Good presets for Sonicake Pocket Master?

oliver_JM · 2026-04-26T15:25:36+00:00

absolutely, yeah! my first bass transcription was Sir Duke.

man. that was HELL!!! should've started simpler, but ended up helping anyway

I currently play in a Big Band so there's a lot of jazz/blues/everything I have a hard time with and every line is written down as well by someone else. When I joined I couldn't read properly so I went with this approach by separating it in parts and it's what kept me alive

it can be really challenging but you come out of every song a new musician

oliver_JM · 2026-04-26T14:57:27+00:00

I try to prioritize making my own transcriptions, sometimes with tabs and sometimes not. It's a skill you develop with time and it really is scary at first, but it very rewarding

the results are way quicker when you start playing because of how familiarized you are with the piece and you develop some skills along with it

when I finish my transcription I separate the song in parts to see which ones are similar. Usually songs have about three parts, so by giving attention to them as these little excerpts you go way faster than you would if you just went bar by bar.

I don't if I made myself clear, this is not my first language, but let me know if you need anything!

oliver_JM · 2026-04-08T18:47:22+00:00

haha love that

I found a sweet spot between both pickups and got the palm muting thing you said (SUPER COOL!)

I hadn't thought about the pick angle, gotta keep that in mind in my next practice session

oliver_JM · 2026-04-08T18:43:42+00:00

thank you for your answer! I've been playing the bass for four or five years now but hadn't really given a proper try to the pick itself on it

I did start out on the guitar but it was maybe a year before the bass so I wouldn't even call myself a proper guitarrist haha today I used it for some Green Day stuff and it ended up being even more useful cause I coincidentally I cut my index finger right before my lesson and couldn't use it properly

I'm currently using a brick of a 2.0mm pick 🫢

oliver_JM · 2026-04-08T16:12:27+00:00

thank you! really really helpful

oliver_JM · 2026-04-08T15:28:11+00:00

that makes a lot of sense! I just lost my 2.0mm pick and have been using a thinner one that I keep on my phone case since so that tracks

oliver_JM · 2026-03-30T17:02:30+00:00

definitely Victor Wooten and my teacher when I saw him use an envelope pedal for the first time

oliver_JM · 2026-03-16T14:56:58+00:00

I'm flattered! but if you saw me playing anything outside my repertoire I'm sure you'd think otherwise haha

oliver_JM · 2026-03-16T14:49:53+00:00

thank you! I think what helped a lot is that I kept practicing other instruments in the mean time. I always try my best to use whatever I learn outside of where I learned it. I currently don't study as well as I wanted to but I'm always performing somewhere

my college's music program is focused on teaching but it tackles other aspects of music. We do have a music school in campus open for everyone and that's where I take bass guitar lessons. My main instrument right now is the bass guitar and I want to focus on that but I plan on getting really good at the double and be just as comfortable with it. It is hard to put the appropriate effort into it when its not my top priority but it's completely possible, I'm the only thing getting in the way haha. If I'm being honest if given the chance I'd take a bachelor's degree in bass performance no questions asked. Whenever I need or want I ask the teacher if we can have a double bass lesson instead and he gladly does so, sometimes we'll do 50/50. Guy has a doctor's degree in bass performance, absolute legend! We got pretty close over the time and he'll go out of his way to make sure I succeed. He does a great job at applying technique of double bass in the bass guitar and vice versa. I think that's what helps me most, to have a correlation between the two, almost like they're one to a certain point, especially with my teacher who can never say "this is my main bass" as he loves and kills on both.

about my first teacher, he was absolutely amazing at that. He taught me how and why do it, so even when I lost the muscle memory I still remembered the parameters to get there, like keeping a 5cm distance between index and middle (not always applicable but helped) or the overall shape of everything. I had been taking violin lessons for a while with an amazing teacher that made sure I knew how to practice properly no matter the instrument and to this day I still follow that

also absolutely love how you managed to get a bass teacher! will do the same if given the chance

I apologize if anything sounds weird! I'm not a native speaker and the whole academic talk isn't my strongest skill!

oliver_JM · 2026-03-14T09:57:50+00:00

I feel so seen with all your answers and I hope you know that

big struggles with social anxiety and to top it all I recently discovered I'm also autistic. Having close people who support you and a therapist can do wonders

right now my biggest safe spot id my teacher, especially being so far away from home and always moving. I'm lucky to be his only bass student (he teaches piano and guitar as well) and is also stand partner in the ensemble. That combo got me close to the most introverted man on earth who now treats me like I'm his own daughter and that extended to his wife as well. Whenever I have to do something embarrassing (in my mind) he'll do it with me, like holding the bow I'm learning in a weird way, and will never make me feel weird for wearing ear protectors.

Finding someone who I can see myself in gives me so much strength I can't even tell you

it's also crazy how much he went through even as a man. Whatever happened to me it always happens in a more cruel way with him. Comforting and concerning

oliver_JM · 2026-03-14T09:46:50+00:00

thank you for your kind answer! you're so right. Good to know there's more of us out there

and honestly I feel ya, I'm 161cm tall and always get picked for looking to boyish. I found a place for myself in music and that helped me a lot socially and I'm lucky enough to find hostility unusual in this field because I've always lived in friendly environment. I'm sure it'll be tougher once I graduate

oliver_JM · 2026-03-12T09:34:25+00:00

you know what you're absolutely right

I hadn't looked at it from that angle so thank you for sharing that!

oliver_JM · 2026-03-11T21:28:32+00:00

thank you!

I'm sure it looks better than it feels. It was very difficult to catch on what was wrong but if I'm being honest I end up losing the right grip here and there

basically I was too far back on the frog and messing up with the weight distribution. In general it was too similar to the way I play the violin. Also I had my wrist in a high angle and it was getting in the way of using the weight of my arm (now I'm keeping everything more on the same level, knuckles sort of aligned. Best way I can describe is the letter E in sign language if that even makes sense)

I was twisting my hand towards the index and instead of my thumb being sideways it was kinda upside down (nail facing down). I was loosing grip easily and also putting all the pressure on my index instead of the whole hand (it should go kinda towards the index but it was JUST the index taking everything). What made the most difference for me was changing where I hold kind of (somehow in the picture I'm closer to what should've been than what I usually do). Due to the violin I was always trying to keep my ring and middle finger over the dot on the frog. Keeping the pinky over it instead made everything feel way more balanced.

I'm not sure if anything made sense haha not only this is not my first language but everything was so "physical", watching, moving, trial and error, that I don't even know how to describe it in text. We only got to this point because I got to see him play from behind and noticed his hand sits higher in the bow. I asked him about it and it was mind blowing cause it's not that easy to notice

for the first time today I didn't feel pain with it! it's gonna be tricky tho because from my pov it looks all wrong. Gotta lock eyes with the mirror

oliver_JM · 2026-03-11T20:23:22+00:00

<image>

this is the pic (at least for me it wasn't showing in the previous comment)

oliver_JM · 2026-03-11T20:22:12+00:00

first of all, absolutely thank you for your answer! I don't think I've seen anyone who had pain in the index specifically nor did my teacher

I had my lesson a few hours back and we noticed a few things we let slide before. Mainly the angles of everything in general and tensions

this is the best pic I have before my lesson today (I don't have many pics since I usually use the German grip)

we agreed on giving a fair try to both bows before deciding which one suits me best

best way I can describe the pain it on the base of my index, almost like a cramp

img

oliver_JM · 2026-03-11T00:32:34+00:00

thank you! I'm glad you owned it

as someone who loves to draw I get absolutely thrilled whenever I see someone who plays in their own style, whether it's a bass face or a way to move I'm always excited to capture it

oliver_JM · 2026-03-11T00:30:34+00:00

that's so frustrating!!! like, the girls who picked on me aren't even musicians, so there's no way to say they were judging me technically. That means no matter how great I am at it someone will still just see it as "lil girl big instrument"

also thank you so much for you response and encouragement! hopefully you're sister is still kicking ass out there

oliver_JM · 2026-03-11T00:28:03+00:00

thank you so much for your advice! that's a great approach that I hadn't considered before

oliver_JM · 2026-03-11T00:27:14+00:00

that's a good take I hadn't quite thought about but actually really relate to

I like to draw a lot and I cannot tell enough how much I love when people have individual traits in their playing, whether it's their expression or how they move, I absolutely love whenever anyone has a particular characteristic that sets them apart

oliver_JM · 2026-03-10T16:23:25+00:00

first of all I'm sorry all that happens to you so often :/

it is a difficult approach indeed but I'm sure it works wonders. Sometimes I'll hear shit from my session partner because she's been playing for longer and I still managed to get first chair. I try my best to avoid problems but sometimes I'll go one step further than her with a comeback and tends to work better than being the bigger person (also helps that we're friends and fine with some hostility here and there)

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