51m0n

Yeah I was thinking if you went the route of something like a vintage Neve pre, into an Fairchild 670 compressor you'd be getting well into silly money, then into some ungodly power amp suitable for mastering engineers and billionaires only on to some custom made uber cab by the likes of PMC, you could easily be topping 50 or 60 grand.... Cant imagine it would be worth the cash to be honest.

Saw Plux play with the Brighton Music Service Big Band for the first time properly on Saturday. He's only been with them 6 months and its the first time I've seen them 'heading the bill' as it were. He normally plays only the tracks that require double bass, since they have an electric bassist too, but the other fella couldn't make it, so Plux stood in on electric duties too and played the whole set, even though he doesnt normally play those parts at rehearsal. Busy night, he certainly worked hard! They had great sound on the night and played a fantastic set, which I recorded from way back in the audience, once I've sorted the recording out (its hours long, got the whole night including the Concert Band's 15 minute segue through The Jungle Book, awesome stuff!) I'll stick a link up to it. He played brilliantly, and totally owned it - fantastic rhythm section with him, the drummer and guitarists who provided an absolutely solid swinging foundation for the horns to let rip over the top of. Amazing night seeing so many of his contempories playing fantastic music, many of whom came up through the Brighton Music Service with him from something like 12 years ago, and have gone on to become really excellent musicians. Well ddone Plux! You can hear the tracks here:- [url="http://soundcloud.com/51m0n-1/sets/brighton-and-hove-youth-big-1"]http://soundcloud.co...ove-youth-big-1[/url]

Top work Clarky! Well done mate, 7 songs for the audition? Crikey!

Dont forget the camera for that!

Nice stuff Mike! I used to have a couple of those Laney cabs way way back too

Commiserations, and congratulations, in that order

It means that out front it sounds tighter and better defined (assuimng the room acoustics dont shoot that down in flames too).

I was referring to the blockwork Clearly once thats done there are still a couple of bits and pieces to do, but nothing much really Stop whinging , some of us are jealous....

A decent sound to tape is not too hard. Getting that sound to sit right in the final mix, with everything else going on in the arrangement, such that it still sounds like the same sound, and doesnt step on the rest of the arrangements toes unduly..... ...thats the magic bit

So 2 out of 3 are nearly done? wowzer....

Play him Hazy Shade of Winter by Simon and Garfunkel - because I bet thats where you'd like to be in the mix.....

Get a DI to go into the mic input on the interface?

This one is just superb:- [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rej9RD6rPp4&feature=autoplay&list=UUgCIM3TsDAA5K48X-q7t-pg&lf=plcp&playnext=1[/media] Dig the choice of footwear whiolst drumming - it may well catch on

Thats very very cool. Love it, thanks

Love Bernard, totally killer basslines. Stu's book is excellent, as much for the history lesson as the detail on the tracks themselves, highly recommended!

Definitely try some good quality new strings first. Could save you a tonne of cash.

[quote name='CraigyJ' timestamp='1332084955' post='1582932'] Many thanks for all the advice guys... All makes sense. Think I will go the way of fitting a decent pup and ditching amplitube for the bass track and see how that goes. I think I'm doing most other things pretty much ok...I run high pass filters on all other tracks, guitars, synth etc to make sure there is nothing fighting the bass for space. The biggest problem I've had is that anything played on the low e is really muddy...the other strings sit in the mix fairly well but that low e is just so boomy...by the time I've taken all the boomy frequncies out there is nothing left. Hopefully a decent pup and a new set of stings will help...!! CraigyJ... [/quote] Dodgy string? Dodgy setup (pickup height) ?

[quote name='Pinball' timestamp='1332066971' post='1582639'] Am I right in thinking that provided that for recording that its important that the bass gives a good clear sound but it isn't as important to have wide tone variations. My thinking being that if you have a good "raw" sound track you can mess around with it afterwards? [/quote] You cant polish a turd.....

Thats a lot of blocks! What does that lot weigh?

[quote name='Monckyman' timestamp='1331939518' post='1581355'] Optimum gain settings (your method) mean driving the rest of the circuits to the best of their design ability and in my opinion will always sound better than altering your whole gain structure simply because you want to alter the volume. [/quote] +1 Absolutely bang on. Sometimes its worth backing off the inout gain a tad more than necessary and bringing up the power amp volume to compensate, some circuits do sound a tad sweeter like this IME when recording the amp but its marginal at best. The general rule of thumb for gain staging an amp is master down very low or off, set the input gain to the clip light (the exact detail of which varies between manufacturer, DO check the manual), then bring up the master up to required volume. Everything is running with the best signal to noise ratio possible for a start, the power amp is being delivered an optimum signal and so you can reach the maximum amp volume, and any inbuilt compressor (ugh!) will be fed the right amount of gain and therefore do something (probably horrible, but I digress)...

One other thing, and this may sound daft, but it really needs to be played well too. The groove has to be there or it will fight the mix.... Be extra vigilent about note lengths, and strings ringing and not being damped properly, too many bass takes to mention have been ruined by poor playing technique and sympathetic string ringing. As soon as you try and compress the part the crud ruins it for a start!

New strings - just ,just played in, say three hours old, is great. A real understanding of frequency mixing - fitting the bass in is one of the hardest parts of mixing. A thorough understanding of compression and ducking Sacrilege fo rthis site I know but a decently set up £110 bass will go a very long way with the right strings and a good DI, if its the right bass for the song you are golden. Personally I'd aim at a jazz bass, the neck pup alone is along way toward the P sound, the two pups blended scoops the mids and gives a classic funk tone, bridge pup solo'ed with a healthy bass boost at mixdown gives a magnificent tight but burpy tone that will cut through really nicely.

Thats really really cool....

I use a rack compressor. Nothing on the floor works for me for that. I would love some way of switching channel 1&2 of the rack comp in and out so I could go to a super compressed sound sometimes at the click of a switch. Rack kit is often better quality, has higher headroom (where that is good thing) etc etc than kit running off a pedal board. Is it enough beter to be worth the hastle/cost? Only you can answer that!

Definitely! MB SA450 into Berg ae410, just awesome tone!