bobbass4k

I'll definitely be having a crack this month, I know bugger all about mixing, but this seems like a good way to learn, although I'm not sure I'll be able to take a month of repeated country...

[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yFy8WFshscc[/media] That outro is just so beautiful, also one of my favourite basslines to play.

My entry now stands at [i]4 notes[/i], 4 excellent notes they are too. One's a D.

[quote name='BigRedX' timestamp='1365423452' post='2039274'] IIRC the copyright issues with tab sites isn't the tunes themselves but the fact that the music publishers have already spent money producing "official" tab and notation books of those works that they would like to sell to people who want to learn the songs. And IMO quite rightly too. Remember anyone can work out the parts by ear if they've got them time and TBH it's a skill that every musician should have. If you want to take short cuts to learning a song (by having someone else do all the hard work of working out the notes and their timings) then I don't see why you shouldn't have to pay for that privilege. [/quote] If the "official" tab books were in any way superior (if they had direct artist input for example), then I might possibly agree with you, but the "official" tab books are essentially no different to the tab sites. They give the album to a professional musician who works it all out by ear, they're often inaccurate and sometimes just plain wrong. What's next, stopping people working songs out themselves by ear? And the idea that people should be financially penalized for an apparent lack of musical ability is one of the most ludicrous things I've ever heard. Everyone has to start somewhere, when I started learning bass I relied on tabs to learn songs, and as my musical ability grew so did my listening ability, now I do usually figure songs out by ear, but If it's a simple song and I need to learn it quickly I will still refer to a decent tab. I see no reason why the record company and a publishing company who had absolutely nothing to do with the album whatsoever should benefit from my hectic schedule.

People tend to assume I'm not a musician, or rather, that I can't write melodies or harmonies or riffs. Some people have been quite surprised when I play them complete songs that I've written, including one (a guitarist) who said: "The bass is pretty good but who wrote the rest?", "I wrote all of it", "Really? But that guitar bit is really complex, aren't you just a bassist?". I think that is one of the only times I have actually done a facepalm.

[quote name='Sibob' timestamp='1365342892' post='2038230'] I really wish I could line up everyone's rig and hear the OC-2 'sounding like a mess down low' . I really don't have that issue at all, feed it a bass heavy, round signal, and it tracks perfectly well down to an A, in my experience, lower if your attack is considered (don't choke the note). The glitching is from buzzy notes not tracking etc Si [/quote] Aye, with the neck pup solo'd I can get it to track a G, occasionally an F#, but I've found it is more prone to glitching the lower you go, no matter how clean the note is. I play in D standard so my low G is open and it still glitches out after a couple of seconds.

Aye, I was thinking the April thread was running a bit late. I'm making slow progress on mine, it's kind of a slow, relaxed affair, nice melody. At least that's the plan, I've only got 3 notes so far, but they're 3 [i]great[/i] notes.

Reading music is an essential skill to have, sure, but I can't help but feel that people who dismiss tab and other forms of notation entirely are just elitists. Proper music notation is extremely cumbersome for jotting down quick ideas. If I just want to jot down a riff so I remember it, I either jot down the tab or the notes, tab is usually quicker. How exactly do I jot down music notation? Assuming you don't carry staff paper around (not an unreasonable assumption), you have to draw a staff and then draw the dots, it's not very quick or convenient. Don't get me wrong, reading and writing music notation is a very important skill to have, but you can use alternatives without being a dunderheaded ignormaus.

The sound of the OC-2 is second to none, but it's something of an anomaly, it's popularity and status is kind of self propogating. Think about it, if Boss released a brand new Octave pedal that didn't track very well, couldn't handle chords, glitched out on long notes, and one of it's only 3 controls was almost completely unusable, people would slate it.

Sorry to post twice on the same page, the Rat Tail is here: It's spectacular, AB'ing it with the Turbo RAT was interesting, I was surprised at how similar the tone actually is, but obviously the RAT Tail's flexibility is just better. So many useable sounds and some not so useable but fun ones. Try low clipping completely off, high clipping completely full, dist fully up, filter fully off, no diodes with an OC-2 in front of it, lovely and filthy. Not sure where Ryan gets these LED's.

I'm now permanently tuned to D standard/Drop C, it's just better for me. If it's going to be a permanent thing and you've got multiple basses I would dedicate one to D standard, switching between E and D standard a lot is a one way to ticket to a warped neck. My best tip is get some DR DDT's. They're a bit pricy but there's no better strings for drop tuning. By some engineering witchcraft they don't lose tension in drop tunings, so you can use the same gauge you normally use and they won't be slacker. If you've got a brand you like already, then get a heavier gauge set and set it up properly with them.

[quote name='umph' timestamp='1364424420' post='2026453'] not porn without guts [/quote] Allow me to quell your depraved appetite: [IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v502/bobbass4k/DSCN0316_zps6e786aaa.jpg[/IMG] Photographed, by a completely bizarre coincidence, on a vinyl featuring Ant's band.

First change for a while, and it's about to change again. The Stache is great but there's a band on the horizon which the Rat sound is going to be better for, so I couldn't resist the opportunity to trade it for a Rat Tail. That's gonna make the Turbo Rat redundant, so if anyone fancies it drop me a PM, then next order of business is a Mastotron, so if anyone's got one they want to get shot of let me know too. [attachment=131761:DSCN0309.JPG] And to show how ridiculously bright the Stache LED is: [attachment=131762:DSCN0312.JPG] It can illuminate my room entirely on it's own.

Are they at the same (or at least similar) settings?

Well done Skol, it was a small but excellent collection this month, I'm thoroughly surprised to have come second. I'm kinda stumped by the new one though, I guess beetle sex just doesn't inspire me. That's probably a good thing though.

Re: The second one, I find it odd that people are criticizing it because he's playing it like a guitar, what's wrong with that? "He might as well be playing a guitar" is an entirely non-existent point, if it's so similar to playing on a guitar as to be indistinguishable, then why would a guitar be preferable? I just don't get why we bassists as a general collective seem so keen to lock ourselves in a box and limit ourselves to an extremely small range of styles and playing techniques. The bass guitar is a piece of wood, a variable number of metal wires, a couple of magnets and some electronics. I see absolutely no reason why one method of playing it should be more "valid" than any other.

Annoyed I couldn't find time to have a go at this, it's a great idea. I was torn between two, one had the best intro of all of them but I decided to be logical and went for the one that was the most consistent.

What do you have the direct level set to? That's probably responsible for your drop in output level and very bassy signal. Generally, octave 2 (the left knob) should be off, unless you're playing very high up the neck it just produces pure mud. Usually you'll want direct level (the smaller knob in the middle) quite high and octave 1 a little lower for a good octave down harmony, although direct level off and octave 1 all the way up can be fun too.

[quote name='plunkrock' timestamp='1364412099' post='2026189'] I was almost trading my Rat Tail for that, PM me if it doesn't work out for you (it will) [/quote] Cool, I might end up taking you up on that actually, I've never been quite sure the muff sound is for me, I had a Green Stache a while ago before he started doing the Grey Staches and I liked it but it was too noisy and got lost in a mix, so the idea is a gate and a mids control will remedy that but it might still not be for me.

Got Kev's and formerly Shep's Grey Stache on the way, If I can snag a cheap Mastotron too I think my dirt section might finally be complete, until I get the urge to replace the Turbo Rat with a Rat Tail of course...

Musicality and aesthetics always wins for me. I like complexity and skill but not when it's just for the sake of it. This to me is one of the most beautiful songs ever: [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oK62cRA92-g[/youtube]

[quote name='Skol303' timestamp='1364054246' post='2021445'] WOW! I really like this Bob. Sounds great thru my headphones. Nicely mixed (some clever panning going on) and everything sounds tight and well EQ'd. I didn't try counting the time signature(s), but I didn't notice anything sounding 'out of place' either (if that makes any sense??), which is as it should be. Good work mate! [/quote] Thanks man, I wasn't sure about the mix, I finally got my ears syringed so I should be able to hear properly again but everything still sounds a bit muddier in my right ear so I wasn't sure about the balance, I was mostly working off just looking at the waveforms, good to know it worked. The original idea was to not have a single clean guitar, but I couldn't resist for one section, although I should have mixed the piano that doubles it higher.

Here's mine: [url="https://soundcloud.com/bobbass4k/war-has-changed"]https://soundcloud.com/bobbass4k/war-has-changed[/url] It probably still needs stuff doing to it but I wanted to get it up while I was happy with it. I realize it's probably well outside most people's wheelhouses, but it's nice to have a finished song, although annoyingly it's one of the few ones I've ever written that I think is hurt by lack of vocal, but oh well.