Ambient/Post-Rock/Textural bass playing thread

[monsterthompson]

When are those Miezo's expected to be in hand? I am eager to hear some reviews.

I’m still about 3 months out on my build being ready. I just paid the deposit and we’re working on the quotes. He’s a lot closer to getting his. Unfortunately the shop had to shut for a while as part of a government shutdown due to covid. They could be down for two weeks.

I’m expecting a few delays on the way. I want Nordy pickups, and their shop is backed up. I’m sure another covid shutdown could happen.

 

[Bob_Ross]

Why don't you have your bass with you? Can't someone bring it to your door with the groceries?

I suppose I could...but in the same way that I thought two months with just a bass, no amp/no pedals, might instill some sort of discipline (ha!), I figured that two weeks with nothing might instill a similar sort of discipline. Or just austerity. Or maybe just frustration.

It's easily available if I change my mind, and there's only ~5 days to go before we can safely (?) return, so I'll probably just ride it out.

time to order one?

ENABLER!!!!

 

[steubig]

I suppose I could...but in the same way that I thought two months with just a bass, no amp/no pedals, might instill some sort of discipline (ha!), I figured that two weeks with nothing might instill a similar sort of discipline. Or just austerity. Or maybe just frustration.

It's easily available if I change my mind, and there's only ~5 days to go before we can safely (?) return, so I'll probably just ride it out.




ENABLER!!!!

call me dr feelgood

 

[ugly_bassplayer]

as a corollary to the don’t need fancy gear thing…

when i first got netflix, i watched a doc series on indian folk music. it was a little glitzy, but there were a lot of folks who were just normal people making really high-level, heart-felt music.

i couldn’t find the guy from rajasthan who blew my mind, but consider this example:

Ok, that dude is freakn cool.

 

[monsterthompson]

Ok, that dude is freakn cool.

here I sit with all the fancy electronics in the world struggling to knock out a 90 second SoundCloud drop that anyone would listen to 17 seconds of.

 

[ugly_bassplayer]

Addendum:
The mind of a genius. Creates from an infinite number of puzzle pieces et arranges them in his mind.
And paints a whole new sonic image.
Scientist, legend ....Pete Rock.
All this from records, and an old MPC.

Seems easy as pie when he does it.

 

[Spectrum]

This is an awesome read, very in depth article about the pause tape beat production.
All you need is a tape deck and a good ear.
https://daily.redbullmusicacademy.com/2019/04/pause-tape-production-feature

Let that sink in a bit.

I read that article months ago and went to youtube to search up "pause tape" tracks, and this popped up. Apparently the uploader made this back in the 90s:

 

[ugly_bassplayer]

I read that article months ago and went to youtube to search up "pause tape" tracks, and this popped up. Apparently the uploader made this back in the 90s:

Ok, this was soooo cool. So raw, gritty and perfect.

Like Dilla said on the start of the Ruff Draft EP:
"This is for my real ?&*( only........Sound like its from the Motha ?&*@# cassette"

Raw basement OG hip hop. That what hip hop culture is all about IMO.
Thanks for the share.

 

[ugly_bassplayer]

Stay safe, take care of loved ones.

 

[lordradish]

okay, so your low open E string is the 6-string guitar's low E and his is low F# is the second fret on a standard 4-string bass. is that correct? (so you're a 7th up.)

My low F#?

I'm doing the 6 string with the low F# on what would normally be my B string. It's like second fret of a regular E string. I'm going this route because I think it'll take the least amount of brain recalibration, as, once I get my F# into my radar, I'd just think of the strings above it like my 5-string.

 

[lordradish]

When are those Miezo's expected to be in hand? I am eager to hear some reviews.

Well, as you can imagine, COVID's made everything less certain. Originally, it would have been done by the end of December. He was about to start on it this week, but Malaysia is shut down for 2 weeks, so now there's that. He's petitioning to open because of the no-contact nature of his business. So, barring anything else, I'm probably in to end of February, at best.

But that's okay, as I still have plenty of other things to keep me busy. These synths have unfortunately taken a lot of my bass time away. I played the board last night for the first time in probably a month (after 20 nights of synthing). Tonight, I'm video gaming it, as, when I have a somewhat productive music week, I need a break.

 

[steubig]

Stay safe, take care of loved ones.

wow. that red panda pedal really was defective.

 

[ugly_bassplayer]

wow. that red panda pedal really was defective.

 

[JES]

Just catching up on the tracks. @Spectrum nice job with the filter. I forget I can do this with my setup. I usually just go to the synth. @steubig i liked the watery groove a lot. And @uglybassplayer I am not really a noise guy (huge scene here in Mtl—or there was) but I am really digging Infinite FUBAR.

 

[lordradish]

Another subject, because why not.

I've come to the realization that I pan my mixes way too narrow. I've been watching some tutorials on panning. A lot of people do the left-center-right thing. That seems to work well for conventional music but it sounds like crap with dense synth music. There's so many similar textures, I find it really challenging as to where to put everything (exacerbated by the fact that I usually don't mix that wide). So I'm definitely using the entire stereo field now, and it's a big difference.

So, I started chatting with the awesome Martin Stuertzer again. This guy, in case you don't know:


I think he's a freakin' sonic wizard, in terms of the clarity and spatiality (is that a word?) of his mixes. So, I asked him if he'd do a tutorial, or at least send me some pointers. Figured some of you may find this helpful, if not necessarily new info:

I just recently thought a lot about panning, so it is funny that you ask now! I never gave it much thought but started to experiment a little bit. So far I came up with a few "rules":

- like in "normal" acoustic music the Bass stays in the center
- Parts that I layer from different sounds can be panned a lot. Some synths allow to pan osc1 and osc2 differently, I believe the Idirium can do this as well.
- Sequences can move through the stereo field, I use the Auto Pan in Ableton for it

As usual, I experiment a lot and do what sounds best to me.

You mentioned that you like my mixes (thank you!). Most benefit comes from the way I design my sounds. I try to program sounds in certain frequency ranges and take care that they don´t overlap too much. If two sounds play in the same frequency range I arrange them on the timeline so that they don´t play at the same time. In a track that I am recording right now I use two very heavy and deep bass sounds. They would kill the mix if they played at the same time so I put space between them.​

 

[ugly_bassplayer]

Just catching up on the tracks. @Spectrum nice job with the filter. I forget I can do this with my setup. I usually just go to the synth. @steubig i liked the watery groove a lot. And @uglybassplayer I am not really a noise guy (huge scene here in Mtl—or there was) but I am really digging Infinite FUBAR.

Thanks for taking the time to give it a listen. Very much appreciated.
I still dunno what to call this stuff, Noisy Musique Concrète maybe???

MTL scene seems pretty much dead. Even the small label that Automatisme has is very limited in who they take in. Like, invited friends only.

 

[steubig]

Thanks for taking the time to give it a listen. Very much appreciated.
I still dunno what to call this stuff, Noisy Musique Concrète maybe???

MTL scene seems pretty much dead. Even the small label that Automatisme has is very limited in who they take in. Like, invited friends only.

how does fubar translate in french.

 

[lordradish]

Thanks for taking the time to give it a listen. Very much appreciated.
I still dunno what to call this stuff, Noisy Musique Concrète maybe???

MTL scene seems pretty much dead. Even the small label that Automatisme has is very limited in who they take in. Like, invited friends only.

Isn't most Music Concrète rather noise-laden? Seems to be, in my experience.

 

[ugly_bassplayer]

how does fubar translate in french.

It doesn’t really translate.
There could be some kind of equivalent but nothing as exact as fubar with its world war connotations.
It would lost in translation.

Isn't most Music Concrète rather noise-laden? Seems to be, in my experience.

It would be inclined to agree, but with a more « calculated » approach.
Something that has much more focuse on the listening aspect when creating or performing. Imo,
I think I may be in between the classical wine tasters and the cro mag apes with hammers and power tools?

I still don’t like labels on musique, but it is an inevitability.

 

[steubig]

i’m not an expert as this, but i think musique concrete is not necessarily noise?

my recollection (which was reinforced by wikipedia; not always the best resource) is that it had more to do with manipulation of sound: tapes, electronics and synthesizers. we can probably count software in there too.

i recall composition teachers doing mc back in the 70/80s that was not particularly noisy.