bnt

According to comments on that, it is Nigel Clutterbuck, a demo for Rotosound. There's an older thread on him, [url="http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=10803&hl=clutterbuck"]here[/url]. Not my thing, to be honest - turning bass in to a spectator sport.

[quote name='uptonmark' post='292055' date='Sep 25 2008, 06:03 PM']leave that thing alone.... by rush[/quote] I had some great fun with that one - I honestly don't know how Geddy comes up with that kind of phrasing. I recently pulled out Level 42's Physical Presence live album, and re-discovered [i]Kansas City Milkman[/i]. Mark's playing in drop D, and gets a kind-of Tower Of Power 16ths feel going here, which is quite tough on my slow fingers. They played it on the 2006 Retroglide tour, just another reason why I'm kicking myself for missing it.

Now, now... I'm not clear on what you mean by "track builder", but I use [url="http://audacity.sourceforge.net/"]Audacity[/url] for general multitrack audio duties.

Spare bass, several changes of strings. Stage Clothes. Socks & Underwear, plenty of; Earplugs: not just for the gigs. Books. Nurofen, Imodium, Durex, Germoline. Protein bars, muesli bars, nuts (meal replacements). Flip-flops or similar - if you'll be using showers in odd places e.g. Yoof Hostels. ..?

The way I see it, the key to home recording is: know your signals, and how to treat them right. For example, you generally can't plug a normal passive guitar directly in to a computer. Why not? Because computers tend to have two kinds of inputs: - mic input: for cheap mikes, the kind you'd use for Skype or voice recognition. - line level inputs: for signals from other equipment, that are already buffered (low impedance) and have a high level. A passive guitar has an unbuffered low-level signal that is "high impedance", which means that it has no "oomph" behind it. If you plug it in to a low impedance input, it would be like trying to start a car from a 9V battery: it's too heavy a load on the signal, and the voltage at the source will be drained away. So you need something else to "buffer" the signal, which could be an onboard preamp, a FX unit or preamp with line out, or anything else with an input marked "guitar" - mixer, sound card, or USB-Audio interface. I record through a Korg AmpWorks B unit (see link below), a little box that takes an active or passive bass, runs it through amp & cab simulators & basic FX, and gives me a nice Line Out signal that can also drive headphones directly. I found the guitar version for something like £40 at a show a couple of years ago, so I grabbed that too, even though my guitar skills are negligible. If I was starting out now, however, I might get something like [url="http://www.native-instruments.com/index.php?id=guitarrig3"]Guitar Rig 3[/url]. The state of computer-based recording is pretty amazing these days, but hardware still costs money, and Guitar Rig includes a foot controller / guitar interface that hooks directly to the computer, which does everything in software.

A quick scan through my collection has these: [i]Psycho Killer[/i] (Talking Heads) [i]Flame Of The West[/i] (Big Country) [i]Sons Of Pioneers[/i] (Japan) [i]Under Pressure[/i] (Queen & David Bowie) [i]Sleepless[/i] (King Crimson) [i]My Favorite Headache[/i] (Geddy Lee) (from the cracking album of the same name)

[quote name='OldGit' post='296295' date='Oct 1 2008, 10:51 AM'][/quote]

Wouldn't be the first time. That's Gilmour playing fretless on [i]Hey You[/i] (from [i]The Wall[/i])

Re fanned frets: it's a custom, so you could specify the "spread" to make it less extreme than the Dingwalls if you liked. Another customisable factor is the location of the "vertical fret", which is the 7th fret on the Dingwalls, but 9th fret on [url="http://www.conklinguitars.com/facebass/facebass8/ziricote9desc.html"]this Conklin[/url], and 12th fret on other custom basses I've seen, such as [url="http://buildingtheergonomicguitar.com/2008/07/fanned-fret-bass-guitar.html"]this Garncarz[/url]. The Dingwall positioning gives less "slope" on lower frets, but more on higher frets. If it was a 6-er I would have recommended a polyphonic output, such as a [url="http://www.rmcpickup.com/"]RMC Polydrive[/url], to run into a MIDI converter or a Roland V-Bass unit. On a 7-string... for the top strings only?

I didn't see this thread back in April, for some reason - probably university. Looks pretty impressive so far! If I were to make a suggestion, it would be for a "Lesson 0" that explains the very basics of harmony, starting with ratios of frequencies. What an octave is (2:1), why the major fifth is so important (3:2), why inversions work e.g. fifth (3:2) -> fourth (2:3 x2 = 4:3). On a guitar or bass it's easier to visualise the fundamentals of harmony, because it relates to the physical lengths of a vibrating string. The Cycle of Fifths has 12 steps, which led to various 12-tone scales, not all of which worked well, until the introduction of equal temperament.

[quote name='Captain Bassman' post='293056' date='Sep 26 2008, 08:02 PM']That's the thing that stumped me for a while - the guitar/keys are playing F# in the intro/chorus/middle 8 but the synth bass is playing a low Eb against it. I was trying to pick this out on a 4 string and it took me ages! Doh!!![/quote] I'm assuming this was written on keyboard, and I bet you could play this bassline on just the black keys. I'm not sure what key the recorded version is (Eb / Ab?), but it's not a typical guitar key, and for me it's easier with the bass detuned a semitone.

Anyway: at the risk of being helpful... I'm having a listen to the track at the moment, and it has a low Eb in there, so I'm tuning my 4-string down a semitone. For the Middle 8 I get something like this: [code]----|--------|--------|--------|---- ---0|2-20254-|0-2-----|--------|---- --2-|--------|-------0|2-20254-|---- ----|--------|------2-|--------|----[/code] If you have a 5-string, you don't need to detune, but then you don't have those handy open strings. edit: oh well... if this some elaborate RickRolling scheme, well done, Sir!

[quote name='lowdown' post='292987' date='Sep 26 2008, 06:41 PM']As for me... I have a nice little mime gig tomorrow.. Two tracks for Cliff Richard..[BBC] If i F**k that up, i need turning into a born again Christian.. Garry[/quote] Cool! I hope you do Devil Woman...

In a coffee shop at university, and this comes on the radio: Radiohead's [i]Let Down[/i] (from [i]OK Computer[/i]), given the [url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radiodread"]Radiodread[/url] treatment by Toots and the Maytals. Righteous Natty, Mon!

Don't discount the [i]90125[/i] era, either - I think I've mentioned before how important that album was to me when I was starting the bass. I have a soft spot for [i]Big Generator[/i], too, despite the impression that the band went genuinely bonkers during the production process. Chris is playing a 5-string Tobias, but still sounds like Chris, just with less Clank. Now, to figure out what the [i]Rhythm of Love[/i] video is about...

[quote name='birdy' post='290673' date='Sep 24 2008, 11:06 AM']For me its anything by level 42. Great playing but I have never 'got' the songs. Steve[/quote] For me it's a subset of Level 42: anything with heavy Slapping on it. Mark's bloody good at it, but I couldn't fail to notice that my fave L42 songs have little or no audible slapping e.g. [i]Physical Presence[/i], [i]Children Say[/i], [i]The Sleepwalkers[/i], [i]A Kinder Eye[/i]. I've been a huge fan of OMD for years, and much as I love many of their songs, the bass does get short shrift on most. While Andy McCluskey might lack in muso cred, he more than evens the score with enthusiasm and commitment.

[quote name='stylonpilson' post='290279' date='Sep 23 2008, 08:02 PM']SC4 and Hard Limiter are working beautifully for me.[/quote] Yay! If you were using Audacity on Linux, you could install a raft of free [url="http://www.ladspa.org/"]LADSPA[/url] plugins - far more than you could ever make use of, though they're generally not as polished as VSTs.

I have a liking for the Tune TWB shape - obviously - and as much as I like Steinberger L-types (I have two Hohner copies), I have to admit they look a bit too small on me, and I thought the same of the Warwick Thumb. (I'm 5'11½" in my socks; not as tall as Mike Rutherford, but certainly wider.) Regarding Fender shapes... never liked the headstock shape, too neck-heavy for me. However, I can understand why they're stuck in the past for commercial reasons. They can't change radically, any more than MacDonalds could change their cheeseburger. The spectre of [url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Coke"]New Coke[/url] still haunts US industry... On the question of what I would like to see from a manufacturer... I don't know, exactly, but I want to see Design (with a capital D) that relates to the wider Design world of today. Not just in shape, but in use of materials and [i]appropriate[/i] technology. Fenders epitomised the design style of the late 50s, particularly the Stratocaster, and (strange as this may sound) I was impressed by the fact that the Steinberger L-type didn't just appeal to bassists, but also won Industrial Design awards. Carbon Graphite is not new any more, but I like that Status Graphite are still trying new things such as the Streamline.

[quote name='clauster' post='289436' date='Sep 22 2008, 07:41 PM']Damn, won;t ship overseas[/quote] Oh. Sorry - should have checked that before mentioning it. Bummer.

Does your Audacity installation include a plugin called [b]SC4[/b]? This is a more flexible compressor with an attack time that goes down to 1.5ms.

[quote name='wombatboter' post='289201' date='Sep 22 2008, 02:48 PM']Could be any bass-player in the back..his musical personality certainly doesn't count.[/quote] I can think of worse gigs for a bassist. The Rolling Stones, for example. If I was going to do world tours with a bunch of old fogeys, I would want a bit more out of it than a paycheck...

[url="http://cgi.ebay.com/Roland-GR-77b-Bass-Synthesizer-Vintage_W0QQitemZ260290177271QQcmdZViewItem"]link[/url] Someone in the USA has one of these sets for sale: GR-77B bass synth, plus the G-77 controller, which can be used as a normal bass too. $99 at the moment, but reserve not met. Any Sigue Sigue Sputnik fans out there?

I'm partial to Rush instrumentals, except when there are fiddly fills involved. Which basically rules out YYZ, then, but I find their more recent instrumentals more tasteful, anyway. Previous faves are [i]Where's My Thing?[/i] and [i]Leave That Thing Alone![/i], but these days I'm very into [i]The Main Monkey Business[/i].

Well, as I mentioned earlier, there are other instruments in the Stick family that would better suit players like me, who want a more bass-like setup. With 10 or 12 strings, totally changing the setup would not be trivial, though some have done it. This guy, for example, has moved the bass to the bottom, but it's still in 5ths, according his Stick [url="http://www.tapguitar-stickmusic.de/Projects/Stickmusic/stick_main_e.htm"]page[/url].