Bass Review Magazine

[iamtheelvy]

1 hour ago, toneknob said:

This won't help anyone but after reading the first issue I decided to not get any more 

Got to say, same here. I'm happy to see how things play out and get back into it in due course, but the same issues seem to be happening across the board.

[Kev]

Those who are talking about the strings, you don't get them until month 5 so that sounds about right.  Not about to send strings out until you've at least covered the cost of them!

 

Any links to any articles?  Can usually spot AI articles a mile off.

[iamtheelvy]

53 minutes ago, Kev said:

Those who are talking about the strings, you don't get them until month 5 so that sounds about right.  Not about to send strings out until you've at least covered the cost of them!

 

Any links to any articles?  Can usually spot AI articles a mile off.

Few article segments here:

https://bassreviewmagazine.com/artist-jaco-pastorius/?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTAAAR3iQLmOW13WSy93GUXDZTaL705wG-p27C4U0xvsILNmnH0BXxaOqn4Q-vM_aem_AdPPTvwDwUDnVCSN-oYr-LqFV5xnQ5a4ntEyZJ7vx1pQQrG4-5n89sO5eJHE65dUeIg35wXJsI-7QjwqRppjZb_D

 

TBH, the Jaco 'Artist Spotlight' doesn't really say much more than this...

 

 

[toneknob]

Just pop "who is Jaco Pastorius" into chatgpt for some familiar looking text 

 

[Fil1ip]

1 hour ago, Kev said:

Those who are talking about the strings, you don't get them until month 5 so that sounds about right.  Not about to send strings out until you've at least covered the cost of them!

 

Any links to any articles?  Can usually spot AI articles a mile off.

That was originally said about the strings and then they started to send them out straight away 

[Dood]

 

I received a message the other day telling me that they had subscribed and were looking forward to reading my articles again. I had to explain that I actually write and video review for the free to read / subscribe to Bass Gear Magazine. 
 

Obviously, at the risk of this post sounding like a railroad, I do wish this new venture good will and that they are only experiencing a temporary glitch. Bit concerned about A.I articles though, is it looking like that? I’ve not seen the mag.

[Kev]

1 hour ago, iamtheelvy said:

Few article segments here:

https://bassreviewmagazine.com/artist-jaco-pastorius/?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTAAAR3iQLmOW13WSy93GUXDZTaL705wG-p27C4U0xvsILNmnH0BXxaOqn4Q-vM_aem_AdPPTvwDwUDnVCSN-oYr-LqFV5xnQ5a4ntEyZJ7vx1pQQrG4-5n89sO5eJHE65dUeIg35wXJsI-7QjwqRppjZb_D

 

TBH, the Jaco 'Artist Spotlight' doesn't really say much more than this...

 

 

There's nothing too glaring there really, to me anyways.

[stewblack]

Strings come on third edition I believe.

It's a little bit vanilla but we'll see.

@Dood is yours a physical mag or online only?

[Burns-bass]

1 hour ago, Kev said:

There's nothing too glaring there really, to me anyways.

 

I run a content agency for brands and businesses and this is AI content. Red flags all over the place.

[BreadBin]

44 minutes ago, Burns-bass said:

 

I run a content agency for brands and businesses and this is AI content. Red flags all over the place.

Absolutely, recycled content ahoy! It even recycles itself 😃

[Kev]

51 minutes ago, Burns-bass said:

 

I run a content agency for brands and businesses and this is AI content. Red flags all over the place.

Can you quote some?

 

I'm not seeing anything that would differentiate AI over just bad unoriginal writing borrowing pieces already written.

[Burns-bass]

39 minutes ago, Kev said:

Can you quote some?

 

I'm not seeing anything that would differentiate AI over just bad unoriginal writing borrowing pieces already written.

 

It’s hard to explain but we see it loads in my job. AI writing programmes don’t really “write” anything, they spin existing content (essentially reconstituting in a new way so it reads like original content but isn’t).

 

So it will copy and subtly change whole sentences from publicly available websites. 
 

Heres one I asked GPT to write and it’s strikingly similar. What it lacks is the care and attention of a real human being/bass player.

 

“As an American musician renowned for his prowess on the electric bass, Pastorius’s style revolutionized how the bass guitar is perceived in jazz music. His tenure with the jazz fusion group Weather Report from 1976 to 1981 solidified his reputation, but his contributions extended beyond with collaborations with artists like Pat Metheny, Joni Mitchell, and his own band, the Word of Mouth.

 

“Pastorius was known for his innovative techniques on the fretless bass, which included lyrical solos, bass chords, and the use of harmonics. His approach combined elements of funk, R&B, and jazz, creating complex bass lines that were both intricate and rhythmically powerful. Despite personal struggles with mental health and substance abuse, which affected his career and eventually his life, Pastorius’s influence on music and bass playing remains profound. He was posthumously inducted into the DownBeat Jazz Hall of Fame, a testament to his lasting impact on the music world.”

 

[Mediocre Polymath]

2 hours ago, Burns-bass said:

 

I run a content agency for brands and businesses and this is AI content. Red flags all over the place.

Publishing industry editor/writer weighing in to agree with @Burns-bass. There's a distinctive sort of slightly stilted, verbose enthusiasm to how the current generations of chatGPT write. Their prose is like badly written PR/Marketing copy, probably because that's a large chunk of what they've been trained on.

[Mediocre Polymath]

Just to expand on my previous post. A big part of my job these days is research and fact-checking (and supervising others who do the same), so I've been coming up against the AI authorship problem quite a lot lately.

 

I'm not claiming to be an expert AI-witchfinder, but I've edited millions of words of published material over the course of my career, and I've seen the breadth (and depths) of how people write. Stuff that isn't written by people at all tends to have a certain something that feels, er, off, to me. It's hard to put that vague hunch into words, but there are a few aspects that I'd highlight.

 

The main thing is Large Language Models aren't able (at least at the moment) to write in a way that assumes a particular level of pre-existing knowledge in their audience. So, they always start with with the absolute basics – stuff that, in a lot of cases, no-one would bother to mention if they were talking to reasonably informed adults.

 

To give an example from the linked website, ask yourself, would a person writing a review of a particular model of Rickenbacker bass (for other bass players, you'd assume) feel the need to start by saying "The Rickenbacker 4003 is a renowned four-string electric bass guitar known for its distinctive design and unique tonal characteristics"? Or start a piece about Jaco with, "Jaco Pastorius (1951-1987) was an influential American jazz bassist, composer, and bandleader."?

 

That's how you'd start your presentation to the class if, for some bizarre reason, your middle-school teacher had told you to do a book report on the Rickenbacker 4003, or Jaco Pastorius.

 

Those sentences also illustrate something else about AI writing – the waffle. Chat GPT is incredibly wordy, and often writes with a strange sort of pseudo-conversational tone that feels out of place in more formal, nominally print-ready contexts. Every sentence is full of filler phrases, adjectives and vague descriptive passages that don't actually contain any additional information.

 

To go back to the book report analogy, it reads like your middle school teacher told you to do a 1000-word book report on the Rickenbacker 4003, and you only had 600 words worth of material. The overall impression is of someone vamping to fill space on a subject they don't really know or understand.

Edited April 18 by Mediocre Polymath

[Dood]

5 hours ago, stewblack said:

Strings come on third edition I believe.

It's a little bit vanilla but we'll see.

@Dood is yours a physical mag or online only?

 

Bass Gear Magazine used to be both but it moved to online. It also doesn't use a 'magazine reader' app, so all the usual search and linking 'stuff' works rather than having to sign in all the time. Whether or not the magazine will go physical again, I don't know, but since January lots of work has taken place on the magazine in a major refresh, which is brilliant.

[Dood]

12 minutes ago, Mediocre Polymath said:

Just to expand on my previous post. A big part of my job these days is research and fact-checking (and supervising others who do the same), so I've been coming up against the AI authorship problem quite a lot lately.

 

I'm not claiming to be an expert AI-witchfinder, but I've edited millions of words of published material over the course of my career, and I've seen the breadth (and depths) of how people write. Stuff that isn't written by people at all tends to have a certain something that feels, er, off, to me. It's hard to put that vague hunch into words, but there are a few aspects that I'd highlight.

 

The main thing is Large Language Models aren't able (at least at the moment) to write in a way that assumes a particular level of pre-existing knowledge in their audience. So, they always start with with the absolute basics – stuff that, in a lot of cases, no-one would bother to mention if they were talking to reasonably informed adults.

 

To give an example from the linked website, ask yourself, would a person writing a review of a particular model of Rickenbacker bass (for other bass players, you'd assume) feel the need to start by saying "The Rickenbacker 4003 is a renowned four-string electric bass guitar known for its distinctive design and unique tonal characteristics"? Or start a piece about Jaco with, "Jaco Pastorius (1951-1987) was an influential American jazz bassist, composer, and bandleader."?

 

That's how you'd start your presentation to the class if, for some bizarre reason, your middle-school teacher had told you to do a book report on the Rickenbacker 4003, or Jaco Pastorius.

 

Those sentences also illustrate something else about AI writing – the waffle. Chat GPT is incredibly wordy, and often writes with a strange sort of pseudo-conversational tone that feels out of place in more formal, nominally print-ready contexts. Every sentence is full of filler phrases, adjectives and vague descriptive passages that don't actually contain any additional information.

 

To go back to the book report analogy, it reads like your middle school teacher told you to do a 1000-word book report on the Rickenbacker 4003, and you only had 600 words worth of material. The overall impression is of someone vamping to fill space on a subject they don't really know or understand.

 

Absolutely! I've been researching AI modelled review writing to test it. I can spot the language modelling too, I agree with your summing up of it. 

If you know what you are doing, some well written prompts can point it in the right direction, even feeding it with years of well written human copy would get you closer - but they all (at the moment) miss the nuances and technical experience that someone who has obsessively been following bass for over thirty five years has. 

[Dood]

2 hours ago, Burns-bass said:

 

It’s hard to explain but we see it loads in my job. AI writing programmes don’t really “write” anything, they spin existing content (essentially reconstituting in a new way so it reads like original content but isn’t).

 

So it will copy and subtly change whole sentences from publicly available websites. 
 

Heres one I asked GPT to write and it’s strikingly similar. What it lacks is the care and attention of a real human being/bass player.

 

“As an American musician renowned for his prowess on the electric bass, Pastorius’s style revolutionized how the bass guitar is perceived in jazz music. His tenure with the jazz fusion group Weather Report from 1976 to 1981 solidified his reputation, but his contributions extended beyond with collaborations with artists like Pat Metheny, Joni Mitchell, and his own band, the Word of Mouth.

 

“Pastorius was known for his innovative techniques on the fretless bass, which included lyrical solos, bass chords, and the use of harmonics. His approach combined elements of funk, R&B, and jazz, creating complex bass lines that were both intricate and rhythmically powerful. Despite personal struggles with mental health and substance abuse, which affected his career and eventually his life, Pastorius’s influence on music and bass playing remains profound. He was posthumously inducted into the DownBeat Jazz Hall of Fame, a testament to his lasting impact on the music world.”

 

 

I meant to quote your post in my reply above. 

[wateroftyne]

7 hours ago, iamtheelvy said:

Few article segments here:

https://bassreviewmagazine.com/artist-jaco-pastorius/?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTAAAR3iQLmOW13WSy93GUXDZTaL705wG-p27C4U0xvsILNmnH0BXxaOqn4Q-vM_aem_AdPPTvwDwUDnVCSN-oYr-LqFV5xnQ5a4ntEyZJ7vx1pQQrG4-5n89sO5eJHE65dUeIg35wXJsI-7QjwqRppjZb_D

 

TBH, the Jaco 'Artist Spotlight' doesn't really say much more than this...

 

 

That Jaco article screams 'AI'.

[Kev]

I think in honesty it's too bad to be AI, or at least, it's AI from multiple prompts.  It just looks like copy/paste from here there and everywhere.

 

Be good if the owner chimed in though, as it's all looking a bit ropey however you look at it.

[stewblack]

So this is the true evil of AI revealed.

We can't just discuss a magazine any more, we now have to discuss if it's AI generated or not.

🤦‍♂️

 

[Rusco]

On 18/04/2024 at 21:39, Mediocre Polymath said:

Just to expand on my previous post. A big part of my job these days is research and fact-checking (and supervising others who do the same), so I've been coming up against the AI authorship problem quite a lot lately.

 

I'm not claiming to be an expert AI-witchfinder, but I've edited millions of words of published material over the course of my career, and I've seen the breadth (and depths) of how people write. Stuff that isn't written by people at all tends to have a certain something that feels, er, off, to me. It's hard to put that vague hunch into words, but there are a few aspects that I'd highlight.

 

The main thing is Large Language Models aren't able (at least at the moment) to write in a way that assumes a particular level of pre-existing knowledge in their audience. So, they always start with with the absolute basics – stuff that, in a lot of cases, no-one would bother to mention if they were talking to reasonably informed adults.

 

To give an example from the linked website, ask yourself, would a person writing a review of a particular model of Rickenbacker bass (for other bass players, you'd assume) feel the need to start by saying "The Rickenbacker 4003 is a renowned four-string electric bass guitar known for its distinctive design and unique tonal characteristics"? Or start a piece about Jaco with, "Jaco Pastorius (1951-1987) was an influential American jazz bassist, composer, and bandleader."?

 

That's how you'd start your presentation to the class if, for some bizarre reason, your middle-school teacher had told you to do a book report on the Rickenbacker 4003, or Jaco Pastorius.

 

Those sentences also illustrate something else about AI writing – the waffle. Chat GPT is incredibly wordy, and often writes with a strange sort of pseudo-conversational tone that feels out of place in more formal, nominally print-ready contexts. Every sentence is full of filler phrases, adjectives and vague descriptive passages that don't actually contain any additional information.

 

To go back to the book report analogy, it reads like your middle school teacher told you to do a 1000-word book report on the Rickenbacker 4003, and you only had 600 words worth of material. The overall impression is of someone vamping to fill space on a subject they don't really know or understand.

 

That's a good summery. I've used ChatGPT and recently more Google Vertex and both broadly do what you've said.

They are great at giving you a quick running start and a foundation to build upon but I wouldn't be using their output as anything close to a final version, where the audience has a level of knowledge.

[Fil1ip]

Issue 3 and strings arrived 😁😁😁

[Goliath_FX]

I spoke to Dan at Guitar Show earlier this year in Birmingham. It seems that its just him trying to get a new mag going for us bassists. Most likely why its a little ropey etc anyway I sent him a Hornburg pedal to review and hopefully I'll get a feel for what else the mag is like before I invest too much in ads etc. It looks pretty for sure and the reviews seem to be written well. Fingers crossed the mag improves, but personally I think its great to have one starting up again. 

[Spingere]

I ordered issue three, print copy, about ten days ago. I've received nothing and no one is replying when I email. Maybe this is a one person operation, but it's not giving me a warm fuzzy feeling.

 

Has anyone else had any developments?

[Spingere]

I hadn't seen your comment @Goliath_FX when I wrote the above.