Stoner/Doom Bassists Thread, Part 90: Maxed Out

[rutrho]

Hehehe, I was just wondering "Hmm, is that still happening?" the day before you posted this.

Then I read the post, saw the pic and told my wife "You want that pedal just for how it looks", then told her that the pedal was indeed actually happening. Afterward we got into this discussion of who this "rutrho" person was and how did I know them. It was really pretty hilarious - I love her, but she's as cautious as a rabbit. It was like she was my mom or something, only my actual mom would have been more likely to ask those questions years later - long after any bad decisions might have been made. I was a free range child, and if it wasn't likely to kill me that afternoon, I was generally allowed to do it.

After that paragraph, I now wonder about the idea that we marry anyone resembling either of our parents. She's far more cautious and sane than either of mine. I'm pretty sure if I did marry something resembling either of my parents, my life would be a wreck. I'm absolutely sure that she thinks her house is a wreck of musical gear. She voices this often. I am not sure what she gets out of the whole thing. I press her on the matter, and she replies something along the lines of "you're my boo", or "I just love you". While this is endearing, it is the least satisfying performance review I have ever received. I have received it for decades. I still am not absolutely sure what I am doing right or wrong, other than I should probably learn to sell some gear.

Annnnnnd, in the world of Stoner/Doom news: Señor Pike seemed healthy and hale (well fed, even) when I saw him last Friday, so yeah I would expect Sleep's hiatus to be due to scheduling issues. Good problem to have, in my opinion.

Oh, and yeah, get some King Crimson in your life if you likes prog and stoner metal. Always been a In the Hall of the Crimson King man, myself. Any of it's good, and almost of all of it is nuts to try to play.

Hah, yeah, I get some of the same things sometimes when going out to jam with new people or work on a project or something... "you know who, from where? how?" "oh, you're going to go spend 2 hours with 3 dudes in a tiny room, oh, ok.".
I think its funny as hell personally, but I'm sure my wife is having a mild anxiety attack half the time over this stuff. We've been living together for 16yrs and married for a decade so she's pretty well aware of my general self-sufficiency when I go off and do dumb stuff either out in BFE in my jeep or on foot or on a mountain bike, but that doesn't really take away from some of the caution. She approaches this stuff a lot like my dad, which I find hilarious.

My parents were the same. I appreciate it though, learned a hell of a lot, even if more than I'd admit was the hard way. Sounds like yours and mine would get along real well.

I grew up this way as well, and I totally am better for it. We're trying to raise our kid in a similar way, but uh, other folk tend to look down on it a lot more these days. and well. Things happen.

In stoner/doom news, I tried to record some stuff this weekend for some sillyness I'm exploring with cornfarmer only to find out the sub channel on my mixer wasn't working which led to a couple hour ADHD fulled project of cleaning all the knobs and sliders on my mixer. In the course of this I found out that some of the power supply caps on it prob shat the bed so, gotta dive into that at some point. sigh. Always something, right?
Maybe when I'm laid out on my ass for a couple weeks from some upcoming surgery stuff I'll be able to dive into this. And get that pre-amp done for novarocker...

 

[ihaveaquestion]

We're trying to raise our kid in a similar way, but uh, other folk tend to look down on it a lot more these days.

Yeah, then when the children of the "other folk" behave as adults the same way they were forced to in childhood, it is said to be mental illness. All this noise about "autism epidemic" is pretty hypocritical

 

[Novarocker]

Yeah, then when the children of the "other folk" behave as adults the same way they were forced to in childhood, it is said to be mental illness. All this noise about "autism epidemic" is pretty hypocritical

I noticed that just about everyone is on a spectrum of something if you really wanted to nitpick. I've always wondered where the line gets drawn. There certainly are those with limitations physical/mental or otherwise, but the system and diagnosis is somewhat a sham.

All my in-laws and wife are in education and one's a school psychologist. The amount of parents trying to scam the system and push that their kid has special needs, when they may just be normal, or "God forbid" below average, is utterly sad. I don't know how many times they talk about how a parent keeps pushing it. Somehow they can have a say in the diagnosis and they can just shop around until they find someone who'll pass the tag.

Reminds me of that comedian whose name escapes me who said "when you think how stupid the average person is, just remember half are even dumber..."

Done with that rant. I just shake my head. My wife can be a bit of a helicopter mom which is surprising how much she can't stand with her students, but it's all good. I'm okay with being the voice of semi decent reason, and doom, sludge and all that's heavy. Haha

Hah, yeah, I get some of the same things sometimes when going out to jam with new people or work on a project or something... "you know who, from where? how?" "oh, you're going to go spend 2 hours with 3 dudes in a tiny room, oh, ok.".
I think its funny as hell personally, but I'm sure my wife is having a mild anxiety attack half the time over this stuff. We've been living together for 16yrs and married for a decade so she's pretty well aware of my general self-sufficiency when I go off and do dumb stuff either out in BFE in my jeep or on foot or on a mountain bike, but that doesn't really take away from some of the caution. She approaches this stuff a lot like my dad, which I find hilarious.



I grew up this way as well, and I totally am better for it. We're trying to raise our kid in a similar way, but uh, other folk tend to look down on it a lot more these days. and well. Things happen.

In stoner/doom news, I tried to record some stuff this weekend for some sillyness I'm exploring with cornfarmer only to find out the sub channel on my mixer wasn't working which led to a couple hour ADHD fulled project of cleaning all the knobs and sliders on my mixer. In the course of this I found out that some of the power supply caps on it prob shat the bed so, gotta dive into that at some point. sigh. Always something, right?
Maybe when I'm laid out on my ass for a couple weeks from some upcoming surgery stuff I'll be able to dive into this. And get that pre-amp done for novarocker...

Lol maybe we all have the same wives...and I couldn't hear better news, today's been a rough one. Oh I got another pickup, I'm waiting on one more, possible another.

 

[Jolagh]

The comedian was George Carlin. Dude was a great comedian.

I noticed that just about everyone is on a spectrum of something if you really wanted to nitpick. I've always wondered where the line gets drawn. There certainly are those with limitations physical/mental or otherwise, but the system and diagnosis is somewhat a sham.

All my in-laws and wife are in education and one's a school psychologist. The amount of parents trying to scam the system and push that their kid has special needs, when they may just be normal, or "God forbid" below average, is utterly sad. I don't know how many times they talk about how a parent keeps pushing it. Somehow they can have a say in the diagnosis and they can just shop around until they find someone who'll pass the tag.

Reminds me of that comedian whose name escapes me who said "when you think how stupid the average person is, just remember half are even dumber..."

Done with that rant. I just shake my head. My wife can be a bit of a helicopter mom which is surprising how much she can't stand with her students, but it's all good. I'm okay with being the voice of semi decent reason, and doom, sludge and all that's heavy. Haha



Lol maybe we all have the same wives...and I couldn't hear better news, today's been a rough one. Oh I got another pickup, I'm waiting on one more, possible another.

 

[ihaveaquestion]

I don't know how many times they talk about how a parent keeps pushing it. Somehow they can have a say in the diagnosis and they can just shop around until they find someone who'll pass the tag.

Many of them to get medications that will force their children to behave in a manner that will later in life be called another one of those diagnoses. I think this cognitive dissonance is one of the main reasons of the depression epidemic

 

[bassboysam]

Any one here use a Traynor YBA200? There's one for stupid cheap on Reverb. Talk me in/out of it!

EDIT: Or go buy it and save me from myself. Lol

very so so. pretty wimpy sounding for 200 watts. can get too bright very quickly.

 

[br1qbat]

very so so. pretty wimpy sounding for 200 watts. can get too bright very quickly.

Thanks. I have stepped back down off the ledge.

 

[rutrho]

In personal doom news, I'm going to give my 4st fretless a shot with D standard tuning and rounds. It sounds so bad next to my other 3 basses... And D standard works for the indie thing as both guitars are in drop D and so is another chill doomy thing a drummer buddy invited me to.
Otherwise it's getting new pups and a new preamp and a CA coat on the fretboard

 

[Kriegs]

Ever have one of those days where the drum, bass and guitar tracks all sound AMAZING!!!


... right up until you mix them...

and then it sounds like:

and

 

[cornfarmer]

Ever have one of those days where the drum, bass and guitar tracks all sound AMAZING!!!


... right up until you mix them...

and then it sounds like:
View attachment 3594302 View attachment 3594303
and
View attachment 3594304

Do tell. Maybe I can help, I'm a professional.

Nothing going on for me except my own sillyness

 

[br1qbat]

Ever have one of those days where the drum, bass and guitar tracks all sound AMAZING!!!


... right up until you mix them...

and then it sounds like:
View attachment 3594302 View attachment 3594303
and
View attachment 3594304

I would rock that last one. Just sayin'

 

[Kriegs]

Do tell. Maybe I can help, I'm a professional.

Nothing going on for me except my own sillyness

Here's a link to a clip of the beginning of the song:
[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]

The drums & bass sound great during the intro. When the guitars come in, it's like the bottom end just falls out of the song

At first blush, folks will say "your guitars have no oomph" but, you have to believe me that the individual tracks really have balls. I don't know if that's actually the problem, meaning, is there something like phase or frequency cancellation going on at the bottom end?
I've tried several ways of EQing and it just seems to hate me even more, lol.

Here is the output from the DAW, no mixing, no nothing... just the drum track, the bass tracks (one clean DI before the amp and one effected DI coming from the amp, an Ampeg PF20T), the 2 rythmn guitar tracks (one track mic'd up close and the second mic'd about 12" from the cone & slightly off center), and the 'lead' guitar track (mic'd about 12" from the cone & slightly off center).
[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]

I KNOW that I can find the happy medium but man, sometimes this mixing stuff is trying on one's nerves

 

[lucas303]

Here's a link to a clip of the beginning of the song:
[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]

The drums & bass sound great during the intro. When the guitars come in, it's like the bottom end just falls out of the song

At first blush, folks will say "your guitars have no oomph" but, you have to believe me that the individual tracks really have balls. I don't know if that's actually the problem, meaning, is there something like phase or frequency cancellation going on at the bottom end?
I've tried several ways of EQing and it just seems to hate me even more, lol.

Here is the output from the DAW, no mixing, no nothing... just the drum track, the bass tracks (one clean DI before the amp and one effected DI coming from the amp, an Ampeg PF20T), the 2 rythmn guitar tracks (one track mic'd up close and the second mic'd about 12" from the cone & slightly off center), and the 'lead' guitar track (mic'd about 12" from the cone & slightly off center).
[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]

I KNOW that I can find the happy medium but man, sometimes this mixing stuff is trying on one's nerves

Just spitballing here, so some random thoughts...

Have you used any compression/limiting?

Have you looked at any sort of frequency analysis of those clips to see what's going on in terms of the actual frequencies at various point in time (like right before and right after the guitar comes in)?

Have you tried inverting the polarity of any of the tracks before mixing them down?

 

[Kriegs]

Just spitballing here, so some random thoughts...

Have you used any compression/limiting?

Have you looked at any sort of frequency analysis of those clips to see what's going on in terms of the actual frequencies at various point in time (like right before and right after the guitar comes in)?

Have you tried inverting the polarity of any of the tracks before mixing them down?

First and foremost, thanks for listening!

Have you used any compression/limiting?

• Yes, the result is the crappy sounding "thing", lol .... clearly I'm doing it wrong

Have you looked at any sort of frequency analysis of those clips to see what's going on in terms of the actual frequencies at various point in time (like right before and right after the guitar comes in)?

• No, that's not something that I've tried yet.

Have you tried inverting the polarity of any of the tracks before mixing them down?

• Haven't ever done that before. I'll look into how to do that in my DAW (I'm using Reason 10) and try it.

 

[lucas303]

Have you used any compression/limiting?

• Yes, the result is the crappy sounding "thing", lol .... clearly I'm doing it wrong

Compression is tricky, and takes real skill to master. I'm certainly not there. Have you tried making a mixdown with no compression whatsoever? You might want to do that if for no other reason than as a reference point.

 

[Novarocker]

I admit I kinda prefer d std to drop d.

The comedian was George Carlin. Dude was a great comedian.

Yup I thought it was him, I did remember right haha. At least 1 win for the day. Flipping awesome comedian.

Thanks. I have stepped back down off the ledge.

Haha that one in Hawaii? Good to know they don't cut it well. I played an older yba or similar combo up at motor city guitar and amp thought it sounded great at low volume, but yeah low volume...

 

[ihaveaquestion]

Here is the output from the DAW, no mixing, no nothing... just the drum track, the bass tracks (one clean DI before the amp and one effected DI coming from the amp, an Ampeg PF20T), the 2 rythmn guitar tracks (one track mic'd up close and the second mic'd about 12" from the cone & slightly off center), and the 'lead' guitar track (mic'd about 12" from the cone & slightly off center).
[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]

I KNOW that I can find the happy medium but man, sometimes this mixing stuff is trying on one's nerves

This second version is better in the bass/drum front, i think it's pretty good. In my opinion one thing that would make the guitar sound better, would be cutting some of the higher frequencies

 

[CRich0205]

Om is coming to Lawrence in March so I know what I’ll be doing that night

 

[scabpicker]

This second version is better in the bass/drum front, i think it's pretty good. In my opinion one thing that would make the guitar sound better, would be cutting some of the higher frequencies

Yeah, I have to agree. The second mix is generally better. I think the guitar is scooped a bit much and has a bit too much high end as well. I guess you're not putting a bunch of EQ on the guitar, and that's how it sounds, huh? A scooped sound has that problem in a mix, which is part of why I love/hate the Super-Fuzz with the tone switch on the scooped sound. Nothing sounds more huge by itself, but it's always difficult to put in a mix.

 

[lucas303]

Om is coming to Lawrence in March so I know what I’ll be doing that night

I'm thinking about doing that entire run from Chicago to Albuquerque...