lurksalot

Ladies and Gentlemen, 'tis time to lend your ear to the offerings served up for you this very fine June , and its bloody scary that there is not much left of it. So get your lugs around these here tunes before you notice the days are drawing in , though in the words of the great AHA the sun always shines on BC The picture from last months winner @Leonard Smalls is this beauty and inspired the entries as below 1 Lurksalot I pulled the movement element in with the music and the dress sense with the lyrics , not overly obscure references and most should pick them out straight away. guitar, bass,keys and vocal yours truly, announcer is lurksalittle and drums EZ Enjoy ....naughty boy 2 Dad3353 Here is my contribution to the June 2020 Basschat Composition Challenge, inspired by a picture chosen by the previous winner: Leonard Smalls..! It started off as a search for inspiration, as I had no 'handle' on it. As a bit of a change, I turned on my keyboard, dialled away the 'acoustic piano' I usually play, and stumbled upon an 'electric guitar' setting. Using this, I picked out a riff I had in my head. Hmm... Potential, maybe, but my piano is in my modelling 'den', and not connected to my PC. No worries, I have a Fostex hard-disk 8-track recorder; I'll dig that out. Once I'd worked out again how it works (s'been a long time, and I'm old..!), I got the riff down. No click, metronome nor beat, just raw keys. Downstairs to my pica-studio, to export the result into Reaper. Hmm... It's a bit 'ropey', compared to the metronome. I spend some time fiddling about with the files, chopping bits up here and there, but decide, eventually, to ask Our Eldest to play the riff instead. Once I'd set up the gear required to do that, I thought to try it out to get the sound I wanted. Might as well record it, whilst I'm at it. Three takes later (one track, doubled track and one 'extras' track...), no need to trouble the lad; it's done and dusted. Stick a bass on (well, two, while I'm in the mood...) and a drum track, scrub the original 'keys' guitar and it's finished..! Drums programmed with Superior 3, two mystery basses and three 'live' takes of my Xavier guitar, through a Boss compressor pedal, Boss Fender Deluxe pedal and a Germanium Big Muff pedal. All mixed in Reaper, with the usual post-production mastering with Ozone. I'm not sure if my 'inspiration' hits the spot, but it was more fun to do than I'd thought at first, so... Result..! Thanks for listening, if you already have; if you're about to, enjoy. 3 Leonard Smalls It's inspired by the time Barf Roco played the Jericho Tavern in Oxford. After the sound check the band went out for some chips, and when we came back we saw a terrified local chap running for his life down the road; he was being pursued by one of the Bromley Boyz in full wig/headscarf/housecoat regalia waving an iron bar and shouting "we're from f@@ckin' Laaaaahnden!!!!" I've used that very phrase on a number of occasions as an excuse for bad behaviour 😅 Anyway, song features 2 x AAS synths, drums programmed through EZ drummer, bass is my trusty Wal pretending to be a sequencer with distortion from a Darkglass tube distortion pedal, guitar solo is also the Wal through Bias FX free and vox are by me (sorry) with added valve distortion to make sure you hear less of it... 4 upside downer This month's offering. Seeing as I know zilch about Bromley and the picture looks about 30 years old I went down the route of Python, being silly and how that gets harder to do as we all get older. Well, it's not harder to do at all but youngsters don't like older people being silly cus it's SOOOOO embarrassing, grampa. Go to hell, young shaver m'laddo. Anyhow, Python. They did a cheese shop sketch. Had a bouzouki playing in the background. I've got one so there's my 'in', tried to make it sound 'background-y', too. More or less used the chords from the cheese sketch and that also influences the lead bass line played on my trusty old Starforce 7008 through a Roland Micro Cube. Percussive sounds are samples of me hitting various parts of a bookbinding machine (a Kolbus DA36 casemaker, thanks for asking) with a spanner. That's very silly. Organ sound from my Yamaha keyboard, minimal vox, an ocean wave sample and a metronomic ticking to indicate that there's...no time....to lose....Toulouse. All recorded using WavePad and Audacity. Stay safe, stay silly. 5 Nick D My contribution to the June 2020 Basschat Composition Challenge, inspired by a picture chosen by last month's winner, Leonard Smalls. The picture asked me for a dumb, rough, punky, sub 3 minute romp.... so that's what I did. Lyrically, I suspect the guys in the pic were a welcome sideshow, looking at the band, but I've drawn on my years at bike events, where there was often a bunch of chubby, beardy, middle aged attention whores, often in tutus and fairy wings, being 'hilarious' and 'wild', because they're' soooo crazy' and 'don't care what anybody thinks' (except they do, obvs)... Getting in the way of people who actually want to watch the entertainment they've paid for. A novelty at first, but irritation after the first few times. All recorded in Cubase Elephants, with bass and guitar through the Helix. Drums courtesy of the Mrs, and Roland. **** Not totally worksafe, verse 1 contains a single, mid-scale profanity (Tw@t) *** OK there are your choices , or will be when @Dad3353 finds the link to his 😉 Edit : Done (I weren't the one that lost it..! ) Voting closes at midnight 30th June , enjoy

I got a bottle of bushmills and apparently there is something in the post that hasn’t arrived yet

I have one that looks a bit like an SG

I don’t see that Gordon Smith have been mentioned yet ?

fair play , I could probably have let loose then

I can't believe I'm first in but hey, here we go. I pulled the movement element in with the music and the dress sense with the lyrics , not overly obscure references and most should pick them out straight away. guitar, bass,keys and vocal yours truly, announcer is lurksalittle and drums EZ Enjoy ....naughty boy

I find scrolling around it fairly easy TBH so I can’t help there. with overdubbing , just record another take on the same track , when you have finished recording you can grab the ends of the second take pull it back or pull to the length of section you want and as long as the parts of each take are highlited they are the parts that will play. what i do then is save it as a take, might be glue as current take. It is then punched in and saved as one take. It keeps it tidy that way of course just play it right first time like I do ..............AS IF 🤣🙄😕 manipulating takes is what I do best in Reaper

Over in the recording forum ....... ’and now for something completely different ‘

June’s challenge is on! Here's the image for your inspiration, chosen by last month’s winner Leonard Smalls It's a picture of The BromleyBoyz - a gang of odd youths who used to follow my old band and dressed as Monty Python housewives... Usual rules apply: ✔️ Entries must be <5 minutes and written/recorded this month. ❌ No illegal samples or other funny business. ❌ No bagpipes. Ever. Deadline for entries is midnight on Lurksalittles 20th birthday (23rd June for those who forgot )

Either to me or Skol , I can post it this evening after work if needs be , though I could be a bit late as I might be out spending some spare cash I found in my wallet this month

👏👏👏 well done that man , I’ve really enjoyed the last few of yours , great stuff

Only 27 minutes to go , I only need 6 more votes to clinch this , so I might need @leftybassman392 to work out the chances of getting enough votes to overtake all the others , assuming that the extra voters might inadvertently vote for those I am needing to overtake. Its a tricky one but I reckon I could work it out given a couple of minutes ..... ........ ........... sussed it .... 0

I am hoping to organise a street party for the end of August , all the neighbours are up for it and I am hoping it will be an open mic kind of affair , where all the musos will get up and do something as well as the kids doing a piece. Ive yet to send a few ‘pub cover standards fayre’ offerings out , but I reckon there will be a few singists who can make that call as I reckon they will be the hardest to get up it will be a proper blast if it works out

woo hoo, the voting thread is here , well, er, most of it , it need a slight edit when I can suss it out !

Ladies and Gentlemen, 'tis time to lend your ear to the offerings served up for you this very fine May All based on this wonderful 'album coveresque' photo from last month’s winner Bobbass4K So for your delectation and consideration please make 3 choices from the following entries.. 1 Dad3353 Here is my contribution to the May 2020 Basschat Composition Challenge, inspired by a picture chosen by the previous winner: BobBass4K..! An ambient track this time, composition inspired by the thought of the fractal nature of the branches and twigs in the photo. A slow build-up, using fractally-generated themes, intertwining in apparently hapless fashion, but all interlinked, combining natural earthiness with algorithmic rigor. Somewhat hypnotic; it kept me up until the early hours refining it. Was it worth it..? Hmm... All instruments are Kontakt (Contra-bassoon, horns, Emotional Piano, archtop guitar, percussion...), excepting the Superior 3 drums (a first, for me...). Very little Fx or mastering 'pixie dust', as the quality of the instruments speak for themselves, I think. Thanks for listening, if you already have; if you're about to, enjoy. 2 Iacopo San Finally is time for me too to give this a go.Working from home I was given a MacBook Air by my employer, so recently I have been having a bit of fun with GarageBand. Recorded with my Precision Classic 50 MIM and Squier John 5 Telecaster. All the rest is the standard GarageBand stuff - I did not have a chance yet to look into plugins and what not. I am new to recording so be nice 3 Nick D My contribution to this month's composition challenge, inspired by the image selected by last month's winner, bobbass4k. 4 Lurksalot I am at the point that if I try and make it better , it gets worse, and that takes some doing If I could make it better I ........ Would .. enjoy 5 Leonard Smalls I was going to go for a whole-tone piece, as key-based music is non-egalitarian to all other notes, until I realised that the whole-tone system discriminated against frequencies not present in-between the notes... So I thought I'd do this slightly over-driven bit of jazzy stuff instead, using 3 brass VSTs, plus Music Labs and AmpleSound Les Paul VSTs - when I saw the pic I thought of Miles Davis' "Agharta" for some reason, hence "Hollow Earth": 6 adam67 I stayed very much in my comfort zone for the basic idea with a pretty straight up rock song, but tried to take some inspiration from the pic to make it a bit darker and moodier than I'd normally go. Then I jumped on a metaphorical bus out of my comfort zone, went to the airport, caught a plane, and ended up somewhere where my comfort zone was a distant memory, trying to do lyrics and vocals. This is my first ever attempt at that (ever, not just here) and I don't think anyone will need much convincing of that. It will give you some idea how bad my first attempts were when I say that the finished article is a big improvement. Anyway, I did it, and my aim is only ever to be able to sing enough to write words and vocal melodies for other people to perform. 7 Fingers 211 Entry into this months basschat comp using picture as inspiration. On new laptop this month with very few recording bits or gizmos....guitars by me ( and reaper delay/echo), rest is all free Kontakt. A tree chat is all it is.... 8 Upside Downer Finally finished it, all recorded with Wavepad and Audacity. Used a drum sample from Looperman which I treated and twisted into shape, violin bass, Epiphone Gibson Special through a Roland Micro Cube and a Zoom 504 effects pedal. Used DADGAD tuning and got a nice wonky sound in places. A bit of menace, a sliver of light then back to peril. Dedicated to Pauline from Birmingham. 9 MoonBassAlpha May 2020 BassChat composition challenge entry. I didn't make it easy for myself, the timing is somewhat fluid in places. At least you can tell it's not programmed on a grid. Features a first appearance of my new guiro (on the left), kindly made for me by my good friend Timi Sp8. all done in Reaper again, Godin Solidac phased guitar, Gordon-Smith 12-string electric, US Masters fretless bass bass and US Masters (with flats) "Lead" bass with a bit of octave on. 10 SH73 Listen to Prelude 2020 by ThEddie on #SoundCloud Well there you go , enjoy, and put 3 ticks in the appropriate boxes voting ends midnight on 31st May

Go for it , ‘deadline’ is midnight tonight but there has been a little flexibility allowed in the past so get busy that said , if you are taking an extra day to polish a masterpiece that will make everyone else sound like amateurs , we may think again 😉

There is nowt wrong with your vocal tone and pitching , excellent , most excellent !

Is the 1/4” jack part of the equation a balanced jack ? It would look like a stereo jack ?

I’ve just realised , I have a similar photo of a tree , taken under similar circumstances, but as the tree is just across the road, I see it most evenings in the winter , I have no idea what triggered the need to photograph it

I was very much this , but now I have decided that if it needs me to provide a vocal , then it’s me that it gets , and while I think my tone sucks , it's the only one I’ve got and all the FX I throw at it doesn’t really help , so in the spirit of Chester FC , I just embrace the shitness !

Aha I think you’ve stumbled on the secret of my success , well, not so much the retuning , just the Frankensounds I get from standard tuning with my Frankenfingering guitar technique, not by design though

If it’s like me , you believe one day you’ll nail it .......one day I’ll nail it......one day I’ll nail it ......one day........ you can see what @Dad3353 thinks of my vocal input above and that was just talking ......with irony

The thread is pretty much aimed at people completely new to the idea of home recording , and is probably pitching at interfaces and computers as they are abundant in the market. As such they are best place to start . If a new starter has a dedicated hardware multitracker he could read the manual I guess 😉

I had the first led zep album with a velvet underground label on one side , I swapped it with a mate who I think still has it .

I am at the point that if I try and make it better , it gets worse, and that takes some doing If I could make it better I ........ Would .. enjoy