pkennethk's forum posts 2051

...Chris had this root note jackhammer thing going and he wanted to know the lead tones for every bar. we all loved the stooges fun house and we really liked his idiotic approach which brought the dumbness of the band to the fore

Ha! Lead tones = lead melody/head?

Well, let's start the bass chat with these 3 bangers at the top of the thread.

Who wrote these tracks? Did Chris have some freedom to interpret/complete these harmonies creatively, or was someone dictating to him exactly what notes he had to anchor his lines to for each chord?

In the spirit of shamelessness, I'm prepared to start a discussion about writing bass lines over slash chords if this thread doesn't start getting more views.

Anytime.

Bare hyggelig.

Hey Lars,

Sorry to hear you're having trouble.

In the past, I've sometimes had trouble getting edits/updates to bands to work for me: I edit the page as normal, upload a photo, everything seems fine, then I save my changes and it's... dritt.

Right now, the system is accepting my uploads to Hill Bomb just fine (I changed the photo, added their insta).

Assuming the edits you're attempting aren't working, just link me to the photo you wanted to use, and I can upload that, along with any other edits you want.

Cheers.

Well, I know MIDI, but I don't know much about guitar FX setups. If you have a moment, tell us what it is you want to get cooking with these two units, exactly (workflow-wise/routing-wise) and it will 100% trigger someone who already knew what you wanted to do to bust into this thread and show off.

Oh hell yes!

The process of requesting items that don't have a supporting retailer link has been automated.

If you go to Add > Music Gear, you should be able to fill out a request form now.

The request will show up in a queue the mods and admins will review and approve/deny.

the bass is mixed a little low, man, but there it is... its all over aretha franklin's atlantic recordings too

Ah, Chuck Rainey's other steady gig in the 70s. Makes sense.

Touché Mr. Marchi1. Very helpful example. Thank you.

Took me a minute, but I see/hear how the 2 lane starts as inner-voice movement, then resolves to the tonic root at the end of the phrase.

Ok so:

• Alesis 3630 - Dec 1996 (Seen on Homework & Discovery) [Source: Daft Punk Unchained 1996 Live Footage]
• Juno-106 - Feb 1996 (Seen on Homework & Discovery) [Source: Photo from Daft Punk Live @ L'Espace (Leave Earth)]
• Mutronics Mutator - 2002 [Source: Official Mutronics site from 2002]
• Moog Minimoog Voyager - Apr 2006 (Seen on Alive 2007) [Source: Photos from Coachella 2006 live setup]
• E-mu SP-1200 - 1996 (Seen on Homework & Discovery) [Source: Can be heard on Homework. First seen Jan 1997 - Photos from End Club live set]
• TR-909 - Nov 1993 (Seen on Homework & Discovery) [Source: Can be clearly heard on The New Wave and Alive, which was recorded in 1993]
• Roland S-760 - Sep 1996 [Source: Photo from Daft Punk Live @ Le Zenith]
• Ableton Live - Apr 2006 (Seen on Alive 2007) [Source: Mixmag article from 2007]
• TR-808 - Sep 1995 (Seen on Homework, Discovery & Human After All) [Source: Photos from Daft Punk live @ Back 2 Basics]
• Boss MT-2 - Evidence is not solid enough to give an exact date + proof link is now dead

Thanks for doing that, Finley. Your knowledge of all things Daft Punk is unrivaled.

Now that we can all see the data we'd be working with a bit better: what's your gut say re: how to make these dates useful for sorting/filtering/visualizing?

Would you want to filter by a specific year or multi-selection of years?

Or sort by year/chronological (and put the items with no year metadata at the bottom)?

Personally, I'd love to see everything laid out in a legit timeline UI. If it was sexy enough, it seems like the kind of thing users would want to share/link to.

Installed. No time to listen to it today, but I'll get around to it. Thanks!

Thanks, Jim. Let's see if I can land this:

A major Mu (Add2) chord can highlight an additional voice-leading lane that a bassist should be aware of, even when the chord’s harmonic function remains strictly major. You don’t want to over-emphasize the 2 structurally, but you shouldn’t ignore it entirely either. Even if the 2 was added primarily for color, it’s likely to participate in an intentional voice-leading relationship with a note in the following chord.

?

@Jim thanks for all that. You know your @#$% so well. Impressive.

You're coming at it from a jazz/ jam session standpoint, where the bassist has the freedom to alter a major IV to a sus, sub in a vi7, insert a spicy passing chord or turnaround, etc. Call it collectivist harmony.

Right now, I'm coming at it from a "session bassist for a Quincy Jones/Donal Fagen-type" standpoint, where a Mu chord is sitting in a chart that is more or less locked... the client thinks it's perfect and already has a lot of the arrangements mapped out. Let's call this an imperialist harmonic context.

In that "change the harmony and you're fired" type of chart, I'm thinking I wouldn't lean on the 2 in a Mu/Add2 any harder than I would if it was just a regular major chord... as a Mu chord has more or less the same harmonic function as a Major chord, and I don't want to imply that the chord is actually a Sus2... my client would have written down Sus2 if they wanted that.

Am I thinking about things the right way if the chart comes straight from the king himself?

I am indeed, the grind never seems to end, I im hoping that I will have something to drop next year

Definitely let us know here in the forum when you have something new up. I've always enjoyed your tracks.

If Equipboard is to be the place where tone and gear geekery knows no bounds, the addition of this metadata makes a lot of sense to me!

If the goal is to go harder at the gear geekery than anywhere else, then yeah: letting the Finleys (and me's) of the world get forensic with date(s) owned metadata will definitely further that goal.

Would the intent be to tag the earliest known date they used the item? The span of years? both?

@Finley: do you have a sense of how you would you want to list the date metadata for the first 10 or so items on Daft Punk's profile? Would it just be the year they were first known to use the item?

Re: Ablums

With albums/releases it seems pretty straightforward: Equipboard > Kurt Cobain profile > "Releases" section > filter by "Bleach"

Crazy ideas time: would an album ever be something one could search for on Equipboard? E.g. A user searches for "nevermind" and the first hit is the Nevermind album complete with album art? You click that album entry and you're taken to a page that shows you Butch Vig, Nirvana, and each member of Nirvana are associated with that album? Maybe the page even shows you the most popular gear tagged as being used on Nevermind? Do people think about albums/releases when they think about "how do I get that sound"?

Would adding an album/era/date-range tag to someone's already-approved submission trigger the need for a re-review?

It's a good question and we're open to suggestions. What do you all think? Could even be some sort of hybrid, where if your GearIQ is high enough it doesn't trigger a re-review? 🤔 Just thinking out loud here...

I think it would be great to keep an approved submission approved if someone is just adding info vs. changing info.

The gear IQ threshold as a way to limit re-review sounds fine by me.

On bass I almost always honor a 2 or 9, just not on the downbeat.

I'm intrigued. Would you consciously treat the 2 differently in the case of a bass part supporting Sus2 vs Add2? I don't have anywhere near the experience you do in this regard. Teach me.

I seldom honor the 3rds of any chord unless I'm walking or they're on the root like a secondary dominant inversion or highlighted in the melody...

Leaving the 3rd to whoever is playing/singing the lead melody or playing chords is just good manners, I say ;)

Oh, I didn't really know, or maybe remember they called it a mu chord... that's cute. 1, 2, 3, 5 or 1, 3, 5, 9 if you prefer, so an add9. Like in the intto to deacon blues, a major7 i chord voiced 1, 7, 3, 5 to "mu" v chord voiced 1, 2, 5, 1, 3... what was I getting at? I went full on white middle aged dad for a sec.

I'm trying to learn to think like a bassist at the moment. So:

1. Mu v1 add2: 1 - 2 - 3 - 5 = ignore the 2, treat as Major chord.
2. Mu v2 add9: 1 -3 - 5 - 9 = ignore the 9, treat as Major chord.
3. Mu v3 add2/3: 3 - 1 - 2 - 5 = ignore the 2 and the inversion, treat as Major chord.... unless the context or chart indicates I should honor the /3 in a root-like way.

As per this idea I think the specific artist eras are hard to scale across artists (I mean, relatively few artists are iconic like Prince and have eras people talk about). But one thing we have thought about is pulling album data, and then you could select what albums the gear was relevant in.

Thoughts?

Great to have you on the thread, Giulio. Thanks for chiming in.

Using albums as a proxy for a date range makes a lot of sense to me. Even in that Prince example you linked, most of the eras are anchored to just 1-2 albums.

I mean, I can't tell ya exactly what date Jason Newsted joined Metallica off the top of my head, but I know ...And Justice for All is the start of the Newsted era. So the concept seems pretty intuitive.

Would adding an album/era/date-range tag to someone's already-approved submission trigger the need for a re-review? Or would we instead be adding gear submissions TO the album/era/date-range tags available for a given artist?

...orrrr could we just search EB for an album profile/entry, and then see what artists/musicians/producers/gear are associated with that album, as sort of a new nexus/search vector on the site?

I love that we both used Prince as an example... "great minds..."

Are you working on any new music, Finley?

From a lyrics-first perspective, I can see the Dan comparisons: many songs are a certain type of self-contained story from the perspective of a fictional character that is not Greep himself... and there's a similar vibe of "misanthropic old dude trapped in a young dude's body".

So are you saying Fagen owns the concept of singing as a cynical and acerbic character?

No.

I'm resisting my knee-jerk reaction and instead trying to lend some grace to the comparison.

I'm still too young to be arguing about Steely Dan on the internet.

Mu chord? I seriously have never heard of a Mu chord, explain. And where is this smoothness fader?

I refuse to believe you don't know what a Mu chord is. I blame you for why that voicing is even on my radar. You mentioned Aja in a thread years ago, I got curious... and now I'm 23% more middle aged white guy.

Re: smoothness fader, I just wanted an excuse to link to that ancient dumbass '00s clip.

+1 Y'all already know I'm a fan of this idea.

Great question.

The "Critic Reviews" section is one of the newer additions to item pages.

I don't think there's any way for community members like us to add more Critic Reviews... I'm 99% sure the admins setup some kind of automated service that searches for pro reviews and surfaces the findings that meet whatever criteria they've set up.

When you get a chance, go ahead and drop links to the reviews you want to add, along with a link to the Chase Bliss pedal item page here on EB you want them added to.

If you can arm me with a really compelling snapshot for why the Admins need to open up the ability for community members to add more pro reviews, I'll see what I can do to get it in front of the right people.

(but my hope is they'll feel like chiming in right here in the thread if you lay out a good case).

FWIW, I'm also someone who would add reviews from TapeOp and the like if I had the ability to do so.

https://imgur.com/a/k1cVssi

Re: Greep sounding like Steely Dan on crack:

Structurally + aesthetically, I'm on your side -- the late-70's Robert Fripp comparison is a better fit.

...but there are those of us that listen to the music/arrangement/production aesthetic first, and come around to the lyrical content later, and there are those of us who are lyrics-first types.

From a lyrics-first perspective, I can see the Dan comparisons: many songs are a certain type of self-contained story from the perspective of a fictional character that is not Greep himself... and there's a similar vibe of "misanthropic old dude trapped in a young dude's body".

That said, I don't know if there's a single Mu chord on the album, but someone definitely cranked up the smoothness fader on a few tracks.

... And no, I'd never heard of Sean Stephens until you mentioned, and I just... I have no idea what that's all about.

The notifications bubbles that don't clear out and the counters that don't keep track after edits/deletions... this has been an ongoing thing for years. Last I heard from the Admins, hopes are high that the in-progress section-by-section site revamps will knock them out.

If you've got a red-badge alert on your profile that won't clear out, there is sometimes something the Admins can do, but typically not. For the counter thing, my understanding is that it will continue to be that way until the site revamps are complete.

... I saw Magnolia Electric Co reunite the other week and it was a super solid show, planning to see Geese, Nine Inch Nails, and Geordie Greep next year.

I had that Geordie Greep solo debut album on repeat for weeks earlier this year. Something about the energy in that opening track just makes me wanna let the whole record play. If you end up going to one of his shows... well, that's cool... like... share your thoughts and whatnot.

I'll be cranking these on YouTube tomorrow. Thanks for the thoughtful recommendations Spruce!

Oh rad, I'm one of those Gen Z'ers who likes them, I think they have that Springsteen thing where they aren't for everyone, but they're a ridiculous talent that will only get better with time. I've been a fan since 3D Country, so you were definitely early to the boat.

Excellent news. I'm relieved to hear they have some fans in their own age demographic. The Springsteen comparison is an interesting take, I thought about it for a sec... then did the "I approve" head nod.

Got any deep cuts from the Boss you can recommend? I only really know the most painfully obvious '75-'85 stuff.

EDIT: halfway through the 1st album and this reminds of Adventure by Television... a lot. more modern, more disonant, a little less melodic, less of Lloyd's classic rock riffage, a little richard hell vocal here and there throwing back to johnny jewel... some strokes, talking heads obviously, etc etc... a real NYC blender

That was my first impression 100%: Television meets The Strokes meets every great post-punk band... but aiming at something that doesn't care about any of that.

Their later stuff didn't grab me as much, but I considered that a good thing -- these dudes shouldn't be chasing fans in their 40s. I'm really happy to see they've comfortably reached the quit-your-dayjobs stage of existence... and still growin'.

If someone was talking about Geese on here, it was probably me. I'm one of those geezers that has been pushing them on friends since their first album.

Congrats on hitting 40k!

https://imgur.com/a/RIQx3bH

https://imgur.com/a/9nO9B3J

Well, it looks like we get one last chance in 6 days.

I was skeptical of this video because of the subjective reasoning peppered throughout, but then I checked out some of that creator's per-model videos -- in those single-product videos, they are going harder on measurements and other things that smell like objectivity. So... solid find, thanks.

It IS strange that no UAD interfaces made it into the mix, especially now that UAD is transitioning to native processing and releasing lower-cost interfaces.

What ISN'T strange is that the RME Babyface Pro FS sits a top their S tier. I mean, they have to be awesome if their opinions reinforce my own personal consumer decisions, right?

EDIT: OK, now I ramble on a bit about how I love my RME interface... one day I'll come back and copy/paste this into a review, I swear...

...so yeah, I been really happy with my Babyface Pro FS. Purchasing one was one of those "just spend the damn money and trust you'll finally be free of worry" moments, and the Babyface delivered on that front. I will still be using this thing 10 years from now and RME will still be supplying rock solid drivers for this interface another 10 years after that.

Styling-wise, the Babyface looks like RME's desperate attempt to secure a place on Apple Store shelves... circa 2007... but nobody is buying this thing blind... we all know how ugly it is before we hand over our cash.

The babyface comes with its own snap-locking plastic + molded-foam transport case, like it's a nice kick drum pedal or... a handgun?... and RME approaches every detail of the experience with that same late-70s Mercedes Benz type of over-engineering... but they overthink these things so that we don't have to. Who wants to waste time thinking about audio interfaces?

I didn't get into music to spend my days thinking about who has the lowest noise floor.

So this pearl kit is Legends. Which admin would be Kathleen Kennedy in this analogy?

Neither have that honor... until the day Reverb buys Equipboard... at that point, whoever is doing the least amount of coding gets to be Kathleen.

There’s seems to be no way of adding limited edition versions of instruments if the base model already exists right ?

Example

Good question. Whether or not the base model is already in the system has nothing to do with it.

The determining factor, at the moment, seems to be whether or not Reverb chooses to grant that special edition a canonical landing page.

Canonical, in this case, means that the there is a page for the item like this with a dedicated price guide, details page, etc.

I'm still learning about how/when Reverb grants these pages to certain models, but there's not a ton of consistency to it. This pearl white limited edition model could have easily had its own landing page on Reverb... it just doesn't, for whatever reason.

Even though Reverb doesn't own Equipboard, you can think of it like Disney deciding what is Canon for all the Lucasfilm/Star Wars stuff. Fans may love a character from some 90s Shadows of the Empire novel, but if Mickey says it's not canon right now, it's not canon.

The Admins want us to stay in-sync with Reverb item taxonomy, because once an item is no longer in production, Reverb is likely the only place where Equipboard can make any affiliate dollars off of linking to that item... and affiliate dollars are one of the very few ways this site can pay the bills. This isn't the only reason for staying in-sync with Reverb, but it's A reason. Maybe it's just a fan theory...

In this example you gave, if you're logging a Monologue XD for an artist, both the XD and the pearl white limited edition sound exactly the same, so there isn't much to gain from adding the limited edition in that context.

If someone wanted to add the white XD because they own the white one and they want their own Equipboard to reflect that, that's 100% understandable.. the Admins are working their way towards being able to somehow show that you own a specific color of a guitar or synth, but they're just not all the way there yet.

Rawk will gasp back to life at some point.

It will sound almost like a 1:1 clone of stuff you loved, but you'll never fully trust it.

Fun times.

Singing like that is a lost art.

When is the reunion tour?

Yes, looks great!

PS- Sorry for the delay, missed this somehow.

No worries + no rush. I haven't had any spare time to work on the dupes this week, regardless.

Thanks again for chiming in -- the clarity + direction are must appreciated.

@Michael, do I have this right-enough to begin submitting the "MERGE" entries as dupes?

Reverb Model: Gibson Les Paul Studio 1983–1989

Equipboard Matches:

• Gibson Les Paul Studio 1983 - 1989 (keep)
• 1988 Gibson Les Paul Studio (MERGE) - Submitted 12/14/25
• Gibson les paul studio 1989 (MERGE) - Submitted 12/14/25

Reverb Model: Gibson Les Paul Studio 1990–1997

Equipboard Matches:

• Gibson Les Paul Studio 1990 - 1997 (keep)
• 1992 Gibson Les Paul Studio (MERGE) - Submitted 12/14/25
• Gibson Les Paul Studio 1997 (MERGE) - Submitted 12/14/25

Reverb Model: Gibson Les Paul Studio 1998–2011

Equipboard Matches:

• Gibson Les Paul Studio 1998 - 2011 (keep)
• Gibson Les Paul Studio '98 (MERGE)
• Gibson Les Paul Studio (2011) (MERGE)
• Gibson Les Paul Studio 2002 (MERGE)
• Gibson Les Paul Studio 2005 (MERGE)
• Gibson 2003 Les Paul Studio (MERGE)

Reverb Model: Gibson Les Paul Double Cutaway Studio

Equipboard Matches:

• Gibson Les Paul Studio Double Cut (keep)
• 1997 Gibson Les Paul Studio Double Cut (MERGE)

Reverb Model: Gibson Les Paul Studio Faded T 2016

Equipboard Matches:

• Gibson Les Paul Studio Faded 2016 T (keep)
• 2016 Gibson Les Paul Studio Faded Series T Sat (MERGE)

Reverb Model: Gibson Les Paul Studio 60s

Equipboard Matches:

• Gibson Les Paul Studio '60s (keep)
• Gibson Les Paul Studio ’60s 2010 (MERGE)

For the first pass, we’ll follow Reverb’s structure since it provides enough differentiation for a standalone page. Anything beyond that would require building a custom taxonomy for every individual guitar model, which is something we can tackle later. This approach should still eliminate most of the duplicates and give users a solid way to find the specific model they’re looking for.

It sounds like you're telling me to pursue Option A. Is that your vote for this specific situation?