dodge_bass

My immediate thought as well!

I think this might be the first time in my life someone has called me a genius. No doubt it will be the last. But that's fine. Once in a lifetime is enough for me Yeah, the first set I had were see through - hard to find when dropped and I was always struggling to figure out which ear they would go in. So second time round went for coloured. The open mouth thing though when getting the moulds is genius - I've noted with my actual in ears that the fit is better when I open my mouth - makes for a long gig with lots of drool if I keep my mouth open though....if I ever get any more made I'll be sure to do that.

Even better get different coloured ones - I got Red for Right so I can easily grab them on a dark, noisy stage and stick them in & no faffing around trying to figure out which is left and right. Strings is a brill idea too. Overall ACS plugs via Musicians Health. They are brill. Job done!

The Three Leaf Octabreve and the OC2 are both killer octave pedals. Search over! Source Audio C4 is insane as a synth pedal. Search over! Empress Compressor is brill for bass. Search over! There’s still a few pedals to try out but basically my pedal GAS is currently at an all time low.

No. Only the OC2 & Groove Regulator. Without the FX loop the signal chain is bass -> thumpinator -> compressor -> Nobel Compressor just operates lightly when playing clean and when FX loop activated it gets pushed a little harder. Thumpinator really clears up bottom end especially when OC2 on and ensures compressor isn’t being pushed too hard.

Yeah. Something I’ve been experimenting with recently. Works really well

Funny enough I do exactly the same thing here (but just on the bass) at about 4mins - rising arco bass line which turns into bit crusher - maybe she heard this before they finished producing her track! https://havband.bandcamp.com/track/slangpolska-rakkaus-on-lepo

Yes that's lovely - reducing the sample rate slowly. Sounds killer.

I don't know if I ever posted my main pedal board on here but here it is. Dual input with FX loop and tuner out mute courtesy of the Bright Onions looper and all power by the Noble DI. Sounds great, in a 70's funk / soul kind of way if you like that kind of thing

Well it’s the keyboard player / singer from Dirty Loops....so that might be why. It’s kind of Dirty Loops Lite isn’t it?!

Howard - Bass Doc. PM me if you need his deets.

I’ve got a transcription somewhere - drop me a PM

Yes the Nobel is ace for sure but given its costs (it’s crept up a fair bit since I got mine) I didn’t mention it. I absolutely love it and it works great for the type of stuff I record (funk / soul / rare groove).

Might be personal preference that - I run my HPF BEFORE the compressor so I'm not pushing the comp more then it needs to be pushed. Works for me as I'm sure yours works for you. @bob_atherton try both ways and see what happens to your sound and which you prefer would be my advice.

It’s a really interesting topic. As a player / teacher / educator I’ve never known anyone who didn’t benefit from learning to read. Not just reading the actual dots on a gig but all the musical skills that come with it (understanding rhythms / time sigs / harmony / stylistic approaches etc). And I’ve never known anyone feel hard done by when working on their ability to play by ear. Developing both these skills to a high level is hard but really important and the division / dichotomy between them is false. They’re not in opposition but complimentary, it’s just that they’re not often taught (or developed) in conjunction with eachother. I read really well. It’s opened so many doors for me as a player. But I’ve also worked on developing my ear because that also really helps as well with transcription and with creating original music. I also make all my pupils learn to read whether they intend to do reading gigs or not because it strengthens their general musicianship no end....and you never know when it might come in handy! My work as a player has moved from original work (no reading) to lots of reading work (theatre / orchestral / function gigs) now back into lots of original music with little reading....careers change and develop and having both skills is never going to be an impediment o your playing. @ped makes a great point about big band charts where you might be expected to read notated figures, improvise bass lines on the spot and read / ignore written parts in favour of creating something yourself. Essentially using all these skills side by side.

What have they asked for in your audition? Have they told you what they’re going to cover? As an HE/FE lecturer with 15years experience when we interview potential students we would listen to their pieces, ask them some theory questions, give them some sight reading excerpts to read (incl rhythm clapping and notated pieces) and some aural tests. There would also be a general discussion about a learners future plans. Hopefully giving a good overview of the learners strengths and weaknesses before we make a decision. If they’ve not told you that would be the first question to ask of them.

I’d take the first 10 mins doing just rhythms on one note and then add the riff in.

You’ll need to do some regular daily practice with a metronome and a rhythm book (we used Bellson’s 4/4 book at music college but there are loads). Recording yourself is a bonus as well if you can manage that too. Improving your rhythmic accuracy and awareness is going to take time (months and years rather than days / weeks) so you’ll need to settle in for the long haul. I’d also suggest that you focus purely on rhythm initially (I.e playing rhythms just one one note) - by breaking it down into just focusing on the rhythms / timing you can add the notes in later and it will all come together much quicker. Good luck you’ll not regret it!

First bar of the first chorus of Soul Man Duck Dunn carries the verse riff over (works harmonically so he gets away with it). In Son of a Preacher Man second bar of the middle section (D7) Tommy Cogbill gets briefly ‘jazz’ with a D7/A, followed by D7/Eb before finally finding the D7 at the end of the bar. The bass is so buried in the mix it’s not that audible but it’s there.

Interesting never had this issue before in the last decade but super useful to know - will insist on WAVs from now on. Thanks for the heads up.

Yup. Or if its just tracks to play along too Mp3s is also fine. You just need to make sure you render out your take as a WAV or whatever format they want. Having a tempo marking / click is really useful for tracking and I've found it very helpful to include a bit of click at the start of the bass take to allow the producer to quickly and easily line it up. But you'll figure all these things out. Reaper is a brilliant DAW - I"ve been using it for professional remote work for years now. Good luck with it all.