Happy Jack

So I downloaded all 1.6Gb of DaVinci Resolve (free version), extracted & installed the software, and fired it up. It wanted me to create a database, with a password. WTF? OK, so I did that. It offered me the opportunity to add a folder. OK, so I did that too. It lets me 'enable sharing'. WTF? Share what, with whom, and why? Ignored. It allows me to 'optimise'. WTF? Optimise what, and why? Ignored. It invites me to 'create an access key". WTF? Key to what? Why do I need one? Ignored. What it does NOT let me do: Search for media files Bring anything up on screen Playback anything Edit anything Do anything remotely useful And of course there's no on-screen Help or an option to Get Started. With recommendations (above) from both @BigRedX and @Dad3353 it's clear that the software is more competent than I am, but it's equally clear that this is a P155-poor interface and already dangerously close to being uninstalled.

Looking for advice / guidance / suggestions from the Basschat Massive. Please do not tell me to buy an Apple Mac, that's not going to happen. @Silvia Bluejay takes loads of band videos at live (pub) gigs, sometimes at rehearsals, occasionally in a recording studio. It's quite normal for there to be two (or even three) cameras in use, and perhaps also to have a separate audio source. I have absolutely no background in media, video, or editing. I would like the ability to pull in a video from one camera, bring in a couple of cutaways from another camera, and marry up the whole to a single soundtrack. And to do that limited range of processes in a simple manner. The ultimate aim would be publication on YouTube or similar. I'm not looking for a television standard of editing with (virtual) racks of high-end equipment and an unlimited range of effects and processes. In truth I need little more than Cut & Paste, Fade In/Out, maybe the usual Transition effects, but if you think I need more than that then I'm listening. Given that I am a Media Fool, the software needs to be foolproof. Free software is always welcome, but I have no objection to paying a sensible amount (i.e. no 'Pro' licences at $995 each) for a package that will do what I need. For context, I have for years used Freemake Video Converter as a simple Cut & Paste tool, taking a good-quality video from a pub gig, editing out the stuff before and after the song, and then saving as an MP4. On very rare occasions I have also used Windows Movie Maker because that allows me to marry up one video to one external soundtrack. Neither of these programs will let me do things like cutaways. What can you tell me?

Thanks for that graph @BassBunny, hardly a surprise (to me anyway) but it makes the underlying position far clearer. Speaking of which, do you think the ridiculous misuse of graphs employing logarithmic scales is likely to finally die out soon? They have been a great tool in support of Project Fear for the last few months, but presumably they must be discredited eventually?

I paid extra ...

As of nine days ago, Laurence was hoping to receive my new boards in a week or so. Any joy yet @bassadder?

If Action means that you're active, does Passion mean that you're passive? Asking for a friend ...

I'm still puzzled at the emphasis Schaller place on their 'new' (2018) S-Locks being "silent". I have old-style Schallers on at least half my basses, and I really can't remember ever thinking "gosh, what noisy straplocks these are". Yes, they rattle when you pick up the bass and start to sling the strap over your shoulder, but as soon as any weight comes on them they are of course completely silent. I'm not sure whether this should be filed under First World Problems or under Solution In Search Of A Problem.

Loving that 5" leather strap on a 3 lb U-Bass!

Ha, great spot @pete.young ... I had no idea that song even existed.

@Bill Fitzmaurice, doesn't this apply only to all-valve amps? When I had an Orange Terror it never even crossed my mind to worry about stand-by because it's a Class D power module. Or am I getting that completely wrong, as usual?

I do not understand your question. Can you please ask again using different words?

Make mine a hectare ...

https://www.stanleytools.co.uk/products/detail/Products/STORAGE/Tool+bags/STANLEY®+FATMAX®+Quick+Access+Open+Bag

Beat me to it .

I won't buy any bass strings unless I know what colour the silks are ...

As I said earlier, I don't have THE ANSWER. What I do have is recognition that nobody dares have a sensible, grown-up discussion about this so long as any suggestion that current policy is not the right answer leads to being pilloried in the media, and on social media. Such as Basschat. "Poor analysis of incomplete data"? At present, there is no mention in the mainstream media that the data are incomplete, because that would undermine public confidence that Boris Johnson is a heroic leader and world-reknowned expert in the field of epidemiology. Any serious challenge to the nonsense that we are fed daily is stifled. In truth, it is all very reminiscent of the official suppression of any genuine research into whether or not recreational drugs are dangerous and, if so, which ones. So long as we all focus on the WAR ON DRUGS and write hysterical articles about crack cocaine, nobody will mention that the most widespread and dangerous recreational drug in Western Civilisation is in fact alcohol, and that nicotine is (and always has been) massively more dangerous than THC. Irrelevant to the Covid-19 argument, do you think? I disagree. That particular piece of very deliberate distraction and misguidance has been a constant feature of government policy for decades now. It has been really very effective, and I have genuine concerns that the Covid-19 issue will take the same path.

After a career spent dealing with solely financial statistics, nothing scientific or medical, I find one of the most appalling aspects of all this is that government policy is based almost entirely on stats that are known to be (at best) massively incomplete and (at worst) totally misleading. I play in two 3-piece bands, so that's five musicians in total. I know for a fact that all five of us contracted Covid-19 in the back-end of March following packed pub gigs just before the Lockdown. So that's 100%. I also know for a fact that not one of us is captured in the official stats for those who have had Covid-19. So that's 0%. That is a tiny, tiny sample size and does NOT automatically apply to 68 million people, but it rather raises a doubt in my mind when I read that 5% or 10% of the population have had Covid-19 so the measures we are taking are designed to protect the 90% or 95% who haven't yet had it. In purely scientific terms, I reckon that's complete and utter bollocks. What if the split is 50/50? Would the current measures still make sense? What if the split is 90/10 in favour of people having had (or been exposed to) Covid-19? Would the current measures still make sense then? Without this single, fundamental piece of information, everything we are being told is frankly a lie.

This makes me uncomfortable, because the social comment in this thread is being driven by people whose posts generally I almost invariably agree with ... but here I'm parting company. So long as the discussion is being framed in terms of "do the right thing and nobody dies, do the wrong thing and all those deaths are your fault" then we'll get nowhere. That's trying to isolate and then exaggerate one aspect and one aspect only of this crisis. People die. They die all the time, and in enormous numbers, of a very wide range of causes. We now have a new cause, Covid-19, and quite rightly we're taking it very seriously. But far more people still die of non-Covid causes, and the Covid-19 deaths are running (even with the new peak) at roughly 1.2 people a day per million of population. Is that good? No, of course it''s not. Is that a catastrophe? No, of course it's not. The dreadful situation six months ago largely comprised the accelerated death of people who were anyway close to death, through old age or pre-existing illness. What does 'largely' mean? The most widely quoted official stat that I've seen (do please correct me if I've got this wrong @Beedster, seriously) is that 91.1% of the Covid deaths in the Spring fell under this heading. Is that good? No, of course it''s not. Is that a catastrophe? It may well have been for the many individuals affected, but only in the sense that every death is someone's personal tragedy. I'm nowhere near enough of a hypocrite to be shedding tears over the death from (basically) old age of complete strangers in Dorset or Dumfries. Now take a look at the personal cost other than death to the 68 million people in the UK who haven't died of Covid-19, almost all of whom will end up (in due course) dying of cancer, heart disease, stroke, dementia, etc. That's 68m lives disrupted and/or put on hold and/or stricken by debt and poverty and/or so many other things. [Straw man argument] Ah, but you can't put a price on life, and all the money in the world doesn't justify one death. [/Straw man argument] Does anyone actually believe that? Does anyone actually think this situation can go on for ever? Is anyone happy that we continue to borrow endlessly from our grandchildren to try to keep some people alive who would otherwise have died from natural causes? I am NOT claiming that there's a simple answer to any of this, still less that somehow I am the only person on the planet - or even here on Basschat - who knows the answer. What I AM saying is that sooner or later we will have to recognise that Covid-19 is out there in the general population, it's there for ever, it's highly unlikely that a completely effective vaccine will ever be found, and life must eventually return to some sort of normality. I feel no guilt about the thosands who have died, any more than I feel guilt about those who die in road traffic accidents, even though I drive a car and am therefore part of the problem. I wear a mask where the law says I must, I limit my social interactions (though in truth that has had little effect on my life, what with being retired an' all), I am not a Covid-denier or a conspiracy theorist, in fact I am the very model of a modern socially-responsible bass player, but I am also sick of Project Fear, of the deceit and incompetence of those who govern the country, of the one-sided hysterical nonsense that passes for debate in this country.

It's a very straight-forward line, played mainly at the 12th fret. The I chord (A) is played at the 12th fret on the A string, the IV chord (D) is played at the 12th fret on the D string, and the V chord (E) is played at the 7th fret on the A string.

Unless you're really good at this, chances are your bass will be worth a LOT less afterwards. If you're messing around with a cheap Jap import from the 80s and you don't really care then fair enough. If the bass has any real value, you might want to start by looking at installing an aftermarket fretless neck and keeping the original, fretted neck available to be put back later.

They don't call it heavy metal for nothing ...

I'm surprised to hear that they had enough material to fill three hours!