Dood

Adam Neely at the top of the list! https://www.youtube.com/user/havic5 Thing is, he has so much watchable content, I can't list all of it!

In short, yup! B|Amp does indeed give you access to a huge amount of functionality. The DSP speaker profiles just don't appear on any other bass amp I am aware of. Absolutely brilliant. You can think of Forte as being a B|Amp as the signal path integrity is the same, however, think of the Forte as having a B|Amp with it's settings "locked" to an optimal configuration. The EQ is fixed, not fully parametric as an example. Yes, you can save programs on B|Amp and there is also a wireless foot controller for changing your programs (which may of course include a driven patch and then maybe a compressed sound, or EQ adjustments!!) Do I think B|Amp is worth the extra dollar? If you saw the amount of kit I used to grab around in order to achieve what B|Amp can, the answer is a resounding yes. That said, Forte offers up a very strong argument for remaining on my shopping list.

P.s., definitely not the cheapest way, but mine was actually an Apple refurb machine. It was much cheaper than new, so I guess I was lucky that day!

Ah, be careful! Quick example, I have a late 2013 MBP and the memory (16Gb) can't be upgraded as it is on the motherboard. It is said the SSD card can't be upgraded either but I think it is possible to replace the SSD board. I think pre-2012 models you can slot in standard memory and an SSD, but don't quote me on that, go to somewhere like Crucial Memory or OCW who offer upgrades for various manufacturer's kit. I do however agree, get the best you can afford. My MBP is a 2.3Ghz Quad Core i7 with 16Gb RAM ..and I kicked myself over going for only 500Gb SSD. Wish I went for the 1TB.. still, 5 years later, those slot in cards are much cheaper now, so it might still happen. I recorded all of the bass to Ostura's "The Room" album on that MBP I think!

Wow, I somehow missed this post ha ha h!! Ok, so I have a calibrated reference microphone designed for iPhone and iPad. I'll have to dig out it's model number. Every microphone is lab tested and comes with a profile file that you then drop in to the app of choice. It's been a little while since I've needed it, but I think the app I am using is AudioTools. I also have OctaveRTA, A-T Tools, N-Track Tuner and Pocket Audio amongst other tools for various task... Well, it might be fiddling about, but they are all really useful for learning stuff as well.

https://equipboard.com/items/gibson-1978-rd-artist-bass (No idea if this is accurate)

Ah! you pipped me at the post! Indeed the RD.

Both great basses but on the models I tried, the fit and finish and overall tone seemed to be better on the (current model) Steve Harris. The neck felt rolled whereas the Nate I reviewed seemed square in comparison. Tonally I also put the SH up against the RW Mike Dirnt and the SH won me over again, the MD is very nice though. I've big ole hands so the profiles of the necks didn't bother me at all. The only downside of the SH is that it is a boat anchor! Wow, the example I tried out was probably the heaviest P bass I have ever picked up.

Yes when you get in to the TC editor, though I'd need to see if the presets the are available "do bass" specifically. It's been a while since I've looked. Chiming in on the OP, well I've owned all three and although the EBS is very, very good, the TC's tweaks (three band operation, bledjble clean single, adjustable crossover etc etc etc) just makes it practically unbeatable. Out of which TC you like best? Well the HyperG does have more knobs and thus more control - but, what is seriously cool is that you can assign whatever parameter you want to those knobs. You can even set up the Spectracomp's single knob to do multiple tasks as the knob is advanced. I even set up HyperG as an EQ pedal! The EBS sadly can't do that!

I actually picked up the one that was for sale on here. For the price I paid I feel that I’ve ended up with an extremely capable bass. I was actually looking for a parallel fret bass to pair with my Shuker 6. (16.5mm string spacing, slim neck and curvey body) but I couldn’t resist when one came up. My friend and fellow bass geek is a massive Ibanez bass fan and collector. I spoke to him about these and he had nothing but good to say, often using his for live TV shows. So, given that it’s difficult to just try gear out, well, the rest is history.

Sad news indeed! He was in the Sky Arts show "The Art Of Drumming" I believe. He is definitely one of those people who, if you don't know his name, you'll have definitely have heard his playing! Astonishing back catalogue! RIP Hal!

I'm running four hard drives in total. I thought I would add my set up as an example of attempting to keep a resilient back up and save a bit of money* at the same time. *which didn't really happen ha ha! My Mac has an internal SSD. Everything I need daily or at speed is on the SSD. That would include all my recording software and current projects I am working on. I have an archive drive attached via USB3 (The USB3 bit doesn't really matter as USB3 is way faster than a standard spindle HDD anyway). This drive is where things get moved to when I don't need it quickly. It's not a "forget about" drive. I then have a 'Time Machine' HDD also connected via USB and that automatically backs up both the SSD and the archive drive. Finally, one more drive, again non-SSD (at the moment) uses the Carbon Copy application to do a nightly clone of the internal SSD. What this means is that should the SSD fail, I can actually still boot my Mac from the cloned HDD. (I would do this rather than rebuild from the Time Machine back up if I was in a rush). Yes it will boot more slowly, but it will save my backside in the short term, as I need my machine for work every day. Then as a belt and braces approach I I have cloud space where I sync some data for access across all of my work machines. Maybe a bit more detailed than some, but just some thoughts on a possible option for others. The USB drives don't need to be fast for what they do. They aren't expected to be streaming video or anything like that, but I have chosen 7200RPM drives over 5200RPM. The SSD is mind blowingly fast at around 2300MB/s which is just crazy!

Interestingly, I went in to a well known high street spectacles and hearing "specialist" and they chose to do a quick hearing test on me using DT770's! I have to admit, I wasn't enthralled with the test as they did it in the front of the shop, in front of a busy main road. I could hear the buses louder than the tones I was supposed to be concentrating on! However, the place I go to for my hearing tests actually have an isolation booth and all the correct test gear, for much more reliable results. {edit} I just wanted to add, reading this back, that I'm not dissing the D770's - They are awesome cans that I use for tracking in my own studio. Love 'em!

Same here, and yes I have a dip at 4Khz and my hearing response goes back up after 6-8Khz quite rapidly. The 4Khz area is where we hear 'soft consonants'. Pete you are spot on. One of the biggest problems is hearing speech in a noisy pub etc which can be made even more difficult if music is playing, even if it is not especially loud. Background noise is impinging when trying to concentrate on the person speaking right in front of you. When it's soft consonants, this becomes even more difficult as the person talking to you starts to slur ha ha.

Stop! ignore all your results! They will all vary depending on what hardware you are playing on/through. Don’t believe for a minute that even “good” consumer earphones have a flat response or do actually cover the frequency ranges they suggest in a way that would warrant use for a resilient hearing test. So, if you are worried you can’t here anything above what appears to be a low figure, it’s possibly down to the top end roll off of your device. Or, if it’s a particularly high figure, then you might have a set of cans that accentuate the highs. In short, the only way you will get believable results is to go get ya ears checked properly. Or, ya know, you could just have bugger3d ears. So.. sorry for that too.

Totally agree regarding the power supply issue as noted above. Being able to deliver power immediately and have enough “reservoir” for the power supply to continue delivering whilst under attack from big signal transients! Powersoft was always a favourite of mine. I had a 2000W rack amp that just delivered in spade loads whatever you threw at it. I think it’s still owned by a BCer even now.

Not ridiculous at all. I played through an amp at a rehearsal space only this week and, reference my post above, it simply felt like it was choking my notes. It felt like the compressor was stuck on. No matter what I did, everything lacked kick. Yes it could do loud, but no real grunt. Hence my nod towards amplifiers actually being able to reproduce those important frequencies with some sort of gusto. The expense I suppose in creating said amplification is the attention to detail in not only the poweramp section but most definitely in a power supply that can provide for large transients and recover very quickly to continue providing. Small lunchbox amplifiers with little space for heatsinking and suitable power supplies are up against physics in order to provide such heft! So, I agree.

Then we have speakers themselves. Some have again the “perception” of extra low end, yet it is either a ‘bump’ in the low mid or bass frequencies or a dip in the upper midrange. I actually found that my now favourite cabinet isn’t as ‘flat response’ as some I have owned (which were in no doubt exceptional) but it was actually the accentuated low mids I was looking for on stage. But I didn’t want to dial in the extra bump earlier in my signal chain with EQ as it went direct to PA. (That’s for FOH to deal with). YMMV depending on signal path etc etc

The @Tech21NYC Q/Strip would be an excellent choice as I found in my own review I was able to add that kick drum slam to my slap bass notes. I still want one.

It’s a propensity for a signal path from bass to cabinet to support or accentuate the 60hz to 200hz region of the audio spectrum. Either by boosting these frequencies or by dipping out other higher frequencies. (Sometimes attenuating areas of the audio spectrum gives rise to the perception of boost elsewhere) An amplifier and cabinets ability to deliver powerful sound in the 60hz region will certain help to accentuate the effect. Some think that the ability for an amplifier to deliver sub-30hz is where heft is, but considering the Ampeg 810 is considered a ‘hefty’ (lol) cabinet - it doesn’t really produce much below 50hz. I like to think of it as the slam you get from a mic’d up kick drum, whose fundamentals tend to be around the 100hz region (though lower frequencies exist in the sound) Another consideration is that SFX’s Thumpinator that removes all frequencies below 30hz doesn’t remove perceived ‘heft’. So, given you have an amplifier that is capable of delivering powerful transients in that audio region and a cabinet that helps to accentuate said region you will perceive heft. Finally my though for the day.. EQ on amps. Ever noticed that some will have centres that are like 40hz, 500hz, 1khz, 4khz etc? Well yes there is over lap, but for me so many amplifiers don’t focus in on what I feel is a very important region; that of the 100hz to 3-400hz region where our important 2nd harmonics live and also that all needed weight in the sound. Parametric EQ is where it’s at for me! I can add heft to a bass sound without an amp or cabinet. For the “D Class is evil” folk, I’ve always thought that a lot of these amplifiers appear to sound clearer and more aggressive in the higher mids and lower treble frequencies. Given my point above, I wonder if this is one of the reasons that certain D Class amps are perceived as “less hefty”. The heft is there, more it’s being masked - our ears work logarithmically and are way more sensitive to treble frequencies.

Oh whilst I am here, Go Play Along 4 is a clever application if you have access to Guitar Pro files or similar and the original song recording.

Agreed, it can do a good job, much like RiffStation used to, but with complex chords or layers of instruments it's no surprise that it gets confused. For example, a GMaj7 chord without the G loud enough for the software to detect will be heard as a Bm chord. I suspect that most people using Chordify may not understand the relationship between the two chords (no problem, everyone is in a different place in their journey as a musician) and this could cause some confusion. A track only has to be slightly out of tune (see THIS thread) and the app will be struggling further!)

No problem at all! - You can import whatever you like! I think for GigBook as long as the files are PDF's it doesn't matter what's in them. Indeed I import both hand written charts and notation, but even just random reminders about parts of songs. I like GigBook, because one you've imported all of your files in to one master list, you do exactly as you've described - arrange song lists in to folders. "binders" that you can browse but also set up set lists for all manner of different types of gigs. I think both apps will work with a BlueTooth pager turner too, so once all the songs are in order, a tap of a button or the screen will advance you on to the next song. (Or in GigBook it's possible to jump out of the song view quickly should you need to jump to another song in the set quickly.) I hope I've described that clearly as I'm just waiting for my next student to arrive!