BigRedX

The problem I have with tapping is that I always hear it as a sequencer part, and therefore while the technique in itself is very impressive, there are other far easier ways of getting the same end sonic result, that don't (for me) require hours of practice.

For me writing and recording are two entirely different processes. For The Terrortones I never used to record anything when I was writing. I'd come up with bass and guitar parts for the songs and then play them to Mr Venom. The ones he liked would have have lyrics put to them and he'd come up with a basic drum idea (he was also a drummer), and we'd play these rough ideas to the rest of the band who would put their own input into the basic guitar and drum parts and we would rehearse the song from there. When it was time to record, we'd book a studio and perform the songs live. Occasionally we'd add some extra parts if the song required them, and sometimes Mr Venom would re-do the vocals and/or the Theremin parts, but the the whole recording was essentially the first live take we were happy with. With Hurtsfall even though there are a lot of programmed parts the process (for me is similar). I won't start programming anything until I'm happy with the basic structure of the song as played on the Bass VI. The I'll put down a very rough drum part just to get a feel for the the rhythms I want to use, normally just basic 2-4 bar patterns for verse, chorus, middle and intro. That will be presented to the rest of the band, and if they like it, we'll work on turning these ideas into a proper song. I never like to get too bogged down in specifics before this point, as the order and number of times each part repeats will depend entirely on the vocals/lyrics. Once we're happy with the song structure, we'll do a live rehearsal recording which I'll use as a basis for getting proper drum part programmed using the vocals as a guide for the dynamics. Also in conjunction with our synth player we'll add any extra sequencer-style synth parts that won't be played live. We'll use this as our backing and gig it, tweaking the arrangement over the next weeks/months. When it's time to make a proper recording of the song, I'll start with the programmed drums and synths and at home myself and the synth payer will add our parts. At this stage we're not too worried about the exact sounds, just so long as everything is in time and in tune. We'll then book some studio time for the vocals (through experience, we've come to the conclusion that you can't beat recording vocals in a decent studio with a good engineer and equipment, after all they are the most important part of any song). Once the proper vocals are down I'll have a final look at the drum and sequencer parts to make sure they still fit correctly around the singing, before recording all the final Bass VI "bass" and "guitar" parts. Our synth player will add the "live" synth plus some additional noises and we'll do the best mix we can, before sending the stems to our "producer" who'll take what we have done and make it sound even better.

Depends what you are after in a Thunderbird-shaped bass. The current Gibson Thunderbirds have "evolved" away from the 60s original while the Epiphone version is supposed to be pretty close. This means that the current offering from the two companies have little in common other than an overall similar shape.

Absolutely leaps out with headphones on, and very obtrusive. Which is why I asked the question.

What are all the weird sounds that appear panned hard-right at about the 47 second mark?

Exactly! Which is why the player has to put it out on YouTube rather than a non-visual medium. Simply as a composition it's not particularly musical or interesting. The interesting thing is that he has made it more difficult for himself by playing it on a "inappropriate" instrument. Without being able to see that no-one would be even slightly impressed.

It's visual in the sense that he's in front of a video camera, but other than that he just stands/sits there and plays. The visual element is only important because if you don't know how the the music is being produced it's no where near as impressive.

I suppose because I also work in graphics I'm a very visual person, and if I go to a live performance I want my eyes as well as my ears to be entertained. Otherwise I might as well stay at home and listen to a recording.

Except Franz Liszt was a proper showman who knew how to put on visual performance - unlike the person being discussed here.

Is he actually in a band? If so can some please supply links to their music.

Then you just need a male Speakon plug to in-line female jack socket cable. It's reasonably easy to make one up yourself, you'll only need to solder the Jack socket as the Speakon is all screw terminals. Make sure you get proper Neutrik connectors especially for the Speakon.

Never seen an SD Curlee in a painted finish before.

Most people already have a computer and some sort of headphones or speakers. GarageBand is free if you have a Mac, and Logic is only £199 which has all the plug-instruments and effects you'll ever need. If you work entirely "in the box" you'll only need the most basic of interfaces in order to record vocals, and if your doing instrumental music you won't even need that.

IMO the sorts of failings you describe would be unacceptable on any instrument nowadays irrespective of where it was built and what price point it sold at.

They can call all they like but I can see how it would be enforceable.

Yes they can. I've done it myself in the past and walked away from a very poor record deal. You get proper legal advice and weigh up whether the loss of royalties due to the label taking their cut is worth the potential overall increase and make a decision. It's no longer the 60s and I don't think musicians are being dangled by their ankles from tall buildings in order to get them to sign.

But what about those bands who are already doing nicely out of streaming royalties without a record deal? I certainly wouldn't want mine cut from 90% to 50% without guarantees that the additional 40% would be considerably more than made up in additional streams. And any artist can just say "no", and any artist that has signed a poor royalty rate for streaming in the last 5 years only has themselves to blame.

What exactly do you need this for? As has been said in-line female sockets are quite a bit more expensive. Depending on your requirements it might be cheaper just to make up a few custom leads. And the fewer connections you have in your speaker connection the better.

Surely it's all in the technique? 😉

If you actually have music up on Spotify and you haven't signed a bad record contract them you should be getting at least 90% of the artist share (your aggregator will take the rest). Of course if you only have 600 streams you need to do more promotion.

Does it matter? There are plenty of instruments capable of producing low notes. Bass guitar is just one of them.

Slips 50/50 between between who? There are at least 3 parties involved - the streaming service, the record label and the artist, so straight away this doesn't work. If the MPs mean a 50/50 split between record labels and artists, I think they will find that difficult to enforce as there will already be contracts in place which set the royalty rate for an artist for streaming revenue. It should be up to the artist to negotiate a better rate when they sign. If they haven't they are either stupid or badly advised. MPs with good intentions that clearly have no idea how things work in practice.

I've found the simplest way to avoid having too many money worries was not to own a car and not to have kids.

This might be a radical opinion, but... Do you really need another bass? What wrong with the one(s) you already have?

I had to give up using my Sony 2.4GHz wireless system after 2 gigs where the PA was using a WiFi system to control the desk caused the channel to change, leaving me with no sound.