mrtcat

This is the issue. He's really competent at mixing and the sound we have is the sound he wants. The problem is that it's not really the right sound for indie pop at a wedding. If we were a metal band it would be pretty good. It all comes down to his personal preference. Getting a pro engineer in to mix would probably be a bit pointless because he wouldn't like the mix they came up with.

Sounds like you need to have a grown up conversation with your guitarist 🤣

There's absolutely no issue with having a grown up conversation. We're all friends and we have done well over 700 gigs together and none of us are the sort to get fired up. I've had the conversation with the guitarist and the rest of the band a whole load of times and generally there's an agreement that the guitars and kick need to be tamed a little and the bass less buried but it lasts a gig or two before it goes back to the same old same old. The drummer never knows what it all sounds like because he never gets to listen from out front and we're all on iems so it always sounds fine in our own iem mixes. The singer (who also plays guitar) does hundreds of gigs a year with various set ups (solo, duo, deps etc) and literally is only worried about getting paid. I don't particularly want to walk. It's decent money and they're a good bunch to hang out with. I just feel frustrated that, no matter how often we discuss it, it always slowly creeps back to the same noisy guitar fest and that just makes me feel like I don't add anything to the sound. We get good feedback from clients and we do a fair few corporate events where pa and sound engineer is provided. It always sounds ace then. A lot of the problem is that we're largely playing wedding venues and loads of them sound terrible anyway. There's just this reluctance from him to bring the levels down and have more balance.

Anyone else tear their hair out with the band member who does the band's live sound? 4 piece wedding band (guitar x2, bass, drums and occasional keys from singer guitarist). Our guitarist does the mixing. He's a brilliant player but comes from a heavy metal background. We play standard wedding indie / pop rock at a huge variety of venues. He pumps the kick drum, buries the bass guitar (i swear he hates bass guitar and often jokes about it) absolutely drowns everything in his guitar and eq's the vocals so they don't get in the way. It absolutely kills me every time. I'm there for the money but it would be nice to feel like I'm part of the sound and I think we just sound like a blaring mess. I've offered to mix countless times but he complains endlessly and, as it's his mixer, he generally pulls rank and takes over. If we get the usual venue complaints of "it's too loud and there's too much bass" it's usually a reference to the absolutely thumping kick drum but he laughs and just turns the bass guitar down even further. Annoyingly, he's a lovely guy when he's not mixing.

Last rehearsal we had was in 2023. Can't remember if it was good or bad but we're still gigging weekly so can't have been bad.

Now sorted. Following the very sad news about Nick Smith, Genesis Connected are looking for a bass player who is based reasonably close to Northampton. This is a professionally run band playing lovely venues and the pay reflects the standard and commitment required. Please message me if you're interested. Thanks Tom

Devastated.

Ah thank you, hadn't seen this. His band mate just messaged me and asked me to post. Good to see the community are already on it.

Apologies, hadn't seen the post in off topic.

Completely agree. The ipx cable is rubbish. I went through 2 in 4 months before sending my UE6s off to Lugs for him to replace the connector to allow me to use a better (and far more sensibly priced) cable. The IPX cable is just overpriced rubbish.

It really has turned out to be one of my favourites. I think it's just the simplicity of a precision and the fact that that neck is more J than P. It's the bloody venues. Feels like they just hate all bands and they all lie their thruppney bits off to the client about how their noise restrictions aren't ever a problem. You're constantly having to refer them to the contract the client has signed and you can never just enjoy the playing. Love December though. Lots of corporate Xmas parties so you get treated far better.

Literally nothing on my gas list. I'm back up to about 100 function gigs a year and it's kinda sucked the joy out of playing so I don't really care what gear I'm using. I have a nice amp, a squier 40th anniversary p bass and my in ears. That's all I need. I'll probably sell off some of my more valuable basses in 2025.

A lot of venues are aware of this and will have a contract with the client forbidding bands to use them. One of the bands I dep with got caught out and the venue asked them to pack up and leave. They had to comp the clients their full fee so just be careful.

This is exactly our experience too. Venues tell clients that "bands love it here and never struggle - it always sounds amazing" and then try to point the finger at the band when the limiter set to 89db trips just from the crowd clapping. We have clauses in our contract that squarely tell the client that we cannot be held responsible for poor sound in venues with these systems. Clients are definitely being ripped by venues that really should be clear that they're not suitable for bands before they take the customer's money off them.

Depends what type of gigs you play but in general we are seeing more and more of these. We do circa 100 weddings a year and there are noise restrictions in one form or another at probably 80% of these. A lot of venues are moving towards in house sound systems that have built in limiters that completely squash the life out of anything other than a whisper. The same venues usually have strict "no backline" policies. Any band doing what we do really needs to be onboard with working with a silent stage these days. When we get bigger venues with no restrictions we happily use amps though as its nice to cut loose a bit more from time to time.

I still enjoy the playing part but I can't say that playing covers at weddings excites me. It pays well enough for me to feel very fortunate to do it but it's definitely more about the money than the love of the gigs. I've done over 500 gigs with this band but it seems that the challenges (awkward venues, difficult clients, ridiculous noise limiters, rude guests etc etc) are becoming more frequent issues and it definitely has dulled the enjoyment side. It's a lot of driving too. That said, I'm a very average player who is paying bills by playing bass so I'm definitely not complaining.

Haven't bought anything bass related this year. I've done 112 gigs so far and all I've spent on is fuel and tyres. I just don't crave stuff anymore. Bass playing has become nothing more than a means of earning and the less I spend, the more profitable it is.

Last I heard, Lugs (based in Ireland not Devon) weren't doing any more reshells and were focusing purely on full builds. That said, the service is excellent and he has been known to have a good turnaround time. My Lugs pro 6 have been excellent and I'm really happy with them.

The NXL 24 is a world away from the evox range.

They'll have to prize my F112 from my cold dead hands when my time is up.

Sounds great but defo not too fast. Original is 152 bpm and you guys were around 140. Nice mix, can you have a word with our guitarist who does our sound. He seems to hate bass.

Buy a PA system and a van. As soon as word gets out you'll be swamped in offers.