The New Tone Thread

  • Thread starter Thread starter Telegram Sam
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Ok, here's something different, bass tone...This is a song I'm working on, & I've been fucking around with the bass line today, lemme know what you guys think....It's pretty sloppy IMO, but, as usual, that can be changed, if I ever learn how to fuckin' play bass...:).

I'm mainly wondering if you guys think I'm half-assed in the pocket with the drums, & what you guys think of the bass sound of course....Yeah, there's a couple/few spots where my sloppiness shows it's ugly head, but lemme know.....

I've read over & over the bass plays a big part in the sound of the guitars (where they blend during the riffs), so how do you guys go about this???
Do you shape the sound of the bass to "fit" the song/guitars???
Do you do much editing to the bass track(s) to make 'em sit better in the pocket/groove???
What kind of processing do you guys do to your bass tracks??? (light compression or do you guys slam the tracks really hard for example)...

While I've been at recording now for about 5 years, I'm starting to realize how much of a noob I really am with some of the songs/results I have compared to a lot of you guys here....


I'm pretty interested to hear what you guys do for your bass tracks.....


bass-n-drums
 
Pretty cool. Good enough bass tone for me. There are a few spots where the bass is ahead of the beat. Couple of drum fills are off with the bass. I'm a bass-and-drums-locked-in kind of guy. I prefer it that way. But that's just me. I like my shit to be as tight as humanly possible. I like human variances, but not outside of what just comes naturally from trying to play tight. So anyway, could your bass be tighter? Yeah, but it's not bad for a song like this.

For me, I don't do jack shit to the bass. I compress it a little sometimes because my higher strings pop more, but that's it. Not even EQ. I don't think about how things fit together. I'm a believer of if things sound good on their own, they'll sound good together. Good bass tone and good guitar tone will happily coexist without any finagling.
 
Thanks Greg,
I know there's a couple/few spots where the timing is a little off, but overall, I do think it's ok...Recorded my bass straight into the interface & slapped a bass sim on it....there's no eq or compression on what you're hearing at all...

You know, up until a month or so ago, I'd process the living fuck out of all my tracks, whether it'd be my guitars, bass, drum vsti's, whatever, but I'm finally starting to realize all those plug-ins/processing is actually hurting the way my recordings sound....I've had a couple things to finally sink in just this week, so hopefully it'll show in my recordings....

Thanks again dude, & the drums sound better now that I've simplified 'em from what they were....Still learning over here, even after 5 years of this shit...LOL...
 
ahrrrgggg ..... late gig last night ..... got to bed at 4am ..... up at 8am to load second set of gear for a double gig today that so close together time wise that I have to go early and set up for the second gig and then go set up for the first ... finish, tear down frantically and haul ass to the second gig.

Off I go ..... see ya'll in the wee hours.
 
Lt. Bob said:
ahrrrgggg ..... late gig last night ..... got to bed at 4am ..... up at 8am to load second set of gear for a double gig today that so close together time wise that I have to go early and set up for the second gig and then go set up for the first ... finish, tear down frantically and haul ass to the second gig.

Off I go ..... see ya'll in the wee hours.
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Lol. Awesome. I don't got no gigs till Apr 4th, and then it's gonna be awesome. We're playing a midget wrestling competition. Can't wait. :D
 
Greg_L said:
Lol. Awesome. I don't got no gigs till Apr 4th, and then it's gonna be awesome. We're playing a midget wrestling competition. Can't wait. :D
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Please tell me you're gonna record a vid of this man....I don't get into the wrestling thing myself, but I know a lot of people around here flip out just watching it on tv....you should see all the hillbillies/rednecks when something like that comes to town.....:eatpopcorn:. Watching all the locals get all hyped up is actually better than the wrestling itself around here.....:laughings:.

I've been waiting on Jonny Deep's clips/pics/review of his new JCM-1, but I guess Robo Cop might've taken him in....LOL...
 
minerman said:
Please tell me you're gonna record a vid of this man....I don't get into the wrestling thing myself, but I know a lot of people around here flip out just watching it on tv....you should see all the hillbillies/rednecks when something like that comes to town.....:eatpopcorn:. Watching all the locals get all hyped up is actually better than the wrestling itself around here.....:laughings:.

I've been waiting on Jonny Deep's clips/pics/review of his new JCM-1, but I guess Robo Cop might've taken him in....LOL...
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I don't like wrestling at all. But midget wrestling? Fuck yeah. Anything with midgets is a win in my book.

I've said many times, my only goal in music is to get to a point where I can have midgets stand around my drum kit holding mics like semi-human mic stands. This gets me one step closer.
 
Only pisser about your gig is I live so fuckin' far away.....you don't know how much you're giving me the itch to play in a band again man, seriously....Even my wife mentioned it this evening, she was like "Well, I guess it won't be long now that you're gonna start playing out again huh???"....It'd be damn near impossible though, the hours I work just wouldn't let me do it...I was on day shift before, evening shift fucks everything up....

Record us some midgets dude, I wanna see 'em...:)
 
home!! man ...

hey miner .......... see if this gives you the itch to play again! :D

played last night ..... had to get up at 8 to put a second set of gear in the truck ..... went to the night gigs location and set up keyboard/guitar amp head and speaker/pedalboard/PA w/ 2 cabs/3 mic/lights .... then went to early gig and set up the same and just got started for 1 ...... played till 5 with no break (this is all singing stuff) ... frantically tore down .... threw the stuff in the truck and got to the night gig with minutes to spare and started playing another 4 hour gig with one break!
Got thru ..... tore down .... got home right at midnight.
Also I managed to not get a single bite of anything at all to eat the entire day .... :) ah the glamour. :D

Not bad though .... a day and a halfs' work .... 600 bucks. I needed it cause I really want to buy a Xotic Effects SP Compressor and now I can ..... oops .... there went the ding of a microwave ........ food ...................
 
Ahhh yes, I remember those times Bob....FWIW, I always had at least 3-4 other people to help load/unload/setup/teardown, so it wasn't that hard on us, but there were a lot of times I had to work the next day, & worked my shift on no sleep at all, then went straight home, showered, ate a bite on the way to the gig, & did it all over again....It's a lot more work than a lot of people realize (especially non-musicians), but I totally loved it when I was doing it....

Hang in there dude, & go stuff your face, you've earned it....:guitar:.

Gonna go back to programming the fuckin' drums...:cursing:. I'll get 'em finished up eventually, then I can re-record all the tracks, do the mix, & all that good shit....But, all the other shit won't take as long as these motherfucking, aggravating, fake fuckin' drums that I have to use...:laughings:.Ok, I got it out of my system, back to the grind....LOL....
 
minerman said:
Please tell me you're gonna record a vid of this man....I don't get into the wrestling thing myself, but I know a lot of people around here flip out just watching it on tv....you should see all the hillbillies/rednecks when something like that comes to town.....:eatpopcorn:. Watching all the locals get all hyped up is actually better than the wrestling itself around here.....:laughings:.

I've been waiting on Jonny Deep's clips/pics/review of his new JCM-1, but I guess Robo Cop might've taken him in....LOL...
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Sorry for the delay, fellas. I've only had chance for a quick go on the new amp, which sounds great so far - need more time to get used to It. I need to mess with my mic placement to get a good recording of it as well. Here's a pic of it stacked on top of the JVM1. I made a long speaker cable so I can have them on the desk, that way I can twiddle knobs without moving.

 
Cool man, I was just messing with ya dude, I know we've all got things other than our music that we have to do...:).

Congrats man!!! I'm kinda jealous over here, the JCM-1 was my original choice of all the 1watters, but couldn't swing the $$$ at the time, so I had to wait, & ended up with the DSL-1....Dunno how different they are tone-wise, but I'm still really happy with my DSL-1....

Your setup looks really similar to mine dude, I keep my DSL-1 & T15 stacked on the desk within arms reach so I can twiddle the knobs without getting off my ass too....LOL...I bought a 50' speaker cable before I built the ISO cab (that's my ghetto masterpiece on the right of the amps/guitar btw...) so I could have the cab in the other room, but have since made 2 cables out if it in case I ever wanna run 2 cabs with one amp/both amps/whatever...



I actually turned 'em facing the camera for this pic, I usually keep 'em facing me where I sit on my ass.....

What I really want to know is how the JCM-1 & JVM-1 compare tone-wise, can you get JCM tones with the JVM, & vice-versa....I consider the DSL-1 kinda in the "middle" of those 2, as it's got a little more gain than the JCM-1, but a little less than the JVM-1 (as far as I've read/heard, not from personal experience....), that's another reason I picked the DSL-1....Too much gain can always be turned down on the amp, & if I need more, I can always boost it....Again, I'm really curious to how the JCM-1 compares to the JVM-1 gain & tone-wise....

Congrats dude, post some clips when you get time!!!!
 
Lt. Bob said:
home!! man ...

hey miner .......... see if this gives you the itch to play again! :D

played last night ..... had to get up at 8 to put a second set of gear in the truck ..... went to the night gigs location and set up keyboard/guitar amp head and speaker/pedalboard/PA w/ 2 cabs/3 mic/lights .... then went to early gig and set up the same and just got started for 1 ...... played till 5 with no break (this is all singing stuff) ... frantically tore down .... threw the stuff in the truck and got to the night gig with minutes to spare and started playing another 4 hour gig with one break!
Got thru ..... tore down .... got home right at midnight.
Also I managed to not get a single bite of anything at all to eat the entire day .... :) ah the glamour. :D

Not bad though .... a day and a halfs' work .... 600 bucks. I needed it cause I really want to buy a Xotic Effects SP Compressor and now I can ..... oops .... there went the ding of a microwave ........ food ...................
Click to expand...

You made money though. Most of us local level giggers don't make 600 bucks in one year of gigs. :laughings:
 
Greg_L said:
I think that's about right. I think you did good with the DSL for your style.
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Yeah, the DSL is right up my alley dude, it's got plenty of gain on tap, enough that I really don't need a boost, other than to tighten it up a little....Great little amp IMHO...

Greg_L said:
I found a really clean handwired 50w JCM 800 clone in a red Plexi box on the craigslist for 500 bucks. I'm a little interested.......
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Don't mean to bust your bubble, but, it's a clone dude....I'm sure it would sound just like a real 800 & all, but, it's not a real 800...$500 is a pretty good price though IMO, as long as it's not beat to hell, & been fucked with internally.....Of course it's your call ultimately, but if it were me, I'd hold out for the real deal.....keep us informed dude....
 
Lol. I know man, it's a clone. I'm not that interested. It just looks really clean and very well put together in the pics. And I bet it goes fast at 500 bucks. It looks like it might be a Ceriatone model clone. It's got all the good caps and transformers. Nice turret board. The wiring is tidy and efficient. No crazy loops or long runs of wire going everywhere. Those plexi and 800 clones are good if they were put together properly. The circuits are really simple. I don't wanna buy someone else's project, but if I can't find a sweet deal on a real early 80s 800, you can bet your ass I'd try to build one myself from a kit. I aint in no hurry though. I just always keep my eyes peeled.

Speaking of clones, where's that dirty steve guy?
 
Oh yeah Greg, I know you've got your shit together on the amp thing, I was just sayin' you're after Marshalls not clones ya know??? It's all good though....I've heard good things about Ceriatone amps though....

I talked to Steve through a pm in the Marshall forum yesterday....He said he's been busy with other stuff, & is gonna try to get his recording setup running today (Sunday), other than that, I really don't know...

Gonna go fire up Reaper & listen to my drum programming to see where I stand on song #3....LOL...Only 7 1/2 more to go, pretty sure the first 2 are about good enough...maybe....LOL....

While I'm at it, any chance you could Dropbox the raw, multi-tracks to those drums you sent me??? Doesn't have to be the whole song, maybe 45 seconds to a minute of 'em....Wanna see how much bleed you get in your oh's, snares, etc.....No biggie if you don't wanna fuck with it....And yes, I'm using the Gerg's drum tracks like I did those Rock Band guitar tracks....Not trying to "ape" 'em, just trying to get my fake drums sounding as real as I possibly can...:).
 
minerman said:
While I'm at it, any chance you could Dropbox the raw, multi-tracks to those drums you sent me??? Doesn't have to be the whole song, maybe 45 seconds to a minute of 'em....Wanna see how much bleed you get in your oh's, snares, etc.....No biggie if you don't wanna fuck with it....And yes, I'm using the Gerg's drum tracks like I did those Rock Band guitar tracks....Not trying to "ape" 'em, just trying to get my fake drums sounding as real as I possibly can...:).
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Yup, sure thing. I'll do it tomorrow. Remind me if I forget.
 
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