Skol303

SUBMISSIONS CLOSE AT MIDNIGHT TONIGHT! ...and I'll be too busy cooking dinner/ building Lego/ drinking port/ sleeping tomorrow to add any late entries. So move it or lose it, people

Get your coat. And don’t let the DAW hit you on the way out.

Zero gigs but 22 tracks produced (mostly remixes this year). Actually 23 including the Basschat Cover Song Challenge. I’m surprised by that given how damned hectic my work life has been

Absolutely fine, go for it. SoundCloud is preferred but YouTube also ok... basically any medium where BC listeners can just click to hear it, rather than having to download a file is all good.

Thanks bud! My intonation was quite dodgy during that final part, so it helped to mask it... and I kinda liked how it sounded too. But mostly the first bit

Both and neither For me personally, it's always simply a case of "whichever I like best". As with how I judge all music, the level of quality - whether it's in the recording, the performance, or the creativity - certainly plays a part; but then I love plenty of old songs that were recorded really badly in garages using a single mic (e.g. much of my early ska collection). So yeah. No set rules on how to judge, other than one's own ears/brain/thingamy.

Ok I'm in! And I think this is my first entry into the Composition Challenge this year. Well it feels nice to be back at least It's a cover of 3AM by Thundercat, from the album 'Drunk'... probably my favourite of 2017. Bass, guitar and vocals by yours truly. Drums, Rhodes and piano written in MIDI. All recorded and mixed in Reason. The synth-like solo at the end is actually a fretless bass run through the Scream plug-in with a funky envelope filter going on. Mostly to help disguise by crappy intonation... but I liked how it sounded, so it stayed. I'll be winding up the entries and launching the voting at midnight on Christmas eve ...then taking on the Santa duties for the two Skol Jnrs. That Santa guy never seems to pull his weight around here. I'm calling the damned Union.

I can share mine... but I can't promise it's been washed since I won it

Wow, that hair! Very cool pic.

Just watched it and really enjoyed it. Yeah these guys and girls tend to overplay, but that's their job. They're hired to entertain. Session musicians on steroids I also strongly recommend the Wrecking Crew documentary, also on Netflix I think. Similar idea but a different time period/ genre. Anyway cheers Blue for the tip off.

I think Reaper is unquestionably the "best value" DAW at around £60 and also Logic at around £140 if you want Gigabytes of sounds throw in (e.g. drum loops and other ready-made accompaniment). Ableton Intro is also worth a look at £55. In terms of usability/suitability, it's an open field based on whatever workflow suits you best and people will always recommend whatever they themselves use. I've tried Cubase, Logic, Reaper, Ableton and Reason. I've settled with Reason because it best caters for how I like to work - I love its emulation of analog routing; I find it the most intuitive DAW to use and it feels the most like 'play time' rather than 'work time', which is important for me. But it's more expensive at £230, which might be overkill if you just want something for jotting down ideas. Ultimately, all DAWs are equally good at achieving the end result - they just offer slightly different ways of getting there. Best advice it to download the demos and try them out for yourself. You might find that the "best value" for you is actually something a little more expensive, but is better suited to how you like to work. I think money is always well spent if it saves on frustration. Unfortunately, all DAWs involve some degree of software updates, learning stuff, etc. So it's best to approach this with the understanding that some amount of arsing around is unavoidable

Ped is on the case and trying to sort something out, but no promises. Traditionally it’s been t-shirts but we can’t guarantee sizes/availability this year. I’ll let you all know once confirmed either way.

Loving them all so far guys! GREAT ideas

Ok, so I'm going to bite in the interest of keeping the Noodle Bar in business... Here's a snippet of something I'm cooking up (not for the BC Composition Challenge as it happens). Precision bass played through an API pre-amp with outboard EQ and compression. Rest is all written in MIDI.

If just one, then personally I’d plump for a FET compressor. More versatile than a tube-opto overall (especially if it has a variable attack/release).

It's a Christmassy version of one of the classic 1993 Doom game themes, isn't it? Isn't it?? At least I hope so anyway Classic doom soundtrack

Great question. And this exposes my lack of knowledge as someone who is a (purely amateur!) studio engineer first and bass player second! So the gear I'm most familiar with is rack-mounted or software-based, not in foot pedal form. I am aware of the Cali 76 and that gets a lot of praise from the music community. LA-2A style compressors are much more rare in pedal form and I have no personal experience of using any of them... but you might want to check out some of these: http://www.effectrode.com/pc-2a-compressor/pc-2a-compressor-in-depth/ http://www.diamondpedals.com/products/compressor/ http://www.joemeek.com/floorq.html http://www.demeteramps.com/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=53 http://www.oldworldaudio.com/gear/1960.html If your live rig has scope for rack-mounted gear, then a good option might also be the Golden Age Project COMP-2A. That's perhaps the most gig-ready and 'affordable' LA-2A style compressor that I'm aware of (and by 'affordable' I'm still talking £560, so not cheap). Welcome to the world of compressor GAS. Please leave your credit card at the door

I know mate... too much time on Gearslutz for me too DBX is nice though. I don't have one myself but have borrowed one (500 series). Relatively cheap too. Oh bollocks... I'm getting GAS and I'm not even on Gearslutz!

Oh gawd, that's a can of worms in itself! I suppose the general consensus is that it's good to run bass signals through a fast FET compressor (to tame the loudest peaks) and then into a slower LA-2A style tube-opto compressor to kind of 'smooth things over'. That tends to help bring out the bass tones we're familiar with in many of our favourite recordings. But there are lots of ways to skin this particular cat

No? Really? Awww... buzzkill. I agree with the post above: compression threads have a tendency to get weird, which is weird in itself. Visit a studio engineers’ forum and you’ll find pages and pages of discussion about “which compressor is best for bass?” (ad nauseum). In that arena, bass and compression go together like beer and crisps. But talk to bass players themselves and it’s as though compression is some kind of dark art, a taboo. I’ve never understood this and just feel that many of you guys are missing out on a great tool that every bass player should understand and have in their ‘toolbox’. It’s really nothing to be afraid of

This isn't aimed at you at all... but that kind of thinking with regards to compressors and bass guitars needs to be taken out back, shot at close range and buried in a shallow grave for the birds to pick at. PS: 51m0n! Nice to see you on here mate

Good call! I have it bookmarked but haven’t watched it yet. Will report back here when I do...

I'm going to try and get something submitted this month, it being the festive season and all. I've missed I think all of the challenges in 2017... not through laziness I hasten to add; just having a busy work/home life and the limited time I have for writing music is spent elsewhere other than Basschat (yeah sorry guys, I'm such a tart). But I have very much enjoyed listening to everyone's work, which continues to develop in leaps and bounds. It's a great thing we have here! Not sure what song I'm going to cover. I did think of trying Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, but thought that Blue may actually hunt me down with a vendetta if I did so. Then I considered something by Sixto Rodriguez, who I've been listening to a lot this year, but he's a very difficult act to copy. So I'm now thinking about something from one of my two favourite albums of 2017, so that would be something by Sleaford Mods (probably not family friendly!) or Thundercat (my bass chops are going to be strained). So we'll see...

This. Or any compressor for that matter. Bass nearly always needs compression. I know that's heresy to some of you guys... but it's the truth. It has nothing to do with trying to make up for lack of ability, as is often the misunderstanding. The difference in waveform/energy between the low E (or B) and upper G string is justification enough, based on the laws of acoustics. If you play bass and want a thick or even tone, then you need a compressor. Every single professional band/ studio uses them for good reason. And every one of your favourite bass players had their tone shaped by a compressor in every one of your favourite recordings. Get one. Learn how to use it. Then rejoice! Here endeth the sermon ---------- PS: advanced tip…. if you want a really nice bass tone and don’t mind spending some money, then run your signal through a FET compressor and then into a tube optical LA-2A style compressor. That’s the magical combination that pretty much all of the pro audio community swears by. I attempt the same using software and the results are close enough for me. The fast FET compressor tames the peaks and the slower LA-2A style compressor evens it out and adds ‘cream’. Everyone from Bernard Edwards to Robert Trujillo was recorded this way.