51m0n

Getting your routeing in a muddle and piping red hot feedback through the cans at ear destroying volume - this will not make you popular - you will do it one day.... Recording a guitar part, only to think that the sound is a bit 'roomy' on listening back to the best take of the day - only to realise you recorded it with the mic that was over a drum overhead earlier in the day and is now on the other side of the room - this is almost always compounded by the awful realisation that you recorded over the drum overhead track by mistake! Recording a take only to realise that the big swooshy reverb you sent down the monitor for the singer to 'get into it' actually got printed, and is awful in the final mix.... Spending a good hour trying to work out why the singer cant hear themselves in the vocal booth - only to discover they havent put the headphones on / plugged the headphones into the wall socket, the headphone amp is off/turned down / feeding the main live room.... Listening to the opinion of the drummer /guitarist /keyboard player about how to 'capture their sound'... Dont do it, listen to their sound, listen to what they want their sound to be, then go about capturing it using tried and tested techniques, not the way his mate did it in the pub that one time! Turning on the phantom power, and frying the expensive ribbon mic...... DO document every track, setting, mic used, preamp setting, outboard setting, blah blah blah - this can take a long time. Its worth it! DO pay very very special attention to the gain structure throughout, or something will be too hot, or too noisy. DO think twice before using eq / compression when tracking, unless you know exactly what you are trying to achieve, and how to do it. You cant undo it later. DO spend time to get the mic position bang on - it is worth spending some hours over mic position, then documenting that position (digital cameras rule!) so that it is easier to recapture later. Even better is to be abl;e to spend a day just setting the mics up for the best sounds and levels, then record the tracks the next day when everyone is fresh... DO use the shortest signal path you can to disk. DO set the mood: lighting, lava lamps, relaxed fun atmosphere - at least let them believe you are relaxed! DO NOT let people in when other people are overdubbing or the band is laying down tracks - trackig or mixing by commitee is a disaster [i][b]DO NOT EVER hand over a final mix without the cash in your hand first!!!!![/b][/i] DO your best to keep the tracking simple and fast ESPECIALLY with drums track at 24bit with the levels set such that the peaks are no hotter than -6dBfs DO a/b against a commercial cd that the band likes the production of when mixing DO check your mix in the car, hi-fi, ipod to see how well it translates DO HAVE FUN!!!!

Where are you playing in Shoreham (noteable thread derail!)???

[quote name='chris_b' post='1025696' date='Nov 16 2010, 11:53 AM']I guess even pop songs can be a challenge.[/quote] ROFL! Heh, now that [i]is[/i] funny

Nice one Chris! IMO you have a perfectly good set of mics for getting really great results. The key is the dude in front of the desk! I thinkyou're right about acoustics next too, oh and have a look at [url="http://www.silentpcreview.com/"]silent pc review[/url] for tips on making machines quiet.... Can't wait to hear some evidence of recordings happening!!

[quote name='silddx' post='1024741' date='Nov 15 2010, 03:32 PM']Sorry Nik, I have put this up before but perhaps was not explicit enough. [size=5]Would you kindly amend the gear I will be bringing to ..[/size] silddx: Chris Squire Electra Evolution build, Squier Classic Vibe TTS Stratocaster, POD X3 LIVE. Thanks mate.[/quote] More importantly, what hat this time?

[quote name='danlea' post='1023026' date='Nov 13 2010, 11:52 PM']Just give yourself more leeway - if it's a half-decent preamp you should be able to do this without worrying about your signal-to-noise ratio. If you have a compressor on the preamp then feel free to apply some very mild compression straight off, [b]but this is more often used for vocals than for bass guitar[/b].[/quote] Errr, no it isnt! Compression whilst tracking bass is pretty standard fair, but from the OP's original question he may be far better off turning the preamp down to a point where he definitely will not clip the preamp, and just maybe setting up a hard limiter at 0dB (ie at the point of clipping). That should help catch any occasional peak. Plus it wont effect anything under that level at all, since the threshold is so high. You'd need a pretty good limiter to manage that in hardware, I regularly use an series 1 Focusrite Octopre set to as hard a limit as it can manage on the highest threshold, to catch the odd drum transient on the way down to a HD24, and it does a great job. Having said that with properly set up gain staging for the digital workld that just shouldn't ever happen. The truth is that if you are recording 24 bit (you are recording 24bit right?) then you should aim for your biggest peaks being at about -6dB - unless you have appallingly noisey kit. Those transient spikes will then never bother you.

[quote name='silddx' post='1018731' date='Nov 10 2010, 01:21 PM']I was just kidding mate. All of your questions have positive answers except 4), you have only to bring yourself. No equipment is necessary. Bashes are VERY relaxed affairs, where fellow bassists can chat, try eachother's gear, there's a raffle, some workshops, refreshments, etc. You will come away with a warm fuzzy feeling in your heart and have made some new friends. I can guarantee you'll enjoy even half a day there. Cheers. Nigel[/quote] Be prepared to hear a lot of people making a LOT of noise though (equal amount hot air and bass playing), and I should warn you that there may be some slapping going on.... Doesnt matter if you only started a couple of weeks ago as far as anyone there is concerned, its enough to be interested in bass.

[quote name='silddx' post='1018513' date='Nov 10 2010, 10:42 AM']Bloody hell Clarky, that's very generous![/quote] +1 mate, thats a bit staggering!

If you want to be funky listen to funk. Sounds glib, but its the only way. I dont mean have a quick listen to a couple of tracks either, I mean immerse yourself entirely in funk music, listen to only funk for a few months, practice along to it always. Avoid anything that isnt funk during this time. That will make you funky. In the mean time, save you money.... And remember, you gotta wear your sunglasses in here

I like to have really nice kit. Primaril;y because I hate equiptment failures, and IME usually better quality components are found inside the more expensive kit. This hopefully increases the MTBF, but thats just an average anyway (I have a nasty intermediate 'pop' in my rig every now and then at the moment, it drives me insane cos I cant find the cause, I think its somewhere in the pedal board). Secondly because I want an amp that only makes noise when I want it to, the rest of the time I want, nothing. Thirdly because I want a great sound when I eventually get around to playing it. When it comes to fx I have done the top of the range (at the time) multi, and its internal routing was pretty flawed IMO. If I could find a multi that made the sounds I want to make I'd go back in an instant. I wholeheartedly agree with Silddx, being able to completely swap out all the parameters in one hit is a fantastically powerful thing, as is immaculate recall! Believe you me that there is far less subtlety available if you are doing that than turning on/off a single stomp box. With basses I am driven by weight as much as any other consideration, they have to be light or my back plays up. Which is crap, I'd rather concentrate on tone, playability and ergonomics, but I have to put weight ahead of those three. I think I've been guilty of looking down my nose at other people's gear, largely when it doesn't do the job properly as opposed to something to do with the cost of it or the badge on the front. I truly feel sympathy for any player I can see but cant actually hear as a result of them attempting to make real bass noises with some rubbish little combo. I dont think I bought any of my gear simply to have better gear than someone else though - since its pretty subjective above a certain level anyway - I did buy the gear because it was the best fit for my criteria at the time I bought it though.

MyDrumSet Its a free VSTi, treat it as a mic'ed up kit and do what you want to make any sounds you like from his rather nicely tracked samples. INcludes room mics and ambience mics -- makes it very easy to tailor to whatever you want. I've got everything from super dry 70's disco to 'so f****** rock' out of it, just by changing the eq, reverb, compression and mic balance.

You'd certainly get very close with Reaper, not that I'm suggesting anyone buy Repaer instead, but I think it can do pitch changes, slowdowns, eqing etc, plus has a midi keyboard that (with a couple of vsts) makes it dead easy to match the pitch. It can't write out the dots though, can this?

[quote name='thisnameistaken' post='1012189' date='Nov 4 2010, 03:34 PM']I got a flat tyre on the A64 last week and Chris Wolstenholme pulled over and helped me change the wheel, and then he taught me to play Hysteria, lovely geezer. I tried flagging down that ****er Alain Caron first but he pretended he hadn't seen me, ***hole.[/quote]

[quote name='LawrenceH' post='1011181' date='Nov 3 2010, 06:31 PM']You're still constrained by the mechanical limitations of the cone and voicecoil design. So while you can theoretically throw more power at it to compensate I doubt there is a 10" driver in the world capable of taking anything like the power you'd need to match an 18" cab. It would probably be in the order of thousands of watts and require an enormous displacement.[/quote] Its surprising though. Forgive me for keeping this simple and looking at the area of the circle rather than the cone (since we dont know the depth of the drivers), but an 18" driver has an area about 3.25 times greater than a 10" driver <just put (pi * (9^2)) / (pi * (5^2)) in to google> So if the 10" driver had an excursion limit more than 3.25 times the excursion limit of the 18" driver then they are pretty evenly matched. Given the ropey nature of most old 80's drivers, and a lot of 90's drivers I can well believe that that is either achievable now, or will very soon be. If you move up to a 12" driver then you are looking ar only 2.25 * the excursion.... We all know that current voice coils can take significantly more that 2 or 3 times the thermal energy of older voice coils too.

[quote name='Musicman20' post='1010411' date='Nov 3 2010, 09:35 AM']This sounds great! I like the idea of rolling off the horn and getting a more traditional 'fatter' tone![/quote] The ae410 also sounds surprisingly mellow and old school if you roll off the horn completely and take some treble off. Especially given its always refferred to as having a rather forward upper mid. It can go super 'warm' with the LMII type amps....

To be honest, without more info as to what sort of music you make and what you want your bass to sound like its almost impossible to say which is really 'better'....

If you favour any grind in your tone then IME you cant beat the amp/DI combo approach. But you need a good amp, good cab, decent mic (neednt be anything magic though) and a decent room (although you are going to mic really close so the room is not that big of a factor). The important thing is the phase matching of the sounds. Get that wrong and its plop city....

The Berg HT115 is just a superb cab, 15 or not. Paired with its brother the HT210 its an utterly killer little stack. The HT210 is even heavier than the HT115, its a real workout getting the stack to a gig (you can see the pair of them at the SE Bass Bash if you're coming along), but it just sound so gooood.... I'd love to hear a pair of HT115s though, that would be utterly killer.

Call Larry Hartke? Seriously! [url="http://www.talkbass.com/forum/showthread.php?t=686428"]http://www.talkbass.com/forum/showthread.php?t=686428[/url] 2nd post in, is Larry, offering his cell phone number. Genuinely amazing CS.... As an aside PLux's LH500 is pretty darn quiet (more hissy with the Bright switch in but not too bad)

Yup, I find it far better to wear ear plugs (ER-15s) than not in the audience If I were doinf reguler front of house I would always be wearing custom molded ear plugs.

Alternatives:- Markbass Compressore Joe Meek FloorQ Maxon CP-9 Pro+

That was ace!

IME normally shortest is tip, but I have seen a couple of nasty cheap ones where that wasnt the case. I bought myself one of those cheap'n'nasty maplins mulitmeters just for the connectivity testing beeep it can do for issues like this. They arent more than a tenner and take all the hassle out of this sort of thing...

[quote name='Wolverinebass' post='1001840' date='Oct 26 2010, 10:33 PM']Oh No!! That's every single feature of my Hartke!! Nightmare!! On a serious level, I'd go for the useless feature of sub octave in Ashdowns.[/quote] Sorry