leroydiamond

[quote name='Adrenochrome' timestamp='1354612032' post='1887913'] Go to the docs, get it properly diagnosed, and be as healthy and fit as you possibly can. 40 is nothing, I'm ten times the bass player I was at 25. [/quote] Wait until you hit 50 (Like me) Jaco watch out! (I wish)

[quote name='Dad3353' timestamp='1354465739' post='1886262'] Good afternoon, Tom... I'm sorry, but this kind of appeal, however well-founded, is quite the last to motivate me, and possibly others, to respond. There are several fundamental flaws (imho...) which go against my upbringing and 'culture', such as deservedness, worth and 'honesty'. It could be (slightly...) different if you had at least asked to listen to the purported entry, along with others, and judge the likeability for ourselves. Asking for a blind (or, in this case, deaf..?) vote is not on, in my book. No disrespect,and I wish no malice to anyone involved, but this doesn't work for me, at least. Good luck with the competition, but on loyal terms. [/quote] +1

What do I know but I just find his playing to be .............well boring.

[quote name='KingBollock' timestamp='1354290151' post='1884543'] I said something that could too easily have been taken the wrong way. It was meant as a general thing but could have been taken personally. I seem to do that a lot on here and need to learn when to keep my gob shut. [/quote] Not at all mate.

[quote name='KingBollock' timestamp='1354285751' post='1884468'] EDIT: Nevermind, not in the mood for an argument. Sorry about that. [/quote] [quote name='KingBollock' timestamp='1354285751' post='1884468'] EDIT: Nevermind, not in the mood for an argument. Sorry about that. [/quote] [color=#282828][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif]To be honest I'm not really arguing with people here.[/font][/color]

[quote name='thisnameistaken' timestamp='1354282349' post='1884400'] When you put it like that I can see how the £2000 CD player would really come into its own if the music industry decides to remaster everything properly. And you know that might happen too, stranger things have happened. In the mean time you can get much cheaper CD players you know? I mean way, way cheaper. Normal shops sell them. [/quote] Dont want a cheaper CD player because not every artist falls victim of the "louder is better" trend, particularly more obscure artists and in such instances audiophile quality CD players are a step above the cheap and cheerful stuff

[quote name='thisnameistaken' timestamp='1354281055' post='1884380'] If I had a £2000 CD player that sounded worse than a record player I would not consider any CD purchase a 'disaster' [/quote] The issue is the mastering levels that are ruining CD as an audiophile medium. This is the case regardless of the player used.

[quote name='xgsjx' timestamp='1354270663' post='1884233'] Now there's a man who knows how to use effects to good effect. [/quote] . Just a great bass player regardless of effects. Has written some great bass lines and delivers them with powerful attitude.A joy to watch live. Much preferred his sound when he used a musicman though.

[quote name='51m0n' timestamp='1354271255' post='1884247'] [url="http://www.whatrecords.co.uk/items/24206.htm"]Looks like it may well be still available[/url] Although IIRC it was a limited edition, so thius may not be on the same quality vinyl as the one I am thinking of - vinyl, its a nightmare innit [/quote] No more a nightmare than buying a CD and discovering that it sounds like a bag of spanners due to the "louder is better" trend.

Thanks. Its all interesting stuff. I think the issue of the loudness war killing CD as a medium is the most salient aspect regarding the conversation, considering CD is capable of delivering so much more in terms of quality. I reckon thats the reason I tend to pull out some vinyl when I have some friends around . Cannot put up with the harsh sound that is part and parcel of so many albums released nowadays. I will have a shot at switching my CD player with the community of audiophiles that live locally to see can I get a better match for my system. Must keep an eye out for that RHCP double vinyl album. One of my favourite bands. Flea is the man really

[quote name='51m0n' timestamp='1354221210' post='1883889'] Yeah that is one horrid sounding bass, very much 'of its time' though, and back then unusual in that you could hear it at all, but then BG never had a bass sound to compare with Flea's, and yet I love his playing now more than ever, especially on that album... It woud take a remix to fix that one, not a remaster I'm afraid I thinkk we are on the same wavelength too really. That whole audiophile snake oil really boils my p*&@ as well! All the money wasted on gobbledeegook, I know a friend of a friend who designs audiophile speakers (size of a warddrobe each they are) and someone in that game (who has made himself very very rich I might add) has apparently advised him that charging [i]only [/i]8 grand a pair wont get him the 'right' clientelle (for which read the mega rich who like a bit of tinycockovercompensation in the hifi department who generally live in the middle east apparently), he should really consider charging at least four or five times as much to be taken 'seriously' Its madness! [/quote] +1. I cannot see the point in spending hundreds on interconnect and speaker cables. I was at a demo of the like some years ago and just could not hear a difference between a 50 quid interconnect and one costing 5 times the price. Have invited some friends around and Just done an a cd/vinyl comparison with prefab sprouts Steve Mcqueen. The consensus is the vinyl wins hands down. So is the primare just a bum CD player,?. Its certainly better than the marantz player it replaced. Whats you recommendation?

[quote name='pendingrequests' timestamp='1354192614' post='1883307'] Distortion pedal is only included every now again, so it's frequently three that I use. The EQ pedal is now rarely used and the Chorus is used once or twice. You can go into this deep depth world of cables, components until your eyes bleed. The fact is, the average listener is not going to hear any differences whatsoever. Until the day I am touring the world with a roadie who knows everything about this, I am keeping my setup the way it is. [/quote] I am not so much concerned with what the average listener hears and i agree they probably will not here any difference. My concern is what I as a bassplayer can hear and IMO removing effects from my set up gives me a tone I am happier with. Of course you are correct to go with the set up that suits you best. different strokes for different folks

The capacity for [quote name='51m0n' timestamp='1354188203' post='1883202'] I think it started far more simply than that - louder sounds better. Largely because the human brain is rubbish at assessing the merits of sound (otherwise everyone could track, mix and master really well) and needs equal volumes in order to judge a sound on any other factor at all. So everyoine liked the loudest master the most. Its just got to stupid levels now. What is exasperating is even at 16bit CDs are capable of a far wider dynamic range (in theory 150dB) than vinyl could ever hope for (absolute best it could be woiuld be around 120dB, I've never heard vinyl get close to this though! In reality its closer to 80dB on a great system), and yet rather than embrace this the average dynamic range of records has shrunk to a fraction of that available on vinyl. Some really good stuff on vinyl vs cd [url="http://wiki.hydrogenaudio.org/index.php?title=Myths_%28Vinyl%29"]here[/url] CD comes off rather superior... [/quote] Technically your correct but as you say the loudness war is destroying CD as a hi fidelity playback system. Guess thats why some older Vinyl sounds really good as they were mastered before this 'louder the better' mastering took off

[quote name='51m0n' timestamp='1354181668' post='1883050'] Staying totally off topic Mastering for loudness has destroyed the CD as a truly hi fidelity playback system - I completely agree. If you can find really thoughtfully mastered CDs the playback can be spectacular (cough cough [url="http://kitrichardson.bandcamp.com/"]Kit Richardson's EP[/url] cough cough) but in most 'chart' efforts the mastering crushes the dynamic range down to way less than 10dB (less than 5dB isnt unheard of). That ruins the CD for 'proper' listening, but does make it stand up to really nasty environments (the car) far better. Tyhat isnt necessarily the mastering engineers fault either, they are paid for a product, and the purse holder demands more level. It is a crying shame though. Having said that vinyl mastering has been pushing level since the 60's too, there was much consternation in the Motown lathe room at the level the Beatles had got on their singles! It is not a new phenomena, and its not going away in mainstream commercial music any time soon I think. [/quote][quote name='51m0n' timestamp='1354181668' post='1883050'] Staying totally off topic Mastering for loudness has destroyed the CD as a truly hi fidelity playback system - I completely agree. If you can find really thoughtfully mastered CDs the playback can be spectacular (cough cough [url="http://kitrichardson.bandcamp.com/"]Kit Richardson's EP[/url] cough cough) but in most 'chart' efforts the mastering crushes the dynamic range down to way less than 10dB (less than 5dB isnt unheard of). That ruins the CD for 'proper' listening, but does make it stand up to really nasty environments (the car) far better. Tyhat isnt necessarily the mastering engineers fault either, they are paid for a product, and the purse holder demands more level. It is a crying shame though. Having said that vinyl mastering has been pushing level since the 60's too, there was much consternation in the Motown lathe room at the level the Beatles had got on their singles! It is not a new phenomena, and its not going away in mainstream commercial music any time soon I think. [/quote] I tend to agree. The music industry is pandering to the requirements of its customers who appear to be happy to prioritise quantity over quality

Gigged again last night without any effects and very happy. As a result I am becoming more aware of the quality of the pre amp on my sadowsky. A Really good preamp they are!.

[quote name='LawrenceH' timestamp='1354122532' post='1882386'] None of that matters if you're comparing a relatively early high quality vinyl pressing with a bad, overcompressed remaster from 30 year old tapes. CD can sound amazing but rarely does when you AB the same material with a vinyl copy, and I wonder if the quality of the master is often why rather than being intrinsic to the format. Back to the OT, I've kind of gone the opposite. I've always played with a clean sound but recently got into using a Peavey TB Raxx valve preamp. I am in sonic love, it's a world away from the junky pedal format preamps, Sansamps and the like. [/quote] Best of luck with the preamp. I have never tried Peavey TB Raxx. Agree with your comments regarding vinyl and cd. Another issue is the loudness that much of todays music is recorded at, which compromises the possibility of enjoying good CD quality audio. Check this link for a discussion on the issue www.turnmeup.org. I guess that is one reason why I tend to revert back to older music on Vinyl. I mean I really love muse but their albums offer poor audio quality when played on a decent system. Regardless of my views it appears that the vast majority of the public are happy with crapy mp3 files as a source.

[quote name='51m0n' timestamp='1354096645' post='1881916'] I am 'fairly sure' that the right quality DACs and a high enough sample rate an bit depth recording played back on your system would blow away the vinyl too, not suffering any of the mechanical limitations of vinyl. And the data wouldn't degrade either with every listen (unlike vinyl) . [/quote] That may well be true but my CD player cost over 2000 euro and thats as much as i could afford. I am sure there is a player with more expensive DACS out there but its out of my reach. The sound out of a 30 year old linn with little upgrades still beats the primare.

[quote name='bassman7755' timestamp='1354057059' post='1881627'] Companies that sell musical equipment of whatever variety spend a lot of money nurturing and exploit "memes" (appealing that ideas tend to catch on over time irrespective of their actual merit). "simpler things sound better than more complex ones" "analogue things sound better than digital" "hand made things sound better than mass produced ones" "things that are tweed coloured and have chicken-head knobs on sound better" "things made in america/UK sound better" Personally I've never come across anything that clearly demonstrates that any of the above are true more often than that arn't. As a side note. I applaud companies like Barefaced than are prepared to challenge memes if pursuit of making better products - I mean taking on the "you need small speakers to get a taut well defined bass sound" took a lot of guts. [/quote] Oh dear we could be in for 'vinyl sounds better than CD here' (or visa versa). Anyway my 30 year old linn turntable blows my primare cd player out of the water

[quote name='51m0n' timestamp='1354064795' post='1881751'] Its not remotely difficult to argue that the room is a problem. Most living rooms are listening rooms, most living rooms have parallel walls and dimensions that are multiples of each other. Very few have any though put toward the acoustic of the space by anyone at all. Very few have more than a 12 foot ceiling, or more than 15 foot width or length in a new build. They have reflective bare walls at the points of direct reflection, no basstrapping other than a sofa, no diffusion other than a few books on a shelf and no control of reflection off the ceilings. Therefore they are almost certainly acoustically pretty awful (sorry really really terrible) with unbalanced waterfall graphs, massive room nodes and sub optimum reverb times and characteristics. The source is usually recorded in a reasonably controlled space, or its largely sample based or electronic in nature. It is generally mixed on decent monitors in a decent space and then mastered on significantly better gear in a better space by a person who specialises in fixing defects in stereo mixes. The chances that a consumer in their acoustically apalling room can improve on the work that has gone before with a simplistic cheap and nasty eq bolted on to an amp as bells and whistles is relatively tiny. The fact that they think they need to is because their perception of the music is clouded by the room they are in as much or in fact far more than the equiptment they are using to listen on. The snake oil audio industry avoids anything to do with room acoustic because it tends to expose the myths, and it isnt considered as sexy as brushed aluminium and blue LEDs.... [/quote] +1. For most of us there maybe limitations to what we can do to our room as typically the room will function as a living room also. But isolating components that maybe prone to experiencing vibrations (Eg due to timber floors) and experimentation with speaker positioning can help to make a significant difference. Work with what you have. If you feel you have to use EQ then fine, but for me its not an ideal way to compensate

Both great guitarists but its gotta be Page. He gas written the most memorable riffs in the history of Rock. pure genius.

[quote name='pendingrequests' timestamp='1354019061' post='1880823'] I've been playing covers for the majority of my playing career and have never needed effects. Only until recently, I use a chorus pedal on 'Don't Stop Believing' I play a range of stuff and don't see why I need a £80 pedal for a sound that will be used once or twice, where a punter won't come up to me at the end and say "Excuse me, but your bass tone for Stuck In The Middle With You doesn't have the same tone as the record, I will be telling the management not to pay you". I understand everyone is in a different situation and maybe plays different covers and music to what I am. I'm just a very big supporter of less tech and pedals and more classic tone and sound. [/quote] +1

[quote name='51m0n' timestamp='1354029710' post='1881095'] Yes, it can, however, IME its far more likely that pedal board signal degradation is due to poor quality interconnecting patch cables. I use 10 ft in to the board and 10 or 20ft out of it, I couldn't care less about true bypass vs buffered - actually in point of fact I'd far rather have a really great buffered signal than a true bypass signal, since it will (again IME) degrade significantly less with cable length. However a good active circuit goes a hell of a long way towards making that unimportant (again IME). Yes you can probalby measure some degradation, but in live use I haven't been able to really notice any degradation in my board with either active bass, but you cantell (albeit slightly) with the passive one. [/quote] Using a Sadowsky with active circuit but still noticed a difference in tone once I removed the effects unit. Subtle but noticable

[quote name='thisnameistaken' timestamp='1354028035' post='1881049'] But you don't understand why, and you've ended up back where you started with no more of a clue than you had in the first place, which makes your experimentation completely worthless! [/quote] I Have enjoyed the experimentation of using effects, just prefer my tone without them. Its that simple.

[quote name='thisnameistaken' timestamp='1354028263' post='1881051'] No I meant what would [i]you[/i] do. I'm pretty content with the sound I'm getting from my hi-fi and the furthest thing from my mind is removing all the tone controls to see if it sounds better. I wanted to know what you - as a believer in this approach - what procedure would you employ to match your hi-fi components perfectly to your listening environment? I am willing to concede that removing all the tone controls from your setup would be a good thing if you can explain how you find out what is exactly the right setup for your room. And could you also describe what changes you would make if you bought a new sofa. Would you then begin the entire process again from the start? [/quote] i am lucky in that there is a small community of Hi Fi buffs around here that swap gear over and back. Together with our local equipment supplier who allowed me try a number of combination I arrived at a set up that suited my needs. If I change the sofa I will re-evaluate my set up

[quote name='thisnameistaken' timestamp='1354027320' post='1881028'] So if your intention was to eliminate tone controls from your home hi-fi, and instead carefully match your components to suit your living room, how would you go about doing that? I guess you'd do spectrum analyses of your room and take that data to the hi-fi shop who would match your EQ requirements to a specific set of components? What if the exact set of components for your room don't exist? Do you capitulate and buy an EQ - a consumer unit specifically designed to fix the problem you're having - or do you start remodelling your house? Your approach sounds impractical for both the consumer and the hi-fi industry, who presumably can't mass-produce anything any more because it all needs to be built bespoke to match individual listening rooms. I suppose that does at least go some way to justifying the ridiculous prices. [/quote] you can go whatever route you want. Fact is that many Amplifier manufacturers choose to produce amps without tone controls. It is not a fact that those who choose to purchase them are uneducated audiofiles