tomrogers7

Ashdown Electric Blue 15-180 Bass Amp Combo, 180 watt. Full working order. Good for anything between medium sized venues to practicing. It has served me well, the only reason I'm selling is due to the fact I hardly play anymore. You can easy come past make sure everything is working. I stay in Methlick. 160 ONO

weathered brown, set-in mahogany neck, the Gibraltar III bridge and two humbucking pickups nice fat sound. 170 ONO

SZ320MH - Ibanez Guitar Wiki

Hey guys,

Weve added a new video to the left of our page......entitled "Skinny Sessions......."

MySpace.com - the little kicks - Aberdeen, UK - Indie / Pop / Rock - www.myspace.com/thelittlekicks

Recently we were approcached by a Glasgow company called Otago Sounds in conjunction with the Aberdeen based Scene 11 productions company. Both are specialists in the various fields of audio and video recording / film work / commercial work / advertising and TV.

Anyway, they had asked us if wed be interested in working with them to film a ten minute video for the The Skinny magazine website to incorporate the live performance of two tracks and an interview. A kind of "Live at Abbey Road" vibe promo video.

Needless to say, we said yes. And posted up are the results.

I think this is the first in a regular series they will be doing (if all goes to plan and the skinny like it). For us its a really handy thing to put up so in the meantime weve uploaded it for all to see.

Have a look and see what you think.

Thanks to the guys - Ross Otago, Dave and ------ (ill leave his name out and he knows why), well hopefully be working on something else again soon.

Steven

x

Cool video, nice shots, looks cool, bit out of sink though. Love bob's cap haha

Tom

tbh if it's a good mix, it might need very little in the way of "mastering", or even none atall in some cases. These days I usually just normalise the render and sometimes use a multiband limiter if neccessary. It's definately easier to do things like that "offline" when you can actually look at the waveform and make more informed judgements about limiting etc anyway.

normalizing? limiting? interesting.

I never put any fx on the master bus of the mixer. Usually i have seperate mixer channels for kick/snare/hats/percussion etc, summed to another mixer channel, and the same goes for the basses (sub+mid) if necessary, then other sounds like pads/vocals/stabs etc i usually just send them to their own individual mixer channel and have them coming through on their own. All of these individual channels will have their own insert fx chains as needed to get it a) sounding how i want it to sound and then b) sounding good in the mix.

As I said I never put any fx on the master bus, ppl quite often use realtime spectral analysers to make judgements about things like extreme low-end bass which the average near-field monitor won't reproduce accurately, but tbh if you are really familiar with your speakers and know how material in the same genre sounds on those speakers you can make a pretty accurate judgement about such things after a while. Rendering a rough mp3 and giving it a listen in the car, the hifi or your mp3 player can sometimes help point out any glaring problems, but yeah ultimately you have to trust your ears.

thats some pretty good words there. For dance and electro its great to use analysers so you can see which frequencies are overpowering others, in clubs they often have limiters which cut out frequenices that go over a certain level, but it also helps you make a better sound when your track gets annihilated by myspace compression (if you use it)

I would strongly reccommend using mastering eq, compression and sometimes reverb. Sometimes subtle use of things can totally tighten up a mix.

kimy was totally rocking it out though at the tunnels on friday, really enjoyed the set!

For those interested we have successfully installed a Yamaha DSP5D:

PM5D, PM5D-RH, DSP5D, DCU5D | Mixers | Products | Yamaha Pro Audio

This is essentially a rack mounted PM5D-RH minus the control surface. It makes more sense for us to use computer control as we don't have the room to safely house a large control surface.

Inside it we've installed an 8 channel 96KHz digital I/O AES card with sample rate convertors, through which our jukebox, DJ decks, and DVD will input, and our stereo will output into the digital crossovers. There's also a T-diff card that hooks it into the digital recorder.

We didn't expect a noticeable sonic improvement but ended up being blown away by it. Sonically it's so different that we need to re-calibrate the speaker balances on the crossovers. Previously we had only one minor EQ tweak at 100Hz, now we're running ti absolutely flat.

On the monitors we had 4 parts of EQ round the crossover frequencies, these are also now flat, and once again it's possible to 'rest' to mics on the monitors without anything feeding back (I know the goes against everything I've learned to fear LOL). The removal of the monitor EQ has dramatically increased clarity and volume in the monitors (although volume was never much of an issue).

The DSP5D also comes with some high quality FX and emulators.

Channel wise there are 48 pre-amp XLR inputs with AD convertors and, unlike the DM1000, the gains on these are all electronically adjustable which is a big boost. Following on from there are 24 bus channels and 8 matrix busses. There are also 4 stereo inputs which we have linked up to our digital I/O card. There are 8 FX processors to play with, and dozens of FXs. Finally there are 24 OMNI outputs which we'll use mainly for monitor output. We were considering upgrading the monitor outputs to full digital, but there doesn't seem to be much point now.

All round clarity is enhanced through the FOH, and the lower frequencies are much better represented. The whole thing sounds a lot punchier and more powerful. IMO it's impossible to tell whether it was analogue or digital now, just that it's incredibly high quality.

The first gig with it is this Saturday, but it might take a few weeks to really start to exploit it's full potential.

sounds like a nice system. you should get some dub on the go to get those speakers worn in i'm definatley going to come down check it out soon

so yeah, listen to LTJ Bukem

logical progressions 1 is pure genius

on vinyl especially 8-)

Have you ever noticed that most recordings these days (even the good ones) sound shit? Is it because of close miking or tacky production or both? Why does every recording up to 1980 sound great, and why does it actually sound like a real band? Does anybody know anywhere in the north east, or at the very least in scotland, that is genuinely capable of 'room' recordings, who will be able to put 3 mics on my drum kit and make it sound like a shit hot, soulful beast? i'm guessing that the studios who get comissioned to do 'big band' or classical recordings would know their shit when it came to this...any ideas?

I would say your opinion is due to the use of digital recording and mixing techniques and away from the old buzzy analogue. I do prefer the retro sound myself, but if you listen to say a classic zepplin track you can hear extreme buzzes etc. and drums out of time but that made the music back then - like recording john bonham in a lift shaft for the levee brakes.

You just have to strive to keep it pure, and try steer clear of the timbaland style recordings, I guess, even if its what the mainstream audience want, all popular music has an audience at some stage; I know people who would say the opposite of your opinion as well

p.s. ow yeah if it still sounds bad just whap it through a roland tape echo

Hey there,

was wondering if you could help me out.

I've got two tickets for the friday show and was wondering if

someone would trade two for the friday for the saturday.

It'd be much better for me because I work at next on the

saturday at 10am and after seeing groove at rockness

i need to take the next day off.

have a good time if your going, can't wait.

Tom

Hey there,

I've just moved down to perth to study hnc sound production, cant really find anywhere like the aberdeen music forum...

looking for musicians to jam / work with im really interested in starting a groove armada/massive attack/portishead/dub type project but i'm generally open to all types of music. I play bass, guitar, decks and even a bit of singing - you can check it out at MySpace.com - Contra Tour in Sept. & New Song - Aberdeen, UK - Punk / Hardcore / Reggae - www.myspace.com/contrarock or MySpace.com - RKL - UK - Reggae / Progressive / Jazz - www.myspace.com/iammadeoutofglue

please dont hesitate to get in touch,

Tom Rogers

finally we have got around to recording,

be sure to check it out before we go on tour in september!

cheers,

Tom

MySpace.com - Contra Tour in Sept. & New Song - Aberdeen, UK - Punk / Hardcore / Reggae - www.myspace.com/contrarock

yeah i know what how your feeling, ive been in contra for about a year now, and although i love the music so much, i have fairly shelled out a fair bit to practice, especially because i live out in the country, i used to have to always get the bus into town. Contra are looking for a practice place, but im shortly moving down to perth (3weeks) so i dont know if finding a place right bang centre of aberdeen is best for us, at least at perth college theres free practice rooms

Tom

the name is makeshift and its just a short term thing, end of story. if you really must know, it is a prototype for my project im hoping to start down in perth called dubs anonymous

also i am a bass player for contra, not really a guitarist or frontman, and much more interested in working with other people rather than listening to my voice/guitar playing. and i personally dont like the 6 string thing either, but its about how you play though. Any good bass player can make a bass sound good, you know that. the rest of the musicians in rkl are all grade 8, however i am self taught and have never had a lesson, so the complex thing is a definate no go here especially how i write all the songs. suppose like you judged the 6 string impact on the sound, ( i used to be like that myself) i thought you were standing up for aberdeen's indie king louie. I just love kicking back and watching the jungle book i spose.

wasnt actually prepared for you to reply but aye cheers for the youtube clips, a personal favourite of mine is lee scratch perry getting interviewed by jools holland, i cant wait to go out to jamaica!

after all that stupid discussion, if you have time you should check out our songs and see what you think bearing that all in mind.

peace (white flag) haha

Tom

"can't believe thats all anyone says about our band" - Well if thats all anyone says about your band I suggest the chances of you getting signed are slim to none so it's perhaps best that you keep workin on "the music" while also studying for an alternative career - just in case.

"ow yeah and by the way just by myspace searching 'king louie' there are 21 bands in the world with that name" - which makes your claim to be the Real King Louie all the more ridiculous.

Despite Aberdeen's King Louie being my friends I think their music is pretty gash and any band that claims Horrace Andy and Portishead as influences would normally get my support but a pish name can tell you a lot about a band, as can photos of 6 string basses, illusions of granduer and a superiority complex over "the indie boys".

Now, here's something to help you on your journey - YouTube - Prince Jammy at the controls - clip 1

And here's one last message -

Aye, Casino played for the real King Louie, not The Real King Louie. Fuds.

aberdeen music scene is such a laugh, take the indie boys with you! ow yeah and by the way just by myspace searching 'king louie' there are 21 bands in the world with that name...

What exactly makes them The REAL King Louie? Surely Aberdeens own King Louie, having been King Louie for 10 years are the Real King Louie?

can't believe thats all anyone says about our band. its music you know, and like i said previously, once we sign a record deal we'll change the name. but until then you can keep worrying about the names of bands and i'll worry about the music

Tom

Hiya looking for a singer just for keeping me on my toes???

VMA Straylight:up:

hey, what kind of stuff do you sing? have you got any recordings?

Tom

Got a band etc....and are look out for a bassist as i would prefer just to sing. I know the whole world needs a bass player but hey no harm in asking.

Check us out - www.myspace.com/kashmirred

If you fancy the gig give me a shout. Shit loads of things in the pipeline so get in touch and we'll make this happen.

steve

i'm a huge weller and ocs fan,

would be cool to jam with you guys,

sounds ace

Tom

any chance?

The 1990's are listed in my top 5, "worst bands I've ever had the misfortune to see". *shudder*

Awful.

for some reason i went to see franz ferdinand and they supported, were fairly crap but same as franz.

im going to have to be very pissed when the manics come on as well

but groove armada are playing, must say i am a big fan

Tom

I'm sorry but i'm gonna have to disagree.

I used to hate Toms and thus used the Foyer.. The Foyers amps broke down...

So tried the cheap and new musical vision, the engineer on hand was grumpy even though we'd booked 3 hours we set up and within 5 notes through a bass amp it started smoking..... The engineer then took the amp away moaning, we packed up paid for an hour and left.

I would go Toms personally that is from my own experience. However I know those that use Musical Vision regularly and I probaly just caught it all on a bad day.

haha your supposed to be careful with those vintage valve amps, there worth quite a fair bit too which is possibly why he was a bit annoyed.

in captin toms ive never used a decent bass amp there, never been able to really hear myself, and you can hear the other bands in other rooms too well. also they kick you out too early never really get into a jam.

cheaper plus better amps and mellow environment ftw

Small venues like what?

I have been to numerous gigs at the tunnels, kef, east neuk, the lemon tree and the bass always sounds best when an 8x10 or a similiar large cab is used.

No matter what anyone says, Ampeg are generally better than most brands, the artists who use them speaks for itself really doesnt it?

Ashdown are good, but not as good as Ampeg.

scott

x

hey scott,

yeah i've got a sansamp because ive got my cheap ibanez and need to try and get some of the high end through, pretty cool bit of equipment has some really nice overdrive tones as well. The one you talked about with the memory function is the one to go for, my one doesnt have that and i kind of wish i had got it now.

think you are going to go for it? you must be fairly minted spending all this on bass haha suppose your getting rid of those cabs

as for ashdown and ampeg, come on ashdown are cheap as hell compared to ampeg, not really a fair comparision, although there is a new hand made bass tube amp range made in the uk out which might have a fighting chance as its of similar price range.

i haven't tried out enough amps to fairly say which i think is best but i think i would choose aguilar or eden over ampeg but again need to try them all out properly again

Tom

Beat Up Old Fender Telecaster For Any Jazzy Hollowbody..

your kidding right?

Hey Tom,

I was looking for 225 for the lot. You can see everything on my first post on this thread! If you want any more info feel free to ask Remember youd be welcome to have a shot first.

Steve

hey,

im interested but i dont really need the speakers, do you think you could make a deal, that freddie offspring guy is interested?

cheers, i apprechiate the offer though

Tom

Hey Tom.

The Numark Turntables that I am selling are direct drive. They are very similar technical spec to the ones in the Battle Pack, they just have an older design. I found them pretty good for scractching, esp with the technics slipmats. As for the vestax mixer, its amazing, and a huge step up from the mixer included in that Numark Battle Pack. Everything is in excellent condition, no scratches, no dents etc.

If you want to come round and give it a shot youd be more than welcome!

Cheers

Steve

how much you needing for it?

Tom

i disagreee with you there i had my old numark one for 4 years and the corss fader never broke nd ive had the monocor for 5 and its really sleek cross faders only break if you realy really fuk about harsstyle scratching with them

id be more worried about the needles they cost me 80 quid each if i snap em

hey man, nice stuff on your myspace sound really good, i see your pretty busy?

i'm looking to learn how to scratch kind of hip hop style stuff, i'm trying to start up a poritishead, massive attack, king tubby kind of influenced project. you should check out the scratching: YouTube - Portishead - Only You

i think im going to go the extra bit and get direct drive, supposedly belt drives snap?

Numark Battle Pak | Dolphin Music

Tom