flyfisher

[quote name='skankdelvar' post='1152413' date='Mar 7 2011, 12:54 PM']In the best spirit of tributes, I shall simply rehash someone else's comment from a previous, virtually identical thread. [i]Most bands 'Original' songs would be more accurately described as self-penned. There is rarely anything original about them.[/i][/quote] In that case, most of the covers we play could be regarded 'self-penned' 'cos they're rarely as accurate as the originals. My basslines are certainly all my own invention, Having said that, we've got an up-coming gig where, for the first time, we're only playing 'self-penned' songs - 11 of them in all and judging by the weekend, all rather under-rehearsed.

[quote name='Markus Wilson' post='1152222' date='Mar 7 2011, 09:39 AM']Music is music is music, if there is enjoyment playing it and enjoyment listening to it, get on with it.[/quote] Seems a pretty fair summary to me. Music, like all art (?) is about the experience. It's entirely subjective. There is no fundamentally good or bad music, only music you like and dislike.

What's not to like? A great bunch of musicians playing some great music. I wouldn't call it a tribute band as such as they're not doing the whole 'impersonation' thing, they're just playing music that they didn't write themselves - and what's the big deal with that? If musicians didn't play stuff they didn't write then great music would die with its writer (for live performances anyway). Funny how no-one ever denigrates symphony orchestras as being a mere 'cover bands'.

[quote name='lowdown' post='1151853' date='Mar 6 2011, 08:33 PM']These days vendors are upping software specs to match the computer specs, and it all starts to become heavy weather... which i think is the OP's take on it all. And his DAW [Sonar] likes to take its toll on the machine....[/quote] That's a fair point, and one that has bugged me ever since I used Visicalc on an Apple II with a CPU running at 1MHz - yes, 40x [u]slower[/u] than the PC on which I'm writing this. Sure, it didn't have fancy graphics or 'windows' but it did most of the stuff that I now use Excel for. Software bloat is a well known problem. If only the phenomenally increased power of computing hardware had actually been delivered to the end-user instead of being soaked up by layer and layers of ever more complex operating software . . . . but that's probably a digression too far. Anyone who has installed something like Ubuntu on an old and past-it-for-Windows 650MHz Pentium III PC might be amazed at how it suddenly springs into life and is a perfectly capable machine for general office and browsing applications. In short, if you have performance problems, look first at the combination of software running on your PC.

If you ask about PC requirements for a DAW these days you'll probably get a list of specs that were not even available 4-5 years ago, or at least nowhere near affordable, but people have been using PCs for multitrack recording for ages now. Heck, I was editing video on a PC 10 years ago yet when you ask about it today people still say you need a 'top-spec' machine (yes, I know that covers a whole host of generalisations, but I'd argue the basic principle is true). I've been using a bog-standard Dell Optiplex 3GHz P4 running WinXP and 1.5GB RAM to record up to 9 tracks simultaneously and replay up to 16, all over a firewire link. I've not encountered any latency problems and the "resources" indicator in my DAW software rarely goes over 50%. It can be done.

[quote name='citymariner' post='1150565' date='Mar 5 2011, 01:49 PM']Nobody else brings anything other than a spare set of strings/ sticks.[/quote] They probably figure you'll have anything they might need. My first thought was that your list might be a bit OTT but then I thought about what I take to a gig and realised it might be about right (except the soldering iron): [i]I see it as the essentials; gaffer, screwdrivers [/i](one of those moulded-case sets with a million different tips) [i], wire snips, wire stippers, torch, [s]multimeter[/s], batteries, [s]9v power supply[/s], [s]soldering iron[/s], post-its, pens, pencils, permanent marker, plectrums, string cleaner, microfibre cloth. [s]I even have a string winder[/s], set of [s]guitar[/s] bass strings, [s]slide and drum key[/s].[/i] spare cables, fuses, insulating tape, reporter's notepad, cable tester, Victorinox cybertool, ty-raps,

[quote name='Blademan_98' post='1149990' date='Mar 4 2011, 09:39 PM']Does house insurance cover the stuff if it's at a paid gig?[/quote] I don't know, but it's always wise to specifically disclose any 'material facts' regarding your requirements. A short letter to your insurance company explaining that you take your musical gear (provide a list) out of the house for gigs and require it to be covered while outside of the home. They should advise if it is covered and/or any conditions they require. If they don't reply then at least you have made the disclosure and it would be hard(er) for them to wriggle out of a claim - assuming you had all-risks cover for a certain value of items in the first place. But that's not as satisfactory as formal confirmation of your cover.

[quote name='Gareth Hughes' post='1148385' date='Mar 3 2011, 02:08 PM']Don't sell your gear - why would you let idiots like that take away something you enjoy?[/quote] Too right! If you enjoy playing bass, play bass, and don't let anyone (asshole or not) decide for you. Plus, something right will eventually turn up and how will you feel that a bunch of assholes put you off so much that you'll have to miss out?

[quote name='Wally' post='1145256' date='Feb 28 2011, 11:38 PM']Thanks guys, thats great. We have a maplins in town and I'll be swinging by on the way home from work tomorrow. (talk about quick as well - what a forum)[/quote] I've used these as inserts for my mixer: [url="http://www.maplin.co.uk/insert-y-cables-224856"]http://www.maplin.co.uk/insert-y-cables-224856[/url]

[quote name='Blademan_98' post='1142720' date='Feb 26 2011, 07:38 PM']I once started a gig (on guitar) with a capo in the wrong position. I threw me out all evening [/quote] Not a capo problem, but very similar. Our singer decided to play a harmonica solo on a new song for the first time (he'd not been playing for long but it was a simple piece). We had rehearsed the song in A a fair bit and all was well. First performance, the guitarist starts the song in G for some reason. Everyone quickly adapted but no one told the singer (I'd have thought he would have noticed anyway!) and waiting for the harp solo was like watching a train crash about to happen. Sure enough, a few bars into the harp solo he realised something was wrong and gave up trying to get things to sound right.

[quote name='leschirons' post='1137633' date='Feb 22 2011, 08:16 PM']Her drumming was reminiscent of Charlie Drake falling down the stairs with a tin dustbin.[/quote] Have you still got her number - she sounds better than a drummer I know.

[quote name='Sibob' post='1136107' date='Feb 21 2011, 08:01 PM']If I was a multi-millionaire who never needed to earn a penny again.....I'd do it all for free...[/quote] Hmm. That doesn't seem to be a popular option with millionaire rock stars.

[quote name='Doddy' post='1137009' date='Feb 22 2011, 12:58 PM']I'd guess that she probably has delusions of adequacy.[/quote] Ha! I wish I suffered from that. I wonder if this was her first audition for a real band? It sounds as if she has a lot of disappointment ahead until she can improve her playing - I hope it doesn't put her off playing music though.

I've got nowhere near enough experience of recording yet to really know what's best, but I have an idea of what I'm trying to achieve - I'm just not sure if it'll work or how close I can get to it! My instinct is to keep things simple. I don't really want to get carried away with sophisticated productions and end up with something that we can't reproduce when playing live. My interest in VSTs for 'modelling' was really to substitute for mic'ing up an amp running at gig volumes, the idea being to play quietly to avoid bleed into the vocal mics (it's also quite handy in a home environment!). So, we effectively record by playing live rather than laying down a track at a time, and tweak the instrument tones using a suitable VST if I can find one, or two. Other stuff such as a bit of vocal reverb or instrument compression is easy to reproduce when playing live anyway. But, as I say, that's just my theory and I'm open enough to accept I might be trying the wrong approach. It seems I've got a lot of learning to do to actually get it right . . . and by then I might have found the 'proper' way to do it. But there are some great ideas being aired and I'm loving the discussion!

[quote name='algmusic' post='1135431' date='Feb 21 2011, 01:30 PM']Plug ins are ok, but TBH, most I know more and more people using good basses, with good amps or pre amps If you got yourself a sanamps, you can use it live aswell..[/quote] Don't give me an excuse to buy even more gear! Actually, I'm beginning to wonder if VSTs are just a 'phase' I need to pass through - but at least (I think) I'm learning lots at the moment, even if it turns out to be what [u]not[/u] to do. Thanks for all the comments and suggestions. BC really is a great resource !

[quote name='WHUFC BASS' post='1135384' date='Feb 21 2011, 12:57 PM']You'd be surprised how much better a bass guitar will sound when recording with a new set of strings on.[/quote] Ah, that's an interesting point. It's been a few, er, years since I changed them.

[quote name='51m0n' post='1135316' date='Feb 21 2011, 12:10 PM']In (extremely) simple terms modelling works by first running a lot of test signals through an actual device and measuring the diff of the output to the original, then (the clever bit) extrapolating an algorithm that can be applied to the original source to produce the output computationally.[/quote] I reckon I could figure out how the testing part of the development could be largely automated, but I can't imagine where to start with defining an algorithm to reproduce the captured results - the clever bit indeed! [quote name='51m0n' post='1135327' date='Feb 21 2011, 12:17 PM']In reality you dont really want to send the bass frequencies through the simulator (using the DI signal for bass is tried and tested). So really any half decent amp/cab sim is going to be fine, I've had good results with Shred, which is a free guitar oientated cab/amp sim. Dont get too carried away with 'that SVT sound', just go for somethiung you like, and remember anything under 150Hz or so is probably best left to the DI[/quote] That makes sense and is something I should be able to easily try - thanks for that.

Some interesting stuff there, though I was hoping for some pointers to any decent free VSTs while I'm still learning about all ths stuff. So far, I've just been using the DI output of my Ashdown head for recording. I was happy with it at first but the more time I spend playing around with mixes, the less I'm satisfied with the sound - I hope this is not the start of a never-ending slippery slope of continual searching for the ultimate tone! I've not tried the suggestion of using a combination of DI and a mic'd cabinet, which sounds interesting. I've been trying to avoid mic'd cabs in order to keep playing volumes down and therefore avoid bleed into the vocal mics. I'm trying to record our band playing 'live', albeit in a home environment, rather than one track at a time. I'm certainly not having and bleed problems, but I'm beginning to wonder if I'm compromising the instrument sounds a bit too much. Before I put together a multi-track recording set-up, we just used a single mic to record everything. As you can imagine, this was far from ideal and the first results from multi-tracking were a giant leap forward. Now, having made that step, I'm getting more critical about the individual sounds again. Still, it's fun to learn new stuff. Any tips from people recording their own bands? (other than using a pro studio!). BTW, does anyone know the principle of how these amp modelling gadgets work? Do they modify the actual instrument sound or do they just detect the fundamental note the instrument makes and then, effectively, synthesise the new tone? Or perhaps a combination of the two? I've seen some midi-controlled devices, which I assume work on the synthesis principle, but I'm not sure about how they work with a real bass.

I've read about bassists who DI into a PA system via some sort of amp-modelling 'pod' to get the tone they want. I'm wondering if a there's a VST-equivalent of such a thing that can be used for recording purposes? I'd guess there must be, somewhere, but I've been looking through numerous free-VST sites and there seems to be zillions of VSTs out there, so it would help if anyone could give any personal recommendations based on their recording experience. Thanks for any suggestions.

First Bass Owned: Fender Precision (MIJ) 'Go To' Bass: Fender Precision (MIJ) 'Your' Bass: Fender Precision (MIJ)

I'm at the other end of the spectrum - playing in two bands but only have one bass. BC is making me feel very inadequate.

[quote name='slave' post='1124565' date='Feb 12 2011, 01:02 AM']But if I had my time again I'd just buy one. The difference in the cost of building one VS buying one isn't as much as you'd think when you work out all those little leads to go with it.....[/quote] +1 Many years ago, I used to make all sorts of electronic stuff, including etching my own PCBs. But, these days, the prices for most things are so low that it's hardly worth all the bother of making stuff anymore. It's a great shame really and contributes to our 'throw away' society. It also means there are fewer people familiar with such things and therefore fewer people who can actually repair stuff, so more stuff gets thrown away. Which is a great shame as repairing stuff is where we can still save a lot of money - and equipment.

I don't really understand the 'electrocution risk' with multi-sockets. Messy, yes, but not really a safety issue. I think the answer, sort of, is contained within the original post: "[i]tired of buzzing cheap power supplies[/i]" and "[i]PC power supply unit[/i]". A PC PSU is quite sophisticated (and over-specified for effects pedals really) and so performs well, whereas 'wall warts' tend to be quite cheap and nasty. First, you need to know the range of voltages needed for your pedals (hopefully all the same) then the total current required, then add some more current for future expansion, round it up to the next nearest whole amp and look for a suitable power supply from electronic component supliers such as RS Components, CPC-Farnell, Maplin etc. You'll probably need to make up some DC cables to connect to your pedals but that's easily done. If you can't solder, use one or more of those screw-connector strips and house it in a small plastic box (from the above suppliers). I keep nagging our guitarist to tidy up his motley collection of pedals, wall-warts and mains blocks, all velcro'd to bit of manky chipboard. I'll probably end up doing it for him someday, but I wouldn't start with a PC power supply.

+1 It's a completely new transaction and all the ones before are pretty much irrelevant, plus there are a whole new bunch of things to consider; current condition, current market, potential new buyers - one of whom might have been waiting for 10 years to buy that final bass for their collection. Anyway, what about a bass that's had twently previous owners and been played to death . . . er, by every famous bass player you could think of - shouldn't be worth much more than £100 then? If age and number of previous owners always drove down prices, I'd have a house filled with fine antiques and old masters.

[quote name='BurritoBass' post='1121769' date='Feb 9 2011, 07:22 PM']And as a further bonus I've been on a bit of a Beatles fixation for a while.[/quote] You'll probably not want to miss this then (from the Radio Times website): [i][b]I Was There When the Beatles Played the Cavern[/b] Wednesday 09 February 10:35pm - 11:35pm ITV1 London On February 9, 1961 The Beatles returned home to Liverpool from Hamburg, walked down the steps of a former underground warehouse, and played at The Cavern for the very first time. This fascinating documentary marks the 50th anniversary of that occasion, also recounting the story of Beatlemania and susbequent rise to international stardom of the Fab Four. The venue which hosted the four local lads was filled in during construction of Merseyrail in 1973, but saw the likes of Queen, Elton John and Rod Stewart perform there. The famous location was subsequently rebuilt and now serves a purpose as a dual venue for up and coming bands as well as a tourist attraction. Contributors including Pete Best, Gerry Marsden, Willy Russell and Ken Dodd relive the heady days of the early 1960s. [/i]