TimR

The choice between Mac and PC, logic, Sonar, Cubase is purely down to personal choice now. The one thing no-one has covered is the practicalities. You will also be trying to play Bass and operate, set levels, sound check etc. Don't under-estimate this task. Monitoring 16 channels for peaks and distortion and listening to the whole band while trying to nail your part is VERY hard to do. I've tried several solutions. I'm guessing if you are aiming to record 16 tracks simultaneously you are looking at a live recording, or as live as you can with minimum overdub/correct mistakes. Really you need to think about what you are aiming for with the recording. I've had best results with an analogue mixer into a stereo digital recorder. Operated by someone who knows how to mix live. You end up with tons of bleed into your 16 separate tracks anyway, unless you have different rooms with windows or good baffling to separate the musicians. Microphones ? Don't even go there - you're going to need 16 and several different types. Will your band be patient while you mess around setting up/breaking down/sound checking? Where can you do this? If you have a room where you can set it all up and leave it, fine, otherwise you're looking at a lot of work each time you want to record something.

Helen has a really good voice. My favourite was "The End" but thought that the slow section was a bit kind of bolted on. I think a lot of bands tend to write a verse and a chorus and bolt them together and the two seem to be completely different songs and forced. I think "Cowboy" and "Lovers in a Park" suffer from that a little. "Is that You" is a really good song and works really well. Shoot the drummer next time he plays diidly pom when everyone else has finished. Next time I'm in Nth Wales I'll look you up.

[quote name='silddx' post='1157110' date='Mar 10 2011, 07:59 PM']Well, it seems to me that unless it has a humorous slant, posting up clips for comment is a waste of time from reading this thread. Not many positive vibes are there. I remember Duarte posting for comment some songs his band had written for children, they were f***ing ace, and I wanted a CD, but I don't anything ever came of it.[/quote] I didn't even know that section of the forum existed. I do now. Thanks.

What is the relevance of the for sale price anyway? Everything I've bought and sold as been for a different amount to the initial post price. What is the problem if someone buys something cheap and sells it for more? Every transaction is different, everyone's circumstances are different, that's the nature of buying and selling second hand equipment. If I bought a bass for £100 knowing it was worth far more and got it it cheap because someone was desperate to sell it. Then I put it back up on here for a lot more because I was happy to wait for a good price I don't think I would want everyone trying to knock me down to less than £100 just because they knew how much I paid for it. It depends whether you view the service provided by the forum as a place where we come to help each other out as fellow bass players by swapping gear at low prices or whether you view it as a true market place where people are trying to make money out of buying and selling gear. I suggest it is the latter where it is up to the individual seller to drop the price in genuine situations.

[quote name='paul_5' post='1150933' date='Mar 5 2011, 08:28 PM']If you're going down (no pun intended) the '70s 'porn' route, then why not consider ridiculously oversized fake moustaches and / or over-the-top chest wigs (or 'merkins' as they are known in the trade)? There - I've used the word 'Merkin' in context. someone owes me £10. [/quote] I'm fairly sure that a merkin is NOT worn on the chest.

[quote name='bh2' post='1150789' date='Mar 5 2011, 06:15 PM']Clothes[/quote] Are you sure? Not very 70s porn. What about blue denim jackets and jeans.

In my hands the humble electric guitar becomes a whole new instrument. Enter the Tenor guitar.....

[quote name='Lozz196' post='1147786' date='Mar 2 2011, 10:23 PM']In a band that I was in, the lead guitarist left to become the bassist in another band. A while afterwards I got the startling admission "Now I realise what you were on about, when you said that the bass is a vital element in a band. I thought it was all bullsh*t until I started playing bass, now I know you were right".[/quote] He said something similar to me as well. "It's a different instrument and requires a completely different approach." That and "but I don't think I'll ever get the hang of fingerstyle though."

[quote name='essexbasscat' post='1143128' date='Feb 27 2011, 11:00 AM']What do you think ? If you played this song on stage, would you include the bum note ? as played on the song ?[/quote] I would put my own bum notes in. Strange question to ask on BassChat. Don't most basschatters listen to the first bar and then make the rest up?

The Americans call them internal and external dynamics. I see lots of bands using external dynamics ie loud and quiet passages, but not many using internal dynamics ie different emphasis on each note for individual musicians. Even fewer use legato and staccato. I think it's just the pervading louder sounds better attitude. Drummers are the worst offenders, keys and guitarists are better but only during solos.

[quote name='leschirons' post='1135975' date='Feb 21 2011, 06:52 PM']What I find unbelievable is that a pro tutor has put her up for this. He knew very well what we played as he'd seen a gig.[/quote] [quote name='leschirons' post='1136987' date='Feb 22 2011, 12:39 PM']What I got back was this. It was the band that did not know the songs properly, not her. (it was actually our CD she'd been sent)[/quote] Do you see a link? Are YOU as good as you think you are?

Superb, thanks Andrew. Bookmarked!

Someone on here once said that just being a cover band was too bland to sell. If you are a 90s/00s pop-rock or 70s punk, or 80s funk/disco you are much easier to market. The pubs/venues will be able to sell you and you will draw the people who know what they like. There is no reason I can see to be playing wedding/function tunes in a pub. If a pub band started playing that type of music I'd be out of there. BUT the general wedding/functions cover band is the same as a disco. How many times does the DJ trot out ABBA, New York New York etc. They're just as bad as the cover bands. You are providing dance music for drunk people to celebrate to. Its easy and yes it leads to laziness but playing requests keeps the crowd happy. Saying that I've played plenty of gigs where you just start playing and people dance and no-one comes up and requests anything. What you are all overlooking is that a live band is "magic" to people who are not musicians and who don't go out every weekend to a gig. A friend of mine stood mesmerised in front of a band who quite simply were awful. Afterwards he said they were excellent and he had no idea how they all know what to play and made all the bits fit together. People love live drum kits. When they hear Mustang Sally they don't hear CFG ad infinitum, they hear and see magic, it something they know and is predictable and they can sing along to it. SO Whatever you do play needs to fit in to your style, be instantly recognisable and people must know the words.

White spirit is oil/paraffin based, I don't recommend it. Meths and surgical spirit are alcohol based. All are solvents and do the same thing but white spirit will leave a residue. I suspect what is happening is that the solvent is dissolving all the grease built up on the strings from your fingers. The grease will have particles of skin embedded in it. I doubt that the solvents will remove skin particles actually trapped in the windings or coils of the strings (If there is any). Very hot water will do the same but detergent will help. I also suspect that the strings age because as you stretch them they lose their elasticity. I usually have to tune up, I can't remember many occasions when I have to tune down but this may be due to slippage (is there such a word) of the tuners. I would think that weekly cleaning the strings with a cloth and meths (careful of the fretboard) would be easier and also extend their life.

Got to be similar to Sky £800 a month. Some nights no-one in, some nights pack the pub to the rafters. You need to have the regular bands in to keep the reputation of a live music pub.

[quote name='Bankai' post='1117323' date='Feb 6 2011, 04:05 AM']What actually makes a keeper is an emotional attachment. Instead people use keeper as a adjective for a bass that is technically good.[/quote] That's more like what I thought Clarky was saying in his OP hence my rambling post earlier [url="http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?s=&showtopic=121807&view=findpost&p=1117167"]#39[/url] I thought he was asking what sort of person uses the word keeper? My basses have all been keepers apart from a 5-string that I rashly bought for £80 and was unplayable due to the neck dive. I bought it purely to see what a five string was like to play and to learn on with a view to possibly spending a lot of money on one in the near future. But I've never used the term keeper. Maybe because I've never really considered whether I would sell it later. If I'm spending a fair bit of money on a musical instrument I make sure it's right to start with.

The term "keeper" seems to me to be used by people who have tried several different basses and eventually been dissapoined by each one in tern and swapped them. Describing something as a keeper implies that you realise that you've been doing it and have now found the perfect one. The more fickle a persons nature the more likely they are to impulse buy and change their mind. That's what fickle means by definition. So this fickle nature soon shows and it wasn't the bass that they were not satisfied with but they way they looked at the bass. So having a fickle nature will ensure that their view of the "keeper" will also change. The less fickle of us will buy wisely and be happy with our purchases. Not a criticism just an observation. I knew a woman like that - she got through a lot of men. Heavy enough for you?

[quote name='skankdelvar' post='1108139' date='Jan 30 2011, 02:01 PM']Normal gig: ... Bessemer converter ...[/quote] Heavy metal band?

[quote name='bubinga5' post='1114575' date='Feb 3 2011, 09:37 PM']maybe it is for some, but for the most part, i really dont think its because of that reason..there not that thin skinned surely.. i asked Julian Crampton if hes come on BC, and he said he just doesnt get the time...[/quote] I suspect that anyone who has a busy life doesn't spend their time on forums. The pro musicians I know are either teaching all day and playing every night, or on the golf course. Maybe the golf forum would be the place to find them. I don't spend my free time down at TalkEngineering or EngineeringChat. Most will have a techinician to mend amps and basses and won't be spending all their time fiddling "under the hood". If they're rich enough they'll pay to get it fixed and if they're stuggling they'll be working to pay for the repairs

[quote name='teej' post='1108806' date='Jan 30 2011, 10:26 PM']Some food for thought here. I'll read back over it all again, but for now, I'll say I use a generator once a week on average all year round and have done for something like 12 years. I also know plenty of other acts who do this regularly. I guess one major difference is that we're using them in the street with less kit than most bands. Ours is a small Honda, the kind you can pick up with one hand and walk down the road with, powering a Yamaha Stagepas500 (with vocal and double bass into it), and a '70s Roland Cube for the guitar. In fact we don't add any more kit for gigs, but, being street performers we're starting out from a stripped down approach anyway.[/quote] This was my thought when looking into earthing etc. I bet you don't drive a spike though the pavement and get an electrician to test it.

[quote name='Johnston' post='1108511' date='Jan 30 2011, 07:18 PM']Can I just say in response to some of the shopping lists of "essentials" I did my first proper gig with a beat up cheap ass bit of korean Ply, a tuner and 2 cables 1 into and 1 out of the tuner (I think although I might have just unplugged to tune), a few picks and a copy of the setlist. Amp was a P.a. head through a 15" speaker borrowed from my uncle. No Gig bag, no spares, no effects and no tools. We thought that would be it done our gig had a laugh call it a day instead we got nearly another 7 years out of it . I did get my own amp soon after though [/quote] I didn't even have a tuner. Spent years building up a bag of essentials (or "be able to continue playing if a meteorite struck in the middle of a gig" bag). Then realised I never used or needed most of them and pared right down to the real essentials. The only real unusual essential item I have now is buldog clips and clothes pegs for windy outdoor gigs - they keep the music from blowing away.

[quote name='Marvin' post='1108049' date='Jan 30 2011, 12:37 PM']She (meaning me!) reads these from time to time No I'm not planning on extending the family! I was just curious (ok nosey) and Mr M didn't think many would reply. Plus I need some ideas of what 'bits and pieces' I can get him for b'day, christmas etc etc. ( oh I also know what most of the 'stuff' does generally ) Mrs Marvin xx[/quote] ROTFPMSL You've made my day. Although I will admit I'm easily pleased. You can never have too much Gaffa tape, too many spare strings or 9v batteries. But it is a very personal thing so I tend to ask my wife for specifics or I end up with some very nice well meant things but I would have bought different ones. So maybe I'm not that easily pleased

[quote name='Marvin' post='1107997' date='Jan 30 2011, 12:04 PM']I'm not particularly interested but the wife asked...[/quote] Be very careful here. If the wife is asking, the essential number of basses is n+1 where n is the number of basses you currently own. 'A bass and an amp and a few leads' is going to leave you seriously under-equipped. At the very least the answer should be an entire cupboard full of kit, possibly leaning towards a room full of kit. It is not necessary for you to explain what any of that kit does, how often you use it (if ever), or even if it is necessarily essential. All she needs to know is ALL that kit is what you NEED and if possible you need a bit more space for expansion. She's not planning on extending your family is she?

There's a huge discussion here [url="http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=120075"]Sound Guys that want to DI my guitar but not my amp[/url]

We had problems with volt drop on a very long extension lead when we played a gig. When we were asked to play again the next year we borrowed a genny. I think it was only a 2.2kV. we took it with us to every outdoor gig after that just incase. Rather than hiring lots of smaller gennys you're better getting one the right size. They're very quiet but everytime you add one you increase the sound. Put it as far away from the stage as possible, they sound loud if you listen for them but once your drummer starts they're inadiable, but that's nothing compared to the complaining your singer will do when they're breathing lungfuls of exhaust. As has been said before, add up all the ratings on your amps, but be aware that these are likely to be peak ratings. You'll only notice problems when pushing your gear to the limits and then proably only on the loud notes. Things that suffer when the voilts drop are the digital equipment, the amps tended to be OK soundwise but the reverb unit, feedback destroyer, keyboard and guitarists effects were all over the shop, lighting up like christmas trees and dropping out. We didn't earth it but I couldn't get any real info from anyone about doing this for temporary short term (3hours max) considering all the equipment we were using was in good condition. The genny had a metal frame in contact with the ground. If you are playing outside on grass (even in a marquee) it may be wise to insist on a wooden floor or at least a waterproof tarpaulin to stand on, even if it just stops any damp getting into your amp from the grass it's a wise electrical safety precaution. Turn your amps and everything OFF BEFORE you start or stop the genny. Your amps and your ears will thank you.