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[quote name='BigRedX' timestamp='1392305041' post='2367046'] Looking at all the links, it seems rather strange how few of the studios show decent photos of the live room. Surely in this age of excellent and reasonably priced home recording set ups having a decent live room that can accommodate a full band playing together should be the main selling point of any commercial studio? [/quote] Good tip, I'll get more photos done, the best thing about my studio is the nice big live room

I'm just north of Stoke-on-Trent, www.rifffactoryrecordings.com A member here called Bassfunk came to record with his jazz band and seemed pretty impressed

I hope you're not considering giving up! You're way too talented!!! You know how busy I am. I work a day job 8-6 5 days a week, and then "work" in my studio 7-10 every night. Weekends are eaten up with sessions and gigs. I have literally no time just to sit and relax and collect my thoughts, and almost no time to spend with family or significant other. It all feels incredibly stressful, but I know that as soon as I have half a day to myself I won't know what to do. I'll be sitting there on the settee, TV remote in hand, looking from the TV to my bass or guitar and back... I mean as unhealthy as it feels when you're living it, it's nothing compared to the sense of emptiness when you stop!

not heard these but it looks like a good deal: http://basschat.co.uk/topic/228922-tapco-s5-active-studio-monitors-with-all-cables-and-manual-price-drop/

[quote name='Conan' timestamp='1391181296' post='2354264'] No it isn't. Many amps (mine included) only have three "tone" controls - bass, mid/middle/midrange, and treble. In that scenario, advising someone to cut or boost the mids is entirely appropriate. [/quote] Well, no, because for every amp the mid control will be for a different frequency and with a different curve. Fair enough if you're actually aware of the amp's tone controls, and you know what the OP is lacking in terms of frequency response from his rig. I've yet to be able to find out what the OP is missing, or even if he has too much of a certain frequency range. [quote name='Conan' timestamp='1391181296' post='2354264'] ... EQ is a very dynamic thing, needing constant tweaking. There is no "one size fits all" solution... [/quote] Yes, you're right, but most venues with a decent PA will have that PA set up to sound good in that particular room. I would say the best advice is to get a sound that sounds good with the rest of the band on stage, and leave the rest to the sound man Could it be the case that the recordings OP has heard have been at gigs with a sh*t mix? The sh*t mix could be down to guitarists, or to the sound man, but I doubt it has much to do with the bass tone.

[quote name='NoRhino' timestamp='1391178709' post='2354208'] Pre-EQ [/quote] OK, so the soundman should be able to get a decent sound if all he gets is the sound straight from your bass When you listened back to recordings, what was missing? Low end? High end? Volume all round?

[quote name='PaulWarning' timestamp='1391175441' post='2354139'] As I said earlier round about 400hz [/quote] Indeed you did, which is much more useful than just saying "mids" Without knowing the actual problem we have no way of knowing which frequency is lacking and/or overpowering. OP - when you play live, do you give the soundman a DI pre or post EQ? Some amp+cab setups will accentuate or attenuate specific frequencies, so you end up tailoring your EQ to the rig. If the rig has a very different response to the soundman's PA rig, and you send the soundman a post EQ signal, it may be near impossible for him to "fix" it to suit his rig.

"mids" to me is far too vague a term. Quite often we see "noooo, don't cut your mids" but without specifying a frequency or smaller frequency range than just "mids" it's a pointless remark. You mentioned listening back to some recordings... what was wrong? Not enough bass? Or just low end rumble and nothing "cutting"? Or you just couldn't hear the bass?

I met a guy who claimed he'd written Purple Rain, and had the song stolen. If it was true this would be very ironic!

not sure I get "helicopter-y delay", can you explain? For helicopter noises I use tremolo and distortion

Interesting, not heard of one that really does it well so I'll be watching this one!

[quote name='BigRedX' timestamp='1390397422' post='2344886'] ... I met a lot of resistance from PA engineers simply on the basis that it wasn't how it was normally done. [/quote] You mean you met humans who didn't want to try something new?!?!?

In the space of 5 weeks I've played two pubs in Crewe, both of which have previously been ace, both of which now smell of sh*t and are pretty dead. Weird coincidence!

At home I practise acoustically, if I'm rehearsing with a band I play with my effects, otherwise the whole band would sound wrong.

I'm totally with the OP here. I know how to play the bass well if I'm playing on other people's music, but I find it boring as f*** most of them time (depending on the song I guess). When I get to play in a band, which is very rare, it's always stuff that's very interesting to play. Not fret-w***ing at all, just interesting rythms and plenty of opportunity for playing more than just what's required.

I bought a PSU from David and it couldn't have gone better!

I played a pub in Crewe Friday night with a folk band. I'm playing drums but it's good fun. However, the gig was not. Smelly pub and a small turnout added up to a cranky front man and a frustrating gig! Saturday night was such a contrast. This was with my reggae/hip-hop/something band at the big local venue The Sugarmill. It wasn't a huge turnout but from where I was (behind the kit again) all I could see were loads of teenagers jumping around to our music. Such a great feeling. The bassist was playing his relatively new ashdown stack and he's using a lot of the sub octave feature which really suits our band. Ace night!

XP-100 has the same harmony pre-sets, but yeh, there are better pedals out there now

It all depends on the pot the knob is connected to. I'd open it up, expose the back of the knob and/or pot, and take a photo. Potentially it's easy, you'd just solder 3 wires to the pot and 3 to a stereo jack socket. Then you need to drill a hole for a socket and you're done.

I can't see from the photos but if the big knob is just a potentiometer you could wire it to a stereo jack and plug in an expression pedal with the same ratings as the knob-pot

I play 6 string basses and I've snapped all strings at one time or another. I always took a spare to gigs. I think I just play hard

[quote name='xilddx' timestamp='1386497971' post='2300608'] If you are sharing a bill with fellow musicians I think it's only polite to check them out. [/quote] Yeh definitely, but I'll judge them by their soundcheck or by the first song or two. I hate subjecting myself to sh*t music. Sometimes if I'm not driving I'll wait outside while the driver watches the band, just so I don't have to put my ears through the racket

I think recording to a DAW on your PC using a USB interface is pretty straight forward these days. It's mainly about how many channels you can afford to record simultaneously. Remember every mic will need a cable, a stand, and a pre-amp. Some interfaces will have one or more pre-amps built in, but if the rest of the inputs are line inputs you'd need pre-amps on them If you get an interface with 2 mic inputs (built in pre) you could do a decent job of recording the sound of your rehearsal with some clever micing. If you can afford one with 2 mic inputs and 2 line inputs, you could use the two mics for kick and snare, and then the two line inputs for a feed from the PA so no extra pre-amp required. Ideally you'd have a DI from bass, DI from guitar, kick, snare, and then you could take the 2 vocals out of the PA as one mono feed, but then you'd need 2 mic inputs and 3 line. Something like this: http://www.thomann.de/gb/steinberg_ur44.htm would be fine, but it's almost double the budget. Beware of products like this: http://www.thomann.de/gb/alesis_multimix_4usb.htm which look perfect but only output a stereo mix to your PC rather than seperate channels

We've done covers very occasionally, when we've put our own spin on them, but never more than one in a set. As far as writing goes - sometimes someone turns up with a song, sometimes we just jam. IMO trying to come up with a set method will only restrict creativity