Leonard Smalls

All the right notes, but not necessarily in the right order...
When I first started playing (back in 1982!) I wanted to be a slap player, and knew this was somehow done with the thumb. So I learned to play (with no lessons or useful stuff like that) by pulling hard with the thumb, and later, fingers as well.
So I've now evolved to do a weird hybrid of slap, pop, thumb pulling and strumming and 3 finger flicking. It feels natural to me but other bass players tend to comment!
I also like to play riffs, usually funky, as opposed to melodic accompaniment. Everybody knows bass is a lead instrument!

Highlight click, right click, select delete... Or just highlight and press delete on the keyboard.

Looks like I'm moving house soon, and the new house has a handy "office". Which obviously means small studio!
It's about 10'x8', so to small for my rather large Leema or Ditton speaks.
So I'm thinking about some active Adams like AX7, or even 8s.
Anybody used them, or got any other recommendations on actives at £1k-ish?
I'll need to be able to hear bass...

I'll make no bones about the cerebral nature of this month's offering!

[quote name='Rikki1984' timestamp='1475420931' post='3145755']
No limitations on instruments whatsoever!
[/quote]

Apart from bagpipes...

I've made a start using a lovely bass whammy pedal. Expect Big Rock!

My mum was (still is at 83!) a piano teacher. Her teacher was one of Franz Liszt's pupils!
So I played piano as far as grade 7... Picked up the bass at 18 and never looked back.

ER!

First thing I'd ask is "What music are y'all into?"
I remember putting an ad in a few years ago for musicians for an originals band that was influenced by Funkadelic, Motorhead and Ornette Coleman.
I got 2 guys turning up wanting to do Beatles covers!

That's why I compress both going in and coming out of the FX.
That way I can choose compression settings that drive the fx best, and can limit dynamic frequency shifts from their output.
At present I'm using the fx loop on my amp for all FX, but I'm going to divide that loop into 2 or 3 so 1 will be envelope followers and distortion, 1 for Wah/expression and 1 for a Digitech Whammy pedal our guitarist insists I get with blend controls for each.
Then I can have natural tone, via initial compression on the amp mixed with a blend of 3 lots of individually compressed FX loops.
Or at least that's the plan!

[quote name='funkgod' timestamp='1474558599' post='3138825']
Len what pedal did you use for that ?... i want one

[/quote]

It's the venerable Wal in full active mode going into a one channel of a DBX compressor - set with some limiter gain, half attack and long release/medium ratio into a 3 Leaf envelope follower pedal (Bass Direct do them), then into the other channel of compression with more limiter gain, less attack, higher ratio and more release and recorded direct onto Ableton 9.
I've been known to use the 3Leaf, plus a Qtron and DOD envelope pedals driven by Darkglass tube distortion - which gives a most interesting effect!

[quote name='Indy' timestamp='1474536724' post='3138612']
Hi all, stumbled upon thread this while looking for some advice on recording.
Thanks!
[/quote]

Nice! And welcome to this dark and dusty corner of basschat!

I thought I'd do a beautiful melody evoking that feeling of autumnal colour, kids scuffing leaves and playing conkers, hot chocolate round the fire and burning folks who've tried to blow up parliament.
Then I thought, sod that, I'll do this instead:

https://soundcloud.com/leonard-smalls/really-free-man

Me too! An c I just apologise now...

[url="https://soundcloud.com/dredd-and-the-badass-weed/pollocks"]https://soundcloud.com/dredd-and-the-badass-weed/pollocks[/url]

drums: EZ Drummer layered on y me from Novation Impulse pads

bass: 3 tracks, all Wal, 2 with Supercharger compression, 3 leaf envelope follower, some delay and notched eq, one octaved up with "beat repeat" fx

keys: Novation glitch moog, EZ keys funky clavinet, Novation grand piano with varying levels of reverb/delay

Loopmasters scratch sample

A decent bass wah that works at a number of switchable frequencies, with a range of sweeps etc comparable to the best envelope followers including auto and manual at the same time. And with no annoying mechanical/electrical crackles that develop over time!

2000 or so for me supporting Carter USM...
Our drummer has done 90k or so - having supported U2 on the Zoo TV tour, including Wembley Stadium and Celtic Park!

Not strictly disco, but groovy all the same!

[MEDIA]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l9gcViXzmTQ[/MEDIA]

I use EZ Drummer... There's thousands of pre-programmed beats with a choice of kits, plus mixer and full midi editing so you can add extra snare, or take away the hi-hat or whatever...

I can't count up to 8!

Having had a slight heads-up on this I made a start yesterday afternoon on a rather random improvisation with a scary feel, taking the Blue Poles as time signature!
It may not be very popular...

Monochrome Set, The Clash, The Ruts, Ian Dury and the Blockheads, and after "California Uber Alles" was released, Dead Kennedys...

I much prefer Les's other supergroup, Colonel Claypool's Bucket of Bernie Brains:

[MEDIA]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MEDB4xJsXVo[/MEDIA]

Live? Maybe 5 or 6 times, usually a G. Most of those times were with a raucous punk-funk band...
In rehearsal or just practising - many, many times, all strings, all gauges, mainly slap and pop/finger and thumb style.
Though not so much in the last 10 years - either I've mellowed, my technique's got better, or less rock-climbing means weaker fingers?

I'll usually do something whizzy and chromatic involving far too many notes.
Or just put the palm of my hand over my eye and make farty noises, which is much more impressive...

Ta!
And the lyrics are like Wily The Shake himself wrote 'em!

Bit of a departure for me... This month it's a collaboration with Weeds guitarist John "Boy" Sullivan, and it's not only rockin', but largely incomprehensible!

https://soundcloud.com/dredd-and-the-badass-weed/throb