krispn

Tried to do a quick home recording - a track with drums, keys, guitar and bass to highlight how the compression was working in the mix with a couple of different settings and playing styles. Needless to say I've hit a stumbling block. I can get the drums and keys recorded as they're all in the DAW but I appear to be having an issue with getting sound input from my interface so no guitar or bass. Just updated the laptop so maybe that's the issue and i need to update my interface software... I have recorded the basic track so at least I can easily recall once I get it sorted. It's all I have in the meantime as we have no rehearsal planned anytime soon and no bookings on the horizon yet. I can link you to gigs where I'm using my comp but I wasn't switching it on and off mid song the same way I wasn't switching my drive on and off mid song. Anyhow on this recording I attempted this morning I can hear an audible difference in the mix and while this may not translate to a live gig I prefer playing the parts with my compressor engaged. I like how the feel of the playing changes and if I'm trying to do pseudo upright sounds on the short scale or playing tight pick style punk I can tweak the comp to suit my needs to make it bloom or nice and tight sounding. On a gig, much like my dirt, I have it set to cover the majority of what I'm playing. I don't feel the need to have a different comp setting for each song as has been suggested earlier. I also mixed drum stems from ages ago in that choir gig and compression really brought the room mic's to life and as I think I mentioned before using this sort of practice on mixes really lets the understanding of compression blossom in it's various uses. @Al Krow you have owned more compressor pedals than I have - I'd guess about 5 at least. Add in all the multifx pedals (which I think is about 7 if you include the 4 different occasions you've own a Line 6 device and the Zoom units) and they cover all the standard styles of compression FET, vari mu, optical etc etc. I'd include plug ins you have in your DAW but I'm pretty confident they've never been used. As has been said over and over in many many threads on here and on TB. What one persons settings are will not directly translate into "your" set up. You gig mainly without effects pedals (you don't want to be tripping over bass lines and a pedal board) so that's cool. You don't rate the use of compression live that's cool. @Kev sent a clip and you heard a difference @Cuzzie sent you a clip and you heard a difference. Your opinion is only likely to shift if you do this for yourself and hear something. The 8 points I listed earlier were from FEA Labs Frank and they should the many uses of compression. You may feel none of them apply to you or you may be interested to try them out. You have access to the gear to do this on/off experiment for yourself... with your band... with your gear... at the venues where it will (or will not) make a difference to your sound. I was re-listening to footage from The Century Club gigs on the Sector thread. Why not bring a comp next time you play there when the back line is all taken care of or BoxPark - venues you already have footage from where you can compare if it works for you. It's like if I gave you my eq settings for a P bass and you only ever tried them out in isolation as home you'd lose the quality of those setting by not hearing them in context. What might sound overly mid forward in isolation could really work in a band setting and what might sound like a great smiley face eq curve at home could see you totally lost in a live setting. If you really are so inquisitive about settings and rigs - who plays what bass, through what pedal ,through what amp what is the end goal of this inquisition - a spread sheet of cut and paste replies to other peoples posts? Practical knowledge to be applied on a gig? You will have your own motivations as we all do. I've just seen many posts by you which all go the same way- What settings what settings what settings.

Sure

This went up recently and does some on off comparison while actively tweaking. It's a start and by a fellow BC'er. The nuance is likely to be lost on a gig. I'm unable to record just now as I'm doing a clean up on my laptop and updating it.

I’ve listened to many players and compression won’t fix bad technique, it won’t add the notes they’re choosing not to play be that a nice counterpoint which was on the original recording (and is the most interesting bass part on the song) or a fancy riff and fill up the neck. It won’t compensate for bad slap technique and it won’t disguise poor timing. An overly compressed bass tone won’t make a good player sound bad but a bad player can’t hide behind a (tastefully mixed and) compressed tone. If a compressor can aide the player in the 7 or 8 points listed above so be it but not all players value those same aspects of their tone/technique.

Great see the whole thing has been resolved. Dibs if you decide to move it on 🙂

Hard to beat the passive tone stack and good old transformer

Yeah I’d imagine it was a short run. The bass did sound good on its own and while the geddy peda was adding something (as I alluded to earlier today) you can hear the inherent sound of you listen to the clean then ‘dirty’ version. It’s got more oomph than my jazz but I find a 350hz bump fills it out nicely. The MA does have the p character come across loud and clear much like you say a JJ won’t sound quite the same.

Sorry yes the BB1000MA I’m not fussy either way on bolt v thru neck but I do like the Misty green colour. It would look well in my pub gigs. We’re an ”Irish band” playing mainly in a Irish bars on our local circuit. The Misty green would be a nice addition to my sherwood Jazz

@gobasserk you’ll have to keep me posted if you see any more of those green BB3000MA I’m jot as big a fan of the old BB but I do like that colour and that it’s passive.

Simple trick to see what’s happening. Go via your DAW with a graphic eq on have a look and see what frequencies in the lows are being affected with the pedal engaged. You’ll know where you need to boost or cut for low loss and reduce and muddy frequencies. Im not sure which DAW you have as there’s been a few discussed- I know you’ve talked a lot about reaper and maybe there was something with a focusrite interface? Basically whatever you’re using should have the graphic so you can see what’s going on. You’ll learn more in 5 minutes about the ‘inherent signature’ of a bass or a pedal that you’ll wonder why you never did it before.

As a wise and knowledgeable engineer once wrote understanding what a compressor can do for you and figuring out if/why you need one is half the battle. The wise old engineer listed these points as some reasons one may wish to ‘compress’ their sound. Dynamics control. Tone enhancement. Speaker/amp protection. For added sustain. As an effect (ie Tony Levin). Only for pop/slap. To keep filters/other effects from blasting ears. So I can use a much lighter touch on the strings.

That Dingwall sherwood green is class!

Four in a row could be considered “on one side” as opposed to a 2+2 etc

I can’t wait to read the “whats the impact of the linear density of my strings” spin off thread 🤗

From memory Galileo had some thoughts on it but I think that was more wave physics. I’d need to consult wiki or an old text book

Hooke's law it's a bit of a stretch

Keep us posted eh!

Please explain string weight * I should say please explain the impact of string weight

Maybe a more pertinent question would be was NE ever a big fan of Spector basses for live and studio work and when he designed his own bass did he 😉😉 'borrow heavily/be inspired by Spector on some design cues'? It's neither here nor there I suppose but I never associate NE with Spector basses and things like 3+1 3+2 headstock were a thing to mitigate Fenders notorious dead spots on the G string etc. which EBMM was doing in the late 70's too.

Did NE or Yamaha ever discuss the influence of the NE design or are these similarities more 'where you've landed' based on similarities you've noticed between the two. I think others have said it's not as blatant a ripas the Warwick/ Spector look.

If a MA came up used for €300-400 I’d certainly take a punt on one. I really like the colour above!

The topic could probably have been closed after Pauls's astute comments and most BC posts could be ended equally as quickly if the logical answer came so early in a thread. Equally I stand by my post on the first page and more recently that it's often not about the actual item but the process and the gear we decide we 'need' ultimately we don't. I was commenting on the impulse to rush out and buy new gear because someone answered an ad for a band or they're having a first rehearsal and buy all the kit. I've seen quite a few ad's like that where someone 'needed' a P bass for a band or a 5'er and it is for sale weeks later, that kinda thing. Sure buy gear, try it out, sell it on and have the knowledge and experience that it did or didn't work for a particular song. I think Paul and I were approaching this from two differing perspectives which ultimately overlap and create a venn diagram which covers both our points ( and likely ends up with a P bass in the middle for the gear I need part versus the gear I have and the gear I want at opposite sides of the diagram.

Here’s a good example of the GAS thing. Rhett Shull had a video up the other week of his signature model guitar, his own choices and preferences as you’d expect with no expense spared. It’s about $6,000. Today a video pops up on you tube from him titled “I bought a cheap guitar and I love it!” I like reading the for sale ads where someone has rushed out to buy a 5 string for a new project which ‘needs’ a 5’er only for that project to fold a few weeks later or buying the new rig for a new band with the same outcome. The person posts a NBD thread to see the same gear in the for sale thread weeks later. The things we tell ourselves eh!

Very few people on BC will discourage a person from buying a new piece of gear. The odd voice of “invest the money in lessons and a good teacher” may get the occasional like but the rule of thumb is to encourage the purchase. It’s probably why most folk vocalise it on here so the wave of encouragement propels the purchase, the NBD/NAD threads etc the praise and adulation for having the new gear etc. It’s the celebration and belonging a piece of new gear can afford someone when lived via a forum which folks might enjoy My statement is an observation not a judgement on whether it’s good or bad just the way a lot of this happens. Just read the effusive threads on the gear pages or the amount of “This looks like the next best thing” threads which ultimately fizzle because the next namm cycle comes around or the next gear fad kicks in. Or see the new gear thread and all the positive chat followed by the for sale ad 3 months later. Most of us have done it - it’s just funny to see folk repeat the well worn path of buying heaps of stuff they won’t use with all the rationalisation in between to end up with a 4 string p bass😀