You think the audience doesn't notice? Think again!

[Korladis]

I'm of the opinion that it doesn't matter if the audience notices or not. If I notice, that's enough.

Because ultimately I do this for me.



Besides, I think while many in the audience might lack the terminology to describe it in an educated way, they know what they like and what they don't like when it comes to how bands sound.

 

[blue4]

To me, the distinction between saying "The audience doesn't know" and "The audience is stupid" is one without much of a difference. If you just assumed I didn't know without knowing anything about me, I would consider it exactly the same as you telling me I'm a moron.

There's a huge difference between not knowing and being stupid. The only time I have ever heard anyone say anything regarding their audience has been in discussions about things like tone wood, note for note playing and whether or not a $3000 bass provides a benefit over a $500 one. I'm not disagreeing with you that the audience can tell if you're half assing a performance. Of course they can. Where I disagree with you is how many times people have actually said negative things about their audience on this website.

 

[Bass Viking]

I have had people tell me, “I was watching you and you didn’t hit a single bad note.” I love that.

LOL, if someone told me that I`d know they weren`t paying attention.

 

[cflat]

LOL, if someone told me that I`d know they weren`t paying attention.

hahaha....its called creative covering the mistake.

 

[maturanesa]

Hate to break it to you, but I really don't care what your version of reality is. It's irrelevant in Jimmyland. So you can either keep pretending you're getting my goat with posts I couldn't give a rat's ass about or you can drop it. Either way, I'm done. Bye now.

Lesson learned on this thred:
Jimmyland is not Planet Earth.

 

[mobdirt]

Ya some very strong sentiments, who cares do what you want socially with an audience, finally the music speaks for itself no matter what.


IMVVVVVVHO

 

[Bass Viking]

I SAID, "Elvis has left the building," not "The king is going to come by the table after his set and make sure your chop was grilled ok."
Living gods simply don't do that!

LOL!!!

Man in audience: "Hey Elvis, there's a hair in my soup!"

 

[5StringBlues]

My bunion aches.

 

[Bass Viking]

The impact of strings cannot be overstated. When I received my Kiesel Xccelerator earlier this year, the A string was dead (or something was up with it). You could definitely hear the contrast with the other strings. I posted a video and one TBer commented that it was like a different bass popping in and out when I played the A string.

 

[Joe Nerve]

Nothing against any of my fellow Talkbassers who I love dearly, but...

This thread gets kinda boring every time @Gorn and @2112 step away.

 

[mobdirt]

lol

 

[Vara La Fey]

We are talking bass tone not songs. Sure people notice things but really do not care. Especially the bass tone.

Even me. I don't care about the bass player in any bands I pay money to see. Big or small scale acts. I also have never paid or went to see a band because of "The Bass Player" any of the big names that are in the majority of TBer's heros list. I could give a crap, and I love all music especially good songs. We are not that important to the average listener in a song until we screw it up. Truth.

Nuh uh. I can't go there at all. I say that even if the lay audience doesn't usually know which is the bass part, they'd still miss it if it wasn't there. But further - these days - I think they usually do know. Especially metal, jazz, and prog audiences.

Decades of Don Kirschner and MTV and rock-n-roll movies and YouTube and live shows with bass intros or bass-only passages must have educated all audiences. They are lay-people, not retards or Luddites.

I can't imagine a bassist who doesn't care about bassists, and has never gone primarily to see one. That's just absurd. I've gone - and would go - primarily to see singers, guitarists, bassists, and drummers. If I saw The Prodigy, it'd be only to see their keyboardist/composer. Musicians go to see musicians as well as bands, because we care about all the components. I find it sad that you apparently never have, and then chose to spend time here confessing your non-belief in your craft and yourself.

If I had money right now, I'd prolly start making offers on some of your gear.

 

[Vara La Fey]

To create songs.

But since you "don't care" about other bassists, then you've never been influenced by one, in which case you don't care about bass per se. And how can you write good songs in any popular music genre if you don't?

 

[Wisebass]

The lesson YOU should learn is that if you think your audience is so stupid that they can't tell the difference in your sound no matter what you use, maybe they're not the stupid ones.

this ... and play rounds!!!

but of course...

....nice read and lotsa popcorn = great thread!!!

greetings

Wise

 

[Vara La Fey]

Your sound is the reflection of your setup (instrument, strings, pedals, eq, amp) and technique.
Its a decision you make. You are not deaf, right?
Any bad opinion about how your bass sounds implies criticism about the decisions you made (setup) in order to get that sound.

So, in my opinion, you dont have to care about what an audience member have to say about your bass tone since
he/she is not a sound tech, tone is subjetive and you have choosen that tone based on your taste.
<snip>

Setup is not the same as settings.

No, most audience members aren't sound techs. Sound techs are people you pay. Audience members are people who pay you. Or who don't.

If tone was actually subjective within audiences, there wouldn't be long-established industry standards. The rock-n-roll rebels and the punks and the alt-nicks would have completely done away with all standards long ago.

But these things merely refer to your stated reasons for not caring whether your own audience likes what you sound like. Therefore these things really don't matter. Because once you announce that self-righteous self-indulgence is your standard, it just doesn't matter why.

 

[Vara La Fey]

Guy changes strings.

Twenty-six page thread.

Talk Bass

LOL!!

 

[Vara La Fey]

Well... if that was truly your intent, why did you say in your OP:

"So if I ever hear any of you jokers try to claim that the audience doesn't know or care about your sound again, I will tell you that you're a very arrogant person who has zero respect for your audiences."
<snip>
Regardless, it seems we could have saved ourselves this 26+ page waste-of-time if you had simply been honest about your intent to begin with instead of attempting an ad hominem attack against those who do it differently than you.

Jimmy has been remarkably consistent in his intent and his position (tho he veers further into flame war territory than he prolly should).

To recap: he said he changed strings and bass, an unprecedented number of audience members told him that they noticed something, and the moral of the story is to not let yourself arrogantly underestimate what an audience notices.

This thing has laughably gone on for 29 pages because apparently such an obviously correct and fully appropriate summary is somehow controversial.

If you believe things about your audience which you would not openly tell them you believe , then you are either at the wrong gigs, or in the wrong business entirely.

I'm appalled that there is any controversy whatsoever over this. For truly there is no excuse for it.

 

[Vara La Fey]

one data point does not indicate a trend

What a pile of bs. The data point didn't need to show "a trend". Instead, it showed pure cause and effect.

The denialism of it is ASTOUNDING.

The OP worded it harshly, but he was trying to give obviously good advice. You're free to take it or not.

 

[Gorn]

My rooster crows every morning when the sun comes up. Therefore the sun comes up because my rooster crows. This is true in a world where a single observation presented singularly indicates cause and effect.

 

[Loring]

My rooster crows every morning when the sun comes up. Therefore the sun comes up because my rooster crows. This is true in a world where a single observation presented singularly indicates cause and effect.

What you are experiencing (or rather citing as roosters crow all through the day) is known as the raven paradox...

And you are 100% correct. One observation dies not indicate a trend.

Taken out of context and refusing to see any other data points, one could easily dismiss what Jimmy had to say.

The thing is, many have experienced similar things and have cited them throughout this now rather silly thread.

To paraphrase the entire thread.
Jimmy states that audience members noticed a subtle change in his tone and enough of them mentioned it to him to indicate it wasn't just one crazy person. He uses this anecdotal evidence to illustrate that we shouldn't underestimate our audience, since he has seen threads where people have said things like nobody cares or nobody pays attention anyways...

A number of you were offended because he implied if you think the audience is stupid - perhaps it's really you who are...

The offended people have replied ad naseum that his findings are not scientific.

Maybe those of you attacking Jimmy (who did come off a tad adversarially) should take a step back. Think about what he's actually saying and not look for loopholes to prove you're not stupid?