BigRedX

The two main reasons I went into mostly software was partly because I ended up with so much hardware that by the time it was all powered up I had lost much the inspiration that I had when I started switching things on. The other was I had a couple of very expensive non-repairable hardware failures that made me realise how much I was relying on devices that were getting less easy to replace with each year when they would eventually fail. Making the decision to not only ditch the hardware but also to stick with mostly what came as part of the Logic package has meant that my spend just for recording purposes over the last two years has been under £200 for a controller keyboard and Helix Native - everything else is used for live performances as well. I separate recording from the compositional activities, and TBH I don't enjoy it as much either. For me it puts too much of a microscope on my playing abilities or lack of them. Most of the time Logic is used a as massively featured MIDI sequencer with instruments built-in rather than multi-track recorder. I never record the live parts until the band are actually going to make a version available for public consumption.

As this is a song I used to do in my Dad Rock covers band days, and consequently one I know inside out, I didn't think there was anything particularly wrong with this live version other than the rather sludgy sounds and the fact that it's missing the plethora of overdubs that are on the recorded version - pretty much like any other hit from that era.

But Jim (also?) played the violin, which IIRC is his "first" instrument and since he can't play both at the same time live someone would have to do the bass.

What's not quite right about it?

The position of the black in the sunburst suggests otherwise.

Unless you are using lots of sample libraries, you should find your current Mac perfectly fine. I'm still running a 2010 MacPro which for music is more than adequate for my needs. If you like GarageBand you should consider Logic rather than anything else if you need more facilities on your DAW. It will import your GarageBand projects directly and uses many of the same instruments, just with more editing parameters. For my band apart from the bass and vocals everything is done "in the box" mostly using the plug-ins that come free with Logic. For the bass I use the Line6 Helix along with the Helix Native plug-in (one of only two 3rd party plug-ins I use). The Helix allows me to record both the direct and effected bass sound simultaneously on separate tracks and then I can import the presets from the Helix and start by applying the same Preset to the direct sound than then tweak it as the arrangement/mix progresses. Once the recording is complete I can export the final edited version of the Preset back to the Helix for live use. I used to have racks full of hardware synths and samplers, but they have all been sold in favour of ES2, Retro Synth, Alchemy, Drum Machine Designer and Drum Kit Designer all which come free with Logic plus VSDSX (Simmons drum emulator) which is my other 3rd party plug-in.

Unless you have very specific effects that can't be replicated or your computer is very old and lacking in processing power, I would try and avoid recording with the effects in place and replicate them "in the box". If recording with effects on the sound makes the parts easier to play then I would consider splitting the signal and running one trough the effects and the other dry straight into the computer. If you really want you can record both signals and separate tracks. I always find that my effects settings need to be tweaked once mixing starts and it's always easier to do this to a dry signal than try and add (or remove) effects that have already been recorded.

I would only fill the sides, not the end. If you have a gap between the end of the neck and the top of the body, you will need to plug and redrill the holes in the neck.

The best thing you can do to increase the "fit" of a bolt-on neck is the following. Attach the neck to the body along with any shims required to get the correct neck angle and saddle height. Don't tighten the screws/bolts up all the way, you want the neck to be fixed in place but still able to move very slightly under force. Then re-string, bringing all the strings slowly up to pitch at the same time. Leave until the tuning has settled down and then apply the final tightening to the neck screws. What this does is to use the force of the strings to pull the neck as tightly as possible into the pocket, giving you the maximum contact area and pressure, and best amount of contact possible with bolt-on neck construction.

When I first started playing I used to break hard plastic picks all the time. Once I'd switched to nylon Herco Flex 75s that stopped, although they still wear away. Using the same pick will render it useless after about a month a playing. As for storage I try a keep at least one pick in every compartment of every case that comes to gigs with me. At the gig itself I keep my spare picks on the front of the rack shelf that holds the laptop which plays our backing track.

Or your amp...

But are you as good an engineer as you a musician and/or songwriter? I know I'm not, which is why the only part of the recording process I take part in these days is the tracking and the final mix decisions. Everything else is handed off to people with better skills than me. Right now AI is slightly worse than what I could do myself, which means it's not really suitable for what I want, but I'm sure within the next 5 years it will be doing a much, much better job.

Especially one that wasn't the latest version of the design...

I don't want to wear no dead mans boots!

Interesting that none of the items of clothing appeared give any size information. What's the point of bidding on them if you're not going to wear them?

Only just been able to find the time to listen to this. Fist off I have to say that this isn't the sort of music I would listen to these days out of choice. However it was IMO nowhere near as horrible as I was expecting from the comments from others in this thread. In fact apart from the more angular/atonal guitar parts it mostly washed over me without leaving any sort of impression. The band seem to be very typical of American "Indie Rock" from the early 2000s like Death Cab For Cutie, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, Modest Mouse, and early Arcade Fire who were all harking back the the NYC scene mid to late 70s bands like Television, Talking heads and The Patti Smith Group. Unfortunately unlike their influences they didn't have the advantage of being almost completely new and different compared with what had gone before. There's nothing wrong with "standing on the shoulders of giants" but if you do you need to be looking forward rather than back or straight down. Death Cab For Cutie managed at least one decent song per album. Shakey Hands can't even do that. Sadly all very bland and forgettable.

Are you absolutely 100% sure that this isn't a problem elsewhere in your signal chain? IME power conditioners are all but useless in the UK. They are aimed at countries with far less robust electricity supplies like the US. Any problem here that was serious enough to affect electrical equipment would nearly always require a full UPS to solve. Also is this occurring in your very newly built studio? If so and it really is the mains then you should be getting the electrician who installed it back to fix FoC rather than spending money and unnecessary additions.

@tvickey How did your Nottingham gig go? The Sumak Centre is 5 minutes walk from where I live, and I know Fiendfits well. It seems a weird place for a gig - I've only ever been because it's the usual venue for the local resident's association meetings. The overall vibe does take me back to "workers collectives" and various "community projects" that I was involved with in the early 80s - mostly to take advantage of their cheap printing facilities to produce posters and other promotional materials for the bands I was in at the time. I would have been there if it wasn't for the fact that I was in Whitby for the Goth Weekend.

Nothing wrong with using the presets for Logic's plug-in effects. Some very good sound engineers have spent quite a bit of time coming up with them so they are all great starting points for a slight tweak to get the sound you want. Also don't be afraid to try presets that aren't necessarily designed for the instrument you want to apply it to. The worst that can happen is that you won't like the sound. However, having owned a very comprehensive home studio in the 90s and early 2000s, these days I get someone else to mix and master my music. As I've said before with the money I spent trying to do it all myself I could have hired and excellent studio and producer for a month and got a great finished album out of it with cash left over to press and promote it rather than a handful of "finished" tracks that I've never been 100% happy with and a bunch of stems that will never be listened to again.

IME you never know what switching options you want/need until you try them. If this was my bass and I didn't already like any the of the sounds I was getting out of the current wiring, I'd look at a temporary switch arrangement that would allow me to try out every single option. Then I'd make a note of the one(s) I liked and build a permanent switch arrangement to accommodate just those.

I quite liked it. It's not a great Beatles song, but it wouldn't have sounded out of place on one of the later albums, and the technology is great. However, rather than spend all that time making something out of a quickly recorded demo, I'd have preferred to hear something new from Paul.

At some point over the last 55 years I have reached the point where I am comfortably confident in being able to play most of what I want to play. In one of my bands, both the guitarists are technically better bass players than me (and I suspect the drummer might be too) However I'm the one who enjoys playing the bass. A lot of what I find easy or difficult has little to do with my overall ability but how closely it falls into my existing skill set. This was brought home to me during my short stint in a traditional covers band where the bass lines I found easy to learn and master were those that were very similar to what I would have come up with had this been an original songs that was being asked to write a bass part for. Conversely other songs that sounded easy turned out to be extremely difficult to play once I had actually worked out what was going on with the bass line. I've also discovered that a good drummer makes me sound much better.

I can't think of any synth I've owned with a dedicated pitch bend wheel that didn't allow both up and down bends. With a suitable modular it would be even easier as you could "program" all the required bends using envelope generators and manually trigger them as required.

I used to have both this and the kidney shaped version. The rack was in my rack with my amp and wireless system and got used when I took my whole rig and the kidney shaped one was for when I was sharing someone else's backline. Apart from a couple of additional input/output options on the rack they are identical. From memory the rack version was very heavy and apart from looking good din't really offer me anything extra that I needed. The only amp model I liked the sound of was the Sub-Dub. Everything else sounded weedy. The footswitch connection via cat5 cable was always flaky since I haven't come across a suitable gig-proof cable that would stand up to being packed and unpacked 2 twice a week and last more than 6 months. It's all been replaced with a Helix Floor which is far more user friendly and has loads more options.

Of course it could have been sequenced. That way it would be simple to get all the pitch bends perfect. The weapon of choice at the time would have been the Roland MC4.