Ambient/Post-Rock/Textural bass playing thread

[monsterthompson]

bass stuff? maybe:

Amp Shop Bass Exchange

View details about Amp Shop Bass Exchange in North Hollywood, CA United States on Apple Maps. Address, driving directions, images, nearby attractions and more.

maps.apple.com

I wondered about that spot. I checked their online inventory and nothing seemed particularly interesting.

 

[monsterthompson]

Godfrey for the Hollywood part. I'd love to know if there's any good cheap eats in Hollywood,.

You'll be in my neighborhood. I'll get a few ideas for you. Heck, I'll buy you a cup of coffee at one of my local favorite spots if you have the time.

Guitar Center Hollywood is just down the street, so that'll be a quick trip. Perfect Circuit isn't that far into Burbank. You'd be looking at about a 30 minute drive each way depending on the time of day.

There's the Vintage Synth Museum in Highland Park, between Hollywood and Downtown. That requires a reservation and a fee. Maybe not a fit for this trip, but FYI.

INFO — Vintage Synthesizer Museum

vintagesynthesizermuseum.com

 

[monsterthompson]

Also...
I just grabbed a Boss RC 500 looper.

Elektron just changed ownership and the synth world is rumbling about it.

And this reverb module just dropped.

 

[lordradish]

You'll be in my neighborhood. I'll get a few ideas for you. Heck, I'll buy you a cup of coffee at one of my local favorite spots if you have the time.

Guitar Center Hollywood is just down the street, so that'll be a quick trip. Perfect Circuit isn't that far into Burbank. You'd be looking at about a 30 minute drive each way depending on the time of day.

There's the Vintage Synth Museum in Highland Park, between Hollywood and Downtown. That requires a reservation and a fee. Maybe not a fit for this trip, but FYI.

INFO — Vintage Synthesizer Museum

vintagesynthesizermuseum.com

I may have to take you up on that. I'm sure the wife's gonna wanna chill by the pool for an hour. I'll reach out as it gets closer

 

[hieronymous]

Can I come? I’m jealous!

 

[lordradish]

Can I come? I’m jealous!

Sure, I'll ask my boss.

I am really psyched about this, first time to CA. Nice to have work foot a lot of the bill and then be able to stay a few extra days, and bring the wife, too.

 

[Spectrum]

My first time visiting the West Coast the most surprising thing I found was how cold the water is off the beach at LA. Having grown up with Gidget and other surf culture icons it never occurred to me that the water off the West Coast would be so cold. Turns out the Pacific coast currents come down from the cold north, while the East Coast current runs up from the Gulf. This explains why water off Norh Carolina is crazy warm in the late Summer.

Also, I experienced an earthquake in LA that was a bit unsettling given the hotel I was staying in. My local colleagues laughed at me for expressing concern.

 

[sunbeast]

My first time visiting the West Coast the most surprising thing I found was how cold the water is off the beach at LA. Having grown up with Gidget and other surf culture icons it never occurred to me that the water off the West Coast would be so cold. Turns out the Pacific coast currents come down from the cold north, while the East Coast current runs up from the Gulf. This explains why water off Norh Carolina is crazy warm in the late Summer.

Also, I experienced an earthquake in LA that was a bit unsettling given the hotel I was staying in. My local colleagues laughed at me for expressing conce

Yeah when I lived there I usually only got in the water in the summer for my first year or so. Then I met a lady from Paris who had moved there and she would just get in anytime we went (which was a lot)- she was used to the beaches in northwest France. After that I would pretty much always get in when I visited the beach, at least for a little while. I could definitely never stay in as long as I did as a kid visiting family in the Chesapeake every summer, but still refreshing in its own way.

 

[monsterthompson]

Microtonal modular. Of course I had to post it here.

 

[monsterthompson]

I think I’m getting the hang of the Boss RC500 looper. It’s definitely a change of mindset and the maze of menus and signal routing options don’t make it fast to learn. That said, I started getting some loops built up and everything is in sync with my Digitone as a drum machine. I feel like a couple more sessions with it will bring all the parts together. It definitely gets more fun with the Boss XS100 pitch shifter, and I can’t help but glide between octaves and bend pitches out of tune for texture.

 

[Starthief]

Yeah when I lived there I usually only got in the water in the summer for my first year or so. Then I met a lady from Paris who had moved there and she would just get in anytime we went (which was a lot)- she was used to the beaches in northwest France. After that I would pretty much always get in when I visited the beach, at least for a little while. I could definitely never stay in as long as I did as a kid visiting family in the Chesapeake every summer, but still refreshing in its own way.

Growing up on the Gulf (of Mexico, dammit) in Florida, if the air was warm enough the water generally was too. But I got a shock when we went to Juniper Springs, where you can see through 80-foot deep water perfectly clearly and it's coooooold by comparison.

 

[lordradish]

I think I’m getting the hang of the Boss RC500 looper. It’s definitely a change of mindset and the maze of menus and signal routing options don’t make it fast to learn. That said, I started getting some loops built up and everything is in sync with my Digitone as a drum machine. I feel like a couple more sessions with it will bring all the parts together. It definitely gets more fun with the Boss XS100 pitch shifter, and I can’t help but glide between octaves and bend pitches out of tune for texture.

I was wondering about the learning curve on that. I finally got rid of the Aeros Looper. It just had way too many things I wasn't using. Sold it and got the Pigtronix Infinity 3... not perfect, but I'm finding I'm using it much more than I was the Aeros.

I'm actually doing my first live performance with the board. My synth gigs so far have just been the synths, but I'm doing a TV show in Boston and thought it might be a good idea to finally bust out the board. I'm playing two synth-only tracks, and was able to take two of the tracks off my first album and rework em in Ableton so I can do synths and then let it take over when I switch to the 6 string fretless with the board. I'll also start off with an improv on the bass, too.

By the way, I am so in love with that Bordwell fretless 5. Although it sounds different than the Bordwell 6 that had the tone I was looking for, it's definitely a variation of the same thing. I had him build the neck similar to the Stingray 5 specs so switching over was seamless.

I'm thinking of selling the SR, I just don't know if I need 2 of em and I love this one so much, I have a hard time seeing myself going back to the Ray. It sounds great, but tonally the Bordy is the tone I've been looking for.

 

[smatanovic]

I think I’m getting the hang of the Boss RC500 looper. It’s definitely a change of mindset and the maze of menus and signal routing options don’t make it fast to learn. That said, I started getting some loops built up and everything is in sync with my Digitone as a drum machine. I feel like a couple more sessions with it will bring all the parts together. It definitely gets more fun with the Boss XS100 pitch shifter, and I can’t help but glide between octaves and bend pitches out of tune for texture.

Are you sending clock from the DN to the looper? Or the other way around?

 

[monsterthompson]

Are you sending clock from the DN to the looper? Or the other way around?

DN as the master clock going to the looper. The clock bit is easy. The audio routing is tricky since the Boss has multiple ins and outs and a variety of configurations for the audio passing through, the loops, and rhythm tracks.

 

[smatanovic]

DN as the master clock going to the looper. The clock bit is easy. The audio routing is tricky since the Boss has multiple ins and outs and a variety of configurations for the audio passing through, the loops, and rhythm tracks.

Sheesh. Worth trying, or too complex?

 

[monsterthompson]

Sheesh. Worth trying, or too complex?

Definitely worth trying. The issue is gettin your head straight with what you want to happen.
There are three inputs = Inst/L, R, Mic
Each input an be routed to various combos of the two L/R outputs.

There are two sets of loop tracks = 1 & 2
The loop tracks can be routed independently to various combos of outputs. 1, or 2, or both.

I was trying to route my bass to two mixer channels, where one was dry and one was an FX send. I wanted one of the loops to route to the dry channel for background track. The other loop would route to the wet track of delay and reverb to capture some ambient space accents. Then the instrument thru also needed to route to the FX send so I could jam over the loops. I got hung up thinking the instrument audio followed the loop track audio. It does not. I incorrectly expected that while recording the dry loop 1 that the instrument would route to output L, then when I switched to loop track 2 the instrument audio would route to output R. Nope. You can do a lot of configurations, but you can't make the instrument pass through signal follow the track selection with the stock pedal controls. It might be possible with MIDI.

 

[Dark Horse]

OK …. Old man here. I’ve been playing forever, mostly rock, metal, and country through the years, and a bit of shoegaze and other stuff. Lucky enough to make a living at it for four decades.

Now that’s out of the way…. And this will sound stupid, I’m sure… but I was looking at another thread in the effects section and saw this one, and it piqued my interest. Here’s what I’m wondering : According to the title of this thread, it seems to someone like me that it’s wide open to interpretation. But perhaps it’s not. What would be some examples of bands and songs that encompass “ambient/post-rock/textural bass playing” generally. Would it be stuff like Morphine ? Or At The Drive In ? Or stuff like Sparklehorse ? Or ?

So my stupid question, because I’m always wanting to learn more and be inspired into new directions, is “can you suggest three songs that inspire you as far as textural, ambient, post-rock, etc bass playing ?”

I’d love to get turned on to some new music !

Thanks
AC

 

[monsterthompson]

OK …. Old man here. I’ve been playing forever, mostly rock, metal, and country through the years, and a bit of shoegaze and other stuff. Lucky enough to make a living at it for four decades.

Now that’s out of the way…. And this will sound stupid, I’m sure… but I was looking at another thread in the effects section and saw this one, and it piqued my interest. Here’s what I’m wondering : According to the title of this thread, it seems to someone like me that it’s wide open to interpretation. But perhaps it’s not. What would be some examples of bands and songs that encompass “ambient/post-rock/textural bass playing” generally. Would it be stuff like Morphine ? Or At The Drive In ? Or stuff like Sparklehorse ? Or ?

So my stupid question, because I’m always wanting to learn more and be inspired into new directions, is “can you suggest three songs that inspire you as far as textural, ambient, post-rock, etc bass playing ?”

I’d love to get turned on to some new music !

Thanks
AC

Welcome to the thread!

Things here have gotten pretty open ended and often cross into synthesizer and sampler territory. There’s a bundle of common thread participants who have gotten to know each other’s quirks and preferences.

I’m going to be pretty bad at naming bands that meet the thread title criteria. I’ve been stumbling in and around “ambient/atmospheric” sound production for several years, but I’m awful at knowing the history and artists. A lot of my exposure to this playing has been others I know proposing certain ideas and me going along with it. I like delays and reverbs and low frequencies so I often look for vehicles to turn bass plucks into swelling pads.

Brian Eno and Autechre are names that get dropped pretty regularly. Not necessarily bassists doing the work there. I’m sure others will be along soon with more names.

 

[Dark Horse]

Welcome to the thread!

Things here have gotten pretty open ended and often cross into synthesizer and sampler territory. There’s a bundle of common thread participants who have gotten to know each other’s quirks and preferences.

I’m going to be pretty bad at naming bands that meet the thread title criteria. I’ve been stumbling in and around “ambient/atmospheric” sound production for several years, but I’m awful at knowing the history and artists. A lot of my exposure to this playing has been others I know proposing certain ideas and me going along with it. I like delays and reverbs and low frequencies so I often look for vehicles to turn bass plucks into swelling pads.

Brian Eno and Autechre are names that get dropped pretty regularly. Not necessarily bassists doing the work there. I’m sure others will be along soon with more names.

Awesome. I’m familiar with Eno (I did some listening to him way back, I need to revisit), but I’m not familiar with Autechre. I’ll definitely give them (?) a listen later today … thanks ! And I’ll wander through the thread a bit, I’m sure that will give me some new ideas and influences as well.

By the time I’m done with this I’ll probably end up with a pedalboard that looks like Mission Control !

 

[Starthief]

Ambient is a really, really poorly defined genre that can cover a lot of different territory. I would say...

generally more electronic than not (but there are exceptions)
most of it is instrumental
usually abstract in some way
generally slow, but not always
not necessarily having a "traditional" song structure, but does sometimes
not necessarily melodic, but it can be
not necessarily with a beat, but it can be
a lot of it is calm or soothing, but some is tense or spooky... or kind of all of those things at once

Eno's original idea for ambient music was for it to sort of fade in the background, not necessarily demanding attention but letting you . That also doesn't necessarily apply Another big influence was "chill out room" music at clubs that were otherwise about high energy dance stuff

One way I think of ambient music is, it feels like it's describing a place rather than telling a story. Although... of course that also isn't always the case!


And it's not really an ambient thread, more like... the not Dad Band, not jazz, not metal and not church music thread of TalkBass?