NickD

Useful stuff, Thanks!

.... Yeah, I know, wrong forum! So I scrapped my big ol' dirty diesel yesterday, and I'm looking around for something more ULEZ friendly.... and I think in the not too distant future double bass friendly. I'm looking at older stuff, 2006-2009, and my options are limited. The estate I got rid of would do camping trips with the kids easily, and when we needed to, a full drum kit, my bass and amp (seats down obviously. I'm finding it hard to envisage the dimensions of a DB, but want to make sure that when I finally succumb, I have a car that will handle it. I'm sure a Zafira will be fine, and the Astra/Mondeo Estates, not sure about the C/Max, there's a lot of bargains about and they look pretty roomy with the seats down... So, what's everyone driving?

Same! Really impressive stuff, and yet it never feels like a novelty act.

Pat Metheny just now. Some quality stuff with great sound, and no talking inbetween... Well over 2 hours of great performance. For all that folks bang on about Jaco, the keys player managed a good approximation of his lines with his left hand, while simultaneously doing keys stuff with his right hand 😂

That sounds slick as hell! Just the weather for it too!

I've always used superglue (carefully). I read about it in an article about Stevie Ray Vaughan when I was a kid, who had a hideous action and really heavy gauge strings. The first few days of a tour were always tough, playing much harder than I would in practice, so I'd carefully puncture the blister and flatten it, then I'd apply superglue over the top. It's suggested that you rough it up gently with an emery board or similar, but I never bothered.

Pat Metheny on Sunday night. Cheeky git hasn't got a bass player on this tour, so we've got Adam Ben Ezra on Monday night to rebalance things.

I'm not sure. We saw a picture of his years ago while touring in Germany. Looked him up when we got back to find he was a fellow Yorkshireman. I don't think he was lauded at the time, as he was completely self-taught, and I get the impression the establishment looked down on that and his relatively humble roots

Got to love a bit of Grimshaw, We have his 'Two figures in a moonlit lane' on our bedroom wall. It'll be at least mid-month until I get to sit down with this though... fingers crossed!

Thanks! It's pretty standard. I just specified the non-script logo, the black hardware, the naked Ash finish and no position indicators in the fretboard.

Ditto. Mines passive, but just between the blend and the tone (and a bit of foam under the strings for my country gig) it's always managed everything well. It's probably my least 'posh' bass, and the only one without a pre (I've an East, a Glock and a Bart NTMB in other basses), but it's always my first choice.

Top tune! Well done that Fella!

I've always preferred combos, as long as you're happy with the sound of both elements. From a gigging perspective, it's one less thing to account for when packing for the gig, one less thing to account for when packing up afterwards, and one less thing that's easy for someone to walk off with.

It's another bloody tough field. Hard to whittle it down to 3! 😎

Shree Sriram and Dennis Rollins on Thursday.... Bowed Bass and Trombone... It shouldn't work, but it does (for me anyway). Also the Ilario Ferrari Trio, and the National Youth Jazz Orchestra on the same bill.

Drumming is crap! No... wait... MY drumming is crap! I jump on the Mrs's kit from time to time, but my co-ordination is rubbish. I suppose if I spent proper time it would come together, but when I look at her level of independence, particularly obvious on Latin stuff, it's clear how much work would be needed. Not the same, but I find even programming drums really helps, usually for the Basschat Comp Challenge each month. Something feels wrong, and something as simple as moving one kick lets everything fall into place.

The best track the Blockheads never wrote! 😎

Nope, you're not alone!

MT Powerdrums - Free if you don't mind having to restart the track every time you re-open it, or for a small donation you can make that go away, which I did after a few weeks messing about. I heard them on someone else's track a few months ago and I was impressed. I have no idea what parallel compression is, or what it does. It's going on my list, thanks! My guitar is a cheapy, but I like its sound. My stepfather gave it to me a few years ago after owning it since the 80's (and never once to my knowledge playing it). It does have something though. We did an album last year, and lacking a guitarist, I copped for doing it... lots of YouTube study in a short time. Faced with the rack of quality guitars at the studio, I still did 95% with the old Westbury, just a sprinkling of Strat here and there. I'm still not sure about the sound of the EUB. Got a bloody great mute on it, and I think it's closer to an upright than a fretless now. I think we both know the only way to get the sound I want... It's not going to be cheap, it's going to take a lot of space, be a pain to transport, and I don't think I can make it happen right now. I can't stop playing the damn thing though, and I'm seriously considering trying to do our usual rock stuff with it. If I can learn what I need, I don't mind buying a few plugins. I just need to dedicate some time to research.

There's no comparison for me, in terms of production.... and you've just demonstrated why that is.... I don't do anything like that. I don't understand how to look at it as an overall track, just individual parts, then try to pan and use the sliders as best I can. Those drums are pretty handy and they're pre-placed in the field, and they sound quite alright as they are... just a mess with velocities here and there. The EUB was straight into the interface, and then a touch of compression (Cubase's own). Guitar, I just got a sound I thought suited in the Helix, recorded one left and one right, one on both pickups and one bridge only, just for a bit of difference. Keys were just from Cubase, just as a bit of texture. Vocals were single track for the verse, and 4 tracks for the chorus, and I picked a couple of different presets from Waves CLA and fiddled with the sliders. After that I got up the mix console, played it through a few times while fiddling with relative volumes until it sounded ok to my ears... job done, export!!! I think half of it is my lack of understanding of what I need and why I need it. Currently ,I'm basically looking at it like a live recording. Sort the individual sounds, mix it all together, and spit it out. I've always been more into the writing bit, but as the stakes in here increase rapidly I could do with learning more. There's not a month goes by when I don't think 'How did they do that?, or 'why cant I get my parts to sit in the track like that?'.

Thanks... It's a bit of a departure for me, in that it's not wholly depressing🤣 I'm trying to get a little more sophisticated, as it still sounds pretty amateur when compared to your track for example. There's a tightness and a slickness to how yours sounds. I've made a conscious effort to improve how the vocals go down recently, and the next thing is mixing I think... groups and buses and sidechaining, etc, mean nothing to me. I need to fix that.

Gutted, I'm away on holiday. I would have loved to be there, it's always great!

My contribution to the May 2022 round of the Basschat Composition Challenge, inspired by the picture agreed between last months winners, Doctor J and Me. I get a Mothership, beam me up, vibe from the picture, so kinda fancied the mid-paced, big chorus, funky thing. Obviously it's a picture of a projector, so the evils of TV gave me my subject matter. It all started with a bass riff, played on the EUB, as everything seems to be recently... this is going to become a habit I think... probably an expensive one!🤣 Drums from MT Powerdrums, Guitars are a Westbury Standard through the Helix, Keys are Cubase Elephants 10 standard VSTs. Vox chain is... An idiot--- An SM58--- An Interface--- Waves CLA Vocal plugin, with lots of the tracks for the chorus to big it up. I sincerely apologise for the mini upright bass solo, I just wanted to hear how it recorded... you know... up that end! By the time it came to discard it and replace it with something better, I'd kinda grown used to it.

I've read about a few, because they work the opposite way to normal. Not had a problem with mine though, although it once happened to a Warwick I had.