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

We use drum and keys that we played ourselves in my goth duo. It's a different type of challenge and tracks are unforgiving as they can't cover mistakes (or creative interpretations, for those who don't make errors!). Getting a drum machine is one thing, having someone who can programme it is another. We use GarageBand and we're both pretty good at writing drum tracks.... Now! It's like learning another instrument. My bandmate uses GarageBand for work, whereas I have really had to up my game. And I can't really argue with the "there's no substitute for a real drummer" argument. We're playing with our original drummer from 35yrs ago tomorrow and it's a nice occasional treat that we enjoy. I do think I have become a better musician for playing to drum tracks.

We're quite lucky being a Glam covers band means we can get away with our singer mingling with the audience if not a high stage. He especially enjoys it doing Schools Out by Alice Cooper when he wears the silver long tailed jacket, top hat and silver cane and just plays with it a bit. Other things he'll do is chat with the audience and entice them to get involved. This normally happens when we are doing private parties where not everyone is into Glam and it just seems to help a bit. Dave

The wonderful Kate Bush tribute 'Cloudbusting' tonight at Basingstoke Anvil, complete with Orchestra! Looking forward to seeing Dave do his thing on bass....

It transpired that the singer in my old project knew J Willgoose's father and offered his son some sage advice when he was starting out. I popped Willgoose a message and he was kind enough to respond and confirm: ...don't get too moist here, but there was also a bunch of other stuff on the thread discussing the possibility of exploring Atmos/5.1 mixes of the albums.

I love this band. They are so, so good. Saw them at one of the Last Flight album launch gigs last year and at the Proms doing their concept piece about the history of the BBC and (obvs) Public Service Broadcasting. Their stage set-up is stunning and, I guess why one of the five members, Mr B, just focuses onstage on the AV elements of the show.

I don't care about the clothing CBS offered in 1977, but there seems to be one of the first headless basses. How many were sold? (And the coat...)

I originally popped this in the wrong thread so… Big Horizon were fantastic at Pizza Express Live - Holborn in London last night. A lovely evening of Yacht Rock, 70s West Coast pop tinged music. These guys are absolutely top of their game (which explains why the spend most of their time backing megastars on tour - ELO, Take That and many more). Great set, great playing and what a fabulous voice Iain Hornal has! They did a couple of Jeff Lynne’s tunes (an obscure ELO one - Four Little Diamonds, and Handle With Care by The Traveling Willburys). As Jeff Lynne’s backing band for the last 10 years, they paid tribute to him and the unfortunate way the tour ended with him being too unwell to continue to his big Hyde Park retirement gig. Wonderful evening! Lee Pomeroy was a highlight, of course but watching him mangles my brain because all the strings and fingers are in the wrong place. Fab to see Gary PB and Costas there too!

Its certainly unintuitive, but for me, that is the way of the MPC so maybe I don't notice it! I got jura after all and I am very impressed with it - hard to get a bad sound out of the thing, and very easy to use, but then, its a copy of something that was like that, so it makes sense.

Last Tuesday I went to get custom impressions for my Sennheiser IE100. Let's see how they work.

Politics are wrong, a bassist needs a drummer to offset the egos/madness of the guitarists and singer I've done it, once, never again 👍

Reveille Rock - Johnny and the Hurricanes

Local band, Nuns Of The Tundra at Bristol Academy tonight. They booked the gig to play the second stage but determined to sell enough tickets to be upgraded to the main stage and they've done it. This will be by far their biggest show so hopefully, they'll be on top form.

I'll give MPC Stems more of a go over the weekend, probably a bit unfair of me to say it's so rubbish after only an hour with it. I would say as first impressions though, I've used a few stems things and they all seemed more intuitive, faster, and better results. This lengthy written tutorial kind of demonstrates how it is potentially quite un-intuative https://share.google/HiG1ct1JXDqRPdCq5 Stems are something I'll probably not tend to make on the MPC though as I tend to collect and edit and manage samples via Laptop. So I'll probably end up making the stems on Laptop and then transferring to MPC for use. (I'm not a big fan of the MPC Laptop DAW though, much prefer things like Logic and Reaper).

I have a friend who is a very successful musician and he collects guitars. He has special things that look like giant filing cabinets.