Skol303

[color=#800000][size=5][b]Don’t forget… there are prizes up for grabs this month![/b][/size][/color] Oh yes indeed [b]First place gets a shiny new plug-in:[/b] the excellent [b][url="http://www.native-instruments.com/en/products/komplete/effects/supercharger/"]Supercharger[/url][/b] compressor by Native Instruments - kindly donated by fellow BC’er Mornats! [b]Second place (or joint first) gets a spankingly gorgeous [url="http://basschat.co.uk/cp/2-shop/"]Basschat Polo Shirt[/url][/b] of the type worn by this dodgy looking fella ‘ere: It’s like Christmas Only it’s Easter!

[color=#800000][size=5][b]Voting has now started on this month’s Composition Challenge[/b][/size][/color] [size=5]Here's the inspiration for this month's music…[/size] [size=5]…and here are the compositions. Please vote for your top [color=#800000][b]THREE[/b][/color] favourites:[/size] Dad3353 [url="http://soundcloud.com/dad3353/vortex"]‘Vortex’[/url] xgsjx [url="http://soundcloud.com/gxmix/beautiful-destruction-1"]‘Beautiful Destruction’[/url] Mornats [url="http://soundcloud.com/mornats/tornado"]‘Tornado’[/url] Bastav [url="http://soundcloud.com/organicpulseensemble/storm-chasers-lament"]‘Storm Chasers Lament’[/url] Leonard Smalls [url="http://soundcloud.com/dredd-and-the-badass-weed/there-she-blows"]‘There She Blows!’[/url] Rikki1984 [url="http://soundcloud.com/rikki-boyes/looking-ahead"]‘Looking Ahead’[/url] christofloffer [url="http://soundcloud.com/christofloffer/pretty-misery"]‘Pretty Misery’[/url] Bleat [url="http://soundcloud.com/foolsjourney/thunderhead"]‘ThunderHead’[/url] lurksalot [url="http://soundcloud.com/lurksalot/aunty-cyclone"]‘Aunty Cyclone’[/url] Bilbo [url="http://soundcloud.com/robert-palmer-1/hurricane"]‘Hurricane’[/url] fingers211 [url="http://soundcloud.com/nigel-jewell/wheres-dorothy"]‘Where's Dorothy’[/url] Skol303 [url="http://soundcloud.com/skollob/deconstruction"]‘De(con)struction’[/url] [color=#800000][size=5][b]Voting ends at midnight on Thursday 31st March[/b][/size][/color]

Phew. Done. http://soundcloud.com/skollob/deconstruction Very hastily put together. And I'm currently deaf in one ear due to a bad cold, so goodness knows how it actually sounds Moody, dubstep-ish electronica. Trying to depict the events as they unfold in slow motion, Something like that. I'll post up the voting thread once the clock strikes midnight...

The company I work for has started offering audio-video services, which now involves me creating ambient 'soundscapes' for organisations such as the National Trust (audio files that are triggered using PIR sensors when people enter certain rooms of a property, helping to bring the space ‘to life’). All put together using samples sourced from Creative Commons libraries. Very different to my usual fayre - and a lot of fun! Here are some examples for anyone interested - best experienced using headphones: [url="http://soundcloud.com/countryscape/brewhouse"]Tudor Brewhouse[/url] [url="http://soundcloud.com/countryscape/thomas-legh-writing-desk-1"]Writing Desk[/url] [url="http://soundcloud.com/countryscape/regency-merriment"]Regency Merriment[/url] [color=#b22222][b]NB: please don’t leave comments on SoundCloud - the links are used by our clients, so I’d have to delete any nice (or other) comments you make![/b][/color] Dubstep remixes to follow…

[quote name='bassbora' timestamp='1458769803' post='3010810'] Warwick Thumb NT has always worked extremely well for me [/quote] ^ [i]Mwah-[/i]vellous basses

That's friggin' lovely Mark! Great score. Even more so at that price. Wow. Most importantly, it sounds good too. [i]I need to stop typing now before GAS takes hold...[/i]

Good work folks! I had to listen to them over the weekend, together with the [url="http://basschat.co.uk/topic/280198-march-composition-challenge-get-writing/"]Composition Challenge[/url] entries so far. Hoping to get a noodle in myself. It's probably going to be something funky again - because I'm still working my way through a 'teach yourself funk' learning book! (and probably will be for some time). I then have a book on walking basslines to work through... so you'll be hearing those from me for the rest of the year. Something to look forward to, eh?

Really good work folks! I had a quick listen to snippets of each over the weekend. I've started something which I'm hoping to finish in time. Hard to describe, but I'm sort of seeing the picture in 'slow motion' - the way dramatic events are sometimes slowed down in movies, creating a sort of serene depiction of something that is oppositely chaotic. If that makes any sense? It's going to be a rush job, whatever the outcome.

^ Fiona Apple track above, posted by cheddatom. Oh brother, if you only knew! Lots of personal attachment to that one for me. Good call for posting it.

[quote name='fingers211' timestamp='1458137968' post='3005032'] So that's your secret winning formula ......one night only !! [/quote] Haha! Well, come to mention it, I have had a few lucky successes with 'one night wonders'. The pressure of a deadline can be a good catalyst under the right circumstances. ...other times, it's just damned frustrating

I put together a '70s Precision, bitsa-style, using parts bought mostly from the US via eBay. Unless you [i]really[/i] knew what to look for, I'd wager that most people wouldn't have a clue about it not being all 'original'. To my mind, it was screwed and soldered together in the same way as any early 70s Fender bass - using stock parts from the factory. So there's no lost mojo to me Bizarrely, perhaps, it also worked out quite a lot cheaper than buying a complete instrument. Although I hasten to add that's because I'm a fiendish haggler, rather than the sum of the parts being cheaper (I found a couple of cool guys in the States, struck up a Bass-geek-friendship with them, and they were happy to cut their prices for a Limey in need). But generally speaking, yeah, you'll get more of return if you sell an instrument for parts rather than in one lump. It'll just involve a lot more faff. And faff too = money.

[quote name='christofloffer' timestamp='1458085250' post='3004667'] no point in flogging a dead horse though so i will just enjoy the listening this time round. [/quote] Don't beat yourself up about it! Just beat the dead horse instead I might not make this month myself... still pleasantly distracted by a project that I need to get completed. I [i]do[/i] have an idea in my head, so I might try to flesh it out albeit very hastily one evening early next week. We'll see.

Peavey Cirrus BXP. I owned a 5-string and it was a superb instrument, [i]really[/i] good build quality for the money (I picked it up for something like £280). Eventually sold as I discovered that 35" scale isn't for me. Otherwise it would have been a keeper, for sure.

[quote name='CamdenRob' timestamp='1457965139' post='3003417'] What pickup configuration does your car have? [/quote] [i]PS... that's not my car.[/i]

^ My CPU is never sufficient for me to produce tracks in their entirety (I'm running an 'old' 2010 desktop iMac). I'm always having to bounce down stems as I go along, especially as I use some very CPU-heavy plug-ins (notably the Softube stuff that I [i]love[/i]). I'm probably being optimistic to compensate... but for me, it has the advantage of forcing me to make firm mix decisions and then move on from them - 'points of no return' that help me to get each track finished decisively, rather than constantly returning to make little tweaks. Of course I [i]can[/i] return and make tweaks (I save each stem or sub-group in a separate file)... it's just a longer workaround. Works for me. At least until my computer fails and I have justification to buy a new one. At which point I'll say it sucks

I used to avoid gold hardware until I got one of these: http://www.cortguitars.com/en/product/rithimic-v ...and the aesthetics really work [i](all 'eye of the beholder', of course)[/i]. Although I must admit I don't usually let aesthetics dictate too much of what I buy - I'm far more influenced by things like string spacing, neck shape and pickup configuration. I'm the same with cars So no real "hates" for me, although perhaps a somewhat controversial "yawn" - and that's P-basses! I know, shocking. I own one myself and love it dearly. But I don't get the excitement around different colour and pick guard choices. To me it's like: [i]"Yay, another P-bass that looks just like another P-bass - only it's a different colour!" [/i]Great basses, for sure. But what's left to say about the look of them? Zip.

I only have experience of using Mackie monitors, but I'd certainly recommend them. http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/oct11/articles/mackie-mr-mk2.htm I have a set of MR8 and they're very good - albeit probably too large for the room I work in. You can pick up a pair of MR5 (mk2) for around £200.

[quote name='sunburstjazz1967' timestamp='1457443994' post='2998614']...what a sh*t band Oasis (thankfully) were. For me they introduced all the people that were knobs into dance music into the live music scene, I remember seeing lads at gigs that previously bullied school friends for playing the guitar![/quote] [quote name='CamdenRob' timestamp='1457444446' post='2998624']Yep... this was my experience of it at school in the 90s.[/quote] Really? Weird. That certainly wasn't the case locally up here in Manchester. But then I guess a lot of southerners adopted Oasis as their own, on their own terms. Just as they do with our local football teams PS: I'm not an Oasis fan. But I do secretly enjoy how Liam Gallagher consistently manages to p*** so many people off. The music industry needs [s]knob heads[/s] characters like that to keep things spicy, IMO.

[quote name='christofloffer' timestamp='1457438971' post='2998485'] doesnt help that i only got home last night after three days stranded in the woods in a broken land rover with an exploded gearbox. absolutely exhausted now. [/quote] Fighting zombies? Please tell me there were zombies too...

For me personally, a Fodera would certainly [i]not[/i] be worth it. My playing ability just wouldn't do a bass of that price tag any justice whatsoever. I'd fall squarely into the "all the gear and no idea" category. It'd be like buying a Lamborghini whilst learning to drive. I'd feel like an idiot. And probably sound like one too. But... if I were a professional musician then a Fodera may very well be worth it. £10K+ on an instrument sounds like a lot of money, but not so much when you stack it against the price of a new vehicle, or a collection of professional power tools, or a set of pro-quality golf clubs, or an accountancy qualification, or a desktop video editing suite, or may other tools of other trades. I think what some of us are wresting with here is whether a Fodera is a 'worthwhile' investment for someone who's a hobbyist bass player, or who plays pubs for kicks - rather than for a living. On that basis I suppose it boils down to your disposable income and what you deem to be affordable, as with any consumer purchase. Will it make you sound better? No. Well... perhaps a teensy bit. That's the one thing we can be sure of

[quote name='SubsonicSimpleton' timestamp='1457398989' post='2998204'] Wow nice work Douglas I'll treasure it, Feels like I just won the internet - thanks very much to everyone who made the effort to participate, vote, and moderate. [/quote] Very well done indeed! Our first entry in the prestigious [b][url="http://basschat.co.uk/topic/280646-basschat-noodle-bar-hall-of-fame/"]Noodle Bar Hall of Fame[/url][/b] Well done to everyone else too. And congratulations to Twincam on a good idea proved successful. Future Noodle Bar challenges will now be organised in the Recording forum, where you'll find [i]all[/i] of this community's premium content. Ahem. [url="http://basschat.co.uk/topic/280649-basschat-noodle-bar-march/"][b][size=5]March's Noodle Challenge is already up![/size][/b][/url] G'wan, get outta here...

[size=6][b]Welcome to the Basschat Noodle Bar™![/b][/size] The rules are simple: [list] [*][b]Record yourself playing bass for up to 60 seconds[/b]. You can record whatever the heck you like: an original riff or lick; something from your band’s own repertoire; or a well-known piece you’re currently practicing. Doesn’t matter what. Just record something. [/list][list] [*][b]Make sure it’s bass only:[/b] no other instruments. FX and pedals are allowed, including loopers. Simple click tracks and metronomes are equally fine and dandy. Just no backing tracks, MIDI, loops or other samples. [/list][list] [*][b]Upload your recording to [url="https://soundcloud.com"]SoundCloud[/url][/b], YouTube or another music-sharing platform of your choice. Once you’re finished, post the link to your recording in this thread. Job done! [/list] IMPORTANTLY… don’t worry about the quality of your recording. If you don’t have any recording equipment, simply plonk a mobile phone in front of your speaker cab and hit record. Easy peasy. [color=#800000][b][size=5]The deadline for entries is Thursday 31st March.[/size][/b][/color] We’ll then run a vote on everyone’s favourite contributions - and the winner will be added to the prestigious [url="http://basschat.co.uk/topic/280646-basschat-noodle-bar-hall-of-fame/"]Noodle Bar Hall of Fame![/url]

[b][size=6]Noodle Bar Hall of Fame[/size][/b] Only the most daring and dedicated noodlers make their way to this hallowed hall of fame. Do [i]you[/i] have what it takes to join them? [size=2](well, err, strictly speaking all you need is a bass... and you probably have one of those, so yeah, you have what it takes).[/size] [b][size=2][size=4]2016[/size][/size][/b] [url="http://basschat.co.uk/topic/278080-basschat-noodle-bar-voting/"]February - SubsonicSimpleton[/url] [url="http://basschat.co.uk/topic/282219-march-noodle-bar-challenge-voting/"]March - CamdenRob[/url] [url="http://basschat.co.uk/topic/284196-april-noodle-bar-voting/"]April - SubsonicSimpleton[/url] [url="http://basschat.co.uk/topic/285977-may-noodle-bar-voting/"]May - Asambique & CamdenRob[/url] [url="http://basschat.co.uk/topic/287706-june-noodle-bar-voting/"]June - Asambique, Camden Rob & Discreet[/url] [url="http://basschat.co.uk/topic/289311-august-noodle-bar-voting/"]July - Asambique & Agwin[/url] [url="http://basschat.co.uk/topic/291027-noodle-doodle-voting-time/"]August - MoonBassAlpha[/url] [url="http://basschat.co.uk/topic/292783-noodle-bar-voting-time/"]September - Agwin[/url] [url="http://basschat.co.uk/topic/294506-noodle-challenge-voting/"]October - Asambique[/url] [b]Worthy contenders...[/b] Agwin, alittlebitrobot, Asambique, CamdenRob, Cameronj279, Dad3353, elephantgrey, EliasMooseblaster, funkgod, FuNkShUi, KingBollock, Leonard Smalls, mimsy89, MoonBassAlpha, operative451, PauBass, Rikki1984, Roland Rock, Si600, Skol303, SubsonicSimpleton, timhiggins, Twincam, xgsjx [i]^ Be like this guy. Noodle! Do it now![/i]

[color=#800000][size=5][b]Voting ends tonight at midnight![/b][/size][/color] Really promising response so far. Thanks to everyone who has voted The next Noodle Bar challenge will be launched in the Recording forum. I'll include a link here once the Fat Lady has sung on this one. Cheers all.

[quote name='Dad3353' timestamp='1457273696' post='2996909'] I just can't, as yet, imagine how anyone will be able to fit a techno beat over this picture [/quote] Is that shorthand for [i]"I want everyone to compete on my terms this month"[/i]? Sounds like a challenge! C'mon Doug; you know full well that a techno beat can be fitted over anything. Whether it [i]should[/i], however, is another matter entirely - as this example proves: [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MFehcx6vqJ0&list=PLmzVI_EngBqqqgMvaoZkgutplUcny4Zc0[/media] [b]PS:[/b] I'm going to struggle to get something finished this month - but I haven't missed one yet, so the pressure is on! I'm currently working on a paid project for a small net-label in the US (not big buck$ by any means, but flattering that [i]anyone[/i] wants to pay for my hobby). I'll post up the finished product in the Rec' forum once it's all done...