Baloney Balderdash

I am pretty certain you misunderstood that. This was referring to a separate test track that OP recorded after the recording he is talking about in his OP. You are right though, if it really was as you seem to believe is the case here it would be rather absurd.

That was my line of thought too.

Uhm... I don't have any problem or issues for that matter with fret wear on any of my basses, I am just curious. And you're not really addressing the actual question I asked, which happens to be what I am actually genuinely interested in knowing, as said from a perspective of pure curiosity, there wasn't actually any additional underlying motivations or practical concerns behind my OP. I'll assume though that you actually genuinely was only trying to help, despite making quite a few assumptions about my reason to ask this question.

I was wondering if coated roundwound strings, especially Elixir where they actually coat the whole string, rather than just the wrappings (which I understand otherwise is the most common approach), might cause less fret wear than non coated roundwound strings of otherwise similar construction (that is coated nickel-plated roundwounds vs. non coated nickel-plated roundwounds, coated stainless steel roundwound vs. non coated stainless steel rounwounds e.t.c)? Edit!!!: Apparently I need to point out that I am curious to have the actual question that I ask here answered and that I don't have an actual problem with fretwear or seek advice in general on how to reduce it beyond that. In other words this is a matter of strictly intellectual curiosity, rather than seeking a solution to an actual practical issue or concern (if that had been the case though, trust me, I would have pointed it out and asked accordingly, as well as chosen a more fitting headline for such inquiry something along the lines of : "How to Reduce Fret Wear?").

Yeah, I got a lot of stuff that works perfectly when it's turned off too, but then strangely enough not when it's turned on. Must be some kind of witchcraft.

Nothing to add as far as goes for the bass, but it's funny how you can really tell Cici listened to a lot of Tool and Justin Chancellor in her bass playing (even despite that fact that she doesn't use a pick). That was my first thought, and then got it confirmed by the thumbnail after the video ended of that video with their respective favorite bass lines where is shows the Tool Lateralus cover edited in at her side.

I don't understand though why not using the direct monitoring feature of the sound interface for the instrument recording and have the track played back regularly on top/beneath it? Add whatever effects you need physically in form of pedals as you are recording, or in form of VST post production when mixing (normally I would want to have as a dry original recording as possible to work with for post production mixing). How I do it.

I am pretty certain that doesn't let you hear the track before the recording has been processed by the computer when you are recording. Hence can't be the reason why the bass track was recorded ahead of the beat.

Never heard of negative latency before... Didn't he say his bass is recorded slightly ahead of the beat?

I just want them to make an authentic/realistic sounding, perfect tracking and low latency, pitch shifter. Or maybe I would have more luck waiting for EHX to release the bass version of their Bass9 pedal, that is a pedal that will pitch your bass up and make it sound remarkably realistically like different types of guitars.

Definitely plays a fairly big role, as does cosmetic quality and finish of the wood (the latter though not necessarily the case if we are talking Gibson).

Regarding wood it's more a case of the degree of randomness of quality of the wood between individual units rather than it is a case of cheap necks consistently being made of bad wood (which honestly makes sense, picking out consistently bad wood would end up making production more expensive, also what on Earth would the point be of doing that). As you said with cheap instruments it's more of a lottery. My cheap Ibanez Mikro Bass got an outstanding neck in just about every regard, don't think I ever had a neck on any guitar or bass at any price point that was this stable. Unless swapping to a set of strings with significantly different tension, at most it will only need a very minor, not even strictly necessary, truss rod adjustment something like once a year (and yes, here where I live there can be rather big seasonal changes, both in terms of humidity and temperature). It also shows as good as no signs of fret wear despite being over 10 years old, with roundwounds and daily playing, and the frets was practically perfectly leveled from stock as well.

Hopefully you didn't pay him for ruining your takes?

Most music, there are exceptions, benefit from being organic rather than mechanical. Organic will in by far most cases sound more alive and interesting where as strictly mechanical will in by far most cases end up sounding clinical and boring. If it sound good it is good, and I am not convinced you actually would like the sound of everything being robotically/clinically straight dead on the beat. Now in certain electronic music there might be a point with everything being robotic/clinical, whereas most other music would suffer from this and actually offer a less satisfactory listening experience. As people have pointed out it is music not simple mathematics without any variables (there's a a reason why almost all new robotic technology is based on artificial neurological networks rather than simple rigid predetermined scripted algorithms, the latter completely lacking the complexity and flexibility that is needed to solve actual real life problems). Swing, groove and feel is a thing in music, even a very essential thing, especially feel, true musical timing (rather than being on time), and neither of those happen with everything being dead on clinically/mechanically straight on beat. Don't listen with your eyes, and don't look at the world through square glasses, the world is not made of nothing but squares (even if it might sadly appear that way sometimes ). Do you perceive your music as a (complex) living breathing organism, or a mechanical construct, a (simple automat) machine? Which do you find most pleasing? Which would you rather people associate your music with? That said, of course it is still possible that you do in fact have bad timing, just saying that what you have discovered by looking closer at those tracks isn't necessarily a case of it, and that it is still totally possible that there in fact is absolutely nothing wrong with your and your drummers timing. As said if it sounds good it is good, and having everything straight dead on beat almost certainly wouldn't give a more satisfactory result, likely rather on the contrary.

Noon position, or 5, would be approximately flat/neutral position. And the "Tone Shaping" switch is not actually a tone shaping switch but a Mids Q/Bandwidth switch, that is setting the width and angle of the curve around whatever center mid frequency you dial in to boost/cut, or put a different way how wide a frequency spectrum around the center mid frequency you select is also affected (the frequency bands on all equalizers works this way, the difference is just that not all equalizers let you chose Q/Bandwidth, but instead has a fixed value).

Well the Harmonics dial is really just what is usually called a Presence control, that is a boost/cut of the upper most frequency spectrum. You would have thought being able to dial in some mids would have been a more useful feature on a bass preamp pedal (hint: it would totally had been just that).

It's not a Tech 21 VT Bass clone, it's a Tech 21 Bass Driver clone, including the huge mid scoop that pedal is (in)famous for that can't really be dialed out since there is no mid control and the center frequency of the treble and bass controls are located such that the "boost" of mids that cutting those and turning up the level instead otherwise would effectively result in doesn't match with where the center of the huge scoop is (just about 800Hz, which is exactly around the frequency that helps with adding snap to and improving definition/articulation of your tone). Though if you are one of those strange people who prefer the mids of your tone scooped out you might actually like it. In my opinion you would have been better off spending a bit more and getting something like the One Control Silver Peg.

Lefty Ibanez GSRM20L Mikro Bass? https://www.ibanez.com/usa/products/detail/gsrm20l_1p_02.html It features a just 28.6" scale length, which is 1.4" shorter than the 30" scale length most commonly used and pretty much otherwise standard for short scale basses, but I love mine and it has been my main for the last past several years (Though I did upgrade the pickups, even if the stock ones are actually pretty decent, but still probably this bass's weakest link), also this would make it perfect for your children, if they should find interest in learning how to play bass at some point as well. Here's a random Google image of the left hand version (the left hand version only comes in this finish) :

Reminds me of this masterpiece of a song that I made, all by myself:

Japanese bass and drums experimental rock duo: Kind of sounds like an odd mixture of Primus, Mr. Bungle (particularly their "Disco Volante" album) and Captain Beefheart & The Magic Band (particularly their "Trout Mask Replica" album), but then with the only instrumentation beside vocals being bass and drums.

Love the look of this bass. Would love to own the short scale version.

Also I forgot to ask: Blue or Red pill?

Depends on which DiMarzio pickups in specific, and otherwise is totally up to specific application, that is what other gear do you use and what do you play, what you want to achieve, and not least your personal preferences. If there was such a thing as the ultimate best preamp there would only be one model on the market. That said it would be worth considering an external preamp pedal instead, those often offer much more possibilities for tweaking and customizing your tone than onboard ones, which in most cases are pretty basic in comparison. But yes, depending on the specific preamp in question it can make a huge difference.

I've discovered that really high gain heavy distortion and fuzz tones benefits, both in terms of added heft but also in terms of improved articulation and definition, from having a subtle polyphonic 1 octave up effect (of course blended with a good amount of clean signal) stacked into it. Personally I use a TC Electronic Sub'N'Up Mini for this, placed as the very first thing in my signal chain, right after my bass, and loaded with a customized Toneprint that has been tweaked to deliver an as authentic/natural sounding octave up effect as possible, but I would think, given the high gain distortion and being applied relatively subtly, that even more synthy/organ sounding octave up effects would work for this without ending up sounding unnatural. Sounds absolutely huge, and as said improves the definition and articulation of the distortion as well.