cheddatom

You could just send the high frequencies to the monitors, giving the kick more presence could fool him into thinking he can hear it!

You are talking about a notch EQ at 250, rather than a high pass, yeh? I would have thought a slightly higher notch, 300 or 350 would have been more appropriate, but perhaps the kick drum is tuned very low? What part of the kick drum sound is he missing? What about it is making him unhappy? I find that when you're playing live, it's nice to have a great sound on stage, but not essential. If he can hear enough to stay in time, and so can everyone else, and it sounds good coming out of the PA to the audience then, leave it be. Is it that he can't hear the kick drum because your bass is overpowering it? Try rolling off some low end on the bass? Pointing your cabs away from him etc... If it's changing from venue to venue, and sometimes it sounds good, try observing what the differences are between the venues and the positioning on stage. I don't know really, it's an interesting problem though!

[quote name='Paul_C' post='66531' date='Sep 27 2007, 06:04 PM']so you're saying you become regarded as an artist once SOMEONE ELSE recognises your work as art..[/quote] Yes, but given the fact that it takes some artists a long time to be regarded as such, we have to assume that there are many artists never regarded as such, and so you don't have to be regarded as an artist at all, to be one.

[quote name='fleamail' post='66520' date='Sep 27 2007, 05:43 PM']I was misunderstood! What I tryed to say is that the volume of the right channel is louder that the left and that breaks the stereo image. The panning is great![/quote] Hmmmmm, what song is this? I would have thought I would have noticed that! Erroneous :-(

[quote name='Paul_C' post='66509' date='Sep 27 2007, 05:17 PM']I'm sure most don't care, but how do you define them as musicians ? Because you've seen/heard them play ?[/quote] Just because I would have to hear someone play to believe that they are a musician, doesn't mean that if I don't hear them they're not. The operative word being beleive. So I think my definition of a musician is someone who makes music, which is rather broad, but, y'know.... I am a driver, but I don't have to prove that to you. You would need proof to beleive me, but I don't care if you or anyone else believes me. Even if the only time I ever drive is the only time when there are absolutely no cars or pedestrians on the road, i'm still a driver. It's like, how do you define an artist. You don't have think think of yourself as an artist to be an artist. No-one else has to either. You could be dead 100 years when someone finds the doodles you made on your notebook at school, calls it art, makes you famous etc. Edit: Just a point about band names before I go home - I think edgy/bordering on offensive is the way to go. I am playing drums for the "Premature Ejaculators" and most people seem to love the name.

That's a fair point, though I'm sure there are musicians out there who don't care if anyone knows it, or beleives it.

I don't know if this is helpful, so, sorry if not, but When we make our CDs to sell at gigs, or send out as demos, we print the lables for the discs ourselves. Most of these disc lables have extra lable spaces on them, so we print sticker designs onto these bits, giving us the disc lable, and stickers!

I think you can be a musician and not a performer. There are loads of people who just play at home alone, but are really good with their instruments, and I don't think it's fair to say that they're not musicians.

Heh, maybe i'll do two different mixes, one for the bassists and one for the guitarists!

It depends. My band are really committed and have gigged loads, but, after a while it gets to you, turning up to empty venues, never getting paid, burning diesel and energy every time, and for no real long term benifit. We have decided to stop doing so many gigs for a few months, to concentrate on trying to get some high profile gigs, or gigs in london, and also trying to market ourselves to lables and managers and etc. So, while I do get kicks from gigging, I can totally understand people who are tired of it.

Cool, we're not gigging that much at the moment though :-/ You can download decent quality mp3s from the links in the frame on the left. I like the panning, but I thought it helped seperation, so..... And anyway, I think the guitar on one side, distorted bass on the other was a bit too unconventional for the rest of the band. This new one will be more guitars, more conventional, which is even harder to not get muddy!

Does he want more of the kick in his monitor mix? 'Cos you can probably do a nice cut at 250-350hz and leave him with some low end, and the high end for presence. You can roll of the bass below 100hz or so, and that should let his low end cut through. Are you talking about monitor mixes though, or, what? How do you listen to yourselves on stage?

I play bass in the band (no logo), and I also mostly mix the CDs we do, with the help of the drummer who edits most of the audio, and the drummer's and singer's opinions. I was wondering if anyone who is interested in recording/mixing would have a listen to our existing demos on www.no-logo.co.uk and point out the positives, and negatives of the mixes, so that I can use this to improve the new CD we're working on. We recorded everything for 3 songs at my old uni last week on a Pro Tools/HD24 system. Now i'm mixing at home with Cubase and Hi-Fi speakers! It's already sounding good, but, I would like opinions on previous stuff, as I always like to keep moving forward.

[quote name='anti-barbie' post='65847' date='Sep 26 2007, 12:44 PM']Here was me thinking this was a thread about needing to pee in the middle of a gig[/quote] I once met a jazz bassist who swore he was incontinent and got a custom Ampeg chemical crapper for on stage. I think he was endorsed so he got it for free.

Bald E - You should check out some acoustic/open mic nights around your area. Take your bass with you and have a couple of pints and ask some nice looking blokes if you could play along to their easy three chord folk song or whatever. That's got to be a good start! You won't get confidence without gigs, so you're going to have to gig without confidence for a bit. It's an annoying fact of life, but, (probably) like most other people here, now i'm gigging a lot, I don't get nervous. Also, if you play original music, no-one will laugh at you. If you're playing covers, you obviously need to be able to play them. I'm not great at the bass, but I have the confidence get on stage and play as well as I can, and I play in an unusual way, so people think i'm a good bassist, which is cool.

Yeh, sometimes I can carry on without a string, other times I can't. If the any of my top 5 strings breaks before a chorus where i'm playing bar (barre?) chords, I lose one fifth of that chord! It's a bit like trying to play our songs on a four string, it's fun, and develops your knowledge of shapes on the neck etc, but you can't really do it properly.

Fair point, I should have looked up the pedal before I commented!

I managed to change a string during a breakdown bit in one of our songs, the guitarist and drummer just doubled the length of it to about 40-50 seconds. I wasn't in the audience, but i'm pretty sure I would have been impressed. Obviously it won't turn out that lucky every time, and I would advocate taking a backup.

[quote name='neepheid' post='65233' date='Sep 25 2007, 11:11 AM']I don't gig. I'm not good enough. QED.[/quote] But if you played in a band, you'd get good enough in no time.

I don't think people who don't gig, are for that reason less of a musician. Obviously anyone who plays music is a musician. Being in a live band really helps you develop as a musician, whatever instrument you're on, and I think that in general, people who play in bands (maybe they don't have to gig) are generally better musicians to listen to.

I always want to take my spare 6 string as a back up, but I can't afford the hard case! I have a set of old strings that I put on in record time when I snap them live, which has only happened 3 times. If I were to have another problem with my bass, i'd be screwed!!

[quote name='martthebass' post='64957' date='Sep 24 2007, 07:04 PM']Guess we must be in the minority. I play on nails on index, middle and 3rd finger, this gives me the tone I'm looking for plus cuts down on blisters if I'm doing a few back to back gigs. I generally just keep 'em at 2-3mm though so that breaking isn't likely and 'handshakers' don't think you're a girl OTHH when playing fretless the nails are then short enough so you can play on the 'pads' and get the smooth tone if you want.[/quote] Yeh, I don't keep my nails that long, maybe 3mm at the most, but they still break. I do change between using the nail and using the "pads". [quote name='Shaggy' post='65048' date='Sep 24 2007, 10:31 PM']When I used to play a lot of flamenco guitar I used this stuff called Tuffnail (from Boots etc) that you rub into the base of the nail daily -it really did work. Also drink lots of milk - high protein & calcium - sounds daft but true.[/quote] Thanks, good advice! [quote name='endorka' post='65098' date='Sep 25 2007, 12:08 AM']I think you misunderstand me. When I advocate consistency, I am not saying that every note you play should sound exactly the same: I am saying that every note you play should be under your control and should come out sounding the way you want it to. Elimination of variables helps you achieve this. Jennifer [url="http://www.jenniferclarkbass.com"]http://www.jenniferclarkbass.com[/url][/quote] Yeh, obviously the variable here is my finger nail length, which is very annoying, and I would like to get rid of it, as it comes with a lot of pain, and looking like an idiot on stage trying to rip my hang-nails off and suck the blood off my finger! When my nails are at the right length, I don't have any problems with control, or getting my sound right (or though I do use a lot of pedals, which helps).

[quote name='anti-barbie' post='64832' date='Sep 24 2007, 04:16 PM']False nails?[/quote] Wouldn't they come off even easier than real nails?

I don't really like this idea that I shouldn't be using my nails, or that I should be striving for consistency. I'm striving for variety, originality, and fun! I don't have very long nails, and none on the left hand as I agree, they get in the way, but, when you pop extra hard with your nail, it has a bite that cannot be attained otherwise, deffinitely not by playing closer to the bridge. I was talking to my (female) boss at lunch time, and she says she gets her nails painted with some strengthening resin for like £15 so I may go for that when they grow back. Thanks for the replies so far :-)

[quote name='gilmour' post='64678' date='Sep 24 2007, 12:10 PM']Yeah at rehersal last night I had my envelope filter on, and accidentally had my overdrive on too - sounded phat EDIT: i use a really really subtle overdrive, just to make the sound a litle more brittle[/quote] A nice subtle ovderdrive will make pretty much anything sound "phat". Although it's not appropriate for certain mellow parts, I generally have some subtle OD on all the time.