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Ambient/Post-Rock/Textural bass playing thread

#24,461
Spectrum said:
I just want to take a moment to admire the looks of the SVT-4. And they sound great, too. Too much hoss for my current needs, of course.
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Mine is an old USA pre buy out, so it’s built wayyyyyyyy better than the Korean and Vietnam ones.
This one has gigged hard for over 10 years. A real tank.

Yes indeed it has plenty of « hoss »
A sledgehammer when needed, but still sounds awesome at lower volumes.
My favourite amp ever, except for the weight in a rackmount is about 90lbs.

Tech showed the guts of them compared, the imports are pure garbage.
(Pre buy out USA made vs imports)
 
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#24,462
IMG_1115.jpeg
 
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#24,463
I saw Tangerine Dream in Glenside PA (Philadelphia suburb) last night. Really enjoyed the show. My seats were great, 3rd row center. Sound quality was high, it was pretty loud but not painful, and the synth bass shook the bones.

They did a mix of soundtrack stuff, a bit of 80s cheese mixed in with more classic Berlin School sequencer-heavy tracks. After the show the sound guy held up the set list for fans to photograph.

I was kind of giddy to see my favorite electronic band up close in front of me like that, and they didn't disappoint.

Also, Thorston is a James Bond villain.


20230927_215034.jpg


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#24,464
Spectrum said:
I saw Tangerine Dream in Glenside PA (Philadelphia suburb) last night. Really enjoyed the show. My seats were great, 3rd row center. Sound quality was high, it was pretty loud but not painful, and the synth bass shook the bones.

They did a mix of soundtrack stuff, a bit of 80s cheese mixed in with more classic Berlin School sequencer-heavy tracks. After the show the sound guy held up the set list for fans to photograph.

I was kind of giddy to see my favorite electronic band up close in front of me like that, and they didn't disappoint.

Also, Thorston is a James Bond villain.


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Glad you caught the show! I really like the current iteration. That's cool they showed the setlist - I had to reconstruct my own show from video snippets I took and the help of a TD die-hard-fan/friend, and hope that others would adjust the setlist I posted to setlist.fm - at one point someone linked to a pic of the setlist someone took and we were like 95% there!

At my show I thought the violin could have been louder, it kind of got lost in the mix.
 
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#24,465
So it looks like I have a gig at the end of October. Previous times I was just doing "bass covers" but this time I think I'm going to do mostly original electronic stuff. Only need to perform for 20-30 minutes. it will be a friendly, though unsuspecting, audience. Been thinking about what I can do - it means a lot more gear than usual - possibly DFAM/Subharmonicon, Sirin, MAQ 16/3 sequencer, Grone, Hydrasynth, and bass. Here's a stab at something with the Grone again, but messing around with the Grone settings for a bit. This might be the opening piece - can also mix in some noise at the end for "wind" (which I might start off with too) to segue into the next bit.



Planning on putting everything through the Blue Box, both to mix to the PA and also to record for later use (hopefully!)
 
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#24,466
Dang it! I just recorded something that I felt was the most fully realized of what I've been conceiving - and it only recorded one of three tracks! It was fun, I was playing the melody on the Grone (with only 3 or 4 positions being harmonious - I messed with the dissonant ones too) against a deep Moog Sirin bass. Ah well, at least I enjoyed it as it was happening - time to hit it again!
 
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#24,467
Too late to modify my previous post (and apologies for spamming the forum) but I did actually manage to record the next take!



It's fun figuring out the various options available on the Grone in a single setting. I'm so glad I've been able to find a way beyond the simple 4/4 rhythm that often emerges. I also found myself recalling the section in ELP's Karn Evil 9 with the gradually accelerating sample & hold this past week - it seemed natural to access that on the Grone filter, but go even slower. (I also saw a post this past week of someone saying they were going to try listening to Brain Salad Surgery again, never having got it before, but I loved that album in high school, it was the first ELP I heard.) Near the peak, I switched to the filter frequency on the Sirin, but when I went back to the Grone, I grabbed the wrong knob, that's why the stepped S&H switches to smooth - but I think it works too. At the same time I (accidentally) gently turned the oscillator 2 tuning on the Sirin, really slowing down the "beating" (heterodyne?) of the drone, so that's what I went with at the end. I mixed it in Reaper, putting a teensy bit of MF-104 on the Sirin (though I don't think it's really audible) but I let the Grone speak for itself - I think the (MS20) filter & Clouds sound good as they are. And maybe the Brain Salad Surgery connection was there all along...
 
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#24,468
hieronymous said:
Dang it! I just recorded something that I felt was the most fully realized of what I've been conceiving
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I feel you on that. I record individual channels on my iPad and forgot the dry channel of something I'd worked up yesterday. The settings are already gone.

Today I discovered shredding on the Linnstrument and the Easel Command. If you set it just right, you get this Robert-Fripp-sort of guitar thing going. One channel pulses or arpeggiates while the other drones but can be played in tune and modulated by pressure. It is very fun to play. I think it probably sounds awful though. :). The one thing it doesn't do is that old mono synth thing where if you hold a low key and play high keys you can get these sort of trills going (which is also something that works on the Easel's touch keyboard, which I don't have) but that doesn't matter so much with all the touch guitar practice I've had.

The Easel Command is interesting. It is in many ways quite limited timbrally -- basically whatever you do sounds like the 1970s (or the 2010s if you add shimmer reverb and a looper pedal, which is the Alessandro Cortini variation). But the design of the interface is unusually good. Like the first 20% range of a slider does interesting things, but the 40-60% range also does different, interesting things, etc. I thought it wouldn't be that different from my Implexus is some ways but it's like night and day. I prefer the sound of the Implexus (and my Eurorack setup) but the control structure of the Easel Command is extremely enjoyable. I think it's the combination of switches and sliders.
 
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#24,469
JES said:
.

The Easel Command is interesting. It is in many ways quite limited timbrally -- basically whatever you do sounds like the 1970s (or the 2010s if you add shimmer reverb and a looper pedal, which is the Alessandro Cortini variation). But the design of the interface is unusually good. Like the first 20% range of a slider does interesting things, but the 40-60% range also does different, interesting things, etc. I thought it wouldn't be that different from my Implexus is some ways but it's like night and day. I prefer the sound of the Implexus (and my Eurorack setup) but the control structure of the Easel Command is extremely enjoyable. I think it's the combination of switches and sliders.
Click to expand...

Pretty good description of the easel. I’m still in love with mine.
 
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#24,470
Another drone improv - again, I hate to spam but - it's my birthday! I won't give you my birth year & social security number, but I will boast that I share my birthday with Sting & Gandhi!



I have to tune the other synths up a few cents to match the Grone, but once it's there, it's fun. I left the Moog Sirin clean, no processing afterwards - normally, I'd probably put some delay or filter, but I like the fact that it's a digital recording of a raw analog synth. The Grone is a digital oscillator thru an analog (MS20) filter & Clouds, recorded digitally of course. And the Hydrasynth is a digital synth - recorded digitally - the high end is much crisper than the Sirin - not a good or a bad thing to my ears, just different.
 
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#24,473
JES said:
I am disappointed to announce that a different power supply makes no difference.
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I’m sure other users are having the same issue. Are there any forums/groups that could yield some information towards fixing the issue?
Does the company know about the module hard crashes? IMO thats a deal breaker because if you rely on it heavily in your rig, its a show stopper unless you have a contingency plan.

I dont have any news to report, only working on band and “regular” bass atm.
Procrastinating crate/YT digging for samples for live gigs and new album.
One thing for sure is, for me at least, the TC spark definitely is a killer pedal.
Road/gig tested Ugly approved. ;)
Boring, yet maybe valuable info for a few…….
 
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#24,476
hieronymous said:
Another drone improv - again, I hate to spam but - it's my birthday! I won't give you my birth year & social security number, but I will boast that I share my birthday with Sting & Gandhi!



I have to tune the other synths up a few cents to match the Grone, but once it's there, it's fun. I left the Moog Sirin clean, no processing afterwards - normally, I'd probably put some delay or filter, but I like the fact that it's a digital recording of a raw analog synth. The Grone is a digital oscillator thru an analog (MS20) filter & Clouds, recorded digitally of course. And the Hydrasynth is a digital synth - recorded digitally - the high end is much crisper than the Sirin - not a good or a bad thing to my ears, just different.
Click to expand...


Belated HBD!
Nice work :)
 
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#24,478
I've been getting into Robert Rich a bit, partly because of this interview that came up in my FB feed - and notice the PVC flute in the pic for the article!

Robert Rich - The Sky of Sound

I like Anil Prasad's interviews, and this one turned me onto Filaments - I'm also reading a book about complexity theory and consciousness which delves into quantum physics but also biology (so far at least! I'm only part way through), so this album grabbed me the most - and don't forget, it's Bandcamp Friday tomorrow! I plan on getting this one.



steubig said:
rr makes his own (microtonal?) flutes from pvc, iirc.
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And found footage of the entire 42 minute Sessions performance from the San Francisco Tangerine Dream show I saw!



My favorite part with the flute & looper starts at about 25:30. He also plays a lot of slide guitar throughout - it kind of bugged me at the show, but I have since learned that that's one of the things he does, so I'm less perturbed by it lol. Actually, one part was cool because he had the - lap steel? - turned around the opposite way later in the performance and had an EBow resting on the strings as he played.

One of the reasons it bugged me was that I felt like they already had that voice with Hoshiko Yamane on violin - but now I realize - it was just another voice, didn't need to judge it - it was actually really cool, there was a part when he started playing and I thought it was her, and after he played, she reacted to what he had played - so there was interaction - now I need to go back and listen to that part again - in fact, I need to listen to the whole thing! I think I was kind of afraid to, but I'm ready now. Thanks for reading lol
 
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