Reason using markers to delineate each section of the video. I'll then comp it together with the footage in iMovie once I'm finished (have tested this and it works fine). One of the biggest difficulties has been the timing of each section of the video - they're not consistently the same length (thanks Charic! ), which has made smoothing out the transitions quite fiddly. If it helps anyone, I have a written list of the start/end time and duration of each section [i](yes, I am an anorak)[/i], which I found useful given that my DAW doesn't have a built-in video player. I'll post the list of timings up here if anyone's interested. I also found it helpful to sketch out the initial structure at 128bpm, which allows a neat 30 seconds per clip, and then make adjustments from there. Other than that - and my own stupid idea of creating a 'mega mix' of songs that aren't designed to be mixed together - it's all proving quite straightforward, really! No, really. If you're in two minds then give it a go. It's much less of a faff than you might think...

Heads up for a very useful thread on this subject right here: http://basschat.co.uk/topic/87414-how-to-make-a-good-looking-and-sounding-youtube-video

[quote name='BigRedX' timestamp='1375789692' post='2165564']Slightly off-topic... So what's worse: Fake ageing on a new instrument, or a refinish on one that is old and worn to make it look new again?[/quote] I'm not sure whether it's a case of better or worse. But I'm guessing that the motivation is different in each case - i.e. relicing a new instrument maybe suggests you want to foster a road-worn appearance as a musician; refinishing an old instrument perhaps has less to do with self-image and is more about DIY geekery. But I'm obviously generalising. [quote name='dlloyd' timestamp='1375789842' post='2165567']It's not just about faking mojo (although that is probably a large part of it)... some people genuinely prefer to play a beat up, worn guitar. They prefer the feel of it (less sticky finish for example) or feel less inhibited about the possibility of devaluing it if they accidentally put a scratch in the finish.[/quote] Another good point. I consider now myself educated in the whys and wherefores of relicing!

[quote name='xilddx' timestamp='1375787892' post='2165522']I took my new Deluxe USA Strat to a bass bash a couple of years ago and it fell off a chair that I'd stupidly left it on for a minute. Thank god no damage to the neck, but it certainly had a good few body bruises. I decided to relic the body a bit. It was quite fun to do, and it looks alright, certainly doesn't bother me.[/quote] Good point Nige. I hadn't considered that there's a case here for relicing an instrument as a way of easing the pain of accidental damage! More a case of trauma control than wanting to appear world weary. I've recently bought a guitar on Gumtree ([url="http://basschat.co.uk/topic/211966-just-bought-a-vintage-fake-for-l20/"]this one[/url]) which would become a relic job if I ever decided to strip it back to the original finish. Trouble is I can't play the damn thing (yet...), so any ruse of me being a seasoned guitarist with a road-worn axe would be quickly dispelled at the first strum

[quote name='RockfordStone' timestamp='1375786026' post='2165475']...my gf and i between us have lost a day and a half of work, and will have to lose at least another half day to get it installed.[/quote] If they agree to do the install on a particular day and then fail to show up you can put in a claim for loss of earnings. That's what we did when they messed us around at work. You don't need to get any lawyers involved - just write to their complaints department (email is good as it provides a record of the correspondence) and ask for compensation. They'll dilly-dally and try to avoid paying you anything, but if you persist they'll most likely cough up eventually. At least they did in our case. You won't get anything near an equivalent day's pay, but you'll get something. Worth bearing in mind anyway mate.

I know this isn't contributing anything to this thread... but I just don't get relicing. Not the process of doing it - that I understand - but the reason why you'd want to do so leaves me bemused. I guess it's to do with people wanting to appear 'authentic', as though they've been round the block a few times and are seasoned musicians with stories to tell. It just seems like a huge exercise in vanity to me. But heh. It takes all sorts, as my dear old mum would say

[quote name='RockfordStone' timestamp='1375719131' post='2164705']im doing ok, just trying to sort out a new job, as well as fighting with BT to get them to show up and install my broadband, so i have no internet or phone line at home at the minute, which is another reason i wont be entering this[/quote] Good luck with all that Rob! We had to wait over a month at work to get BT to install our phone lines... and we paid a premium for the "service" as business customers. I think the acronym stands for [i]Bloody Terrible[/i], or perhaps [i]Ballsup Time[/i]

[quote name='MiltyG565' timestamp='1375717716' post='2164684']The fretboard nearly has a zebra quality too it, although very subtle.[/quote] Definitely! ...although rest assured no wild animals were harmed in the making of this bass. Well, not until we add the panda skin finish [I am of course joking - rhino hide gives a much better tone]

Some really nice stories in this thread! My own 'finest moments' would be, in order of magnitude... 1) Winning some of the Basschat monthly music competitions. I know that's small-fry compared to most people's claims to fame, but the BC competitions have given me a huge shot in the arm, confidence-wise, and they've also put me in touch with some great people with whom I'm now collaborating on new material (namely Mike Flynn / urb). So that's probably my favourite achievement of recent years. 2) Being told by Bjork that she liked my music! I interviewed her back in the 90s and we got talking about the DIY electronic music scene. I had a track of mine on a mini-disc player that she asked to listen to and said something like: "That's great, very quirky!" Which I thought was a particularly rich compliment coming from her 3) Being told by Andy Barlow (Lamb) that I'd made his night while DJ'ing at one of the infamous house parties in Chorlton, Manchester, again during the 90s (well, they were infamous if you lived in Chorlton at that time... ). I was and still am a huge fan of Lamb, so that was a real heart-warmer for me.

[quote name='Myke' timestamp='1375629635' post='2163623'] It's going to be nice!![/quote] [quote name='urb' timestamp='1375697439' post='2164315']Looking good... I'm liking the finger board for sure[/quote] Cheers guys! Yeah, it's definitely coming together now I'm a real fan of the overall shape - it's based on a previous bass that Paul built (and has since sold). The fretboard is a real beauty... I got to see it when I met up with Paul at the NW Guitar Show. Lovely piece of wood.

[quote name='RockfordStone' timestamp='1375696402' post='2164298']i should have a go at this.... but i just don't have the energy[/quote] ...you can blame me for sapping your energy last month like a vampire! Hope you're well mate. We got some nice feedback on that last track from folks here and elsewhere

[quote name='lowdown' timestamp='1375689188' post='2164167']I am with Bilbo with this one - I am not going to revisit the older tracks and go over old ground[/quote] That's definitely the better approach mate. I just don't have time to start from scratch this month, so I'm going down the Jive Bunny route I'm still going to mess with each track to a fair extent, but it's going to be more an exercise in remixing than straight up composition. I think my transitions between each image are going to be a bit wonky - they don't seem to be evenly spaced, with some images running for 28 seconds duration, others 29 or 30 seconds, which is causing havoc in terms of rhythm. And so far I'm working in Reason with markers showing each change, but no actual video running alongside the track to compare against. Although I might try ReWiring into Reaper as you suggested earlier. But meh... should be a fun project regardless