Leonard Smalls

Bit funky, annoying piano, Antwan The Swan doing the one tune he can "sing" - typical New Chillis...
Much preferred it when they had some [i][i]cojones[/i] - [/i]I remember seeing them at the Clarendon in Hammersmith, 1987ish, then later at the Mean Fiddler (when Hillel had to leave the stage due to "issues" (!) and te other 3 had to continue - awesome bass playing!) and they definitely rocked then.
But then my favourite albums were RHCP, Freakey Styley and Mother's Milk...

I've never played with a pick - tend to use thumb and 3 fingers.
It's a case of do what you wanna do!

Lawks!
You couldn't slide a king-sized Rizla between the front runners!
Is it going to be a 4 way tie?

S'all very tight again - excellent stuff from all once more!

Oops!
(Sorry Skol, your post in the future is now a bit more confusing, though I'll bet further mentions a few posts on will create a predestination paradox...)

I had tennis elbow in the right arm and golfer's elbow in the left (i.e. inside and outside of elbows respectively).
Which is a shame as I hate both games!
I had physio, which mainly consisted of kneading the tendons between elbow and wrist, with a recommendation to do 3x15 reps/day of downward facing wrist curls using a dyna-band (i.e. fat elastic strip), as well gently stretching the wrist, mainly by pushing the palms together and holding for 30 secs as often as poss.

I remember many years ago we were auditioning a drummer; we felt we were going places and needed a good drummer with a similar musical outlook to us.
So we gave the gig to the first one who came in and rolled a fat one!
However, it only took one rehearsal to notice (his long hair, tight denims and Whitesnake tshirt should have given it away) that he wasn't into playing punk-funk. Not only that, but he had a controlling girlfriend who made David St. Hubbins' Janine look like Mother Theresa...

And people will still pay £thousands for a 60s bass!

Cheers Rob!
Very kind words, though I'd say I'm sloppy and pull the strings too hard!

More racquet from me...

https://soundcloud.com/leonard-smalls/miso

I've finally finished faffing around, have uploaded a cut-to-length vid:

[MEDIA]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q0povnDhVa4&feature=youtu.be[/MEDIA]

and a Soundcloud with a slightly different mix

[url="http://soundcloud.com/dredd-and-the-badass-weed/kamikaze-girl"]http://soundcloud.co...d/kamikaze-girl[/url]

Inspiration was the vid, song started as an improvisation over a disco beat while watching vid, the 2nd take of that became the song. Lyrics were written after all the music had been finished.
Bass is the trusty Wal, drums by me and Mr EZ Drummer, keys by me, vox and lyrics by me, guitars are edited samples.

Rules is for squares, man!
Next y'all'll be telling me I can't do just the" press record and stop" while Stanley Clarke does the "play bass" bit in the middle...

ShotCut seems to be very powerful for freeware - as it's open source there is no master/pro version, it's all there for free. It takes some working out, but then they all do.
Basically it seems to do much of the same stuff as Avid, in a slightly more convoluted way, but with no cost unless you choose to donate.
There's no upgrades, no "in-app" purchases, just freeware!

The problem is that music may be listened to on everything from a medium wave radio to a £100k hifi...
So monitoring quality is paramount as you need to know both what's on your recording, as well as what's on your mix - it's then largely a question of experience as to how to make it sound as good as possible on a wide range of kit. Many studios will have a large main monitor for the first, plus something appalling like Yamaha NS10s for the 2nd. If you can get it to sound good on NS10s it'll sound good on anything!
As an illustration, when I worked in BBC sound NICAM was just starting to be popular. Before this, broadcasts had an absolute lower limit of 50Hz, as, barring the occasional simulcast, it would only ever be heard on a TV speaker.
Then we started noticing through our own home NICAM set-ups that, especially on period dramas, there was some low frequency rumble. It turned out that the large Rogers LS55/8 had little output below around 45Hz, so traffic or train rumble wouldn't be heard in the dubbing theatre, but would be on the NICAM signal.
The answer was to filter out everything below 50Hz, until new monitors for all teh dubbing theatres could be bought... (active Harbeth Monitor 40s, btw)

[quote name='Skol303' timestamp='1460455897' post='3025806']
Next time I buy a pair of monitors [i](which will be in the distant future...)[/i], I'll probably save up for a pair with a sealed/portless cabinet - i.e. no bass port.
[/quote]

It's all swings and roundabouts...
Theoretically, a sealed box will deliver "better" bass, as it's all coming from the driver - unless it's designed to resonate in specific ways...
However, a poorly-designed sealed box will be shown a clean pair of heels by a ported/transmission line/resonator of good design.
The problem with a sealed box is that in order to get extension, you need size...
My Leema Xaviers - designed by a chap I used to work with at the Beeb - manage -3dB at 28Hz using one 6.5" (Scanspeak) bass driver (pistonic excursion of more than 25mm!), in a box 105cm high and 25cm wide by the use of an enormous 100mm port in the front. However, they're still quite big, need an amp, and would still set you back over a grand 2nd hand!
But if you want sealed box active, aren't worried about WAF (wife acceptability factor!), and max bang for the buck, I'd recomment [url="http://www.gear4music.com/Recording-and-Computers/Event-Opal-Active-Studio-Monitor-Single/BGS?origin=product-ads&utm_campaign=*PLA+Shop+-+All+Products&utm_medium=vertical_search&network=google&adgroup=**All+Products&merchant_id=1279443&product_id=14860d1&product_country=GB&product_partition_id=62124249557&gclid=CLKDzoWCicwCFUgq0wodpBcHCQ#full-des"]Event Opals[/url]. They sound most excellent indeed, but are £2300/pair with bass down to 35Hz.
Or if you want WAF, serious wireless design, 750W plus bass down to 16Hz in a tiny package, Devialet Phantoms ar around £2800 a pair!

[quote name='the boy' timestamp='1460388808' post='3025251']
I know what you mean.... There isn't a lot in either to inspire. The "Jono" pic is quite a personal thing and the video is a bit stop start to provide any rhythm. I'm gonna persevere as well. There is something about the "Jono" pic that's making me feel rueful. Rueful is the exchange student intern here at work. He doesn't mind. He knows it's in the interest of Art, dammit man......,
[/quote]

I've done something about the spirit of the adventure - basically in praise of the crazy fools!
However, it's 56 seconds longer than the video, so I've downloaded ShotCut (good piece of kit, btw - open source and free...) - the question is do I have time to learn how to use it and edit more footage in?
Either way, it's funky and only needs minor tweaks (some would say my dad rap could be tweaked out altogether!).

[quote name='Dad3353' timestamp='1460054491' post='3022213']
. Jono is represented by the trombone and vibraphone; I hope it's a good match..?
[/quote]
He wouldn't have cared either way - he always seemed to enjoy loud AC/DC.
But he's barely in my song, apart from a passing allusion to an "air dog".
But Machiavelli and Jean - Claudia Killy both get a mention!

John-oh.
Or Fluffster.
Or Furrypants-boy.
Or Gerroutthebloodyfridgeyertheivinmutt!

[quote name='christofloffer' timestamp='1460046395' post='3022087']
i "sad songs about dogs dying"
[/quote]

Here's another Jono pic for your inspiration... He was 18 when he died, so he did quite well - he was still coming mountain biking with me (on his own downhill rig) until 2 weeks before he snuffed it, so he can't whinge (literally!).

So far I've done slappy funk complete with 70s phased drums, wah-ed guitar and a Fender Rhodes...
And there's a verse and a half of lyrics, with a provisional title. Haven't decided whether to stick with the Northern Poet, or do some Sad Dad Rapping. "Singing" is probably not a viable option!

[quote name='RalphDWilson' timestamp='1459949295' post='3021148']
I have the Adam F5s .
[/quote]

For £310 a pair that sounds like a bit of a no-brainer!
I always fancied a pair of Adam Tensor Gammas, but couldn't afford them...

[quote name='Skol303' timestamp='1457780460' post='3001706']
I only have experience of using Mackie monitors, but I'd certainly recommend them.

[url="http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/oct11/articles/mackie-mr-mk2.htm"]http://www.soundonso...ckie-mr-mk2.htm[/url]

I have a set of MR8 and they're very good - albeit probably too large for the room I work in.

You can pick up a pair of MR5 (mk2) for around £200.
[/quote]

For some reason I've never really got on with Mackies - I've found them to be a touch harsh in the treble, which means you might mix down higher frequencies, then it'll sound a bit "shut in" on other speakers/phones.
This was brought home to me in a big way recently; we recorded our single in a studio in Sheffield which had large Mackie monitors and a sub.
It all sounded quite impressive there, but getting it home onto my much more revealing system (Bryston/Leema/Ditton) showed that both low bass and treble were definitely down (I checked it on a Stax headphone system and some ATC active 150s) leaving a somewhat thin and overly polite actual sound...
Though that was likely to have been an issue with relative speaker/sub balance - an issue quite easily sorted with some DSP - it didn't endear me to the Mackie brand!
But I have always had a liking for Adam monitors...

I use Ableton...
I've never bothered consolidating clips automatically to 0dB - I like to set volumes individually both by ear, and by looking at the outputs.
I've also always used - until last week! - the Ableton audio fx compressors, in particular the Aggressive Kneeless Compressor - this allows different levels of compression at different frequencies (just about!) which works very well for bass. I also use the Fast limiter, and often a bit of reverb on bass tracks which helps it cut through drums.
Being ex-BBC I also take a lot of care for the master output to never exceed 0dB (you can tell what the max level of each track including master from the mix window) as digital distortion and clipping is horrible! I do find that this sometimes means my levels might be lower than some other folks mixes, but it also means that any distortion on the track has been added by me (unless I just haven't noticed it - when you get to my age etc)

[quote name='Roland Rock' timestamp='1459695328' post='3018672']

*Hey Leonard, hope to be playing Green Meadows fest so see you there!
[/quote]

Excellent!
When are you on?
We're after the puppet show and balloon sculpture on Sunday

Me Shropshire too, though in the robber country of the south...