dodge_bass

Last Q - what sort of DI box for the synth? It’s a Moog Sub25….would a passive box like a radial JDI work? Or would it need to be active?

thanks for all the input so far everyone. So….if I sent two DI’s (synth / bass) to FOH and then from the output of the DI’s went into a mini mixer then I could send both signals into one bass amp and have the ability to adjust onstage monitoring via the mixer whilst FOH has complete control over the DI signals for the actual mixing. And if I spend time balancing the synth bass levels against the elec bass levels in the studio then in theory the FOH engineer just needs to turn on and set the faders at about same does that all seem sensible?

Evening all Have recently started to play some synth bass keys and keen to incorporate this into my live setup. Just pondering on practicalities for the live set up and would happily take an advice or thoughts.... My question is really - would it be better to use a mini mixer to send both my electric bass and synth bass to FOH or two separate DI's (electric / synth bass)? If sending two separate DI's I'm relying upon the sound engineer to be able to balance the two bass sends against eachother which I suspect might not be that good an idea....so even if my patches etc and electric bass are balanced against eachother doesn't mean the engineer will necessarily mix them that way. I feel like having a mini-mixer would allow easier tweaks to get the balance right but would an engineer want different bass types coming down one DI line? And if I did use a mini-mixer would that be detrimental to the sounds of both instrument as opposed to use dedicated bass DI's on each instrument? I dunno basically.... I'd love any thoughts anyone has or how you approach it if you do. Thanks!

Yeah, it's clearly an issue for them. I'll not bother using them again, most things can be bought elsewhere, it's just always nice to support (if possible) small independent retailers.

On the other hand I ordered something online a week ago and got a receipt etc through. Week later nothing. Rang them today. "oh we don't have that in stock". Didn't even apologise. Ok, so when were you going to bother getting in touch with the customer who's money you have and who's product you don't have in stock but happily took payment for and kept? Only takes an email or a phone call. Shame. Bass specific shops are really important but they need to function properly and not take money for gear they don't actually have - that's just poor.

Got me Wingbass from Mark - great comms, lovely fella, excellent packing and all as should be. Another top Basschatter. Perhaps if you folks weren't so nice I'd be able to actually save some money...! Thanks a million Mark.

A few drinks or about 8 months does the same trick - you stop becoming emotionally invested in the bass (i..e you've forgotten all about the gig!) and start to hear it more like a 'normal person'. That's the best point at which to evaluate your work...it's just a long time to wait is all!

Inner Game of Music is excellent as you note. So is Effortless Mastery by Kenny Werner.

Agree and entirely disagree. The joy of music notation is a single non-instrument specific system that can be translated across multiple instruments but understood by all, as opposed to having a specific notation approach per instrument / instrument type. Learning different staffs is hard enough as it is! Notation tells you what to play but not where - as a player you're left to make those choices based on your own knowledge and experience. And that's a good thing as it allows you to understand the music and then make sensible musical / technical decisions about how to then play it. Tab as far as I'm aware was created for lute music in the C15th so it has a solid history behind it and is certainly a valid form of music notation. However, for me personally, notation is the winner because you will never be given in a professional setting (unless you're a lute player!) tab, it will always be dots. So, like it or lump it, the obvious notation form to learn is the one that all other musicians use because it only enhances your skill set and employability. That having been said if you don't want to work in settings (professional or otherwise) where notation is used then either playing by ear or using tab is perfectly fine too. We all have to make decisions based on our own personal circumstances. My experience is that learning to read notation as an electric bass player was singularly the best musical decision I ever made and kept me in professional work and paying the mortgage for about 15years. I'm going to however, put the cat among the pigeons and say that I suspect the reason so many tabs are wrong is because they're more often than not created by less experienced players for less experienced players. So mistakes are made because the tabber can't hear the part, can't work it out so approximates it etc. Which is fine...kind of. It's fine if it's a guide and the reader is aware of that and then fills in the gaps as it were. Also fine if the reader is like 'no that bits wrong, I'll correct it'. Where it's not so good (and this entirely applies to incorrect sheet music too) is where the reader takes it as the gospel truth and plays it note for note not knowing any better. I've played some pretty dodgy sheet music as well in my time so this is not a tab-bad, notes-good dualism rather a sliding scale of great-awful for both tab and notation depending upon the experience of the creator. Anyway, I got dragged into a notation debate again. It's really interesting but as has already been pointed out, different things for different folks and both notation systems are valid but not infallible. For example - I did a sight-reading live radio recording a few years back. All notated out, red light on, no rehearsal just read the dots. INTENSE. Got though it all though, bar one real stinker of a note which I was gutted about (as you can imagine). Anyway the MD gave me quite the death stare as we were doing it and at the end made a big fuss about having us go back and re-record that song again to edit it in. Guess what....same stinker of a note occurs. MD realises at that point it's his error for not checking the part properly and apologises. So there you have it!

I really wouldn't store anything in there - the changes of temperature on a daily, weekly, monthly, yearly basis are really going to mess with any instrument you put in there.

There's loads of high quality Motown / soul / funk transcriptions on my website too: www.dodgebass.co.uk Enjoy.

Bass sounds great on studio speakers - fat and very present in the mix. Perhaps if you wanted to cut through a little more you might consider tweaking your sound a little. However it sits great, fills out the mix and as noted the playing is good. You should be happy with this I'd say. Also remember you need a good few years before you can be emotionally removed from any recording to listen to it properly! ...just arrived at 'ticket' - bass is fat and present and some of the higher register work in the chorus is very prominent in the mix indeed, perhaps more present than the vocals (!!). Nowt to worry about there

Here’s a more immediate clip: https://www.instagram.com/p/Bl8p3tXl-Ck/?utm_medium=copy_link

I think they’re absolutely brilliant - toured one with on and off for the last ten years around UK and bits of Europe. Sounds great, super portable and people are always blown away by the sound / size combo. Yes the strings take some adjusting to as does the scale length but that’s a small price to pay over carting an upright around (flying with one is impossible - but the Uke bass fits in a large rucksack!). @Happy Jack I just discovered the talc trick after a very sweaty tour of Germany - stops string squeak as well when you get really sweaty.

Ah yeah….fair enough….nice way of notating that uncertainty!

Agreed. They are excellent little units.

Looks great - without being an derrière though how can you get muted notes (x heads on your part) on a synth?

Bizarre. I can’t see them selling many of them.

Have you got Transcribe? It’s a brilliant little programme that really helps with fiddly runs like this? I’d be really happy to give you a quick zoom tutorial if you would like as it’s such a useful (and cheap!) tool to aid transcribing. And if you’re serious about getting lines right (which you seem to be!) then it’s a worthwhile investment. Drop me a PM and we can find 30mins to do a quick zoom if you’d like!

Agreed. I’d also argue (actually I’m not arguing, it’s a fact!) that transcribing tricky lines like this really develops your ear / feel / stylistic knowledge and massively rewards the time spent doing it - I.e you get a bit better every time you do it. So by not doing it you’re basically taking the easy route and saying ‘I can’t be bothered to spend time improving my bass playing’.

For clarity though....the only version you need to work through is mine....because it's the correct line! How do I know...because it took me about 15mins to pull out of the mix and Transcribe was used in the process to pitch it up +10cents. Plus I've been transcribing this kind of material for decades (see my website) so my ears are great are figuring this stuff out However to be honest any bluesy line will work there, it just depends if you want to follow the original part of an approximation of....likelihood is nobody will know or notice! So attention to detail is both a blessing AND probably a waste of time!!

I can get on board with some of this but not all of it (respectfully!). Certainly before you open your wallet any more spend some serious time with what you've got and get to know it. But recording bass DI'd to a high quality at home is really not a big ask these days and with the gear you've got you should be able to do it really well. Certainly listening environment / speakers is going to really help but a well set up bass, decent DI and some ability to play (!) should be more than enough of a starting point to record some quality bass. Listening to isolated bass tracks from recordings you know really well will really help (to get a sense of what the bass sound is actually like by itself rather than how it sounds in the mix) as will just doing some recording and seeing how it goes. If you're working with an engineer or have friends who have better ears than you then do some recording of your bass and send it to them for feedback - they'll hopefully be able to give you some direction. Feel free to PM me, I'd be happy to have a quick chat or a Zoom with you about it at some point. And one last thing - enjoy the process, it's a learning curve for all of us