The dynamics of a practice

Yesterday was a very good day, grabbed a new bass at store with a special friend of mine. This was a magic moment for me. The Stingray Music Man Special Edition 2005 is what I went for.

Day at work has been a little longer, I arrived late at the practice. The arrival to the rehearsal place is always special for me, it is a house in the countryside, very refreshing view. As soon as I get off the truck, I can feel the musical moment filling me, this is fun and good.

We then enter the music room and start to install our gear, Tony plugs-in his electronics (Midi guitar, compressor, sustainer, overdrive), adjust his DSP on his guitar and I do the same with my Bass POD, amp and Ian gets ready to start the rolls and beats which make us groove.

Yesterday, we spent 50-50 on originals and cover material. The sound was good, Tony brought his Les Paul look-alike for the jam, I was glad. I like the fat sound of it, it kind of influenced how we played. This is a good thing, it means we are listening more and more to the others while we play, this makes a big difference in the dynamics of a practice.

The dynamics of Epoxy are derived from this.

Finding the right sound

Processing the bass sound in the studio using advanced software is very interesting, the challenge is to be able to reproduce that sound in live play settings. I tried a lot of different Digital Signal Processors (Boss GT-6B, Berhinger VAMP Pro, Line 6 Bass Pod and Line 6 Bass POD XT Live Pro).

The Bass Pod was a complicated to use live since there was no pedal board included, I had to buy an external Midi controller. I bought a Behringer Midi controller and connected it, I had to program all patch changes, this was cumbersome. I then switched to a Behringer DSP, since all the patches were programmed on the Midi foot controller I was using. I was not happy with the Amp DSP on it, very noisy. So I looked around for a Boss GT6B, the effects were great, but the amp dsp were not good enough, I could not get the bottom end I wanted.

Then I found the Bass Pod XT Live Pro, this is a great device. The setup that Line 6 uses to record is just great and the DSP are very close to the real amps they simulate. The software to control the patches is super.

My favorite patch is based on a Ampeg SVT, 8 x 10s, A flanger effect and a bit of space echo. This is what you can hear on the Ete snippet which can be found at:

http://www3.sympatico.ca/t_barake/epoxy

Cheers,
A.

Connection between the lizard's brain and the cortex

I spent a lot of time trying to understand the complex but interesting interactions between the bass, guitars and melodies of our various songs. I realized that should be felt instead of understood. The emotions created by these interactions are very interesting. The syncopated rythms are naturally mixed with the harmony.

The practice is improving week after week, the grove is present and the feelings when I play are very strong.

It is now just a matter of fine tuning and sharing these emotions.

Epoxy is here to stay
Alain