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I've played in bands with non-human percussion for most of my musical career from when my first band bought one of the original Boss Dr Rhythms in 1981 to today where our drums are supplied by a MacBook running Logic. There are definite advantages. My current 3-piece band without a drummer or backline are able to travel to gigs with everyone, our gear, and merch plus our roadie/merch seller in a single estate car. We can be set up on stage ready to sound/line check in less than 15 minutes from load in. We have a small on-stage footprint which often gets us good support gigs where there is no room on stage for a conventional band's gear. How appropriate it is may depend on the genre of the music. I play in a goth/post-punk band and there are plenty of other bands on the scene using programmed drums as opposed to having a drummer and drum kit on stage. I probably wouldn't want to be using programmed drums with a more traditional rock band and almost definitely not with a covers band. There are however a number of things that you need to consider before deciding if it's going to be suitable for you. The main one is: how good is your drum programming? IME a replacing a drummer with a drum machine isn't about the quality of the sounds, it's about the quality of the programming. Crap programming will never make even the most authentic of drum sounds sound like they have been played by a drummer, whereas good programming can do wonders for less than realistic sounds. I've had over 40 years practice programming drums so I'm reasonably good it now. Also my current band has an overall electronic sound, so trying to be just like a human drummer isn't always important when it comes to writing rhythm parts. So if you've got your drum programming sorted out how are you going to do it live? Back in the 80s when I started using drum machines none of them had sufficient memory to hold a set's worth of drum patterns and songs. We got away with the simple Dr Rhythm with some creative programming to fit enough single patterns for 10-12 songs into the memory and the fact that we also had a human percussionist. The Roland 808 we had in my next band had enough memory (just) to hold all the patterns required for a single song, but only had a single song memory that had to be programmed in real time, so we recorded all the rhythm tracks onto cassette and used that when we gigged. Remember that for a typical song you are probably going to at least one pattern for each of the intro, verse, chorus, middle 8 and end and one or more fills for each, That's a minimum of 10 patterns for each song. I'm sure that modern drum machines are much better with memory than they were back when I was using them, all my programmed drums have been done on a computer since the mid 90s, but if you intend to use it live, check that you can fit everything in it. I used to own a Yamaha drum machine that claimed to hold up to 99 patterns and 99 songs, but the reality was that the memory allocation was dynamic, and complex/busy patterns with fast hi-hats in them ate up the memory. If I was lucky and used simple patterns I could probably get three songs in the drum machine at any one time. And now you've got all the drums for your whole set programmed how are you going to preform it? If it turns out that your choice of drum machine doesn't have sufficient memory to hold all the patterns required for all the songs you want to play, then you'll have no option but to record it and use that. Recording them will also allow you put some extra studio processing on the sounds which may well be an advantage. From the audience's PoV they won't notice whether the drums are being played back from a recording or performed "live" by a drum machine or computer, so it really down to what is most practical for you. Which ever method you choose make sure that you have a backup. The other important thing to consider is how you go from one song to the next. IMO unless you are a hardcore electronic band the technology being used to replace live musicians should be as invisible as possible. If you are using an actual drum machine selecting the program for the next song should be as simple as possible, ideally a single button press, or a turn of a dial. Anything that requires menu diving and peering at tiny LCD screens on stage is a non-starter in my view. If you use a continuous recording for the drums have some easy way of being able to pause it between songs to allow for guitarists to tune up and if the singer rambles on too long. One other thing is that now you have a machine of some sort doing your drums there will be a temptation to start adding other things to the backing track just because you can. If possible don't! My current band have made a conscious decision that apart from the drums the only other things that go on the backing are sound effects, traditional style sequencer parts and the occasional bass for when I am playing melody lines on my Bass VI. Our philosophy is that if there is an important melody in the song then we play it live. I see more a few bands with so much on the backing that it is impossible to tell what the live musicians are actually playing. Big sounding synth/keys parts are my number one complaint. If the synth line is an essential part of the song, have someone on stage doing it, rather than a bassist who is only doubling up the synth bass or a guitarist playing fuzzy power chords which add little to the arrangement. My previous band used to try and replicate the complete studio arrangement on the backing which had a tendency to make us sound cluttered, so being in charge of backing playback, I would gradually turn down the volume of any parts that I thought weren't adding anything to the live sound until they were either off or someone asked why they could hear it any more. Finally, monitoring. Without an actual drummer hitting things behind you, you are entirely dependant upon being able to hear the programmed drums for staying in time. Also as has been said the drum machine doesn't make mistakes, so you need to be as perfect with arrangements as the drum machine is or at least be able to tell where in the song it is so you can get back in sync. Even the sound of the sticks hitting pads on electronic kit will produce enough sound for you to be able to keep in time even if you can hear the actual drum sounds. With a drum machine if you can't hear it clearly you can't play in time to it. Sorry for the long post, but there are lots of things to think about especially if you have never used programmed drums before. I'm sure there's lost of important points I've left out because I've been doing this for so long. Ask and I'll do my best to fill in any gaps.

This was another great Bass Bash. So, thanks to the organisers for their hard work and efforts. The venue was much better than I was expecting. With two decent-sized rooms and a stage, it was possible to make some noise without annoying everyone too much. There were plenty of familiar faces - some of whom also attended the SW Bash - together with some new ones and some members I have talked to over the years but previously never met. Put my name down for next year.

Went to see the Horne Section last night at Warwick Arts. I'm not familiar with Alex Horne's comedy outside of Taskmaster so I wasn't sure what to expect but it certainly wasn't this. The show is basically an eclectic mix of bad puns, comedy songs and surrealism, at various points I was a bit baffled as to what was going on but on the whole it was an entertaining evening, at times very funny and never boring, the 2 hours (with interval) flew past. The musicianship on show was of a very high standard, the bass player was outstanding and sounded really good. 90% sure he was using a Wilcock, a Mullarkey in something like Aztec Gold (though might have been natural with the stage lights giving it a glow) it definitely looked like one only it didn't look short scale, though that may have been relative to the size of the guy playing it, difficult to tell from where we were sitting.

I couldn't not include a photo of some LFSys cabs, could I? Pleasingly, there were quite a few present. My thanks to the owners for bringing them along. I managed to try a few different amps through the cabs. Sean's Gallien-Krueger sounded nice, lean and punchy. I was also very impressed with the Handbox head that @wateroftyne has been praising all these years. Never heard one before, but is sounded really sweet.

This should be a caption competition photo. Gary @cetera saying something to Chris Childs (or vice versa).

Matt @neepheid demoing one of the many fine basses he brought with him. Not quite sure what this one is, but I'm sure somebody knows.

The Pedals 'R Us corner.

This sounds ace! Can it track quick octaves like Chaka Khan’s Ain’t Nobody?

During a break in the proceedings, Andy @Wolverinebass tucks into some chocolate cake while @Sean enjoys a coffee.

@Chimike testing his Ampeg 12-watter through an LFSys Goodwood. "Not loud enough" was the verdict.

Chris Childs trying out @rwillett's printed headless bass through a Monaco stack - watched closely by Mike Brooks. Look out for a video review of the LFSys Monaco and Goodwood on Mike's excellent YouTube channel Brooksy's Bass Corner. It should be out any time now (he doesn't hang about).

A couple of bass players chewing the cud.

Nick trying out a relic'd G&L, which attracted some interest.

I bought the NC recently and it had weird problems getting stuff working. Capturing failed, captures not loading, failing to connect often, Controlling everything via phone was slightly awkward too. When it behaved, it sounded okay. But it was so flakey that I returned. Maybe mines was just gammy. Baffled me since I’ve had a QC for donkeys but the NC just felt awkward for me. YMMV obvs.

Later in the day, we heard from Chris Childs - once again ably interviewed by Brooksy. This was a fascinating insight into the world of the professional bass player.

And Brooksy demonstrating the same. Matt brought a selection of basses (here in the background) and discussed the qualities of the different types. Interesting stuff.

Here's Mike Brooks interviewing Matt Gleeson about his pickups.

I've got one of these and agree. Great little amps. Not sure if they're a bit heavier (watt for watt) than some of the other suggestions above. They're compact and a one-hand lift, but not featherweight.

No pressure then 😉 I hadn't appreciated double bass players would be so in demand. I've been invited to a couple of jams so will see where that goes once I feel ready.

FI4 sounds for comparison (these patches will be possible on v3 too): FI4 tease.mp3

Anyone need an Atelier shortie? https://bassbros.co.uk/product/2024-atelier-z-baby-z-4j-vintage-2/