Killerfridge

No problems, it's been a confusing topic because it's a bit weird. There's been lots of "well maybe it's a capture", "if you add a distortion block in front of it it sounds great", "I only use a clean sound anyway" answers, but nothing clarifying what's actually happening

But we aren't taking about a capture here, but a traditional model such as you would get on an HXStomp or plugin i.e. it has all the expected controls of an SVT (bass, mid, mid selection, treble, ultra low switch, ultra high switch) except gain, and apparently has infinite headroom (within digital limits). It just seems like a bit of a weird design choice not being able to make the amps break up in any way beside digital clipping

I think my most "sizzly" bass is my Warwick Thumb with EMGs and John East UniPre

This is what I mean by "mistake" - as in, not working as intended. It feels like such an obvious omission that it can't be intended

I don't doubt it sounds great. It just feels like a bit of an oversight that you can't get a model known for it's driven sound to "drive" without additional models or using captured. It's like they added a SansAmp BDDI pedal model, but it didn't have the drive knob. In that case, I don't think "Well, the clean sounds are great, and you could just a distortion pedal before it/capture of a BDDI if you want a driven sound" would be considered an acceptable answer. It feels to me like a mistake rather than an actual design choice

Yeah I mean if you compare it to the Quad Cortex models and captures: Model: has "input" and "master" controls that both introduce distortion in slightly different ways (master sounds more wooly, like the power tubes overdriving). They are essentially simulations of the underlying circuits, so they simulate the effects of the preamp tubes and the power tubes Capture: has a generic "input" that sounds very similar to the input control on the model, like changing the volume control on the instrument going into an amp set at a certain level. I can use it to clean up a "driven" SVT capture, or drive a "clean" capture. I imagine the NAM captures do the same thing/something very similar

@Dood I'm keen to understand if the rumors about not being able to get a "driven" sound out of the SVT amp model is true

I don't think so, but I think it's quite an interesting etymology of a very commonly used term

I'm going to play the "I knew what it meant and where it came from before it was cool card", but only because I found myself doing research to understand what the Steely Dan son "Gaslighting Abbie" was about, many a year a go

I just heard from Ivan that the Ampeg and GK models don't have a gain control, and you can't push them into distortion. Seems like a bit of an oversight if true

If you want an example of his improv skills, check out this one. Genuinely funny:

It's good, but I think it misses some key points. Janek and his wife Chelsea address it very well here, especially around how "we have no evidence that fakery is bad for self esteem", except we have a litany of evidence in young women and facetuning:

I think this one was the most damning. Just a total ding-dong as described by someone who it sounds like tried to work quite hard with him. Like, why would you do no promotion for a gig that's been setup for you; even a basic bar band will promote a basic bar gig. If you've got a following of millions on Insta, how difficult is it to say "hey, I'm playing at X&Y tonight, come down and see me"

Debra is one of my all time favourite songs, it's great seeing him do it live

That's the kiddie. Really nice bass to play, B string to die for, and the asymmetric neck was lovely. Unfortunately the Mayones HF Jabba stole my heart

Becks always been an artist I will forget about, then every few years remember exists and will listen to nothing but him for a month before forgetting again. I adore his creativity and his novel approaches to music (e.g. the album he released as sheet music only, so you had to "make" the song yourself). Guess I'm listening to only Beck for a month!

I'm super interested in seeing/hearing some sound clips though

The issue I have with fully flat radius boards is that because I'm so used to having a radius (9") that flat feels almost concave to me. I'm sure I'd get used to it, but I found the AGC Graft at Bass Direct a bit too odd. 20" is about where I feel a board as "flat"

It's not generative AI. Generative AI is what powers things like ChatGPT or Dalle and can be thought of as auto-complete on steroids. Whilst I don't doubt some people are using them to build recommendation engines, recommenders are traditionally using something like collaborative filtering

It's a bit like Amazon's recommendation engine: "Ah I see you bought a new TV. I guess that means you like buying TVs, so now I'm only going to recommend you TVs for the next few months"

The online course option really drove me forward in terms of motivation. Specifically Jaymes Bass Academy because there are monthly challenges that keep me interested and give me something to work on for the month (as well as the courses). Jayme is also reasonably active on the forum giving feedback etc.

I keep meaning to come down to this, hopefully I'll drop in in the next month or so