wateroftyne

It was awesome on Monday night. Loved it. Phil-osopher10 - I'm not sure. The Berg cab is so sensitive I've never needed to push the WA.

Hi all I've been having a clear out, and I've found a stash of Bassist mags from the mid-to-late 90s. It's been a hoot reading through them - one review describes a fairly monstrous GK head as 'small' - presumably because it's only 2U high. Anyway.. each issue usually contained a [i]'My bass rig is...'[/i] column, in which a reader discusses their gear. For some reason, one particular issue - June '97 - doesn't mention the poor subject's name anywhere in the feature. Even the contents page refers to him as 'A Bassist reader'. I'm wondering whether they literally couldn't find his name and had to go to press without it. Here's his pic. Is this you? Do you know him? Let's give a bass brother the recognition he's deserved for the last 15 years.. we can do this!

I don't think any of them are short of a bob or two. The O2 gig proved to me that they've still got it.

[quote name='xilddx' timestamp='1361274133' post='1983597'] Fantastic mate! Wot happened to your barnet? [/quote] Time. She's a cruel mistress.... :-(

[left]Ah - a tour would be marvelous. This was a one-off, unfortunately...[/left]

Mornin' all! That was unbelievable... the guests were amazing, and I loved every second of it. I got through it with no calamities, I'm happy to say! I used my Precision (w/flats) most of the time, and my Jazz (w/rounds) for the poppy tunes. MK was a pleasure to work with... we had him for an hour or so in the afternoon - I expected him to turn up, do the check, and leave, but he really spent time getting to know is, and making suggestions. He asked me to play on the intro to Going Home, which I hadn't learned, so I had to find a quiet corner and scribble down the chords. We had MK [i]and[/i] Ruby Turner for Try a Little Tenderness, complete with brass, and it kicked arse. Doing 'All the Time in the World' with Ben Ottewell out of Gomez, with the orchestra swirling around me will stick in my mind forever. Here's another pic I nicked off Twitter...

The fix you mentioned earlier will almost certainly sort it. Common blip with the older models....

Just another boring soundcheck...

Well, thats our first soundcheck done. We have more run-throughs later with the guests, and the orchestra. Here's my view...

Gorgeous!

..and the winner is.... The AG500. ...kind-of. They're both bloody great, but I think I'm ready for a change, just for the sake of it.

[quote name='xilddx' timestamp='1361126479' post='1981480'] What a buzz! Looking forward to your Tuesday report once the epic hangover has calmed down Very best of luck, Michael! [/quote] Guess which mug has got a really important meeting at his 'real' job on Tuesday, and can't take the day off? Yiiip. :-( They'll get no sense out of me, I tell ya....

[quote name='xgsjx' timestamp='1361126084' post='1981474'] All the best for tomorrow. Oh, did you manage to learn all of "love don't live here anymore"? [/quote] Ha ha - it's a Nail-free zone...

I've just stood in a room with Ruby Turner singing at full pelt. Sweet Jesus and the orphans... unbelievable. All done. Tomorrow's the day. 8am line check, anyone? :-(

[quote name='Machines' timestamp='1361088050' post='1980734'] No point really. Mobile site is fit for purpose. [/quote] ^^^ this.

The gig's on Monday... We started rehearsing on Friday, the first of three full days in the rehearsal space. Yesterday was just us, i.e. the core band. Today was the band and the lady backing singers (who are amazing - [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sx5YpUIPQwg"]see what I mean?[/url]). Peter Brewis of Field Music come along to rehearse his bit, too. Nice lad. Tomorrow is another intense all-dayer, with visits from Joe McElderry, Ruby Turner and Ben Ottewell out of Gomez who are all doing a song each. We're not hooking up with MK or the orchestra until Monday's all-day pre-gig rehearsal at the venue, but we've got those tunes ready to go anyway. It's an eclectic mix of tunes and styles, it's fab fun, the band are all great lads, and I can't wait. It's bloody tiring, though...! [url="http://www.safeconcerts.com/news/2013/feb/8170-more-acts-announced-for-sir-bobby-robson-a-celebration.asp"]Here's a more recent story about the gig[/url].

Been rehearsing with the AG500 all day. The intention was to swap to the Walkabout at some point to compare, but I was having so much fun I forgot. It's more accurate than the Walkabout as you'd expect, but still very punchy. It's a different flavour of goodness. I might do more A/B'ing at the rehearsal tomorrow...

[quote name='Stan_da_man' timestamp='1360779466' post='1976409'] Precision w/ flats > Ampeg B15. Zzz... Use a decent engineer or just learn to do it yourself. [/quote] Hmmmm...?

Speak to Howard 'The Bass Doc' (he's a member on here). I've seen him get lovely 'burst bodies for not much at all. He's had problems with his internets but I think he's back online now.

I've heard good reports on TB about the Walkabout...

[quote name='51m0n' timestamp='1360750098' post='1975680'] Mastering has a lot to answer for, all pop is mastered to be the loudest it can be, with tiny RMS to peak ratios, ibut the desperate need to produce loud mixes also means that the mix engineers are also gettiing in on that act, they are limiting audio on very peaky signals (kick drums, snares etc) to get maximum level, they are taking ducking and sidechain techniques and p[arallel compression to extremes, carving eq harder than ever to get more and more seperation. Panning is LCR as much as possible to aid seperation. This isnt new at all, I was listening to Curtis Mayfields Superfly the other day, and you can hear some of these elements even on that (LCR panning oin nearly everything, great seperation etc etc), but then the idea was to create a cohesive mix, now its to make a loud mix, the intention is different, and one thing that happens when you take this to the logical conclusion is the bass looses everything over 125Hz, because it isnt 'necessary' in the eyes of the engineer, and will make it harder to get loud. Its not directly to do with digital versus analogue really though, its all about trends in music and what is perceived to be the best way to get the mix across. Digital definitely allows for a far wider frequency range, especially in the low end, but having that available doesnt necessarily mean people no longer add enough midrange info into bass sounds into a track. Once again have a listen to the Kit Richardson stuff I did, Nigel's bass is clear as a bell, you can hear every single note and inflection, its also got plenty of bass energy - anyone here worth his salt could transcribe the bass parts to the Kit stuff without a problem I think! Personally I think live sound is at least as much to blame, the current insanity with unbeleavable low end sub bass dominating every mix and SPLs over 110dB are making people think that music only sounds good when the bass is a mahoosive wall of unintelligable sludge trying to rearrange your organs. I like it loud, but I like my hearing more, and a great mix live or on a recording os the one that carried the emotional content of the performance and track best to the listener, in some cases a wall of unintelligble sludge would be the best solution for that, but nowhere near as often as it is offered as the solution. [/quote] Word.

[i][size=5]'Dum, dum dum, dum dum dummer dum....'[/size][/i] [i][size=5][/size][/i]

[quote name='LukeFRC' timestamp='1360680403' post='1974487'] right... I know you'll have some expertise here.... how do you see flat wound strings, and also less valvey sounds effecting how we hear the bass "in the mix" ? [/quote] Pfff... it depends. IME chances are the engineer doesn't have much experience with them, or doesn't know what they are. They'll be EQ'd the same as rounds and they'll sound like crap. If you're working with someone who knows what they are, and what they're supposed to sound like, then it can be great, but it doesn't happen too often. And then there's the final mix and mastering, which can undo all the good work anyway...