This weekend

August 3rd, 4th, & 5th

LOCATION

Hyatt Regency Denver Tech Center

7800 East Tufts Avenue,
Denver, Colorado, USA 80237
Tel: 303 779 1234 Fax: 303 850 7164

GO TO www.lodobassbash.com to get all the ticket information

Appearing live at Lodo 2007 with performances and clinics -

Edo Castro - Jay Terrien - Brady Muckelroy - Yves Carbonne - Trip Wamsley - Todd Johnson - Darren Michaels - Christopher "C3" Cardone - Kent Beatty - Stewart McKinsey - Jean Baudin - Carey Nordstrand - Marc Grabowski - Adam Tanner/Zen Beer

PLUS - that total hack JEFF SCHMIDT !!!!

I'm slated to perform Sat night 8:30ish and host a clinic on sunday around noon-ish.

Hope to see you there.

Posted by Jeff Schmidt at 10:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Here's the e-mail subscribers to my newsletter received.

Hi Bass friends!

I hope this e-mail finds you in great health & spirits.

Well - it's finally done. My Solo Bass CD, titled "Outre" (oo-trey) is available now.

It's 11 tracks of completely solo bass performances - no overdubs.

I tracked it in April to 2 inch tape. Yeah- old school! Mixed it down through vintage gizmos to half inch tape and then had it mastered for CD off the tape. I had to do this before they stop making tape!

Want one?

Or more?

The physical CD is available through CD Baby for $10.00.

There's a 30% discount if you buy more than one copy ($7.00 each) so if you know anyone else who might want one - grab a couple of copies and save 30%!

Here's the link

http://cdbaby.com/cd/jeffschmidt

NOTE: Because CD Baby only lets me start by stocking 5 copies (and it appears they've sold already) - the CD is currently listed as "out of stock". I am sending more copies and they should be up and running soon. Sorry for the hassle.

BUT - here's my suggestion. If you plan on getting a copy - go to the CD Baby link above anyway - and enter your name and address in the box.

That way CD Baby will notify you when the new copies have arrived. I think this will also help CD Baby determine how many more copies they want me to send to them based on the number of people who asked to be notified. I hope.

For those of you who . . . like me . . . care very little for physical CDs and just want a solid digital option - I'm pleased to offer the entire CD "Outre" in 192 kbps mp3 files (DRM free!) including ALL artwork for $7.00.

Grab that download by following this link

http://www.tradebit.com/filedetail.php/1948570

You can use PayPal OR a Major Credit Card. You DON'T need a PayPal account.

Outre will be on iTunes and other digital services soon - but this specific digital download option is the fairest for everyone in my opinion - the artist gets all the money - and you get a higher quality mp3 file that you can use on ANY computer and digital audio player.

It's as if you ripped the CD yourself - Yeah!

No DRM. No DRM No DRM. If you are unfamiliar with DRM - its the nasty little code all the online services use to prevent you from making copies of mp3 files or limits the players a song can play on (cough itunes, cough cough) But I digress. ,-)

Other stuff:

I just got back from doing a "Special Feature" at Victor Wooten's Bass Nature Camp outside of Nashville.

I was only in for 1 day and did a clinic/performance and flew right back out again.

BUT - I hooked up EVERY student with a FREE copy of Outre.

So - if you know anyone who's been at Vic's camp this week (7/18-21) - maybe they'll let you burn a copy.

Or you could just grab one for yourself!

Next up on the gig list - LODO BASS BASH in Denver on Aug 3,4 & 5. I'll perform Sat night and do a clinic Sunday. Get all the details at www.lodobassbash.com

Some other Bay Area gigs coming up in August also - both with the amazing Trip Wamsley.

One is in San Jose, CA on August 24th and the other in Modesto, CA on August 30th (which also features Jean Baudin, Randy Marshal, Andy Cervantes and others)

Details will emerge on my MySpace page in the next few weeks on these shows.

That's it for now!

Thanks for being on my list - I hope you'll stay on - but if you want off - of course you can bail - just follow the unsubscribe routine!

Please don't forget I do most of my communicating on my blogs at

www.myspace.com/jeffschmidtbassist

www.beautiful-bass.com/weblog

This keeps me from sending out too much e-mail.

Oh yeah - one last thing. A favor. If you get a copy of "Outre" - please post a review on the CD Baby page - EVEN IF YOU HATE IT!

AND even if you get the digital download.

It will help other people if they read the thoughts of real people who tell it like it is. So please real people - tell it like it is! It doesn't need to be long - just a quick sentence or 2 would be awesome!

I appreciate your support!

Hope to see you out there!

--Jeff Schmidt

Posted by Jeff Schmidt at 12:51 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Got them back today - unharmed as far as I could tell - have not plugged them in yet. But it's a relief to have them back.

Posted by Jeff Schmidt at 11:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I say "finally" because I've always known probability says it WOULD happen.

You just never know when or how.

But I am sans basses right now.

Yesterday I joined my fellow Bass Extremes Solo Bass Contestant Zuzo Mouasswer at Victor Wooten's Bass Nature Camp just outside Nashville.

We were the "special feature". Dennis Chambers was the "special" the day before - Mike Gordon is the special today. Pretty sweet company!

Zuzo and I each played a set and took questions - very cool and a lot of fun. Well okay - not COOL - its was 95 degrees and humid as hell. I'm seriously not accustomed to that kind of weather.

We played outside under a pavilion - but still - HOT!! This is camp after all.



Oh yeah - we played through . . . .(imaging me curling my brow and scruntching my nose) Bass Amps.

They were standard fare SWR/Epiphani head and 4x12 cab. They sounded like poo to my ears - but I'm used to playing through just plain loud clean power into the PA and monitors.

Anyway - it's VICTOR WOOTEN'S BASS nature camp - not the Jeff Schmidt show. ,-)

We both had flights out of Nashville in the 5 o'clock hour so wew rode to the airport together. Total side note - but it was great to hang with Zuzo again. He's an amazing player who does things on bass that will totally warp your mind. He's also a great guy - living in Boston now for 2 years while attends Berkely for Film Scoring.

There was bad weather somewhere in the air traffic system so SouthWest flights were all messed up. So the flight I was booked and confirmed and had checked into was no more - so they put me on another flight.

You know where this is going. Another side note - SouthWest's A line, B line, C line is a total sham. Even if you do check in a day early and get the "A" section (I did) you still have to wait in line - not for a few minutes - but people start forming a line for an HOUR before a flight. It's insane. Anyway.

Nashville to San Francisco was a direct flight on the way out - but it wasn't and the return trip.

I had to fly thru San Diego and then up here to Oakland.

So I was suppoed to get in around 10:50pm last night. But instead- after all the delays it was closer to 1am.

Fine - 18 hour days roll off my knife.

So there I am - sitting at the luggage/baggage claim -watching all these bags come off and . . . you know what's coming -

No basses.

My effects pedal /clothing bag came through - but no basses.

I carry 2 basses - the MTD and the Pedulla fretless. I stuff them into a poorly made but appropriately thin Gator gig bag that lets me put 2 basses into the wonderful SKB Roller Bass Case.

It's a neat package that I have high enough confidence with to use for air travel. And I've been traveling more frequently with Basses this year and so far it's been just great.

I know all the horror stories about checking instruments were true - I also know that statistically it's unlikely a bag will be completely lost forever.

I take the risk of checking the basses rather than trying to carry on because

A.) because the odds are on my side the bag will arrive as planned.

B.) I carry 2 basses (size) and I don't want to have to sweet talk Airline checking attendants EVERYTIME I fly just so I can carry them on the plane.

If I don't get to carry them on - they get stuffed - in the gig bag with all the other luggage.

Screw that.

So - I'm supposed to find out today (ha ha!) where the basses are and hopfully get them delivered to me at work. At least this is the highly "hopeful" SouthWest employee's point of view. We'll see. I'm highly skeptical. Cuz that's how I roll.

I was actually too exhausted to be pissed last night. I had dreams about it but I don't remember anything specific about them. And it was the first thought that leapt into my brain on waking up at 7am this morning - knowing I should grab another hour of sleep (I got home around 2am)

All I can say is leaving the airport without your nice basses is a pretty difficult thing to do.

But I'm also realizing I don't have an emotional attachement to the basses.

They're not "my babies". They're nice - expensive basses which will take more time & money to replace than I care to think about right now. But I'm not awash in dread - or fear about it.

We'll see. It's obviously too soon to begin planning to replace them - but seeing as how I can't just run out to the bass store and get a new one - I'll have to draw a line in the sand at some point and begin figuring out what to do.

So I guess this weekend I'll be forced to spend time with . . . no, not my wife - the 6 string!!!

ha ha! Kidding - the wife is away this weekend.

All I have is my 6 string, which I haven't been playing as much as I should anyway.

Posted by Jeff Schmidt at 08:47 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I came home from work today to this -

I think I might have ordered a bit too many. ,-)

1000 copies total. I know - artists aren't supposed to say how many CDs they have made because you're supposed to think it's hundred of thousands - cuz it's all about image ya know.

Truth be told - I have no idea how I'm going to get rid of all these things.

If I "average" 10 CD sales per gig - that's around 100 gigs!

With the day job and other forms of "real life" that should take me close to 3 years!

Screw that.

I want these things out of the house by the end of the year.

I hate CDs.

Even my own - especially when they're stacked up 5 feet high in my living room. ,-)

BTW - DiscMakers did the duplication.

Here's the"extra" paper junk they packed into my order.

Nice.

Posted by Jeff Schmidt at 12:05 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Prince sells his new CD "Planet Earth" not to fans, but to UK paper the "Mail on Sunday" who in turn will give it away free with every issue of the Mail sold on July 15th.

The music retail establishment is totally left out - and of course they're livid. They argue this move perpetuates the notion that music is 'free" or "devalues music". Bullshit.

Prince gets paid - fans get the music, plus Prince sells out a tour of shows supporting a free CD. (concert goers get the CD free also)

I think this paragraph from Wired Mag gets to the heart of the issue.

"Prince's latest gambit also succeeded by acknowledging that copies, not songs, are just about worthless in the digital age. The longer an album is on sale, the more likely it is that people can find somewhere to make a copy from a friend's CD or a stranger's shared-files folder. When copies approach worthlessness, only the original has value, and that's what Prince sold to the Mail on Sunday: the right to be Patient Zero in the copying game."

We're going to see a lot more artists making these kinds of deals. Selling CDs directly to listeners is going by the way side as the "main event".

Just wait till artists realize the advertising sold around the "hits" played on U.S. Commercial radio generates at least as much - if not more revenue than the direct sales of said "hit" to individuals.

Sorry the RSS feed on the myspace blog isn't working - not sure why. I'll continue to post these in both places.

Posted by Jeff Schmidt at 12:36 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

By way of self-proclaimed Lo-Fi Pop Super Star Scott Andrews - comes this short YouTube video demonstrating how music is having the life squashed out of it in the mastering process.

It's still a little tough for me to accept. I'm in radio. Radio is built on compression. Gobs of it. All the music that comes in has every last digital bit CRAMMED to 0db. Honestly it all sounds like shit.

It's really hard for me to UN-HEAR what too much compression & brick-wall limiting is doing to music - even heavy music. The loudness wars are over and the music listener has lost. Over mastered, over compressed music is fatiguing to listen to.

Of course - the thinking goes that if your music is on an iPod or CD changer with other louder music - no one will want to listen to your music if it isn't as loud.

The implication behind this is that everyone wants to hear music louder - and no one is able to adjust the volume level on their own so it's best to do it in mastering.

The problem with almost ALL of today's "mastered" LOUD music is that you can't turn it down.

You can't find a spot on the volume control where all the dynamics and life come back once it's been squashed to hell.

Of course everyone is going to do what they will with their music when it comes to mastering. For Outre - I chose to go in the opposite direction from the prevailing methods - some may argue too far.

Who knows - it's all a matter of taste.

Until it isn't any more. And I think that's where mastering for LOUD has gotten.

Posted by Jeff Schmidt at 10:18 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)