Earbrass

[quote name='thisnameistaken' post='311126' date='Oct 21 2008, 10:57 AM']Like helping to spread AIDS in Africa and so on? [/quote] Well said. Remember kids, just say "NO" to god.

[quote name='BigBeefChief' post='303874' date='Oct 10 2008, 02:18 PM']Nah, its bigger than installation issues! To give you an idea of how retarded I am, I pressed a button last night and the tool bar at the top of the screen dissappered. This meant I couldn't exit the program. I then tried every key on the keyboard to get it back, but this didn't work. So in order to close it, I had to switch my laptop off. I then switched it back on, and guess what? I'm still staring at that f***ing Ableton screen! At that point the whole thing nearly went out the window! There's just far too many options and buttons on the thing in general.[/quote] Hi BBC, I feel your pain. I'm afraid that if you want something to work simply and smoothly then in general, DON'T DO IT ON A COMPUTER. I speak as computer programmer of over 25 years experience. I hate the bastards. It may be a bit late now, but you might have been better off with something like [url="http://www.guitarampkeyboard.com/en/zoom-/66381"]http://www.guitarampkeyboard.com/en/zoom-/66381[/url] - not quite CD quality (uses data compression), but has a built in drum machine and a 'record' button. Good luck anyway. E

[quote name='waynepunkdude' post='300596' date='Oct 6 2008, 04:24 PM']but the main thing is something that isn't a starter bass I want something I can gig.[/quote] One of the big changes I have seen in my lifetime is the narrowing of the gap between the 'cheap' brands and the 'name' brands - this has happened in many product areas, hi-fi being a prime example, but it is equally true of guitars and basses, especially as so many of the 'names' outsource their manufacture to the same or similar factories to those producing the cheapies. Don't assume that because a bass is a 'starter' bass, it is not a perfectly good instrument for gigging, recording or whatever - you just have to find a good example (quality control is one of the areas they skimp on), and give it a mild tweak where required. I think there's a lot of pointless snobbery about basses etc, which ultimately leads to people spending a lot more money than they really need to, because they feel that they somehow lack credibility if they don't have the right name on their headstock. My advice is not to play the brand-name game - it's not big and it's not clever; it's just a way of lining other people's pockets and keeping the insane consumer culture spinning. Just my 2p. Regards E

[quote name='noelk27' post='293567' date='Sep 27 2008, 07:27 PM']Making up a reference CD is a trick that professional engineers / mixers use. It's essential to help you dial into any equipment or space you're using. Be sure thought not to make up a CD of your favourite tracks, but ones that you consider good mixes. You should always include a few examples of tracks where you feel the mix has been pushed a little too far, to assist you in spotting when you might be doing the same. Mastering is essential, if just to attain the loudness that listeners expect from modern music. You should check out Sound on Sound online, www.soundonsound.com, as there's an Everest of information there that might assist you.[/quote] Thanks for that, though I'm not sure about the drive for loudness for loudness's sake (see the links I posted above).

Voted (I think - I clicked your "CLICK ME" link and it took me to the website, but I didn't see any confirmation that I'd voted). Good songs. Good luck.

I was/am a piano player first and a bass player second- guitar comes a very poor third (though I have a decent acoustic and a frankenfender strat I put together from bits). I think keyboards and bass are a good combination: the piano is a great instrument for learning harmony and theory generally, and I think that helps a lot with bass lines. There seems to be a bit of a tradition of bass players doubling on keys (though now I come to think of it, only JP Jones and Macca come to mind - surely there are others). I also very nearly took up the English concertina a few months back - but then found a band that would have me as a bassist, so decided I'd better concentrate on that for now.

[quote name='MuseMatt' post='277625' date='Sep 5 2008, 09:57 AM']How easy it is to read this as multiple orgasm jazz orchestra...[/quote] ..or, when mispelled as in the thread title, how easy to misread it as 'multiple onanism jazz orchestra' - which is probably worse... Great music though. Good job that man!

[quote name='Merton' post='292037' date='Sep 25 2008, 05:47 PM']Speak to SRT in Cambridge, they did our new album (linky in my sig!) and were brilliant. They even [b]dropped[/b] the volume level of our mixes a touch. It was about £1000 for a 4 hour session (we were present) plus 1000 CDs printed and "pressed". Damn fine service [/quote] Thanks Merton. Listened to some of your tracks - they sound really good. Is that a real horn section on Shoulder to cry on, or MIDI magic? I'd never heard of CD Baby before - how are you finding them as a way of selling your music?

Cheers Johnny, Here's a couple of links I've found that discuss the evils of modern mastering: [url="http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2007/jan/18/pop.music"]www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2007/jan/18/pop.music[/url] [url="http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/blog/2006/oct/02/cdmasteringis"]www.guardian.co.uk/technology/blog/2006/oct/02/cdmasteringis[/url]

Hello everyone, Our band has a CD that's nearing completion - we're just tweaking the mixes at the moment. The plan is to get, I think, 500 pressed up and then sell them at gigs/via our website/give them away as Xmas presents to relatives we don't really like/etc. Although the original recordings were mostly made in a studio, the subsequent mixing has been done at band-members' houses, and listened to on a variety of stereos and headphones, none of which are of studio quality, and in environments that are not acoustically neutral. So, for example, a mix often sounds bass-light on one system and bass-heavy on another one. We've tried comparing with 'real' CDs, which helps somewhat. We are wondering whether it's worth while getting the final stereo mixes professionally "mastered" before sending them off for CD pressing. As far as I can tell, this would mean someone adjusting overall EQ, compression, stereo image, comparative loudness between tracks and length of gap between tracks. So my questions really are - 1) have I understood correctly what professional mastering would provide? 2) do any of you have any experience of using such services, and if so what are your recommendations? Many thanks for any help/info/off topic ranting you can provide. Regards Earbrass

[quote name='chris_b' post='290648' date='Sep 24 2008, 10:31 AM']I agree with Bilbo's view of Motown's output. Great bass playing, but once you get past the hit singles the rest of the songs were very average.[/quote] Let's face it, even the 'hit singles' were just churned out by the Motown machine to a preset formula. They are to music what MacDonalds is to food, ie v. popular mass-produced crap.

[quote name='simon1964' post='286536' date='Sep 18 2008, 11:58 AM']+1 for the Jeff Berlin. It would be ideal, and the one for sale on here is at a good price.[/quote] I did look into that option, but decided that 46lb + is just toooo heavy for a 9 stone weakling like me. Thanks for the thought anyway. And thanks to machinehead for the CMD 121P solidarity - perhaps we should start a club .

So...thanks to a lucky break on ebay (using BuyItNow just 8 minutes after the auction had started) I now have a MarkBass CMD 121P combo. Mint condition, 6 months old, with a cover. The chap who sold it said he'd used it some medium sized pubs and had never had the volume above the 10 o'clock mark. Judging from these and other remarks I've seen here and elsewhere on the web, and WalMan's excellent review of the similar CMD 121H on this very site (http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=5484), I think this will provide enough oomph for my needs. Just under 30lb in weight, and £600 delivered. Result! Just have to hope we ever get a gig now...

3 musicians and a drummer. Chr*st, I hope she never reads this!

Thanks to you all for your help...looks like I'm going to have to revise my 30lb / £600 targets! Thanks also to Darren from Bass Merchant who PM'd me. Have a good weekend folks.

[quote name='alexclaber' post='277961' date='Sep 5 2008, 04:05 PM']What do you use for rehearsals? Alex[/quote] Good question. We've only ever had one (since then I've been recording new bass parts for the band's otherwise already recorded album) - it was some kind of combo - 1x12 I think, but I'm not sure what make or how many watts it produced. I'll pay more attention next time.

For the first time since the early 1980's, I am playing bass again in a rock band. There's talk of gigs (the band have been a gigging outfit in the past, but have been without a regular bass player for a while). Trouble is, at the moment I only have a small practice amp, so it looks like I'm going to have to spend some money on some kind of gigging rig. The band is a 4 piece - vocals, gtr+backing vocals, drums and bass - playing heavyish melodic rock type stuff. The guitarist doesn't have an amp either - our practice room has amps supplied, and they say that in the past they've always got gigs at places with amps already in place (have you guys ever come across this??). The gigs they've had in the past (and think they are most likely to get in the future) seem to have been mostly in London pub venues, with PA supplied. So I'm wondering, from a perspective of zero recent gigging experience, what I'm going to need. I'd like not to exceed around £600 or 30lbs total weight if possible. Options I've been considering include things like: Hartke Kickback 10 combo: 120W, 30lbs, £260 ish new: basic option - if most of the oomph is likely to come from the PA, and the backline is mostly for hearing myself, this might be good option given its ability to act as a monitor in 'kicked-back' mode. Genz-Benz Shuttle 3.0 10T: 175W (350 with extension cab), 18lbs, £600 ish: - similar pros to the Hartke (it has a stand so it can be angled up, apparently), plus even lighter, and I could add an extra cab for more power if required. Lightweight head (Ashdown Little Giant 350??) with Lightweight 1x12 8 ohm cab (Zoot??). 175 Watts / 30lbs approx. / £500-£600. More like a 'proper' bass rig - could add a second 1x12 if needed. But can't angle upwards as easily, so most of the power would be directed at my ankles. Any thoughts? Do you find that for the average gig your amp is primarily a monitor for you, and that the PA is doing most of the work? Do you think a 1x10 combo could cut it in a gig, or am I falling victim to optimistic advertising? Thanks and regards E

Thanks for introducing me to the wonderful world of Brian Fox. He's like the Chuck Norris of bass: "Brian Fox's bum notes can calm hurricanes....but Brian Fox HAS NEVER PLAYED a bum note!"

[quote name='Oscar South' post='273808' date='Aug 31 2008, 04:40 PM']85% of people who say they don't like basses with more than 4 strings are just distasted because they either can't play a 5+ stringer well, or can't afford one. 10% are just saying it to be contrary or because they think it'll earn them 'bass cred'.[/quote] "distasted" ????

It depends so much on what facilities you need and what you are going to use it for. I use a Fostex MR8-MkII, which is super portable, records to CD spec (unlike most of the BOSS products), can be battery powered (bye bye mains hum), and records straight to Compact Flash (no moving parts). It's also cheap (£170/£180??) and very simple to use, though lacking many features (no EQ, internal fx are rubbish, and there's no aux out to use external effects). I use it for recording bass parts for the band I play with - they give me a stereo mix of the track as a WAV file - easy to download to the MR8 over USB. I then record my parts in my own time, copy them back to the laptop via USB, stick 'em on a memory stick, and then they are incorporated into the mix on the band's computer-based system, where proper EQ and FX can be added as required. So, in summary, it's great as a means of capturing sound and turning it into a WAV file, but if you want to process the sound you do it elsewhere - kind of like a digital camera, where you capture your image, then download to Photoshop etc for the fine tuning. Hope this helps. E

... oh yeah, and while we're on the subject of "the selfishness of these twats", I've not infrequently seen on these boards people talking of playing their bass rigs at home and "annoying the neighbours", often followed by a smiley. It's the selfishness of these twats we should be concerned with, and if any of them ever have their gear seized, it serves them right.

[quote name='Rich' post='266051' date='Aug 20 2008, 07:57 AM']OK, so where does it stop? Years ago, near where I used to live there was a dog boarding kennel. Out in the middle of nowhere, only one house anywhere near it. That house was sold, new couple moved in and, yup you guessed it, they complained about the noise. The owner of the kennel had two choices: 1] install complete soundproofing/enclosures which he could not afford, or 2] close. So another business folds, and a few more people on the dole... all because of the selfishness of these twats who knew full well that there was an established kennel nearby when they bought the place. Would you have been 100% on their side too?[/quote] Only if I was sure no dog would suffer as a result. NIMBYism is our most valuable bulwark against ever increasing noise pollution and over-development. Long may its force be felt.

[quote name='Sarah5string' post='266270' date='Aug 20 2008, 01:16 PM']uh.... the B occasionally likes to be awkward and flat? hang on.. how do I do a Bb when I haven't got a Bb on my fretboard???[/quote] It's very tricky.... you have to play a B while simultaneously detuning your string by exactly a semitone

[quote name='Sarah5string' post='266207' date='Aug 20 2008, 12:25 PM']...fair enough... but which bloody ones???[/quote] Hi Sarah, There are a lot to choose from, and all would be good practice, but I would recommend starting with the major scale in all 12 keys - if you can say the note names to yourself as you play them, so much the better. Good for fingering and learning your way round all the notes, and often useful in actual playing. Once you've nailed those, give the melodic and harmonic minors a try. Blues scale(s) are very useful in rock, too. Personally, I think the most important thing for a bass player is to get a grasp of how the keys relate to each other (the "cycle of fifths", knowing which keys are the relative major/minor of others, which are the dominants and subdominants etc.) There's some confusing terminology involved, but the principles are beautifully simple. Hope this helps, and good luck! E

[quote name='jakesbass' post='232659' date='Jul 4 2008, 01:13 PM']I would politely inform them that under those conditions they will not really be getting a live music performance. I find it incredible that people cannot tolerate a single night of celebration without selfish self interested complaint[/quote] But it's not a single night, is it, if it's an "established venue". I'm 100% on the side of the neighbours here - it's the venue who are being selfish, by not caring about their neighbours as long as they are getting their payment. Well done the neighbours for getting the restrictions imposed. More people should complain more often.