Stub Mandrel

I'm probably going to set up a couple of banks with colour washes, then program a few banks as short chases.

Yes, but they are quite subtle and hard to see aside from a few obvious things... the condenser traces (three at top right) have MUCH higher frequency response and are much more sensitive. The drum mics and the (very old, cheap and nasty) Ross 338 have better low end, even though the T-Bone one has a cheap as chips insert chosen for a claimed good low-end response (it also has very low sensitivity). The SM58 is low sensitivity as well. Some have a distinctly lower response below around 32kHz and a few have apparent extra dips and peaks, but hard to be definitive.

The inadequacies of a fairly basic powered speaker are hiding the true responses of the various mics. Does show how much influence PA can have on your tone...

Originals tonight. We keep tweaking... Very pleased with where some of my basslines are going now.

I've spent modt of 6 days in the last two months in Leamington and still couldn't fit in a visit to Bass Direct...

Kellie's Heroes by Black Grape. No tab and not very clear. Found some lives that seem to confirm my suspicion it doesn't follow the chord changes and there are a couple of more interesting bits, at least live.

Last rehearsal of the year(?) with the originals lot tonight. But now I'm choosing the versions of the new songs for Bendricks Rock to share, so the guitarists can be 100% sure to learn the wrong ones. 😶

I'm seeing as little as 0.6 to 0.5m being recommended for 'living room' calibration. Our vocalist has said he's happy to lend me his reference mic and I've found better software.

Good call. I asked Chatgpt for advice and that was one recommendation. Another was to use software that allows me to calibrate using a reference mic... I know someone who may lend me one.

Got me googling as well! 😁

I've been experimenting with testing microphones. I used a Scarlett interface into my laptop and Friture to produce Mel & A-weighted spectrograms. I used a HH Vector 8" producing pink noise over bluetooth as a sound source. Speaker and mic 1.25m apart and 1.25m above the floor in large room with lots of soft furnishings, curtains. Most obvious thing was the speaker had limitations, as you could see the same notches across all the mics. The flatest response was... a £30 generic BM800 mid-sized condenser microphone. Often used with 5V from a PC, these run well on 48V phantom power and are very sensitive. Lots of hacks for their circuit or putting larger inserts in them. I haven't modded this yet, but it gave the biggest signal and flattest curve with widest frequency response of all the mics I tested... I think this gives the best idea of the HH Vector's output. Note the dips at 4500 and 5500Hz which I guess may be the crossover frequency. My other condenser mic - Behringer C2, used flat and with low cut, which drops around 3dB from around 1000Hz ish. Interestingly the 5500 dip is not very pronounced. I think I need a better white noise source before repeating the experiment... things are going on for different types of mic, but I don't have confidence the sound source is flat enough to draw meaningful conclusions on anything but the sensitivity and the extent of the high/low frequency response. If anyone can recommend the ideal spectrogram settings, better software (Friture has no manual and appears to lack a simple save screenshot function) or any advice at all, all welcome!

Deck the Halls with boughs of Holly fits War Pigs perfectly...

The Starchers

The choice of Klingon bass players across the galaxy.

Had a good one. Took my Squier Standard Jazz with old style mutes to do Brown Eyed Girl (sorry... it's actually a lot of fun to play). Some fun new songs, Be Good to Yourself, I'm a Man, Roxette... Also took my Epiphone Embassy... singer and guitarist's eyes nearly popped out, then they heard it. Begged me to play it at gigs!

Cardiff has got The Spunkles. "The Spunkles are coming, across the land! The Spunkles are coming, they're a nasty little band!"

Nothing to do with bingeing the advent calendar? 😁

Not always. I'm thinking of Lemmy-era Hawkwind where he often carried the melody.

The Sex Pistils* *botanically correct band.

Why is it that DJs are pathologically unable to tell that their PA is distorting... let alone have any idea about EQ.

Looks a chilled place.

Most covers you pretty much have a rhythm to follow. Blues and originals, I get more opportunities to be creative. One example, I vary one shuffle based song by dropping in a triplet in a different place in the bar each verse. Was watching another band recently and their bass player did exactly the same.

He died so long ago... his influence is fading.

Goo Goo Dolts

Now that's a creative excuse 🤣