WinterMute

This is a can of worms... I'm not a Mastering Engineer, I'm a tracking and mixing engineer and these are fundamentally different things. I do "master" my mixes, but only to ensure that the loudness profile is consistent with the delivery format, which avoids the algorithms smashing the dynamics flat on Apple Music or Spotify. All of the streaming services have different standards when it comes to loudness, and thats a bit of a pain, but I've found the mastering to -14LUFS seems to work reasonably well for most things, with a peak of around -2db. For CD mastering I go with -12LUFS ad 0bd peak. I use the Nugen Visualiser package that includes the very useful True Peak limier and the Mastercheck pro plug-ins. In order to hit those loudness targets, I will use a limiter in the output stage, which is paralleled to a feed from my summing mixer that passes through an AMEK 9098 comp/lim. I use the UAD2 Oxford limiter for the digital path. I'm of the opinion that if you're doing a lot of work in the mastering stage on dynamic control and EQ, then you haven't finished mixing yet.

He's not as smooth as Mick Karn, but he's got some moves.

Did some captures of my RND Shelford preamp last night, one with the blue silk circuit engaged, one with the red, I really like them at the start of a patch, gives some nice harmonic complexity to the signal before it hits all the models. QC Cloud name is the same as here WinterMute.

Wouldn't that be something? Although you actually have to capture specific settings I'd imagine, a new capture for every different setting you wanted to use. Not a problem if your saving it as part of the patch obviously, but time consuming. I picked up the loaner yesterday, I've got it for a week. Had a couple of hours with it last night, and initial impression are very favourable, its so much easier to programme complex patches than almost anything else thanks to the touch screen, the loading of IRs and captures is very easy and effective. On the downside, the cab models aren't great, and there aren't a lot of bass amp captures, but the ones that are there are great. I DL'd some captures and I have a bunch of IRs for my Stomp, so I threw those into the QC and they sounded just as good as in the stomp. The main thing I noticed was just how much more responsive the models are, they play much better than the Stomp models, it does sound better than the Stomp in some ways but not so as you'd be startled by the difference, it's just a lot more like plugging into a VST and a fridge... Will I buy one? Maybe to probably currently, needs more investigation.

I won't use a compressor with a fixed attack or release time, or any form of auto functionality on the units I do use. Every time I employ compression or limiting, it will need to be tailored to the specific dynamics of the instrument involved, the playing style and the requirement of the instrument in the production, it's a variable control for a reason. Also see different types of compression/limiting circuit for different approaches, optical vs solid state vs valve for instance... Plug-ins that pretend to model optical envelopes are a particular bugbear, as many don't.

I'm borrowing a friends while he's on holiday, I switched my old Pod XT Pro out for a GED2112 and then an HX Stomp, which is fine but quite difficult to get on with complex programming due to the heavy parameter access. My guitarist mate is a big Helix user and I've had a good play with his Helix board, which I like a lot, but I'm looking into the modeller market too. The bottom line is that I can't afford a Fractal Axe 3 and I'm not a big fan of the Kemper approach, so the QC is really the main alternative to the Helix. I'm hoping the sound will live up to the clearly superior editing functions, if it does I'll be buying one, if not I'll track down a Helix Rack. I don't think they'll ever get to the point that you can capture Chorus or any modulation effect, I might be wrong, but I think that'll be beyond the tech. However it'l be very cool to see where they go with it over the years.

While we're at it, a tip of the hat to Jansen, what drummer he is.

I'm always impressed by this kind of playing, and this crew are as tight as a gnats chuff, but I can't listen to more than a minute at a time, which is better than Jazz, which gets around 15 seconds... Excellent work. Also, as posting 2 now has a precedent, Mr. Karn, one of the most innovative bass players around, still holds up 35 years later, no-one sounds like Japan.

What a player he is, in a properly hardworking band too, it's a shame I never got on with that kind of music, I'm sure I'd have paid more attention to his playing over the years. Excellent.

Geddy Lee really got me into playing bass and the aggression and attack of his tone and playing are still evident in the way I play, so with a nod to all the other worthy contestants, Tony Levin, Pino, Chris Squire, Jack Bruce, Pastorius, Lemmy, so many others, it always going to be Geddy.

Fretted, the 20th Anniversary SR5, fretless the ACG Krell, which is getting a lot more time of late, what a bass.

I've got a 20th, it suits me better than the 30th, which is undoubtedly a great bass, I just find the voicing on the 20th more aggressive. Not that I'd turn a 30th down if one turned up at my door with a ribbon tied to it tbh. I'll be trying the 35th as soon as I can find one.

yeah typo, I meant the 35th Anniversary, didn't think much of the 30th at all, seemed a bit ordinary. I'm sure it wasn't, as SR5's are lovely basses anyway, it just seemed too much like the standard SR5. I do like an SR5 without a pick guard.

I have a 20th Anni SR5 and it's a monster bass, certainly the nicest SR5 I've played, I like it's voicing a lot. I like the 30th as it doesn't have the pickguard, but it seems to be a bit of a rehash of the 20th, the 25th was a very different beast.

Another vote for the Auralex Gramma riser, I used one for my Big Twin in a top floor flat and the neighbours downstairs appreciated it immensely. It's also really useful for removing hollow stage boom at gigs and rehearsals. If you're handy, they're not difficult to build, but the Auralex quality is very good.

Aforementioned Micheal Manring, solo bass is rarely my thing, but he takes it on to another level technically I think. I was very fond of Portrait of Tracy when I first heard it. Some of Eberhard Weber's contrabass stuff is fantastic.

I run a Shelford in the studio as the DI for my bass, then into an HX Stomp, mix the 2 as required, the Shelford's harmonic circuit is brilliant for bass, and the compressor is an excellent recording tool. Yes it's pricy, but it's my goto input channel for vocals, acoustic guitar, almost anything really, a very versatile unit.

The only "name" bass I've ever owned was a Geddy Lee, great bass, not enough strings. I'm a massive Rush fan, and have owned Wals and Jazz basses, but I've ended up with SR5's, a Bongo 5 and an ACG, not brands played by anyone I could point to as an influence TBF.

A while back when I was lecturing, I'd ask students to bring in examples of what they considered good production, one lad brought in a well worked grimy/hip-hop version of Sgt Pepper, I'd never heard it before, it was interesting and well done. At the end of his presentation I jokingly commented, didn't the Beatles do a cover of that? He looked and me and said "who are the Beatles?". Much hilarity ensued. There's no reason that kid should have known who the Beatles were, half of them were dead before he knew what music was, the other half old or narrating Thomas the Tank Engine, but it made me smile. The music we revere is not the music everyone reveres.

Beatles, Coldplay, anyone who sounds like a pig stuck in a drainpipe, Foos output of late, most rappers, nearly all Jazz can get in the sea. I do quite like Nickleback though...

They would be, but I don't want gig my recording basses, so I have gigging basses and recording basses now. A 20th Anniversary SR5 and an ACG Krell fretless for the studio, and a Bongo 5 and "SR5" frankenstien fretless for stage, That way I'm not too worried about dings and scratches.

Alan builds some very special basses.