Greetings! Music plus a few other bits and pieces you might find entertaining or interesting.
Here is some stuff that might be of use to you:
- Bass tab sheet - This is a PDF of a blank B E A D G tab sheet so that you can make notation of groovey stuff that you write.
- Guitar tab sheet - This is a PDF with E A D G B E markings, also blank, so that you can make a note of anything inspirational that you write.
- Scales - Here is a PDF of some scales. The first page is the scale shapes, relative to major I think. The next section is the scales relative to E, so you should be able to easily learn the shapes, then move them around for the other scales. Don't ask me to explain the theory behind modes...
Photos
- Schenker - One photo of Schenker at the Mean Fiddler in London the other month. Cool, eh?
- Bass amp - Here is a photo of my rig. Excuse the poor angle. The Behringer DSP2024P is actually remarkably good. The tube emulation on it is very convincing, and the reverbs aren't too bad either. The V-AMP is also not bad compared to the overpriced Line 6 POD.
- Overview - Here is an overview of the old set up. I have since rearranged all the system. The mixer has been flight-cased away and the speakers rearranged and the microphoned cased up too. All in storage.
- Back of rig - Dull shot of the back of my amp. The outputs on the Warwick are a life-saver. The newer range of amps do not have this many ports on it since they are mono and do not have a crossover built into them.
- Dismantled - Dismantling my gear with a poser shot of the Fender Jazz. Man, my room was full of junk.
- J on drums - J on the drums. A very large blurry shot but look at the lovely colour of the kit!
- Rig again - Ah, more shots of my rig. This is one taken at the wedding of Scott and Amy (anyone know their surname?) in Northampton.
Jam 24-25th August 2008
- J and I Jam - [WARNING!: This file is 122Mb]; A recording J and I made at home. J was using his tiny white Gretsch (looks like a children's kit) and I was going straight into the mixer from my amp (rather than just straight bass sound). We were routed over headphones to each other in separate rooms so J's drums are very clean and there is no bleed from a bass speaker because I was playing through headphones only. This mix is entirely dry, apart from J's bass drum has valve saturation and heavy compression, with the overall mix being amplified and compressed.
- Pickard's Gig
- Charity Gig (n o v e m b e r o o n y)
Derby Gig February 2008
This is a bit where I played the bass to cover for another bass player, up in Derby. It snowed on the way and we got lost on the way their but plenty of fun. This is a tiny clip, with Carl Jones on the drums, Vinnie on guitar and Dan Beaufoy singing on guitar.
Recording and Mixing 17042007
You might like to read up on recording and mixing, a short page I put together to give some pointers on recording a gig and mixing the audio afterwards, written with a slant towards software on Linux [because that's what I use]. Having said this, the principles are the same for any sequencer and audio editing software, plus the tips on processing audio will apply anywhere in the digital musical world. Enjoy!
Note that this is quite old now, as it makes reference to Fedora Core 4 with CCRMA extensions; Fedora 10 is due to be released in November 2008 so you can see what sort of progress has been made, but the principles are still accurate. And also, I'm not an expert.
The Cheeks in Concert circa July 2006
Here are some leaked musical passages and videos of The Cheeks in concert. This is work in progress. The mostly finished (and incredibly sloppy) version of Are You Gunna Be My Girl by Jet was available to watch but I've taken it down for space reasons. Please send comments. Note: On most of these, Ant is panned slightly right and Raoul is panned slightly left so you can hear who is playing what. Note that we were so sloppy because it was a damn hot day and we were sweating buckets and living on caffeine and Red Bull.
- Leas 1 - The chaps who sang and played before us are here. I only knew the guitar player's name, which happens to be Leas, hence the link name. I do not know the singer's name. This mix is a bit loud I have noticed - too enthusiastic on the compressor, but you should get the idea. Notice the guitar's boooooooom threatening to make everything feedback. Thank goodness the PA wasn't on the balcony too. 3.3Mb so shouldn't take too long.
- Leas 2 - This is the second song they played, the name of which I sadly do not know. This also suffers from excessive volume thanks to the discovery of a limiting compressor to keep the whole mix in the yellow (too loud!) band. 6.5Mb at fairly high bitrate.
- Jumping Jack Flash - This isn't the finished version since there is some really nasty gating on the vocals on this version but nevermind. The volume also needs boosting a phenomenal amount. 4.5Mb by the way.
- Are You Gunna Be My Girl - The MP3 audio of the above. Notice the complete lack of guitar solo. 5.2Mb 192kbps stereo MP3 converted from 16bit audio; all other tracks have been encoded to MP3 using a 24bit source file
- Soundcheck - Our soundcheck, dodgily mixed because it isn't that important. 1.2Mb
- Fake Tales of San Francisco - This is the mp3 for the song above, weighing in at 4.0Mb. This audio needs remixing since I hadn't got the hang of the software yet...
- I Believe In A Thing Called Love - The Darkness' song here sounds like glue and the lag on the suboctave applied to the drums is noticeable, helping to muddy things up a bit. Needs a total remix. 4.9Mb.
- I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor - The Artic Monkey's song. This is a very loud mix so if you open it in a wave editor, you'll notice that it looks like whitenoise. 3.8Mb
- Are You Gunna Go My Way? - Lenny Kravitz's song but without the tape hiss and with a touch more bass. Still the same "in a room" bass drum reverb, plus a retro effect on Ant's guitar. 5.8Mb, 192kbps MP3.
- Are You Gunna Go My Way? second version - Another version done a little later where Davo is pulled down from the rafters and Raoul has more guts.5.8Mb, also 192kbps MP3.
- Are You Gunna Go My Way? third version - Yet another version but there is a notch filter on the two overheads on the drums so that some of the hi hat wash is cut out. Also, the reverb on the snare has been changed so that it is now in a room and it is drier sounding. The bass has been put up a bit more since the second version sounded like it needed more. Davo has had all reverb on his voice removed so what you hear is actually the natural reverb of the hall. Ant pans a touch wider during his solo.
- Are You Gunna Go My Way? final version - No notch filter because the hats sounded nasal. Also, Ant pans a touch more during his solo and Davo is louder since the last one sounded like he was singing a mile away, down a tunnel. 4.9Mb 192kbps MP3
- Sunshine Of Your Love - The good ol' Cream song, replete with fuzzy distorted voice (a touch out at the end there Davo...) and booming bass, of course. Ant's solo is hot! Love it! 5.4Mb 192kbps MP3
- Pride and Joy - A Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble track. As Davo says, a bluesy number. I know Raoul isn't happy with his solo so go easy on him. The trippy effects found in the other songs for backing vocals continue in this song. Doesn't J's ride sound nice? 4.5Mb 192kbps MP3
- No Tomorrow - The Orson song, very badly covered. This needs more work (rerecording?!). Keeps in a muddy retro hippy theme with flangers aplenty. Delay on Ryan! 4.4Mb 192kbps MP3
- Message In A Bottle [blips] - The Police song. An early version with no harmonies at the moment. There are numerous blips in this song (see if you can spot them) due to audio dropout in post-processing for about 0.00001 second each time... 5.3Mb 192kbps MP3
- Message In A Bottle - A second version of the song, where the vocals have been turned down a notch and the bass drum shifted up, along with the hi-hats going down a bit. The bass was also put up to deafening level and a bit more chorus applied to Ant. 5.3Mb 192kbps MP3
- Back In The USSR - The Beatles' song. Comments? Too much hihat! 3.4 Mb 192kbps MP3
The Cheeks Return in Concert 2007
These are some more mixes from a recording at a wedding. The ambient noise was much better this time so the drums sound better, but sadly the toms were out of tune.
- Alright Now - Another version. Loud bass drum.
- Amazed - By Lonestar. We play it unbelievably slowly.
- Amazed (modified version) - Same as above, but messed around with after mixing for fun with effects.
- Are You Gonna Be My Girl? - by Jet. This has the drums and bass from the earlier recording but the guitars have been mostly rerecorded, a solo has been added by me and the vocals have been dubbed out. This is a backing track.
- Back In The USSR - By The Beatles. Hissy!
- Day Tripper - Notice the panning on the hihat, as well as the phaser on it. I haven't mixed Davo loud enough.
- I'm A Believer - By The Monkees. Nice use of organ.
- Jumpin' Jack Flash - By The Rolling Stones. Plenty of bass drum work on this but not loud enough.
- Ruby - First mix of the song by The Kaiser Chiefs.
- Ruby [remixed version] - Second mix of the song, should be cleaner sounding than the first...?
Edd and the Cwmbrans
Check out these tracks from 07/04/2007 in Risca (or wherever it was)! Also see Jonny's site here for video wizardry.
- Rob's drums - Just the drum mix from Jonny B. Goode, with Rob playing. Deserves a mix on his own before he is drowned out by the band :) 5.9Mb 192kbps MP3
- Jonny B. Goode - Marko, Jonny, Rob and Edd tear it up. Listen to that fretless wonder! 5.9Mb 192kbps MP3
- Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick - Ian Drury anyone? No, these aren't the blockheads - just Edd and The Cwmbrans doing their version. I wsa feeling trippy when mixing this, hence the vocal effects and the sound of Jonny's guitar floating between your ears. Hopefully you can hear Rob enough and Edd, of course. I made sure that there was bass on this. 4.9Mb 192kbps MP3
Please visit again soon!
Rich, 03rd October 2008
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Everything on and available from this page Copyright © Richard Gibson 2006-2008.
