BassTractor

No complaining this year that you didn't see the thread! Here it is: [url="http://basschat.co.uk/topic/296150-well-jingle-my-bellsits-time-for-basschat-secret-santa-already/"]http://basschat.co.u...-santa-already/[/url]

[quote name='blue' timestamp='1479765553' post='3179174'] Yeah, even now when everyone has a camera my band has very few current pics. Most folks have no clue on how to take a decent band pic. It's not easy and some bands and people don't photograph so well. I'm one of then. Blue [/quote] WOT? You always look more than stellar! ...and I hate you intensely for that!

[quote name='blue' timestamp='1479762447' post='3179128'] Well, remember not many kids had cameras at that time. [/quote] Yeah, but me, I [b][i]did[/i][/b] have several cameras. I could've gotten others to take pics with my gear. It just never seemed important at the time, which now feels like a shame.

[quote name='stingrayPete1977' timestamp='1479753661' post='3179016'] It's a great picture, it's only as I'm getting older I wish I had more pictures from things like early gigs. Looking good blue [/quote] I fully agree with SR Pete in all of this. Me, I wish I had any pictures at all from early gigs. It just never seemed important back then. Cherish the pic and the memories, Blue!

[quote name='chris_b' timestamp='1479722290' post='3178641'] That's why I said "best". There must be one that is better than the others or do they all do this job equally well/badly? [/quote] Sorry, I took your initial post as a joke or ironic question, the answer to which would be "bass guitar". Seeing you're serious, I can't really tell which of the mentioned ones is best, as I've spent only little time with each of these, BUT: I've had great results with a synth as simple as the Korg MS-10, which has only one oscillator. This approach demanded two effect pedals, one of which I think was a chorus. The result was unbelievably close to a real bass guitar of indescript model - though of course not in every respect. I was flabbergasted though, and that was after decades of synth "programming". The Korg MS-20 Mini, which is still available, would do the same job, and could also do a better job with its two oscillators and other stuff. Another time I had a great result was with three channels on the Yamaha TX802 synth module, comparable to three layered DX7 synths. The programming took me three working days though. I'm not saying these solutions can't be discerned from a bass guitar, but I do say you could fool many casual listeners with them, and I also do say that in many circumstances the difference with a real bass guitar is not even important. Synths are handy when sequencing. Wouldn't use them if I could avoid them though, and I say that as a synth man since the 60s.

[quote name='chris_b' timestamp='1479682100' post='3178486'] But, which one is best if all you want to do is play bass lines and sound very much like a bass guitar? [/quote] [URL=http://s1170.photobucket.com/user/basstractor1/media/synthace%20futureman%20500_zps2nvrvncn.jpg.html][IMG]http://i1170.photobucket.com/albums/r525/basstractor1/synthace%20futureman%20500_zps2nvrvncn.jpg[/IMG][/URL]

[quote name='skankdelvar' timestamp='1479662320' post='3178242'] Just in case anyone missed the supporting references I'm re-posting them below. There will be a short test afterwards. [/quote] Bah! Yet another set of misleading claims. She totally omits mentioning her having worked with me! I am sooo sick and tired of people virtually or implicitly claiming not to have worked with very famous people!

[quote name='Painy' timestamp='1479556185' post='3177426'] [/quote] Yup. Great basses, and great musical instruments to play.

[quote name='nash' timestamp='1479476955' post='3176850'] the Bass Station2 is in the lead at the moment [/quote] [color=#282828][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif]Great thing that you can't go wrong with. Highly regarded.[/font][/color] [color=#282828][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif]I would've mentioned it, but decided to wait until you had specified your needs more. [/font][/color] [quote name='RhysP' timestamp='1479490931' post='3177000'] If money was no object though I would be using a vintage MiniMoog. [/quote] If money was no object though I would be using the new slightly expanded Minimoog model D - - with full warranty and roughly four new decades of slow component decay. A steal at only 3,500 quid.

Personally, I'm not very fond of hurdy-gurdy keys on my ovangkol fretboard, but I wish you good luck with the endeavour! Assuming you do not want a rompler with a plethora of sampled presets of every bass guitar on the planet, my immediate thought is to just get a cheap two- or three-octave synth with fat sound. Fat sound often means two or three oscillators, but some brands like Arturia have built in electronics to create a rougher sound so one isn't in real need of the more expensive stuff. One can do a lot worse than to get an Arturia MicroBrute. As your choice would depend a lot on what music styles you're gonna use it for, and your budget, and whether you need full size keys or could muster or appreciate micro keys, mini keys or slim keys, I'll leave it at that for the time being.

Thanks for posting. Had never heard of them that I can remember, but now threw myself over the keyboard to order some.

[quote name='Norm' timestamp='1479419001' post='3176485'] Yeah burn them! :-) [/quote] NO! Burning is too good for them. Give them a Warwick! Edit to add that this is just a bit of fun. Absolutely no dig or malice intended. Also, I've loved Warwick since I got my hands on one in late '82 or early '83, and my first counting bass was a Corvette.

[quote name='Painy' timestamp='1479250557' post='3175150'] A few from Saturday night just gone:- [/quote] Oh, man! Almost everything about this shouted "Rock!" Then why the Hull did you open that "Penis Size Reduction" spam mail, and click on the "Buy A 5-String Now" link? (PS Great pics, and I love my Ray 5-H)

[quote name='ped' timestamp='1479229675' post='3174925'] I could be tempted with a DS though [/quote] Too much time on your hands? Nobody wanted to touch them, so a bloke I know who loved the challenge got a lot of DS work shoved his way. I love them, BTW, but have no pic of me with one - which kinda would've kept it On Topic.

[quote name='ped' timestamp='1479204791' post='3174675'] Amazing. I'm going to damage my eyesight today so I can get some too [/quote] Great OTB thinking! Wasn't thinking of this, but since you've opened my eyes so to speak, I command you to source one of those Citroën C6 cars that go so well with these specs. Yes, I'm aware you miss your C6. You need a new one. [quote name='lowdown' timestamp='1479206694' post='3174702'] Love the glasses. Your discription paints a great picture and something of interest to me. Seems like you can still peer over the top for a 'Selfie' as well. [/quote] The brand is Theo Eyewear, and the model is named Bi-Cycle. They're still available. Theo had a smilar model earlier, but those were square, and the frame looked like two "H" letters. Fugly IMHO. Peering: yup, the glasses are normally being worn slightly lower than the same shape with just two lenses in them.

[quote name='josie' timestamp='1479161280' post='3174483'] If you're nice to her she might let you play me [/quote]

OMG. That was very sad news. He seemed to be such a great bloke, and I felt he was a real credit to BassChat. I liked him a lot and am saddened by this.

[quote name='josie' timestamp='1478987170' post='3173213'] [attachment=231956:MMW_SL.jpg] [/quote] Yesss! Finally! You're the answer to my dreams, desires and lusts! Let's meet soon, baby! BTW, the person holding you isn't too shabby either! I like her.

[quote name='Oopsdabassist' timestamp='1478970372' post='3173065'] Interesting pic! And a wonderful pair of specs! Is that bar across the middle not distracting? [/quote] I'll let the artist know. Thanks! I love them for many reasons. No trouble with the bar. The upper lenses are distance lenses and thus the "main" glasses. One looks "through the middle" of these lenses, and the bar becomes just like the frame of other glasses: it lets you know where the effect of the lenses stops. The lower lenses are "reading" lenses, but the ultra-genius is they're adapted to objects farther away than a book - more like a laptop screen or, importantly, the car dashboard. Absolutely brilliant. So with these, without nodding or adapting one's eyes, one can keep track of the traffic as well as the dashboard, or watch tv whilst posting nonsense on BC. At the same time one saves money, as no expensive bi-focal or vari-focal lenses are needed, and one pays for one frame only. Plus, one doesn't need to carry reading glasses when leaving the house, as the dashboard/laptop lenses are good enough for that. Absolutely bloody brilliant specs in every respect, and highly recommended.

Time for an update, as I've grown very old. My luvverly little friend and surrogate grandchild, the 6-year-old from next door, was supposed to play Sudoku on my 15 years old Nokia. Instead, she quickly ran through the menus and took pics of everything she saw - - mainly of my dog of course, but also this one of me. [url="http://s1170.photobucket.com/user/basstractor1/media/Bert%202016%20-%20512x596_zpsfj1kxhgf.jpg.html"][/url]

SSoSFAGTiaCaGWaP of course!

With female singer, we did: Dalbello: Gonna Get Close to You Dalbello: Animal Dalbello: Black on Black Mother's Finest: Baby Love Mother's Finest: Mickey's Monkey as well as some songs by the earlier mentioned Heart.

[quote name='hairychris' timestamp='1478688075' post='3170887'] Is it weird to say that I never get sounds in my head - I have to start somewhere/anywhere physically and hone in from there? It's the same with writing music. Am I a freak, being a musician who can't actually create without hearing it? [/quote] I do not have the answer to this, but now you ask, I do remember that in music college there were enough of people who could not invent new music or new sounds in their heads. I have no idea whether they were just untrained or whether they lacked some basic ability, but in general a lot of stuff can be learned - even when people think they can't learn it. As to synths and acquiring the ability to imagine a sound and build it, I think one is helped a lot by traditional subtractive synthesis and knobby hardware and [b]a lot of time[/b] playing and experimenting, consciously looking for the answer to the eternal question "why the Hull does it sound like that". The MiniBrute is a great example for this, as it has many knobs and sliders for such a tiny synth, and a relaxing lack of bewildering routing switches. Later, one can use its connectivity and get to the wilder stuff.

[quote name='Earbrass' timestamp='1478269949' post='3168073'] how much of your knob-tweaking is part of a purposeful pursuit of a sound that you know how to produce, and how much is semi-random? [/quote] Let's just call it 50-50 to keep it simple. Just turning and switching every little bit I see on the panel - without thinking - is a lot of fun, and I like scratching my head asking myself what in the name of Pete just happened. It's also fun to tweak that random result to get a result that can be used in the musical setting that is at hand. For the synthesis methods I've officially learned and taught I don't have much fun designing a sound in my head and then building it in the hardware afterwards, but I've done it a lot. It's just work. That said, intermediate results while tweaking can be fun and inspiring. Therefore, I've often changed the order of the tweaking, or started with random settings also when knowing exactly which sound I wanted and how to get there. This brings us to presets as in that you store the results of your tweaking (as opposed to the presets the synth ships with). In the old days I always wished for synths that could store my results, but when I finally got synths like that in the 80s, I learned that I used the stored sounds too much and that part of the fun vanished. I had to have a hard look at my discipline. That said, programming a 1,000-parameter digital synth does require storage. Once, I used eight working days for one complex sound. These days, I'm not preoccupied with storing my results even though 2 of my synths have 500 and 1,000 memory slots, and I've even invested in memory-less synths again. These are simpler synths like the Odyssey.

[quote name='Bottle' timestamp='1478176433' post='3167273'] Module GAS is hell. [/quote] Even on the MuffWiggler forum they agree with this. At the opposite side of the scale, I invested a mere two yearly incomes on bass gear, which is [b]a lot[/b] cheaper. I'm sure that for that money in the synth world I'd only get a MicroBrute...