thisnameistaken

At my gig tonight I used a few bass sounds. Mostly a passive Jazz with the pickups switched in series and the tone rolled off, sometimes just the front pickup with the tone full up, on one tune through a compressor and overdrive and played with a pick, another tune mostly through a Boss OC-2, also added a fuzz blended with the OC-2 on one tune, and a square wave oct+1 signal on another tune blended with the OC-2 and pitch-shifted between two octaves, added a sample-rate reducer for effect in some places, a tempo-synced tremolo in some places, blah, blah. We only played half an hour. =D But yeah in terms of basic tone I use a Squier Jazz with stock electronics into a Hartke head with a '60s-style passive 3-band tone stack and f*** all else. And I think it's the best sound I've ever had. I've been playing for a little over 20 years and been through a dozen basses and about as many amps. My '91 Warwick Thumb was sitting at home while I was out gigging tonight.

Opened a 4-band bill headlined by Random Hand. RH were f***ing excellent, but I'm fairly happy we smoked the other supports. Lots of good feedback, tight performance, two virgin tunes went down well with established fans, I feel like we're really getting confident with our own sound now instead of trying to appease a scene audience, and it's nice because listeners are getting behind us and obviously appreciating the diversity we bring. We're still looking for someone to track trombone for our new EP, our trumpet player (a photographer whose work is already featured on Random Hand T-shirts and posters) was intending to approach them about recording for us tonight but I don't know how that went yet. Fingers X'd...

Hehe Just stick with it I guess. Is there a particular part that is bothering you? The hard part for me was hearing what happens in the breakdown bit ("I'm sorry miss...") but found the rest pretty easy, and I'm no great shakes as a bass player. It was my favourite song when I was a kid though so maybe I just have a natural affinity with that bass line.

Do you mean you can't work out the part or you can't play it? It's quite tricky to work out by ear (it's a pretty bonkers bass line, one of my absolute favourites) but shouldn't be difficult to play unless you've got bigger problems with your technique?

I'm on Bootham, come round and play it for me live.

In terms of wiring, just sketch it before you de-solder anything, so all you have to do is refer to your diagram to put it all back together properly.

[quote name='Pete Academy' post='1165370' date='Mar 17 2011, 08:37 AM']If you listen to an example like Marcus Miller's 'Run For Cover' and try to imagine it played fingerstyle, the bassline would lose all its impact.[/quote] The best solution for everyone in this sort of situation is for nobody to play the song ever again.

[quote name='LawrenceH' post='1165137' date='Mar 16 2011, 11:20 PM']But...but...Goddamn it LARRY GRAHAM, people!! [/quote] But... but... the clangy tide of music shop dickheads, and Mark King. I win by about 10 million sh*tty bassists. Plus one.

[quote name='Kev' post='1164802' date='Mar 16 2011, 07:00 PM']I wonder how many of the 'Hate it' crowd are any good at it....[/quote] I wonder how many slappers believe that people only pretend to dislike it because they're jealous and they can't do it.

I've decided that on balance I actually hate it more than I like-it-when-used-tastefully. I've even started to dislike whole genres of music where slap bass regularly turns up, and it's the slap bass in particular that puts me off. There aren't many tunes where I can listen to more than 30 seconds of it. Especially not modern players with their gutless scooped sounds.

[quote name='paul_5' post='1161146' date='Mar 13 2011, 10:36 PM']Ah well, that takes care of 50% of the topics on BC.[/quote] Heh. Yeah there are a lot of pointless topics. Reality check: Nobody else cares what bass you use, it really won't make any important difference to a performance. What you play is pretty important (many people choose gear over learning) and the skills of your engineer are pretty important whether that's front-of-house or recording, but the bass you were playing is a long way down the list. I doubt this will put a dent in the used market though. We're not especially rational people are we.

[quote name='xgsjx' post='1156208' date='Mar 10 2011, 08:24 AM']I have Reaper on both Mac & PC & they're just about identical. I like the Mac because it's a lot less prone to crashing or getting a virus.[/quote] I've had my Pro Tools setup installed on my MB Pro for all of 3 days, run it for maybe six hours so far, and it has crashed once. For reference, it has only ever crashed twice when running the same gear under Windoze - hundreds of hours. Of course this could just mean that my audio interface has better Win drivers than Mac drivers, rather than Pro Tools/Win being more stable, or Win itself being more stable, but it does at least make the point that simplistic "Mac is more reliable" arguments aren't really any use for evaluating anything.

It doesn't really matter what bass you use.

Wow, this will take some time to digest. The key changes really throw my ear off - is there really only two keys? I thought the first line of the chorus was another key change. It's so diffcult to understand what's happening!

I really enjoyed it. That's what music is all about, social interaction.

Hejira and Bright Size Life are among his best recorded performances. Agree with what the previous poster said about having to put up with Toots Thielemans and steel drums on Jaco records, I'm glad I got my Jaco listening out of the way when I was a teenager and more patient.

[quote name='bassicinstinct' post='1155511' date='Mar 9 2011, 04:10 PM']Mmm. Not sure of the relevance of that really, unless we're getting into "my Dad's bigger than your Dad" territory!!?? [/quote] Fair point. I am only half paying attention, I shouldn't really be here. And with that...

[quote name='Bilbo' post='1155477' date='Mar 9 2011, 03:49 PM']I was just thinking. I have played thousands of gigs over 30+ years, playing rock/metal, funk, pop, Latin and Jazz and the biggest audience I ever played to was 4,500. With a 7-piece jazz band. I wish I could say it was playing originals but they weren't, although they were original arrangements of standards written by our lead trumpet player. Second biggest gig (2,500) was a pop gig playing all originals. Every covers band gig I have ever done has been to a maximum of 200 and often to much smaller audiences. Makes you think.[/quote] My biggest audiences have also been for original music but then I've only ever gigged original music. Around 3000 at an event on a beach in New Jersey was our biggest audience. We were headlining.

[quote name='Bilbo' post='1154958' date='Mar 9 2011, 09:27 AM']I just think that its a shame that tv is mostly repeats, films are mostly remakes and bands are mostly playing other people' stuff. In my experience, people nearly always like the originals the best, whether its books, film, art or music. Some people are happy to watch repeats, I think its better to watch new stuff. So shoot me....[/quote] That's a good summation of how I feel about it too. Personally I don't pay attention to what cover bands are doing, what audiences they're playing to or what money they're making because it doesn't affect me at all. Our audience isn't going to go see them and their audience isn't going to come and see us, they're two completely different kinds of entertainment. There's an assumption on this forum that original bands are jealous of the success of cover bands but if we wanted to make money we wouldn't be doing what we're doing, we'd be doing what you're doing. Certainly my band is more than happy to fund its own activities without expecting a return. Nobody has ever suggested we should change what we do because we're not making any money, and if they did they would get some funny looks!

Oh I agree that to most people it is nothing more than a w***y accessory for fanboys, but I imagine there are niche uses for it where it would be more convenient than a traditional computer. But yeah most people will use it as a coffee table decoration.

[quote name='urb' post='1154913' date='Mar 9 2011, 08:44 AM']But all us Mac users aren't so enamoured with Steve Jobs' products that we can't see beyond the fact that they are overpriced etc - and I refuse to own an iPad until they actually work like a REAL computer not a "look at me I'm a w***er" device [/quote] Actually I think the iPad is the best-value device they sell, in terms of hardware costs, and the whole appeal of it is that it's not exactly like a computer. I can imagine an iPad - given the right software - would be very useful as a control surface in a portable studio or as a controller for live effects. Way cheaper than a digital desk or other dedicated hardware controls, and more flexible. So long as the multitouch screen actually works well it could be a very useful bit of kit for musicians.

[quote name='willyf87' post='1153728' date='Mar 8 2011, 01:10 PM']We can agree however Cubase is pretty awful.[/quote] Nah I'm not biting. I haven't used Cubase for a few years so I've no idea what it's like now, but it was the first DAW I used and eventually I got sick of the interface, I just feel like I can work faster in Pro Tools or Reaper, Cubase (of old) used to feel like it got in the way sometimes. Especially when editing. But I wouldn't tell anyone it was awful because I don't think I'm in a position to say so, and there must be plenty of people who prefer it because they're still shifting units. [quote name='Skol303' post='1154159' date='Mar 8 2011, 05:50 PM']^ You're right that this kind of discussion normally ends up with the usual PC vs Mac fanboy debate! ;-) I personally use Macs, always have. My current machine hasn't crashed - not once - in nearly two years of music production. Seriously; not one single crash. Whether or not that's worth the extra expense is obviously a personal choice. But for me it is.[/quote] I've not had a crash using my PC / Pro Tools setup either. It's easier to create an unstable Windows environment that's for sure, so PCs tend to behave better when they're being operated by experts, that's not a criticism of you personally but a lot of people who have problems with Windows are responsible for those problems! Microsoft don't really deserve a lot of the criticism they receive. Windows is a bit of a mess sure but they have a lot more variables to deal with than Apple do, and they don't have the luxury of a rock-solid BSD kernel under the bonnet. For the sake of balance I actually received a Macbook Pro in the mail today and so far I think it's a really nice little computer, and I will be using that as my portable studio from now on (although that's not why I bought it - I need a Unix-based laptop for work), but I am not about to start evangelising about it. I really don't get why people feel the need to be defined by the shiny objects they spend their disposable income on. Tiny weiners I suppose. But yeah Macs hardware is heinously overpriced, so you really have to value the OS at £500 or so for it to make sense. The OS is easily worth that to me, at the moment, in my current circumstances, but I can imagine it wouldn't be to most people. I'm sure plenty of people buy them just for the badge, but those people are dickheads. I've already ordered an Android sticker to plaster over the Apple logo...