cheddatom

Thanks! I was getting a bit carried away as I'd just re-skinned a snare I'd not used for years and it sounded brilliant The drum sound is entirely from a stereo condenser in my studio - no close mics at all

A bit late as I've been busy in the studio for ages! Last Wednesday we played the Star & Garter in Manchester. It's one of my favourite venues to play and it didn't let us down at all, loads of people... I was just too ill to fully appreciate it. I wanted to watch the headline band (Bar Stool Preachers) who sounded great at soundcheck but I was so drained I spent the rest of the night sitting in the corner downstairs. By all accounts it was one of our best gigs too! Never mind, more to come this weekend

...there is a comedy fill at the end if anyone gets that far

I love the latest track, can't wait for the album!

I like the idea of being able to get a synthy octave down on certain notes for a bassline, while playing melodies higher up without the octave down effect. I don't mind playing above the 5th fret though

wow, I didn't know that, that's ace!

Are you saying you want the octave down effect on everything below middle C (for example) but no effect on everything above? And the Boss OC-3 can do that? I didn't know that! I'd have bought one if I did

Wow, this is brilliant, thanks!

A lot of these qualities are needed to be a good musician on any instrument IMO. Everyone should have good timing and be able to lock in with each other. Everyone should be able to tailor their sound to fit the music and each other. You should notice if any of the band suddenly stop playing. Everyone should be performing or "putting on a show" I was discussing a drummer with a mutual friend the other day. They said he was great at loud rock music but couldn't do anything more delicate. IMO that makes him a bad musician (or at best average)

Hah, well I did let them know that I was whizzed off about it, but just the fact that they were so drunk they forgot that cymbals actually move on their stands really tickled me

I got one of those wheelie holdall things with an extendable handle, so even though it's really heavy, I can still move it with one hand

The Maze in Nottingham again on Saturday. I had to use the shared kit again despite bringing mine. It's such a pain when I've gone to great lengths to get it sounding just right for me. Bass players will never know the frustration of being forced to use a totally different sound! It went OK but I was pretty hung over from a stag party in Manchester on Friday night. We went down well anyway The most amusing moment was setting up my cymbals outside in the smoking area, several very inebriated people put their drinks on my cymbals, mistaking them for a stable surface. Much beer and cider was spilled.

I don't want to out myself as a Snowflake SJW but I can't help wondering what I'd think if I was a young female bass player reading this thread.

Players have styles, basses have tones, and then there's a bit of a crossover between the two meanings. For example if a player always plays by the bridge, they will always have a more middly tone than a player that always plays over the neck. That's both a tone and a style thing and comes from the player BUT playing by the bridge on a jazz bass will still produce a different tone to the same player playing by the bridge on a precision Then you have the amp and EQ etc. RE point 2 - "feedback" is really important. For you to be able to play at your best, you have to have a sound that inspires you, and you have to be able to hear what the other musicians are doing, so of course it's important to have the right gear

Very nice. It seems a shame to hide the badge behind the grill, could you not fix it to the front of the grill?

Not how I'd have played the tune. A 5 string makes it way easier to play the fast runs without going up and down the neck. Great bass though

Friday night we played a festival in north wales. The organiser told us there'd be a drum kit there, mine is a bit of a PITA to move at the moment, and it was called a festival with more bands on after us so I thought it was a safe bet. When we got there we realised that this festival was just a Friday night in the clubhouse/pub at a campsite. Every other act was a rock tribute, and we're playing original folk-punk. So I was starting to feel a bit un-easy when the organiser walked up and said "I've been told you want some drums". "I was told there was a kit I could use" I said. He had me follow him to his car to collect the smallest bass drum I've ever seen. Maybe 18 x 14" at the most. I'm a fairly big guy and usually play a big 24" kick. Anyway, no matter, I loaded it in and then saw the skin on the bass drum. Some sort of ancient brittle glossy white plastic. I was convinced I'd break it on the first hit. Next I tap the toms which are horribly out of tune, but they don't have standard lugs so my drum key won't work. Obviously I just have to make do but the set was an hour and a half of gently tapping the bass drum while asking the sound guy to turn up my monitor Apparently we were really good and the rest of the band had a great night. I've learned my lesson. I'll never go to a gig without my kit again Saturday night was local at The Rigger and I got to use my own kit. Matt on the sound is always awesome and it just puts you at ease. We played well, went down well, and apparently they raised over £700 for charity which is a lot more than I was expecting considering the turnout. Brilliant! I don't know if this will work but this is a photo of me standing behind the tiny kit, our singer put it on Instagram:

I really enjoyed it. Great production too, big fat snare sound

Are we to deduce that you're playing GUITAR in this band?! 😱

I'm back at The Rigger with Headsticks this Saturday, hopefully you'll be on the desk!

I had a similar one once, gigging with a backing track running through my mixer, the soundman is asking me why there's no output, I can hear it in my headphones and just assume he's got something patched wrong. He checked all the connections then looked at my mixer, pressed a button to patch my track through to the right bus, and all worked. "Don't worry about it mate, I've got lots of experience as an engineer" he said. I told him I run a recording studio to which he replied "oh dear, that's embarassing!". I was amused and embarrassed i equal measure

Just bought a pedal from Doug, couldn't have gone better! Top bloke

That would be rubbish! The snare rattling with the other drums gives the drum kit part of it's sound! I do turn mine off during the intros to songs etc as it just rattling along with a bass or guitar is a bit annoying

Yeh, it's this thing Wroot Rocks (if you're on FB) https://www.facebook.com/pages/category/Live-Music-Venue/WROOT-ROCKS-1933096200242142/ I think it's all part of this Folk-Punk-Festival scene that seems to roam around Nottingham but sometimes further afield. I'll try and remember, cheers!

Friday night in Derby. We were on first out off 3 bands. The 2nd band on let me use his drum kit and it was very nice. It's a great venue with great gear! Unfortunately we didn't get much of a sound-check as about 10 minutes was spent swapping our guitarists jack leads before the soundman finally replaced his dodgy XLR into the DI, and then about 20 minutes sweeping the parametric EQ on every channel. I'd asked for no vocals, just a bit of guitar in my monitor. I got the opposite, but once you're playing there's not a lot you can do about it, especially for a short 30 minute set. Anyway, we went down OK Saturday night we played in Wroot. This is a bit of an unusual setup, a village hall type venue, lots of people have travelled for an all day "festival" and we were on last. I think we played an hour and 40 minutes. We went down a storm, but then a lot of the crowd already knew us so it's kind of easy. Sunday night in Accrington. We've done this gig a few times now. It's a room at the back of a pub, loads of tables and chairs, and not many people. Those that were there were wasted. It's always the same, and usually the combination of stinky poo gig and moaning band members grinds me right down, but for some reason everyone was in a good mood! So we enjoyed it and played well and had a great night despite the slightly underwhelming audience.