BigRedX

[quote name='Spike Vincent' timestamp='1493932922' post='3292023'] [attachment=244644:post-9862-1296135181.jpg] Now you can play Guess how old I am. [/quote] Some time between 1960 and 1964 - more likely towards the latter date due to the rosewood board. Does it actually have a date stamp or sticker on it? It's in better condition than mine: [IMG]http://i114.photobucket.com/albums/n249/BigRedX/DSC01541-2.jpg[/IMG]

I've got a 300. It's part of my "small" rig. Tiny, light and with the right cab(s) plenty loud enough. The cab does need to be a fairly modern and reasonably efficient design, or you might find that the 300 isn't quite enough.

I started [url="http://basschat.co.uk/topic/279770-the-year-of-birth-bass/"]a very similar thread[/url] just over a year ago. TBH there is nothing from my YoB that I could ever consider to be a usable bass for me. There are a handful of oddities that I would be happy to own, but they would be display instruments with occasional studio use at best. 1. [color=#282828][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif]Hofner 500/10 Six String Bass[/font][/color] [color=#282828][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif]2. Danelectro Longhorn Six String Bass[/font][/color] [color=#282828][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif]3. Gibson EB6 Six String Bass[/font][/color] [color=#282828][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif]4. Gibson EB0 (original body shape)[/font][/color] [color=#282828][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif]5. Gibson EB2[/font][/color] [color=#282828][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif]6. Burns Artist Bass (If I could find one that definitely was made in 1960)[/font][/color]

Ideally LEDs, but Luminlay comes a good second. I've found that anything non-permanent will rub off at the most inconvenient moment, and I've stopped trying to make do with these sorts of solutions.

[quote name='CamdenRob' timestamp='1493506115' post='3288882'] I'm back here again as I don't feel the smiley quite conveyed my astonishment that an instrument this unattractive actually exists... Somebody designed this... with its beautiful lines and ergonomic aesthetic... the way the scratch plate seemlessly flows with the body shape... the headstock complimenting the body in perfectly harmony. Could this perhaps have been the first single cut? Weren't Burns a respectable brand at the time? I've seen basses from this era that were manufactured behind the iron curtain from old tank parts that are easier on the eye. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder and all that but this truly is a shocker... I wish I hadn't looked at it again right before bed. [/quote] Except that's not a Burns. It's a Burns-Weill, and pre-dates the Burns London brand by a year or so. The Burns guitars of the 60s were a major step up in design, construction and finish from this Burns-Weill.

I'll be getting one of those sometime in the next week. Regarding reviewers, I think these days there is such a wealth of new music being released (and old music being re-released) every week that reviewers no longer feel obliged to review everything they receive. If they don't like it they simply won't review it, especially for niche genres. I think the only exceptions being made now are when someone very famous (or important in a genre) releases something that is seriously sub-par.

What do you want from your producer? Is it just someone to make you recordings sound technically great in the way that you envisage them? Is it someone who is going to cajole/bully the best performances out of the band? Is it someone who is going to take a long hard look/listen to your current set of songs and then make changes to to them in at least arrangement if not the actual songwriting itself? Is is a combination of any/all of the above? As others have said, the best way to find a suitable producer is to find recordings in a similar vein to where you see the band heading and find out who produced those and approaching them. As for price, I have no idea, but I would expect anyone any good to be wanting to make a living wage (at the very least) from what they are charging. It would also help if you posted a link for your first album so that we can take a listen and may be able to suggest recordings that you should be listening to.

[quote name='Low End Bee' timestamp='1493387710' post='3288000'] The Jetsonics came about as I was throwing a list of noise and speed words together and I liked the sound of it. It's also the name of a brand of lightbar on the top of US cop cars I found out later. [/quote] It's also the name of a Burns guitar designed by Claudio Pagelli.

Even if you don't like them as a company, there's a lot to be said for Apple's policy of only announcing new products when they are going to be available within the next few days.

IME the best band names have nearly always been thought of by other band members. From past experience with band names I would make two suggestions when deciding on a name for your band. 1. Don't go for anything with made-up word(s), invariably (and more so in these days of auto-correct) it will get spelt wrongly in publicity and reviews. In the 80s I was in a band whose name was single made up word. Only about half of our print reviews spelt it correctly and almost every time we were on the radio it was mis-pronounced. 2. Have something that is Google-friendly, so that when people search for you on-line your website or Facebook page is easily found.

Everything else being equal (the fretted and fretless versions are identical other than the absence or presence of frets), for me it would come down to two things: 1. Potential damage to the fingerboard from removing the frets vs cutting the slots for the lines accurately. 2. Where you want the side dots? - on the fretted version they will be between the frets, whereas on the fretless version they would probably be at the position the fret would have been. If you want to move them how much extra work would it be?

Is the program data for the Future Impact in MIDI system exclusive format? If so the interface might be filtering it out. Many are set to do this by default as SysEx tends to clog up the MIDI data stream and affect note on and off timings. Check with the MIDI interface editor application to see what MIDI messages are being filtered at the MIDI in and outs and use it to enable SysEx.

I think you also need to get clarification from the courier as to what they consider to be sufficient packaging for an item of this size and weight.

[quote name='stevie' timestamp='1493123394' post='3285775'][list] [*]Near total silence - 0 dB [*]A whisper - 15 dB [*]Normal conversation - 60 dB [*]A lawnmower - 90 dB [*]A car horn - 110 dB [*]A rock concert or a jet engine - 120 dB [*]A gunshot or firecracker - 140 dB [/list] Now they do. [/quote] Another meaningless statistic. Are those figures average or peak level? And do they take into account the duration of the sound?

No more than 30 minutes unless you have a decent back catalogue of well known songs.

I've not bought any downloads only from Bandcamp. Is there some way that you can keep track of what you have purchased just in case you have a problem with your computer at some point in the future and you need to download them again? This one of the things that worries me most about downloaded music. It's keeping track of what I have bought and where I have bought it from. My current CD and Vinyl collection is over 2000 albums and singles. Should anything happen to the hard disk that they have been ripped to (and it's back-ups) I know that I can always go back to the originals as a last resort. What I don't know about are the few tracks that I have downloaded from various suppliers. I believe that anything I got from iTunes can be downloaded again, but not everything has come from such a mainstream source, and some of the downloads that I bought directly from bands in the early days of on-line distribution might not even be available any more.

Record Store Day was a good idea when it first started, but these days has been hi-jacked by bands and labels that most definitely don't need to publicity. Also a lot of modern music (by which I mean anything recorded since the mid 90s) isn't suited to being cut to vinyl for all sorts of technical reasons. Also could you imagine getting "Dummy" by Portishead on vinyl? How would you know which pops and clicks were from the original recording and which had been acquired by your personal copy of the record? And finally from the PoV of trying to persuade record stores to take my band's offerings, we've had to give up since the kind of markup the stores want to add to our records means that even if we only take enough to just break even on a sale they are still priced higher than someone could buy direct from our band's web site including postage.

If yo are planning on using the speaker output of your amp as the DI source and still have your cab(s) connected, then don't buy anything without having a look and listen to the [url=http://www.emosystems.co.uk/Products/Passive_Direct_Injection_Boxes.html]EMO range of DI boxes[/url]. They have separate inputs and outputs for instrument, line and speaker levels, and all are transformer isolated from the DI XLR connection. However before buying any speaker level DI box, check that it is happy with the kind of currents a bass amp will be outputting from it's speaker sockets. IME most of these devices are aimed at guitarists and tend to top out at 100W maximum.

[quote name='CamdenRob' timestamp='1492772843' post='3283079'] I never buy CDs etc I dont even use iTunes anymore and just stream everything from Spotify or check stuff out on soundcloud / YouTube. I don't like CDs / DVDs etc I find they just clutter up the place. I'd far rather access media in a streamable format which means I don't have to physically store something. [/quote] But are you happy with the choice on Spotify? For me there's too many important artists and songs missing for it to be a replacement for my CD and record collection.

I had the stop myself from switching off when he starts wibbling on about "honesty" right at the beginning off the video... There's nothing wrong with recording like this, I've done it many times, and the results if you have the right environment and are suitably well-enough rehearsed can be great. But it's just another way of recording, no better or worse or more "honest" than any other, just different. If it suits your band then by all means go ahead and record like this, but just bear in mind that recording studios in the 50s only operated like this because there was no other way of recording, and just about everyone embraced multi-track as soon as it became available and affordable.

[quote name='Graham' timestamp='1492754806' post='3282851'] I had a quick look, all the Japanese bands I know (Sigh, Church Of Misery, Coffins, Gallhammer) are on there, as are the Taiwanese Cthonic and Singaporean Wormrot. I guess it comes down to which labels have wanted to deal with company, perhaps the business model doesn't make sense for Electronica and J-pop artists. [/quote] My Japanese tastes are much more mainstream expect for the Pico-Pop artists who all seem to be on small labels. It's interesting to see who is on Spotify and who isn't. Shena Ringo is, although for some reason Spotify will only find her as Ringo Sheena - a westernised spelling I'd never come across before. Only one Polysics album (of 19 including compilations) is on there. One single by Cocco. Two tracks by Pizzicato Five. Nothing at all by Supercar or any of their post break-up off-shoots (Miki Furukawa, iLL) Nothing by Quruli or Fra-Foa. These bands are all on major labels in Japan. I assume none of the labels want to deal with Spotify? The Pico-Pop artists are much better represented after 2010, but hardly anything before that. Plus-Tech Squeeze Box who are probably the best known of these outside of Japan have a single track available. From what I've seen the Spotify Catalogue is very hit and miss. Even artists who appear to be well represented don't have their entire catalogue available. For me there is simply too much music that would want to listen to missing to make it a substitute for my record and CD collection.

[quote name='Graham' timestamp='1492709531' post='3282641'] I find Spotify fine for the genres I listen to - some of it fairly obscure black metal and doom, be it new or old. The only bands I've had trouble with are small UK and Icelandic black metal acts and the occcasional older artist like Hellhammer. For the most part, almost anything I'm after is on there, I've had more trouble with some big name pop for dep gigs - Taylor Swift, Emile Sande than more obscure stuff. [/quote] For the last 20 years or so I've been making compilations of my favourite tracks for each year, which I give to my musically inclined friends. I've just tried making Spotify playlists of some of them, and at least one quarter of the songs are missing from Spotify. Ignoring the fact that almost all the Japanese artists who aren't signed to a UK or US label are completely absent, it does get better from 2010 onwards in terms of coverage, but there are still a lot of what I would consider fairly mainstream artists who appear to be unrepresented. I certainly couldn't rely on Spotify for all my listening needs.

[quote name='JohnR' timestamp='1492710407' post='3282645'] I have. Especially if they can offer 24/96 flac files. I have no interest in MP3. [/quote] [quote name='dannybuoy' timestamp='1492719938' post='3282752'] I buy FLAC from Bandcamp regularly, in fact I can't remember the last time I bought music from anywhere else! [/quote] Doc you choose to buy just the downloads deliberately, or is it that the artists don't have CDs or Records available?

[quote name='wingnutkj' timestamp='1492696872' post='3282449'] However, I rarely play records these days, because it's easier to just play the download. Maybe bands are going about it the wrong way - get a load of download codes, record sleeves and label stickers printed out, then raid junk shops for the cheapest records they can find and bung them in the sleeves. Anyone complains, well it must have been a pressing error, right? And you've got the download code anyway. [/quote] I like your thinking sir! Do you know of anyone selling second-hand vinyl by the yard?

[quote name='Twigman' timestamp='1492700558' post='3282519'] We always sell all the CDs and vinyl we can take to gigs. Due to weight we don't take many - most of our gigs are fly aways on Easyjet/Ryan Air. We sell lots of t-shirts too but the punters always seem to want the sizes we have least of! [/quote] What I've discovered is that it doesn't seem to matter how much of your audience is made up of skinny hipsters, only L, XL and XXL people seem to buy band T-shirts!