BigRedX

As @Stub Mandrel guessed, Depeche Mode are the 80s synth band I have never seen. They were supposed to have been the support for a gig I went to in 1980, but they were replaced at the last minute by another band off the Some Bizarre Album (Naked Lunch IIRC). I've seen A Flock Of Seagulls more times then any of the other bands on this list, not because I'm a fan (I can't stand them and I always thought their music and image was completely fake) but because they seemed to be the support for every good 80s band I went to see. I saw Duran Duran in early 1981at Rock City on their first proper tour just after the Planet Earth single came out. Erasure also at Rock City just before they they were really famous when Andy Bell was still performing in his latex leotard. I saw Freur at the Marquee in London in 1985 at their only UK gig they did to promote their "Devil & Darkness" single. I didn't get to see The Human League until 2014. At the time of the first two albums the gigs closest to where I was living were all cancelled because the albums weren't selling well enough. They got kicked off the Talking Heads support slot. I was going to see them at Rock City for the tour they did immediately after the Human League/Heaven 17 split, but that was also cancelled because Rock City was still under construction. By the time of the next tour they were massively famous and it was impossible to get tickets. I've seen Kraftwerk twice. The first time in 1981 at Rock City which is up there as one of the best gigs I have ever been to. The sound was crystal clear and they had films or computer graphics for almost every song they played. For the encore they came down to the front of the stage and allowed the audience to "play a little melody" on Pocket Calculator. Being at the front I was one of the lucky ones to have a go. The second time a saw them was 10 years later when the show was almost exactly the same except the computer graphics were a bit slicker and the static dummies they used on "We Are The Robots" had been replaced by actual robots. I saw Soft Cell at Rock City at a Futurist Night where they were the mystery special guests. The rumour was that it was going to be Spandau Ballet, so most of the audience were more than a little disappointed to see two weirdos with a keyboard and backing tape on stage. This was before they released "Tainted Love" so I imagine most of them didn't know who they were. The tape machine broke down during the fifth song and they left to a hail of (plastic) glasses. I saw The Thompson Twins in 1980 at Trent Poly when they were still a 4-piece guitar pop band. I saw Ultravox also in 1980 at The Theatre Royal in Nottingham on the first tour they did with Midge Ure in the band.

We have a winner! explanations to follow when I’m not trying to type on my iPad.

No-one's right so far...

Ten 80s synth bands in alphabetical order. Which one haven't I seen live? A Flock Of Seagulls Depeche Mode Duran Duran Erasure Freur The Human League Kraftwerk Soft Cell The Thompson Twins Ultravox And as a little clue - One of the bands listed I didn't get to see until well after the 80s. And I saw one of the bands before they discovered synths. Bonus points if you can guess those two as well!

I'll do one - give me a minute...

Manic Street Preachers?

So? Whose go is it next?

While splitting a single signal into two works fine passively, I've never had any success with combining 2 signals together without some form of active level matching.

Belinda Carlisle?

Camel?

Edit since Cream had already been suggested: P-A-U-L

Steve Hackett?

IIRC Macs have a protocol built in at system level which allows some software to “see” multiple interfaces as a single one. I’ve never needed to use it myself so I don’t know how effective it will be with software that isn’t a DAW. Edit: it’s in the Audio MIDI Set up and what you want is a function called create aggregate device.

Interesting also that he is using a single block of spalted wood for the body, rather than using something that hasn't been weakened by disease and rot, and leaving the interesting looking but less substantial wood for a cap only. I suppose he's got some means of stabilising/strengthening it which we'll see later in the build.

With a few more hand tools, some means of sharpening them and lot of time and effort you probably could (if you had the required skills). I made a solid electric guitar during my last year at school using nothing but hand tools. Operations that are done in minutes in the video (even allowing for the time-lapse photography) took me ages with constant sharpening in order for them to cut accurately. I think the whole build took in excess of 150 hours and that was without having to make the neck (which I bought fretted and finished).

The thing I take away from these videos is how much easier it is if you have a workshop full of the right power tools.

I’ve found that the only way to get decent Rotosound strings is to buy them direct at trade show.

QuickTime player is what you are looking for. However IMO you will be better off with iMovie, because unless you are an eloquent speaker, talented player, and a technically perfect movie maker, you will need to edit what you shoot.

With a bit of EQ they would all have been perfectly fine. I personally wasn't massively impressed with the choice of synth sounds, but I know there are far more appropriate sounds available out of all them (even the Juno) so with a bit more programming skill they would all have been able to provide a suitable bass sound as well.

Again true, But the actual pickup mechanism isn't powered. It's the additional circuitry that is required to match the output/impedance of the pickup to conventional guitar and bass impedance and output levels. EMG (and others) could just as easily sell these pickups without the additional powered circuitry with the proviso that they need to be used with a particular pre-amp that has the correct input specifications.

Audio MIDI Utility and the Sound Prefs Pane work in tandem. Any changes to the sound input and output you make in one will be reflected in the other. Generally Audio MIDI has more options available which is why it's the better choice.

Strictly speaking the EMGs are not active. True there is some battery driven circuitry inside the housing, but it doesn't have anything to do with the actual pick-up which is still conventional wire wrapped around a magnet. What it is there for is to match the output/impedance of the pickup to values that the rest of the signal chain would normally expect.

I've done an on-line search for the problem and pretty much everything to do with PhotoBooth is about 10 years out of date. From what I can find the current solution for what you want to do is to use either QuickTime or iMovie with the Mac's built-in camera assigned to the video input and your interface to the audio. IMO iMovie would be a best because you edit the results directly once you have recorded them as most videos will benefit from a little editing even if it's simply to remove dead time and any mistakes you might make.

A Made in the US Fender Precision will cost you about £1500 these days.

Isn't that just a Jaguar bass body?