cheddatom

It was my first ever gig playing to a backing track on Saturday night. I was really nervous about the technology going wrong. I'd got myself a bit worked up even though all the rehearsals had gone fine. I'd forgotten the right files so had to race back to the studio in the snow. It turns out I'm rubbish at driving in the snow - or at least I am when I'm panicking about getting back to the gig in time. Anyway, I got the tracks and set it all up and it seemed like everything was OK. Unfortunately the USB lead waggled its way out of the audio interface during the first rack. It took until the 3rd song before I realised and fixed it. To make matters worse I'd left my snare turned off for the first song of the set. All this put me off massively and I played the rest of the set with a bright red face It turns out that no-one even noticed these monumental pink torpedo-ups and we went down really well! So thank flip for ignorant punters

how do you clean up a distorted bass sound? I might sound a bit thick here, especially as I do a lot of recording (as an engineer) but I've never been able to remove distortion from a recording, only add it.

I'm feeling a bit embarrassed reading through this thread. I play drums in a few bands, and while I find playing to a metronome easy, when I'm playing without I often speed up as the track progresses. I also count some songs in too fast or too slow. I really need to work on it

Already got my tickets for Manchester but didn't know Joe Dart would be there - great news!

Hah, happy to help if I can

I work at a company, and have contacts with others, who import stuff from the USA all the time. I've managed to put basses (and other gear) onto pallets of goods. I'd always been prepared to pay duty but they've never been picked up. Maybe you've got a mate in distribution?

I see jazzers and funkers showing off and taking solos and not only do I love what they're doing, I know for sure I don't have those "chops". For whatever reason it's never occurred to me to play like that even though I love listening to it. So I'm definitely not as good as some players that I know, but I don't need/want to be. If it ever occurs I'll have to find some time to practise! On drums I'm definitely an average player, but at least I can play in time and with dynamics. I hate it so much when you see a band with a drummer that's trying to play stuff that's clearly beyond them. Their struggling ruins the groove. I saw a metal band the other day with arguably one of the best drummers in the world, except for whatever reason it was not "solid". It seemed to me that he was struggling to hear the click on their backing track. Maybe it was just an off night. Whatever, it seemed like he was struggling to play this really complicated stuff and it ruined the performance.

I'm 33 but I deal with a lot of teenagers at my studios. They seem pretty resilient to me and it's normally me "out-snowflaking" them as they ignorantly rant on about some listicle they've read about gender or sexuality

What's this?!? An older guy thinks a younger generation are less resiliant?!?

If anyone is making the mistake of just watching the first verse of "I'm Not Racist" by Joyner Lucas you will totally miss the point of the song.

I just read this entire thread. Hilarious! Thanks fellas

Queen's Head in Belper on Saturday night. A tiny little pub and we'd sold 80 odd tickets. We were worried about fitting everyone in the room but they seemed to manage in the end. I'd been told it'd be a new (and functional) PA but it was the same tired old thing. The sound was OK but I was really holding back (on drums). It went down pretty well though! Sunday we played at Beat The Streets festival at Rock City in Nottingham. I love playing at Rock City, it's just so professional. They give you a hand with your gear, there's a green room with tea, coffee, beer etc. and the sound is always brilliant. We were in the Basement stage this time but it was packed and we went down well, so a great gig all round!

I guess if the promoter had acted earlier and not just at the last minute as they were forced to do, they would have had time to prepare signing for the support acts too, and probably would have done.

I always liked the look of the Boss EQ-20 but never bought one... looks like they're discontinued now

Could be the Jack socket on theamp, give it a wiggle! (and the Jack)

the pre-amp in my TNT died, first one I've ever heard of failing. Never mind, my BDI21 straight into the effects return (or "patch in" as I think It's called) works brilliantly

Our first music video. I'm on drums and don't look great but never mind, I'll learn for next time. Our guitarist put all the footage together etc and I was well impressed...

Hah, glad you found it!

some jack plugs/sockets can be incompatible so maybe try switching the cable from your bass to the pedal with the cable from the pedal to amp. You might have to sit right on-top of the amp (or pedal) if it's very short, but it'll eliminate another possibility EDIT: I mean the length of the plug or the depth of the socket can vary, which you wouldn't expect, but I have some leads that won't make a decent contact going into the line-input on my desk at the studio for example

Logic would say it's impossible which is why I suggested you test again. Some pedals and pre-amps do interact weirdly depending on impedance and the gain structure, but you should get SOME sound out of it The only thing I can think of is perhaps you have a stereo jack on the end of the lead going into your interface/amp, and the interface can handle it where as the amp can't

No sound at all? That's very weird. So you've tried the same bass, leads and pedals through another amp and they work fine. Your bass straight into the TE works fine, but put a pedal in line and it mutes the signal. The pedals have power (LED lit up) and their outputs are turned up (confirmed by testing on the other system) Really it should be no different to plugging an active bass into the TE. I'd test again with another amp next to the TE, and just swap the jack lead going into the input of the amp. I know it's annoying to repeat the same tests but in my experience this is when you realise you were doing something stupid

it's the speakers you need to be careful with, just don't put too much low end through them... but that HH Combo does take a beating

My favourite amp for playing dirty chords on bass is my HH 2 x 12" guitar combo. Have you considered adding a guitar rig to your bass rig? If you want an always on pedal for a slightly driven sound, maybe try the BDI21 and if you like it check out the more expensive sansamps it's modelled on. Otherwise I really like the look of the bass tube screamer but not had chance to try one yet. It has a clean blend and I imagine it'll be like a weird old tube screamer I have. This and the BDI21 are the only pedals in my collection that'd do the "always on" job.

99% of the gigs 99% of basschatters are playing require a second or two of sustain maximum, so yeh, after that it becomes pointless for most ...but then anything but a 4 string fender bass through a bog standard amp is pointless for most. We still manage plenty of discussion though! Personally I like my music a bit weirder than the average pop/rock/RnB song so I've got a huge collection of pedals, several 6 string basses, and no amp. It'd be boring if we were all the same

I guess for 99% of gigs you won't be sustaining notes on the bass guitar for very long, so fair enough. Personally I like to play some weird stinky poo and sustain is often essential