Dankology

Bit gutted that the current media blitz on this means that my chances of getting a "cavern" spec German Hofner at a bargain price are going to be minimal for a while. But that's very selfish of me - I do hope it finds its way back to him. I can't imagine it will though: surely it has spent the last few decades in the hands of "private" traders/collectors...

That would be very sensible but risks drawing you into the vortex of uncertainty I now find myself in. To be fair, the fact that an outsider hasn't immediately said that it sounds odd or gimmicky is very helpful indeed. Unless you have terrible taste, of course.

Now you've confused me... the effect is on both verses at the moment - are you saying it's fine as-is, or that the vocal would be fine without them? 😆

...but there's not much footfall there, plus this is really a request for advice rather than a proud unveilling. My band is working on some tracks at the moment, recording and mixing ourselves at home. This particular song has been through a few mixes and we've got a bit stuck with the vocal sound. The singer is very keen to have a distorted, almost megaphone effect throughout the verses while the guitarist is not so keen. I sit somewhere in the middle - I think it might work as an effect on a single verse or half of each verse. Please have listen and let me know your thoughts - we've likely lost all perspective here. (Also, we're hoping to replace the rather formless guitar passages in the intro and prior to the second verse with something a bit more melodic and definite.) TMBM rough mix-8-1.mp3

What about his own cover of One Too Many Mornings recorded live with (most of) The Band in 1966: Also the Bunnymen did a great cover of It's All Over... very much I the style of Them.

We use the XR18 too - for rehearsals, recording and occasionally for gigs if we have to bring our own mixer. We probably aren't using even a fraction of its functionality but it's a great piece of gear and it broke my longstanding fear of digital mixers.

Mine is white with a garish faux tortoise shell scratchplate. Was thinking white on white might look quite classy but slightly wary of falling down a rabbit hole of slightly incompatible aftermarket plates. I also pondered stripping it completely and getting it finished like Elvis Costello's Jazzmaster but the paint looks to be about an inch thick and I bet the wood beneath is not pretty.

So you're saying I can buy one that not only sets up easily but is purple...

I think mine is an older model but it needed the Newtone strings, a Staytrem bridge, a lot of truss rod tweaking and a significant neck shim before it would intonate properly and not choke out in various places. I've heard of a lot of variation - from VIs that played and tuned right out of the box to ones that needed a bit of DIY hackery all the way through to ones that needed the deeper bridge for intonation. Mine was a cheap impulse purchase (and it appears the Staytrem was cheaper then too) but it has gone from being little more than a toy to a gigging instrument. If you can achieve that for less cash I'm thrilled but I think there may be some dogs out there that require more significant work. I'm sure I read in Guitar World that they were the best selling bass last year.

Sounds like the same one - got it for my 21st birthday and thought it was amazing.

I completely get that but the band has been going since before I was born so I'm very much a junior employee here. In truth I think the move reflects a kindness that hasn't been afforded the other members of the line-up so I'm taking it in the spirit it was offered. While also anticipating a further sideways move out of the band in the none too distant future - hence not wanting to splurge on a Helix.

Thank you for all the suggestions thus far. I mean, GAS is always part of the deal but I am conscious that stage room is likely to be at a premium and that the old Korg thing probably sounds not spectacular nowadays, especially in terms of amp sims. The bandleader has a spare little Positive Grid amp he's offered me the use of - a lunchbox shaped thing with tiny speakers that you control from a phone app but I have to say I'd be happier going ampless and not having to fiddle with a mobile phone to change sounds. I suspect it is comparable to the Katana amp mentioned above but I will check those out properly tonight. I really like the idea of having the Vox onstage as a monitor and portal for feedback and it may be small enough to perch somewhere on stage. The NUX MG30 looks very interesting - will definitely check out some samples and see if I can demo one somewhere.

I've been demoted to guitar duties in one of my bands and there might be a handful of gigs before a proper tour in the new year so I want to get my house in order. My only guitar amp is a little 4 watt Vox all-valve thing that sounds great but just has single volume and tone controls (plus a 4w, 1w, 1/4w selector!) and, aside from a handful of idle Ebay purchases, my fx is just a Korg multifx thing that I've had for 23 years. I think I will be very much rhythm and the odd fill/FX. I am still a traditional amp person but the band seems to be increasing in size so an amp-less solution may well be the way forward. I don't really want to drop a significant amount of money on what I suspect is a very polite and gradual way of me exiting the group so was hoping to get some ideas as to what I might be looking at for about £200 that gives me distortion, chorus, delay & reverb and something approaching a useable amp sim. I'm a keen secondhand buyer and time isn't a particular issue so I can hold out for Ebay or Marketplace bargains. Bit sad to be being bumped from bass but I've got a couple of nice six-strings so it'll be good to dust the cobwebs off them.

Such sad news. What a fantastic player - walking a fine line between being instantly recognizable while always serving the song. Was he not a member here?

I picked up a secondhand JC via the BC marketplace a couple of months ago and am very much in love with it. One minor issue I'm having is that a couple of the pickup height adjustment screws keep coming loose. This causes an irritating rattle playing unplugged and will no doubt eventually lead to them falling out. They only seem to achieve adequate grip when they are screwed far enough in that they cause the pickup to choke the strings. I'm hoping to use it at a couple of festivals over the next few weeks so I'm hoping there's an easy fix that even I could perform.

Surely this sounds horrible - or has technology advanced greatly? Bit of a red flag in either case though.

No apologies needed! I'm grateful for all the help and advice and certainly wasn't aware of the latency compensation settings before you pointed me that way.

Lots to clear up here... 1) I'm using Reaper to record these tracks (the earlier mention of Ableton was because I had noticed the same issue there - on a Mac, using a different interface) 2) the screenshot is of a test track recorded in my spare room. I played Reaper's internal metronome through the monitors and the sound it made was picked up by a mic that I had left approximately a foot above the floor in an untreated room containing three guitars, a mandolin, a bouzouki and a drum kit - I'm pretty sure the shape of the wave form reflects the resonances in the room. To be fair I was only doing this to look at the onset of the click sound, hence the less than perfect recording set up 3) I was definitely speeding up when I recorded that quick test track but when I've been playing more carefully the effect is more consistently just ahead of the beat 4) when recording the songs themselves I/we record to the drum tracks with the click/metronome muted. When I demo new songs on my own I tend to play to a simple drum loop rather than a bare click I am grateful for the continuing input but I'm almost 100% certain that this is not due to the recording set up - I'm going to spend some time playing to a metronome and loops while trying to relax. As has been mentioned above, pushing the beat a little may well be appropriate for our music but I would like to have the ability to not do it from time to time too...

I am using direct monitoring - as well as monitoring the bass through its amp which of course isn't subject to the minimal delay that even the direct monitoring route cannot avoid. I'm not running any effects while I record either. I've looked into Reaper's settings and it is currently using the driver's reported latency with no manual offset. The following screenshot shows two tracks (recorded completely separately) the top one is the click as recorded back through a room mic (only the sound on "one" was loud enough to show in the waveform) and the lower track is me hitting four notes to the bar, early every time. I think that this shows that the error, such as it is, lies with me...

I'm pretty sure this isn't a latency issue. I'm currently recording in Reaper which seems to be rock solid in every other respect. I experienced the same issue in Ableton and also on another system running Reaper: I'm pretty sure this is me. Much as I'm beginning to recognise that this is an ingrained aspect of my playing and one that likely has minimal impact on the overall performance, I really would like to develop the ability to play on, before and after the beat at will...

Thanks for all the replies. To clarify: these are actual drums, recorded to a click and when I play my parts I am monitoring the live bass sound (not though the DAW). Interestingly, when I've zoomed in on some of the tracks, the kick drum is often similarly slightly ahead of the beat (and this was not recorded at the same time as my part, so I'm not to blame!). When I've tested myself playing to a click track on my own exactly the same thing happens though. I did wonder about whether this would have ever come to my notice if I hadn't had the option of zooming into the waveform but then I also wonder whether it would have just been one of those things that subtly compromise a track. In terms of the recordings, it's not desperately important as we are essentially just routining things at the moment with a number of possible endpoints: some of these tracks may end up being the finished article, some may get re-recorded live, we may book some time in the studio and do some from scratch. Having said that all that, I think it's something I would like to work on as I know when I use Ableton to record loops I really have to work at it to not have the initial attack of the first note cut off.

I'll grab some screenshots and try and get an audio sample to post later...

We're doing some recording at the moment and are tracking the instruments on top of drum tracks that were done to a click - my most hated form of recording (which may well be relevant to the problem I'm having). When I look at my bass tracks in the DAW, I am consistently just ahead of the beat, regardless of song or tempo. And I can't seem to correct for this... It doesn't sound overtly wrong but I wonder if getting this right will tighten up the general feel of things - and even if it is working as-is, I think I'd like to develop the ability to actually play on the beat too. What are the panel's thoughts? I can't decide if this is just how I play, if I'm just in need of practice or if I am somehow hard-wired with crap timing. Any pointers as to how to work on this would be very much appreciated.

Amazing! Franz is absolutely fantastic and his audience seem like true music fans. I suppose they'd have to be, given his fondness for some of the most unloved musical instruments on earth.