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Female Bass Players

It’s time to introduce a new category to my blog: Female Bass Players.
To start off: L-dia.

The first time I heard about Lydia Kaboesj (I guess that’s her surname) was when she got the endorsement with Fender end of 2008.

You will have to watch her on YouTube as she has disabled embedding, but respective videos will take you there directly.

 

 

She is for sure a traditional funker. Style, lics, sound.

 

But she grooves, can sing and looks great.

 

Check her out her YouTube channel or on MySpace. (both very ugly!)

Closing with her own words: “Have fun(k)”

Pathetic Bass Player

in deed. Nothing to add.

 

 

Carbon-14 Dating

I must admit that determining the precise production date and location of my beloved Fender Jazz Bass was not as complicated and expensive as a paleontological carbon-14 dating process.

Non the less, it took me 26 years, 1 month and 9 days to finally reveal the accurate age of one of my favourite instruments. And, I must be frank, it’s not that I needed more than the two and a half decades to discover how to determine the age of the bass. I knew it all the time! But never bothered…

According to the serial number and Fender’s database the production date of my J-Bass was between 1982 – 1987. Made in USA.

 

But today, I had the strong urge to unscrew the neck and search for the ultimate answer!

 

  No more guessing:

 

(I bought it 1984, I think June or July,
before going on tour with the band)

And then I discovered this signature. Is this the person who assembled my beauty over 26 years ago?

 

Mr I. Torres I would like to shake your hand.

How to fold an acoustic bass?

the easiest way would be to set a chainsaw on the bass, once vertically and once horizontally and you’re done. The result fits a regular tennis bag but is, unfortunatelly, irreversible. What you made fit in the sports bag will never again sound warm, rich and low.

Charlie Chadwick found a better way and it took him 4 years to develop it to (near, IMHO) perfection. I guess most of this time was spend on making the individual pieces stick together and sound like a double bass again.

 

The Worlds Most Expensive Basses

I was randomly browsing local news today when I came across this article about an old violin. The violin was crafted by J.B. Guadagnini in Milan in 1750. A singaporean violinist has the chance to play it until May 2011 – the instrument is a loan and worth US$430,000. If you are interested in the full story go here.

Having seen this price tag one question came to my mind: how much is the most expensive bass I can find?

Funny that the most expensive bass I found on the internet directed me to Germany, to Jens Ritter. There are no price tags on his website, but I found a few price ranges on the net. The Ritter Royal Flora Aurum for example is available for about $100.000 (US$).

Let me list a few of the features:

• Floral Pattern Fingerboard Inlay made of massive 24Carat Gold
• Every single Inlay-Leaf is decorated with a Black Diamond (set in Platinum)
• The Bridge, the Tuner Buttons and the Knobs are handcast in massive Gold
• 2 flawles Brillant-Cut Diamonds (3,3ct) are placed on top of the 2 Knobs
• Tiny green Brillant-Cut Diamonds serve as Knob Position Marks
• The handshaped Body is made of a one piece Highest Figured Quilted Maple
• The Nut is made of at least 10000 years old Mammoth Ivory

 

Record

I remember when I installed Reason, the virtual studio rack from swedish company Propellerhead, for the first time. It was in 2000 or 2001 I think. I was thrilled by the concept and the thinking behind the software and I loved pushing the tab button on my keyboard to  turn around the effect rack and the see the patch cables gently swing. But I was also dissapointed when I did not discover any capabilities for  recording audio tracks beyond short snippets for the samplers.

In my dreams I saw the missing link between Reason and my perfect music suite.

Now my dream seems to come true! The first stage of materialization comes in form of a beta version. I hope to be able to put my hands on it soon.

 

 

Technorati Tags: DAW,Propellerhead,Record,RobTheMob

Cubase 5 – The launch

I attended the Cubase 5 launch event somewhere in the SMU building here in Singapore, last weekend, Saturday. I mean, I really was not expecting a mega happening with paparazzi and rainbow press and so on. But I was a little surprised about how cozy this was. I think I spotted around 80 others besides me in a mini auditorium on the 4^th floor.

The first 45 minutes or so (I arrived a bit belated) was all about giving awards and decorations to distributors, dealers and partners which actually revealed that among those estimated 80-something attendees at least 20 – maybe 30 – where not end users like me.

There was this guy; I think his name was Ivan. He did the first part of the product presentations and I guess he was Australian telling from his comments. He used many audio examples from the movie ‘Kung Fu Panda’ which was one of his last big projects (I hope I got this right).
Boy! He really knew the product in and out! Not an employee to Steinberg or Yamaha (which now owns Steinberg), but a freelancer and top expert.

After the break with poor catering a Steinberg support engineer took the stage, well I should rather say he took the table. And then the show began! It started with a music project that simply wouldn’t load. The 8 to 10 minutes felt like ages! And then the notebook denied any further interaction with hardware, software or human –> reboot!

Meanwhile Ivan stood up and asked for questions. I asked if Steinberg is sticking to the dongle protection or if end users like me (and the few others) could finally enjoy a new, more modern, method of copy protection. The answer was, in something I think to have identified as an Aussie accent, a ‘no’ followed by the advice to pore it in concrete so I don’t lose it otherwise your screwed. Thanks Ivan!

A few more questions from dealers about Edu-versions and stuff and the notebook was up and running again. Cubase and the project loaded smoothly. What then happened was a Déjà-vu of 1000 times before. But instead of me I see this professional from Steinberg talking half to himself and half to the spectators: “why can’t I hear anything?”. A live ‘demonstration’ of all possible drop down menus followed. Then again a click on the play button: “Man, nothing is coming out, but everything is fine!” (Exactly what I use to say). “It worked fine yesterday in Malaysia” (I also say that a lot) ? I was thinking “Ivan, where are you?”

I decided to leave the event and took a CD on my way out. No, no demo version or trial (dissapointed!). The most interesting document on that CD, “What’s New on Cubase5”, is now on my Skydrive

 

 

 

Technorati Tags: Cubase,Steinberg,RobTheMob,Yamaha,DAW,Harddisk recording,home studio

No Hotel Lobbies

My days with Rhythm Asia are over. Although I would love to continue playing music with that bunch the goals that they, as a band, are seeking is something I will not be able to support. And therefore it is not fair to continue and steal their precious rehearsal time. Their aim is to perform 3 to 4 times a week in hotels. Sad that the music market in Singapore is too small to support acts with original compositions.

I don’t have the pressure to have to earn money with music (which clearly classifies my as non-professional musician) so I will visit S.O.F.T. more often now. Mainly the category “RobTheMob is looking for 1 or 2 guitarists with voice to perform his stuff – which is being written as we speak” will be browsed intensively. Well, I will have to search for that category first. May take a while.

 

 

 

Technorati Tags: RobTheMob,Roberto,Bass,Singapore

Victos’s Amazing Grace

I love this clip! I don’t know how many time I have viewed this. May not be the most spectacular solo of Victor Wooten ( I was lucky to see him together with Marcus Miller and Stanley Clarke performing as SMV at The Esplanade in Singapore ) but …ah! just watch it and you’ll understand.