SumOne

Pablo Gad, Trafalgar Square (Album)

I recently played at a rehearsal room that had a LM IV and a Markbass Traveller 102P and my first impression is 'what's that little thing?! That'll be far too weak' ( I play in a 8 piece Reggae/Ska band and for the Reggae bits in particular I go loud and low with my Ashdown RM500 and Tecamp 212 600w cab). ....but after a couple of songs and dialling in the EQ I thought 'wow, this is really loud/punchy and clear', it was plenty loud enough and had enough low end. We got to the end of the rehearsal and without any prompting the guitarist commented on how good it sounded. I guess the 102 Energy is even better (better freq response 40Hz-20KHz vs 45Hz- 18Khz, lighter 11kg vs 14.5kg, but the traveller does win at being slightly smaller and about £90 cheaper). My Tecamp 212 isn't exactly heavy (I think 19kg), but can feel plenty heavy enough to carry into gigs from the car - especially is steps are involved and negotiating past pub punters, and it is a big box of a thing that needs to live in the garage. These Markbass options are a lot lighter and smaller and it seems that the sound won't be compromised other than perhaps a bit less trouser flapping low end that the Tecamp 600w 212 can achieve. So the upshot is, I'm now considering selling my cab and going for the Markbass MB58R 102 Energy or perhaps the Traveller.

I worked in a team of two doing manual work - which meant a lot of time in a Transit van, at cafes, or just chatting while working. The guy who was my boss turned out to be racist, but given the situation I didn't directly confront him right from the start - I didn't agree with him or encourage him but gradually questioned his thinking, over time he admitted that it was how he was bought up, is the news he consumes, and for him it basically came from a place of fear of 'different' and angry about his lot in life - it wasn't actually due to anything that had specifically happened to him by different races. More time passed, more discussions, long-shot was that over the course of a year he pretty much completely changed his views and went from voting BNP to being a strong Corbyn supporter. I dunno, in some ways it seemed he swung from one extreme to the other rather than just chilling out! I've known another racist, a relative. She seems genuinely scared of 'small boats' and all those sort of stories, add to that from Covid for about 4 years she didn't leave the house and barely does now - not for any specific medical reason, just that she is scared of the world. There's no reasoning with her, it's difficult not to feel sorry for her though. And I know a guy that is almost the definition of a homophobe, he jokes but is literally scared 'I'm not going in the toilet while he's in there' sort of stuff. I don't confront him that forcefully other than poking fun at his irrational fear 'he'd never fancy you' sort of stuff. I now mostly feel pity for people having those sort of views - they seem to live quite irrationally fearful and angry lives, so I don't know about potential band mates - I'm not sure someone being fearful/ill-informed/stupid is reason to not play music with them. And most of the time these attitudes are only a very small part of a personality.

Yeah, it can sound better without anything, but I think it all depends on what music you play. It's like 'my ice cream actually tastes better without tabasco sauce on it'. Stuff like classic Blues, Motown, Rock n Roll, Reggae etc. often sound better without any 'hot sauce'! But some songs really need effects, threads like this 'Chorus, what songs need it?' https://www.basschat.co.uk/topic/514762-chorus-what-songs-need-it/ Or, you'd have trouble re-crating the Bassline from Thundercat's 'Them Changes' without an envelope filter, or Electric Wizard's 'Funeralopolis' without some heavy distortion/fuzz. I wouldn't give up on the hot sauce, it just needs to be used where appropriate.

Nate Smith:

In the nicest way, it is worth remembering that audiences don't really care (unless they are aficionados that paid a lot to see your technical skill). Everyone with be supportive.

The Heptones, Good Life ... nice bassline to play along to.

If I'm playing 'clean' then I like a compressor early in the chain and quite subtle so it doesn't kill all playing dynamics but evens things out a bit before it goes through the preamp/Amp (and some compressors add a bit of a specific tone). If I'm doing slap/pop then I have it set up a bit more like a limiter (high threshold, high ratio). If I use things like an envelope filter then I like the compressor to be after it and a bit more like a limiter - so the subtle dynamics of playing get through to trigger the filter (or not), but then any really loud envelope filter peak noises get reduced. I feel that multi-fx are good for compression as you can take these things into account for different presets, or easily use more than one compressor/limiter in a signal chain.

I've played a couple of small outdoor festivals and they usually lack the energy and audience connection of a more tightly packed indoor venue (ideally I'd like 100 club on a busy night sort of thing, I expect most people would prefer to have seen bands like The Who, the Clash, Sex Pistols, Oasis etc. there than a stadium), so I don't think a massive crowd is necessarily on my wish list - but need a good up for it crowd is needed. Anything else is a bonus for the mundane stuff (good sound, easy access, not too far to travel, free food/drinks).

I tend to play Reggae and Ska (and Funk/Disco with Bernard Edwards as one of my favourite players/tones - and he used old flats) so flats are at least the perceived wisdom thing to go for - but I then changed to roundwounds for a couple of reasons: Flatwounds seem like they would be smoother for your fingers but I found the sticky/grabbyness of them quite uncomfortable, roundwounds are actually more comfortable to play. An eye opener was hearing one of the Reggae greats Bass players (I think it was Flabba Holt, but not sure about that) saying he now uses roundwounds as you can EQ out the highs - but you can't increase highs if they aren't there with the flats. I tend to prefer old roundwounds that lose some high end but even with new ones EQ'd and then through an Amp/Cab it seems quite easy to make them sound like flatwounds but not vice versa. Perhaps I'm missing something with flats though, do they actually produce more of a classic motown and Reggae low-mid frequency 'thump' than rounds? I haven't seen graphs that scientifically demonstrate this, my assumption is that actually there is no boost to those low-mid frequencies (if using strings with the same core) but the rounds introduce more higher frequencies (and potential finger noise with sliding), so it seems like the rounds have relatively more of that low-mid, but if you EQ out those highs on the rounds and you get the same thing. Is some of the perception because flats came before rounds? Rounds weren't widely used until the 1970s so anyone looking up what players used before then for Motown and early Ska and Reggae etc. will see that it was flats and try to emulate that? ...but If rounds were widely available back then those original artists might well have used them and EQ'd the highs out when needed.

New Adrian Sherwood album 'The Collapse of Everything' has just been released. The title track gives a good idea of what the album is like:

Tearfully say "We need to talk. I'm not ready for this kind of relationship - you deserve better, it's not you, it's me." Then run away laughing and shout "Smell ya'later losers!" (try not to trip over at this point).

Give it a few years and it'll probably be impossible to tell if music is AI created. I guess it'll mean that people making original music will need to up their game - no point doing anything generic and derivative. Live bands might do alright, people will probably still want that interaction and 'realness'.

'To celebrate the legendary roots reggae band - Misty In Roots’ 50th anniversary, are set to reissue their classic back catalogue, starting with their classic debut album - Live At The Counter Eurovision ‘79.' (Bandcamp link) ....which is good news as geting their records (either physically or digitally) isn't easy. 50th anniversary live shows later this year too. ♨️

People are going to say 'bigger is better' and go for a 37" Dingwall (which also sounds like a euphemism). Having owned them, I'd say there wasn't a huge difference in B sound between a 37" Dingwall, a 35" MTD, or my current 35" Ibanez EHB MS. More of a difference in feel. I have found 34" B is a bit too floppy so needs higher action to get a clean B string notes without fret buzz. What does seem to make a big difference though is a good strings and good bass setup, and having an Amp and Cab that can properly cope with 30Hz.

Agreed, for about £200 a well set-up second hand Ibanez SR 300 is really not that different to some £1k basses I've owned.

Yeah, I saw one posted that was touted as a 'new' Bob Marley and Peter Tosh song.....very obviously (for many reasons!) AI had basically been given a prompt to make it. For the sake of it, I asked AI to do a Reggae song about Chichester: https://suno.com/s/4N29U2W1xoc5Hrrh ....cheesy, but not terrible. It is a bit of a concern as I've just started in an originals Reggae band that doesn't gig (in addition to my usual band that does gig a lot), so the only thing this new band does is record original music, but I can only assume that AI music creation will only continue to get better and more easily available so originals bands are going to really have to up their game and add something properly original/authentic to be relevant.

A decent new dub album from Zion I Kings: ....my only issue with this and most other modern dub albums is they can sound a bit 'clean' and perfect to me, like it's not that far off what I try to make on a Laptop and that Laptop production process is what I can picture in my head. Whereas something like 1970s Black Ark type productions just give more of a feel of a hot smoky Jamaican ramshackle studio and live musicians.

The 'I can't hear myself at all - so will turn everything up full and then muck about with cables and power/mute switches etc' deserves severe punishment (or at least needing to buy the band a round of drinks). It's a pet hate of mine, I know it is easily done but is real amateur hour stuff that sounds terrible if there are punters within earshot, potentially breaks equipment, and is really dangerous for hearing. .....that's not to say I haven't done it myself though!

I think as with most players Bernard's sound was more about technique rather than equipment. He has quite a unique 'chucking' style. I don’t think he used effects pedals, and seem to remember hearing that his recorded sound was straight to desk. He did apparently use quite old flatwound strings and most famously used a Stingray bass - but he did also record with a Precision and other basses and made them all sound like him.

IEMs. (Xvive with ACS custom) After being told by most of the band and online about how amazing they are I got some and found them a hassle for bass playing and combined cost about £350 for something I haven't ended up using. Batteries needs charging, cable snags on things and makes noise as moved, sound cuts out sometimes and when it works the sound quity isn't great - poor bass sound (and this is with ACS custom moulded in-ears), relying on mixer settings etc, it just all adds complexity as I still need my Amp/Cab which I'm stood in front of as the PA isn't up to the task (so I don't need to monitor myself), and I'm stood next to the drummer so I can hear that main thing I need from the rest of the band anyway even if there weren't monitors (which there are - as the drummer needs them). I can see it being worthwhile if the whole band use them so no stage monitors, and if the PA wad good enough to not need a bass amp/cab. I do also have ACS earplugs which are great though.

I'm not saying Andertons aren't good, but if you buy pretty much anything online the shops legally need to let you easily return it for a refund within 14 days, defective or not - the buyer doesn't even need to provide a reason. "You must offer a refund to customers if they’ve told you within 14 days of receiving their goods that they want to cancel. They have another 14 days to return the goods once they’ve told you. You must refund the customer within 14 days of receiving the goods back. They do not have to provide a reason." https://www.gov.uk/accepting-returns-and-giving-refunds

Earl Sixteen 'Concrete Rockers' album ♨️