cheddatom

In the space of 5 weeks I've played two pubs in Crewe, both of which have previously been ace, both of which now smell of sh*t and are pretty dead. Weird coincidence!

At home I practise acoustically, if I'm rehearsing with a band I play with my effects, otherwise the whole band would sound wrong.

I'm totally with the OP here. I know how to play the bass well if I'm playing on other people's music, but I find it boring as f*** most of them time (depending on the song I guess). When I get to play in a band, which is very rare, it's always stuff that's very interesting to play. Not fret-w***ing at all, just interesting rythms and plenty of opportunity for playing more than just what's required.

I bought a PSU from David and it couldn't have gone better!

I played a pub in Crewe Friday night with a folk band. I'm playing drums but it's good fun. However, the gig was not. Smelly pub and a small turnout added up to a cranky front man and a frustrating gig! Saturday night was such a contrast. This was with my reggae/hip-hop/something band at the big local venue The Sugarmill. It wasn't a huge turnout but from where I was (behind the kit again) all I could see were loads of teenagers jumping around to our music. Such a great feeling. The bassist was playing his relatively new ashdown stack and he's using a lot of the sub octave feature which really suits our band. Ace night!

XP-100 has the same harmony pre-sets, but yeh, there are better pedals out there now

It all depends on the pot the knob is connected to. I'd open it up, expose the back of the knob and/or pot, and take a photo. Potentially it's easy, you'd just solder 3 wires to the pot and 3 to a stereo jack socket. Then you need to drill a hole for a socket and you're done.

I can't see from the photos but if the big knob is just a potentiometer you could wire it to a stereo jack and plug in an expression pedal with the same ratings as the knob-pot

I play 6 string basses and I've snapped all strings at one time or another. I always took a spare to gigs. I think I just play hard

[quote name='xilddx' timestamp='1386497971' post='2300608'] If you are sharing a bill with fellow musicians I think it's only polite to check them out. [/quote] Yeh definitely, but I'll judge them by their soundcheck or by the first song or two. I hate subjecting myself to sh*t music. Sometimes if I'm not driving I'll wait outside while the driver watches the band, just so I don't have to put my ears through the racket

I think recording to a DAW on your PC using a USB interface is pretty straight forward these days. It's mainly about how many channels you can afford to record simultaneously. Remember every mic will need a cable, a stand, and a pre-amp. Some interfaces will have one or more pre-amps built in, but if the rest of the inputs are line inputs you'd need pre-amps on them If you get an interface with 2 mic inputs (built in pre) you could do a decent job of recording the sound of your rehearsal with some clever micing. If you can afford one with 2 mic inputs and 2 line inputs, you could use the two mics for kick and snare, and then the two line inputs for a feed from the PA so no extra pre-amp required. Ideally you'd have a DI from bass, DI from guitar, kick, snare, and then you could take the 2 vocals out of the PA as one mono feed, but then you'd need 2 mic inputs and 3 line. Something like this: http://www.thomann.de/gb/steinberg_ur44.htm would be fine, but it's almost double the budget. Beware of products like this: http://www.thomann.de/gb/alesis_multimix_4usb.htm which look perfect but only output a stereo mix to your PC rather than seperate channels

We've done covers very occasionally, when we've put our own spin on them, but never more than one in a set. As far as writing goes - sometimes someone turns up with a song, sometimes we just jam. IMO trying to come up with a set method will only restrict creativity

check out this page: http://www.thomann.de/gb/cat_PG_3.html?gf=usb_audio_interfaces&oa=pra That'll probably be the cheapest site to buy from. You can filter on the left hand side for the number of analogue inputs you need

[quote name='mcnach' timestamp='1386293506' post='2298528'] Is it really rude? why is it it expected that bands stay to watch other bands? That really baffles me. I stay when I like what I hear and I'm interested. Otherwise... why on earth would I stay? [/quote] Totally agree here. When I first started gigging I'd stay to watch, but after a while you get sick of too many sh*t bands. If the band is good I stay, if not, I'm off home!

I would buy this: http://basschat.co.uk/topic/221948-akai-dps12-daw-recorder-12-track/ and a few mics and learn how to record using that Or yeh you could get an interface and use your laptop, what's your budget?

you get them with every PC and Monitor you buy, so if you're like me, you have hundreds of kettle leads and you just don't care.

[quote name='superclive' timestamp='1385659300' post='2290835'] The meaning of cheap has changed. Cheap used to mean shoddy. It basically means it would still be crap at half the price not that it would be inexpensive at half the price. People use the saying wrongly. [/quote] Ahhhh, that makes sense now, thanks!

"cheap at half the price" Yes it would be, so why not halve the price? Or were you being sarcastic? Why are you saying this?!?

Just bought a headphone amp dealie off Ian, perfect transaction, couldn't have gone better!

[quote name='chris_b' timestamp='1385392025' post='2287648'] Sorry but I'm going to disagree.... loudness doesn't equal excitement; never has. Have fun playing loud if you want, but loud is just loud. [/quote] that's not what I'm saying. Loudness doesn't equal excitement, but when it comes to drums, excitement equals loudness. I guess for some drummers excitement would equal speeding up, or playing loads of flashy fills or something, but I get excited by big heavy half time riffs, and I like to play them so hard that my hands are sore for days.

OK, ta, would have to be done by 7pm ish on Saturday as I have a gig but could do late on Sunday and early start both days.

[quote name='flyfisher' timestamp='1385389624' post='2287606'] I've never quite understood the appeal of turning up so loud that you have to then wear ear protection, which reduces the effective volume anyway. It's like replacing domestic light bulbs with 500W halogens and then wearing sunglasses. [/quote] The drummer gets to hit them harder, which means he's more excited, which I guess makes everyone else more excited. All I know is, practise is a lot more fun, and feels "heavier" when we're all turned up. Also, to be fair, the snare drum sounds a sh*t load better when it's hit harder.

I'm in Talke Pitts, ST7 1PW, takes about 40 minutes from central manchester but obviously it depends on traffic and where abouts in Manchester you're travelling from. I could free up the weekend for £100/day no problem

I never met him but like others had great conversations and lots of helpful advice. A great guy, and you're right, it's never been the same without him!