吉他之神
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发表于 2004-1-16 21:56:00
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这里有一些美国第一大吉他乐器销售商 guitar center 对他采访的片段 。虽然没有什么具体的介绍，但是也可以看看 GC: How was your experience being inducted into the Rock Walk?
Clarke: I had been to the Hollywood Guitar Center quite a few times and I had noticed it, you know. I remember I did have a thought like, "God, I don't really see any bass players here or anything!" And lo and behold some time later I guess somebody must have got the idea that, you know, we should acknowledge the bottom end of these groups. I saw a bunch of guitar players, a few drummers, singers and those types. Actually, the most important part of a band, the bottom part of a band is the bass. It's not only a rhythmic instrument, it also defines tonality. It actually plays a very unusual role in a band, you know. It does kind of what the drummer and a guitar player or keyboard player do. The drummer usually defines the rhythm and the keyboards and guitars usually deal with the harmony, depending on how sophisticated the music is. But the bass is unusual in that it does both of them, in a subtle way, but it does both.
GC: Equalizing the bass can be a mysterious art for a lot of bassists that are just starting out. What are your thoughts on bass EQ?
Clarke: I think it really depends on what you're trying to do within the music that you're playing. For me personally, in the band that I have, I function as a bass player to some degree and then also I'm the bass soloist. I like to have two different EQ's: I like to have one EQ that's for the rock bottom, you know, solid low end support bass sound. Then on the other side of the coin, I like to have another sound that usually I can do through a foot pedal or using the Alembic bass which is a stereo bass. I actually don't use it like a stereo bass, I actually use it like it's two basses. Like, when I'm playing rock bottom stuff, I'll use the low pickup, just the low pickup alone and it's usually just a solid sound. But then when I want to take a solo, I bring in the high pickup and I usually EQ it in such a way that it's very interesting what happens. When I turn it up, it almost sounds like it sends the whole bass out of phase because the high end comes up and it actually cancels out some of the real low low low stuff and actually creates this really pretty nice sound. And so for me just going between the two is pretty easy. It's just a matter of turning something up and something else down. So with this Alembic bass EQ is already done, it's my high pickup. I've spent quite a few years developing and fine tuning the EQ that I have for my solo sound. It's really a combination, it isn't just EQ. See that's the other thing, you can EQ your head into a wall if you don't have the right speaker and the right amplifiers in order to translate that EQ into something so that we can all hear it. On most basses, the EQ really isn't as sophisticated as it could be. I mean, I have one bass that has parametric EQ where I can select the frequency and then boost or cut back that particular frequency, notch that frequency in or out. But for the most part basses have sweepable EQ, you're not necessarily selecting a particular frequency. So you're limited right off the bat when you're dealing with EQ just from your instrument. Therefore you go into preamplifiers that have EQ on-board. For a long time I've been using a Alembic preamplifiers which were made specifically for Alembic basses. Then lately I've been using some stuff by a company called EVS out of Sweden and they have a very sophisticated EQ system for the bass. It has good limiters, you know, compressors attached to it and effects loops. You know, you can plug effects in and out, that sort of thing. I actually personally think that a musician usually is constantly EQ-ing. You're always striving for tone. I don't think you ever really land on like the EQ that actually works in every hall, every club, every park, every recording studio. I think we're all striving but I do think as you get older and you've played an instrument longer and longer and if you are one that's striving for tone, it becomes more subtle rather than really making drastic moves. The moves are real subtle. And that's kind of where I'm at right now. For instance, when I'm playing outside I always have much more low end. For outdoor shows, I have my 18" speakers like really booming because I like to feel the low end and because when I'm outside I'm not within an enclosure. There are no walls usually, and I have to pump the bass up enough to make the stage rattle so I can feel it, because I like that. But when I'm inside, you know, I don't have to be so drastic. Basically I use two 18" EV speakers on the bottom. I think they especially made these things for me years ago. They're like these 18" speakers that face down and they're seriously powerful speakers. Then I use EV 10's, two 4x10" cabinets Then right on the extreme sides Marshall amplifiers, just for my high pickup for the solo stuff. So between the Marshall's and the 10's I get a really interesting bang and I usually put the effects in the Marshall's and it's a pretty nice sound. It's a big sound but it's clean whether it's high or low, you know. I use Crest power amps and I use, like I said, Alembic preamplifiers but now I'm using these EVS things and I think I'm going to stick with them. I use an EVS octaplier which I think is probably the best one out there right now for the bass. It's this thing out of Sweden, the same company. They really make nice stuff for the bass, EVS, I was really surprised.
GC: What other sorts of effects to you use?
Clarke: Well, the other thing I use is the Lexicon PCM 70 reverb. I like Lexicon because it's a darker sounding reverb. I mean it has a sound, it seems to have a warm sound. I like a warm sound on the bass anyway, especially as far as effects are concerned. The Alembic bass is such a hi-fi sounding bass. It's very pumped up, very high. It's just a very powerful sound, you know, a lot of spikes, peaks on the bass. It's just the way they did the electronics. So coupling that with the nice soft sort of warm reverb really has a nice effect.
GC: Do you use outboard compression at all or is it compression from the preamp?
Clarke: Just out of the preamp. That's one of the main reasons I switched from the Alembic preamplifiers to the EVS ones. It's because the EVS preamplifiers have this compression device in them so, you know, it's nice. I mean I personally like compression in the studio or even on stage. I really like what it does with the bass, especially when you're playing bass a lot, it really tightens everything up, you know?
GC: Do you have any bass-buying tips for someone who is considering buying their first bass?
Clarke: I would probably go to a store, like Guitar Center, a larger store that has a lot of instruments. Go to some place that has a lot of basses and go there with someone who has had some experience with the bass, maybe someone who has owned a bass for a couple of years. The best thing would be to go there with your teacher. I would go to a store like that and sit there and kind of take the same approach that you would if you were buying a pair of shoes. If you bought a shirt or a pair of pants or whatever, you could pretty much survive if the pants are a little too tight or too large. But with shoes, because you use them so much, you know, it's really important that they fit. So it has to really fit physically. The sound, I do believe, is secondary when you're first starting out. I think it's more important that you have a bass that's not too big. Let's say the guy is 10 years old or 11, you know, you don't want to get like a huge bass that the guy can't reach the low F. You want to find a smaller bass or something. A lot of companies have these things and that's really important. And actually most instruments nowadays, you know, the technology has gotten so good that they pretty much sound good. It's not like when I was coming up. Then, there were some basses that actually just sounded horrible! You know, you hit a note and it would be nothing! Now all the basses sound good. They're all using pretty much the same strings, the pickups are wrapped in the same the way. Pretty much the same technology. The wood...wood is wood. There's some wood that's better, but it's still wood. And the design of the bass is pretty much the same. When you get into the high-end basses like Alembic, the Kenny Smith basses, Fodera, a few others, then you really notice like a big big difference. It's a quantum leap from those cheaper basses. The electronics are much more heading toward hi-fi, you know, usually dual pickups, the tone controls are more sophisticated and other things. So, the importance is just finding a bass that really fits with you and I think you're going to need somebody else with you. I was lucky that when I was younger and learning to play the bass, I had a lot of friends that were bass players as well and we were all in the same boat! I think there were like three or four of us. I think our ignorance put together sort of made one smart guy! We would go in and we would get a bass and one guy would say, "No man, but listen to the F on that thing!" And I'd say, "Oh yeah, yeah," and there would be a muff tone on the F. "No, we can't have that bass," or "No, this one's too heavy!" All that stuff that you really need to think about, you know? If you have all that together you'll get a nice instrument. The importance of getting a nice instrument to start out with is that it makes it easier for you to start so, therefore, you'll continue. If you have a really bad instrument it's frustrating, you can't get a good sound, it's just going to make it very hard to want to continue.
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发表于 2004-1-16 14:03:00
