Skol303

Well done guys 👏 Voting thread is now up!

Voting ends at midnight on Friday 31st May.

Voting is underway on this month's Composition Challenge. No multiple choice this month, so you'll have to agonise and pick your single most favourite composition! Dad3353 lurksalot Rikki1984 upside downer fingers211

Amy Winehouse. Everyone could see it coming; but nobody seemed able to prevent it. Which made it all the worse. Very sad and such a waste.

I'm an acoustics nerd and very happy to help with any enquiries about room treatment 🙂 I'm not an expert, but can certainly give you some basic advice that should make a difference. In order to do so I need to know: The dimensions of the room (length/width/height). Ideally a rough sketch or photos showing the current layout and any furniture in the room. I also need to know where your speakers are positioned and where you are sat/stood when listening. Is it a dedicated music room, or does it have other uses? This will help to determine how much room treatment can be installed and where. I can then provide some initial tips to get you started. Long shot: if you have access to an omnidirectional mic (like one these) I can talk you through the process of taking acoustic measurements using free software. That's the ideal, of course, but we can at least get some of the way there through educated guesswork. Ideally, post your info here so that others can learn from the process. But if you'd rather share things like room photos in confidence then just send me a PM. Some things to avoid right from the off... Egg boxes, carpets on the wall, using bookcases as diffusors, etc. All proven to be garbage. Acoustic foam. It's does work, but you need lots of it and it's far more expensive than mineral wool. Those foam panels that people glue to their walls just suck the high end out of the room and leave the low end booming. Literally useless. Don't waste your money.

This month's challenge is now on...

May's Composition Challenge is now underway! Here’s the image for your inspiration, chosen by last month's winner, Dad3353… Rules: ✅ Avoid excessive swearing ✅ Make sure you have permission to use any samples ✅ Keep it under 5 minutes and write it during the month of the challenge ❌ Still no bagpipes! The deadline for entries is midnight on Friday 24th May.

Well done Douglas! 👍 You know the drill: message me with your choice of photo and we'll get this month's challenge rolling.

Voting thread is now up Sorry for the delay lads. Long day...!

Voting is underway on this month's Composition Challenge. Please choose your top three favourites: Dad3353 xgsjx lurksalot Rikki1984 upside downer Voting ends at midnight on Tuesday 30th April.

Ditto. I had one of these and it was great; a very good bass for the money. Really nice to play and good quality all round. I sold mine when 'trading up' for something else, but would buy another without hesitation.

That seems odd! Unless the instrument is especially valuable? I'm with Direct Line and pay probably more than I should for their Home Plus cover; but it includes insurance of all individual home contents up to £4K to a total of something like £40K. I've checked with them and it does cover instruments (and jewellery, antiques, works of art, etc), but not for commercial use.

There are far more profitable things to invest in than guitars. And you could use the profit you make from better investments to buy... nice guitars 🙂 But if you need an excuse to justify an ever-expanding guitar collection to your significant other, then crack on. As you were. Mum's the word.

As always, EQ settings are all about choosing what's right for the context - i.e. the music genre, the venue, the musician, etc. "Scooped mids" are not inherently right or wrong / in fashion or out of fashion. There are situations when such settings would work nicely, and others when they wouldn't. Sorry that's not a definitive answer, but that's the nature of the beast 🙂 But generally speaking... If you want the bass to underpin the mix and help "glue" the band together then scooped mids might help with that (at the expense of clarity); If you want the bass to punch through the mix and be clearly audible then I'd suggest rolling off some of the low end and instead giving the mids a little boost between 500Hz - 1kHz (mindful that's just a rule of thumb and YMMV).

April's challenge is now on, you fools!

April’s challenge is go! Here's the inspiration chosen by last month's winner, Rikki1984... Usual rules apply: No copyright theft. Try not to be a potty mouth. Keep it under 5 minutes and no recycling of old efforts. The pleasing tone of bagpipes is now perfectly acceptable* Deadline for entries is midnight on Tuesday 23rd April. *April Fool, suckers! (special offer now withdrawn) 😜

Well done Rikki1984! And well done all. Just got back to my computer this morning and seen the result. @Rikki1984message me your choice of picture when convenient and I'll get this month's challenge underway.

Has Scott Devine become insane? No, just financially secure would be my guess. There are far worst crimes than charging $147 for an online course that some people might consider as being quite reasonable, especially if they're fans of Gary Willis (bearing mind that Gary will be feathering his nest with a cut of that too, no doubt). Personally, I think Scott deserves credit for developing what seems to be a very successful business around bass playing; which let's face it is rarely the most lucrative career path. If you don't want to spend the money, then don't spend the money. Plenty else that it can be spent on 🍺

Voting thread is up...

Voting is underway on this month’s Composition Challenge. Only one vote, so please pick your overall favourite from those below… Lurksalot Dad3353 Rikki1984 Skol303 Voting ends at midnight on Sunday 31st March.

Studio now set up (yay!) and also taken delivery of a second-hand Focusrite Solo interface, so I can work on little ditties like this from my sofa amongst family mayhem: Hastily slung together (literally <1 hour) and very coarsely mixed, but to hell with it... just nice to be back in the swing of things! 🙂

A quick heads up that SSL have launched a new compact desktop mixer, the SiX… https://solidstatelogic.com/six £1199 (Incl. VAT) which may seem a little steep, but is in fact exceptionally good value for money based on the spec. They’re going to be selling these by the truckload. SOS review here for anyone interested: https://www.soundonsound.com/reviews/solid-state-logic-six

^ Key points right there 👏

Yes. Rest assured that use of compressors is still very much rife in the world of bass playing, irrespective of whether you've misplaced your own 🙂

You've answered your own supposition there! 😉 The restauranteur has almost total control over what you're buying - the quality/quantity/price of the food, what it consists of, etc, etc. Very few variables. If the service they advertise differs from what you receive then they're clearly obliged to remedy it. The courier company has no real control over what gets shipped, its value, how it's packaged, whether it is addressed correctly, etc. Hence they require us - the customers - to shoulder some of the risk. There's no other way in which they could operate. So if they advise that you take out insurance for items over a certain value, that's your responsibility - or at least your choice - as the customer. Clearly, it sucks when deliveries go awry and I fully sympathise with the OP in that regard. Insurance (on anything) always seems expensive and unnecessary until the moment when you need it. Hindsight being a "wonderful thing".