mrtcat

Just now, Al Krow said:

Ah ok thanks. I was able to get pretty close last night on my Boss SY-1 on arp setting.

We really should try to find a way of playing it live properly. Pure laziness on our part lol. Would love to hear what you came up with.

16 hours ago, Al Krow said:

Loved the arp synth & electronic drums you've got at the start of this track. What kit are you using to deliver that? 

It's a simple backing track that our drummer triggers from a Roland SPD SX. We're all on in ears so we all get the click in our mix.

A week or so back with my band at a wedding. Stingray / Helix / Ashdown ABM600 / Barefaced Retro 210s.

24 minutes ago, Machines said:

They use X Air as a mixer so I will be able to edit my mix going forward hopefully. 

That's a really useable mixer for in ears and the app is very straightforward so you will have lots of control over your mix.

Our live stream starts in 5 mins 

https://www.facebook.com/Fraudio/

4 hours ago, EBS_freak said:

come along and I can hook you up and talk all things IEM with you.

It's a drum show. You'll have to shout all things IEM.

I use rechargeable batteries in mine. Change them after every set regardless of how much the indicator says is left. If usually says 5hrs or more but I just like to feel confident. 

1 hour ago, 4000 said:

IEMs are something we’ve been talking about recently, but I’ll openly admit I haven’t a clue where to start. We’re an acoustic band and only use a small pa; we usually do our own mixing too.

A very good place to start is the brilliant thread in the accessories and misc section of this very site.

4 hours ago, Machines said:

That is both a scary and liberating thought. 

Depends on the pa and who's mixing. A good modern digital mixer will have far better tone shaping than your amp and quality pa speakers are streets ahead of most bass cabs so as long as whoever does the foh mix knows what they're doing then your bass will sound great.

Like Dood, I use a helix. Its extreme overkill but I do like to use a lot of different overdrive settings for different songs so I find it to give me endless control.

If you're unsure about the band then just use your new in ears and a behringer p2. Sounds like they're experienced at working with in ears so get someone to spend some time helping you get a good mix and teaching you how to make adjustments. 

Good luck. In ears are absolutely brilliant when  you get it right. I do over 100 gigs a year and never get home with ringing in my ears. I can always hear everything in my mix and when it's a terrible venue with hideous acoustics I just pop my in ears in and it's the same sweet sound as every other gig.

South East wedding fair today in Farnborough. Wedding gig tonight then back to the wedding fair again tomorrow. 

You can't go too far wrong with the Fender Rumble gear. Its light, loud and fat sounding. I just picked up a second hand Ashdown ABM 600 head to go with a barefaced retro 410. That rig is astonishingly loud and deep. Ultimately there's a mountain of stuff out there. If you like the Fender Rumble sound then the 500 is excellent value for money. 

9 hours ago, Bluewine said:

Your the exception. Would you and your family be ok without your income from the band?

Blue

Yeah, my pest control business is plenty profitable enough to support us but the gigs mean we have a nice little extra income for a decent family car, good holidays and a buffer for maternity leave. 

9 hours ago, Bluewine said:

Guys with young active families and traditional careers will more than likely have to block dates.

Blue

I have a 5yr old daughter, we're expecting another arrival in December and I also run a busy pest control business. I'll do about 100 gigs a year and with the exception of blocking out two weeks around my wife's due date I won't miss any other gigs in 2019 / 2020. That said, all my gigs are well paid and will allow my wife to have 18months off work when baby comes.

I met Mark today to buy his Ashdown ABM head. He made everything really easy for me and very kindly met half way which meant a good 2hr round trip for him. Amp was absolutely perfect and Mark was a really nice guy to buy from. Recommend 100% Thanks Mark.

1 hour ago, EBS_freak said:

@mrtcat - saw the fb advert for the next live stream. Nice masking shot for the entry of the *Mandowkr"

I'm currently building more electronics to bring more cameras into play for recordings. Want to do more live streams - just need to work out how to make them more engaging. The experiment I did in the top post didn't seem to provide much on the engagement front as it would seem that FB didn't actually annouce that we'd gone live. I think we had more viewing post the event looking at the stats.

I'm not up for carrying around and setting up all the equipment without getting the engagement up... so I need to do some thinking. Also, I seem to be spending a lot of time looking on line at lenses!

Yeah our adverts seem to help but funnily enough it was a "we'll be live in 10 mins" type post that Jamie put on his fb that most people saw. Bloody fb algorithms at play. 

I used a fairly cheap wide angle lens on my camera for the second stream and that really helped to bring us all a bit closer to the camera. We're using a Canon Legria HF-G40 and it seems to be ok. The limiting factor in terms of image quality is of course the broadband speed (I live in a village with no fibre and we stream from my shed) rather than the camera.

14 hours ago, Sibob said:

Just get a dep for the gig(s) he’s away for?! Sorted

Si

All well and good if band is earning reasonable cash and it's fairly standard stuff. Might be tricky if the fee is £50 per man and you need someone to learn 30 originals or obscure songs.

Always loved Sonny T when he was with The New Power Generation. Still got it too.

Absolutely with you on this. If you join a band you simply can't mess venues or other band members about like that. It never works and leads to a bad reputation and resentment amongst members. A simple online diary (google calendar or similar) allows holiday and gig dates to be entered for all to see. Once a gig is agreed by all then holidays have to be worked around it. If he can't commit to gigs he shouldn't be in a band. 

Great stuff mr zed. I enjoyed that and it was well produced. 

42 minutes ago, mr zed said:

Do you have a link? I'd like to watch this.

This was the last one (only our second) . Obviously a work in progress but if you like our FB page you'll be able to see our next one. Apologies for the poor jokes, mostly due to nerves but should get better as we go.

3 minutes ago, EBS_freak said:

Also @mrtcat's band seem to be doing more live streams with his band. It can be very entertaining watching bands do this - Fraudio's live streams are amongst some of the best I've seen/participated in.

Top tip though - and I think @mrtcat will appreciate where I'm going with this.... it may be useful to have a plant in the audience to help with interaction. My comment about the "Blur vs Oasis battle" certainly got the conversation flowing for their last feed. (Disclaimer, I wasn't a plant - but figured I would give them a helping hand).

The danger with live feeds is that it can be quite flat unless you have an underlying topic of conversation - so bear this in mind before you start your feed. "Winging it" can sometimes fall flat on it face with bands going err... err... .err... or relying on the audience to give them content. Just my experience.

Absolutely 110% agree with this. We are in the learning phase but it definitely really helps to have a strong steer on the topic. EBS_freak's input has shaped the next live stream and given us great ideas. It's too easy to fall into making "clique-y " jokes that alienate people and to just drift. Our next live stream will be at 9pm weds next week if anyone wants to check it out. Lasts about 20mins.

On 29/08/2019 at 17:03, EBS_freak said:

And does Graham still go on about how expensive IEMs are nonsense?

Jamie is worse. He's still not convinced lol.

1 hour ago, Rik (ESA) said:

 The drum show is a great shout too, thanks. 

Custom iem co (and EBS_freak) sorted me a cracking deal on a pair of ue6 at the London drum show at the end of last year. 77 gigs later I still get blown away every time I put them in.

We do whatever the contract stipulates. We're a function band so it depends whether the client wants us to. I joined my current band in January and it still amazes me that my band mates just stand on stage gawping at their phones before, between and after sets. Looks terrible if you ask me. We are booked solid for good money but I think this really lets us down.

I don't have any feelings of nerves, worry, dread or excitement before gigs. It's just like going to work in a job I quite enjoy and don't find to be desperately difficult. Long journeys and repetitive load in and out is a bit of a chore but I like the guys I play with, the band is well organised and everyone is committed and good at problem solving. Therefore there's rarely any insurmountable issues and we earn well from about 100 weddings a year.