Naigewron

What's your route? Are you just playing a couple of shows in towns that are close to eachother, or are you travelling across the country? Distances here can get brutal, and roads (especially along the coast) can be windy and narrow. I've talked to a number of international musicians who tour Norway, and they all comment on the same thing: This country is freaking expensive. And they're right, especially for visitors who will have to rely on restaurants and cafes for their sustenance, where we are probably among the highest-priced in the world. Alcohol is also extremely pricey in bars and pubs, so be aware of that before the bill arrives. Taxis are also often a shock to many, especially people from the US, UK, etc. Expect to pay around £10 just for getting into a cab, and £30 for a 15 minute drive.

Oh snap 😝 I was a good boy - No new scratches added.

Got recognised by a cashier at a grocery store once; she'd been at our album release gig a few weeks earlier. I was playing drums, so it's especially impressive that she recognised me considering I usually spend most of my drumming gigs at the back of the stage, obscured by smoke and other band members.

So the drum and bass sessions are done. Time always flies so fast in the studio. I often envy guitar players, who are allowed to sit there and add layer upon layer of guitar parts, while us rhythm section guys are only allowed a single part per song (usually). Anyway, we started off doing the drums, and they sounded absolutely immense in this room. Really looking forward to hearing the full drum mix. Here's my kit set up in the room: After that, it was time for bass tracking. Definitely a humbling experience after the familiar comfort of the drum throne, but we got some good results after a couple of passes. I borrowed the engineer's Precision for the session, and tracked through an Orange Terror Bass and an Orange 1x12 cab. For the heavier parts, we kicked on my Ampeg Scrambler and for some parts my EHX Bass Clone. Pretty straightforward, nothing fancy. We also have a DI track of course, so reamping is always an option if needed. I'd love to spend at least twice as long experimenting with parts and sounds, but the studio time is coming out of our own pocket so we really have to move pretty quickly. We should be getting some raw mixes of the drum and bass tracks in a few days, and then spend a couple of weeks on continued preproduction of guitars, vocals and probably some keys here and there. We'll be back in the studio at the end of June. I think my singer has some video clips. If I don't look like a total donkey, I might put them up

Time to get a bit more active here at BassChat We'll be spending a few weekends in the studio for an album recording. This coming weekend (june 1st and 2nd) we'll be focusing on drums and bass, and I'll be pulling double duty and cover the entire rhythm section for these sessions. I've been a drummer for 15 years and I'm comfortable in the studio behind a drum kit, and I love studio sessions in general, but this will be my first session as a bass player. I'm pretty new to bass still (only really played it for about a year), but I feel so at home playing it. I've played guitar for 25 years (only at home, not in a band), so I wasn't exactly starting from scratch when it came to knowing the fretboard, but it's still a different beast. Our engineer is also a bass player, so I'll have access to a lot of great gear, and he'll presumably also be able to help me out with sugeestions for parts if my stuff isn't working as well as I think they are. We'll see how it goes. I'll keep this thread updated with pics, clips and experiences if anyone's interested. To start us off, here's a picture of the studio space - Polyfon Studio in my hometown of Bergen, Norway:

To really catch that authentic Ox sound of the strings slapping on the neck

One bass, one electric guitar, one acoustic guitar, one drum kit, one keyboard.

Yeah, to hell with being in tune and stuff. Noone listens to the bass anyway

I'm desperately trying to stick to a Nano, but I also really want a chorus pedal. Dilemmas, dilemmas. Other than that I'm pretty happy with this board. I do wish the MXR Bass DI had a cab sim built-in for when I go direct though. Fuzz does not sound good (to my ears) without a cab. I might trade it for a Tech21 DI with a cab sim, but I don't want to lose my distortion channel. Argh, more dilemmas.

Sting regularly gets freaked out when couples tell him they got married to "Every breath you take" - A song about a creepy stalker.

Sure, but there's a difference between objective and reality. When a previous band first started playing with click tracks, the bass player was pulling ahead like crazy. Took a couple of months before we all got comfortable with the new reality. So like I said, there could be an adjustment period. That's also what I meant when saying everyone is responsible for keeping time. Sure, the drummer is the backbone of timekeeping, but it's hard as hell to sit behind the drum kit and hold everyone back if someone else is pulling on the tempo. All the groove disappears, and I have nothing else to focus on than holding the others back.

That goes for everyone in the band though.

This is a great point. It takes a bit of time for the drummer to adjust to a click (depending on how used he is to click tracks from before, for example from studio sessions). It also takes time for the band to adjust to a drummer who's playing to a click. No longer can the bass and guitar pull the tempo up and down (consciously or unconsciously) and have the drummer follow them; they have to be dead locked in with the drummer at all times.

I've played drums as a primery instrument for 20 years, only recently switching to bass, and I've played with click tracks in all my bands since around 2009. I use in-ears (Shure SE215) for my click tracks and traditional wedge monitors for everything else. The in-ears also work as hearing protection, so I never need to have the click blisteringly loud. This is a very common way to do it, and works really well. I would *not* recommend having the click track in just one ear. The way we process sounds needs you will have to turn it up much louder to hear it properly, which could hurt your hearing. I've had various setups for my clicks, depending on the complexity of the project, but in its simplest for you just need some sort of metronome (could be an app on your phone or a hardware metronome) and a headphone jack. Oh, and fair warning: You might find that it's not just the drummer speeding up. I remember when we first started playing to a click, and everyone else was rushing like hell and thought I was dragging. I basically had to remind them that I was on a click, so it was not possible for me to be dragging. It was they who were rushing, trying to pull the tempo up.

Could be doing the Billy Sheehan thing - One lead per pickup, so that he can route them to different amps or effects. https://www.bestbassgear.com/ebass/article/2-outputs.html

That's a separate forum located under "Bass guitars".

I still need to get around to putting a tuner on there, but other than that this little board covers what I need.

Pat Torpey died back in February. You probably came across an old message. But still very sad, he was a hell of a drummer and musician.

Musician is a state of mind. I have a full-time job and a family but a huge part of my identiy is linked to me playing music. I've played on a couple of albums and gigged a fair amount, but never actually made any sort of living from it (very, very far from it, if I factor in the costs of my equipment, renting rehearsal spaces and other various random expenses), but I still identify strongly as a musician. It's all about passion, I think.

The HD500 is definitely both small and lightweight, but it doesn't support an extension cab 🤔

Haha, nice one 😂

We don't have a drummer at the moment, so we play the drum tracks from our demo recordings through the PA and play along with those. It's not ideal, but it works. I feel that practising those songs completely without drums would make it really hard to get a feel for the song, especially on bass, but if you can make it work I imagine it will massively tighten up the feel and the groove between the remaining members.

Well like I said, I'm a reasonably new player so I don't have a lot of basis for comparison, but I quite like it. The neck is very smooth and comfortable, and the P/J pickup layout makes it pretty versatile. I'd say it's a very nice bass for the price, and a great allrounder for someone who doesn't quite know what they like yet.

I really liked my DOD Mini Volume pedal. Absolutely tiny, and with a built-in treble bleed circuit to keep your tone consistent when turning down (no high-end loss). Note: I've only used it with guitar, not bass.

Been there, done that. Always been a gearhead, no matter what instrument I'm playing (guitar/bass/drums)