TURN UP THE BASS!!!

[bertin_brando]

I know it's not only me, but everybody knows that in a band the bass is one of the most underrated instruments and (except in very few cases) so is the bassist. And well, Pink Floyd is the perfect example of a basist (Waters) running things quite well (understatement) both lyrically and musically. But somehow I feel guilty when I listen to Pink Floyd in my car stereo because I can never really enjoy Water's Bass as I do in my home stereo when I turn up the bass, and I can especially appreciate it with headphones on of course.

So, what I'm really getting at I guess is that everyone should turn up the bass (no extremes please) when listening to the floyd, I've tried to listen to it with the bass at a 'normal low' level, but it's just not the same. I try and tell all my friends to do this and sometimes I tweek around their sound systems. Please tell me what all of you think about this! Thanks

P.S. This is my first post!

[FloydWright]

I've just always liked a thrumming bass in general, for reasons of taste in sound. I always have the bass turned up on my sound systems.

[cho.manno]

Rock in general should be listened with some kind of bass boost.

[Satan]

I'm not big on the bass.

[Pedge]

I like bass, but too much is detrimental to the song. Bass and subwoofers however sometimes dont work with rock music because the stereo drags out the sound and it just sounds like an annoying vibration (Anyway who has been in a "done up" friends car will know the feeling).

_________________
...there's no dark side of the moon really,...matter of fact its all dark....

[Sydney]

Bass is WICKED. I'm learning how to play bass and it sounds awesome. Bass is very underrated but too much of a good thing can be deadly (the done up car (was it Pedge?)was talking about)

cheers

[Organ Grinder]

Bass is a good thing depending on the type of music.

[bertin_brando]

Sure, as with all things, TOO MUCH will ruin it. But, bass is still a very underrated instrument, and I'm talking about bassists, not with the bass that dance songs have. Still, in pink floyd's case, waters' bass is something to experience, so I recommend to turn it up within normal levels for good enjoyement of rock music.
Oh and in the studio recordings, Dave would play a lot of Rog's bass.
Thanks!

[Which One's Pink]

Of course I adore Roger's bass, too (as some of you might have noticed, I'm quite of a Waters fan), and I also believe his playing and his musicianship are underrated.

Even a fellow WaterSlut like NNJ has posted somewhere that Rog's a shit musician!

My opinion is rather different, of course.
As a bassist, Roger has a simple yet imaginative and effective style, and has been able to create a couple of nice & unforgettable bass lines (often the most recognizable ones are the simplest, as in One of These Days and Money).

I've also read someone posting that the OOTD bassline was cool b/c performed by Dave... Actually this is only partially true; Rog came up with the bassline and recorded it with the delay, then Dave recorded an overdub with a different effect, but only an OVERDUB, not the whole thing!

And there are others aspects of his style, like the funkiness; listen to SOYCD parts 6-9, The middle bit in Echoes and, most of all, Pigs (3 diff. ones) and you'll hear what I'm talking about.
Especially Pigs (3do) is particularly appealing to me... the smooth intro captured me at first, then the whole jumpy bass part got me hooked.
It's also a lot of fun to play (yes. I'm also a bass player).

But not only is he a great and hugely underrated bass player, he's even more underrated as an overall musician and composer!
Let's not forget he's not bad at all on the guitar, too, as you can hear on Grandchester Meadows, but this isn't really the point. It's a matter of fact that most people believe Dave to be the most accomplished musician between the 4 of them. Which isn't really true, since that has to be Rick, the only musically trained Floyd.
Dave is more of an instinct musician, in 1998 he said in an interview that he never read music and was starting to study it then.
Of course this doesn't mean much to me, as most of my fave musicians are self-taught (including me!). But I read an interview from about '75 where Roger was talking about intervals and notation and stuff like that, making it quite clear that his knowledge extended reasonably farther than what most people believe.

The final evidence to this point is his latest solo project, the opera called "ça ira".
I mean, an OPERA!!!
Does anyone of you have a clue about the musical knowledge needed to write an opera?
Not even Rick has ever attempted such a musically complex and ambitious work... this doesn't mean he wouldn't be able to, but anyway it would be quite hard for any musician coming from rock'n'roll, I suppose.

One more thing I'd like to achieve with this post would be putting to rest the speculation about The Final Cut being a musically weak effort. Most chord progressions on that record are more complex than anything the Floyd had ever recorded before.
In fact they are so complex that a whole orchestra was needed to do the songs justice.
Not that they're all complex, but then again this is not what makes for great rock'n'roll.

I only wanted to point out that it's not the musicianship that lacks in mr. Waters;
that would be something else, something in the proximity of a thing called forgiveness.

Cheers everybody



[EDITED FOR SPELLING REASONS]
_________________

Who was only a stranger at home
Who was ground down in the end
Who was found dead on the phone
Who was dragged down by the stone

No Floyd without Rog

WaterSlut #00000002

[Barrett Fan]

I think bass is terrible and it should never be allowed to be used in any music ever again.

[FloydWright]

Mr. Waters isn't too bad a bassist.

Now, I am not very good at naming the particular parts of SOYCD, but that stacatto-sounding bass in the second section is actually a Hohner Clavinet--a keyboard instrument. You can hear the same instrument in "Funky Deux", to know what I'm talking about.

_________________
"And with these words I can see
Clear through the clouds that covered me
Just give it time then speak my name
Now we can hear ourselves again..."

WrightSatellite #1

[thorin13]

i think he was talking about, if i remember correctly, section 8 which is really funky and it has both a hohner clavinet and a funky bass. but i could be wrong.

_________________
I'm living, I'm giving To find you
I'm living I'm trying, I'm giving
I'm drowning

[FloydWright]

I'd have to listen again...to me, it's the Clavinet that really seems the most prominent (and NOT for reasons of favouritism!).

[Not Now John]

TFC is good musically, Roger is a great composer, but let's face it, he might just be tone deaf, he can't play for shit, I've heard bootlegs from when the floyd where in their prime, he's pretty bad, but got better as heard in the ITF CD. Too much bass is bad, as heard in ABITW pt.2. Just because he wrote an opera, doessn't mean he did a good job of it, I'm anxious to find out.

[Which One's Pink]

Yes FloydWright, Thorin is right, I know that in the bit I'm talking about (SOYCD part there is also the Hohner Clavinet (played by Rick of course :grin, a keyboard instrument hugely successful in the 70's thanks to its trademark bass-like sound and also used by people like Stevie Wonder and other black music artists, but I was actually referring to the proper bassline, performed by Rog on his Fender Precision and also very funky and well played.

cheers everybody