BigRedX

Especially considering that every time you play your vinyl you are wearing it away very slightly.

As I said anywhere with a hot and humid climate. Right now here in the UK we should be safe for the moment, but there's climate change to consider and the fact that micro-organisms show a remarkable ability to adapt.... However if you've ripped your CDs to a hard drive and have well-maintained local and remote backups the music contain on your CDs should last your lifetime.

Read my post above. Given the wrong climatic conditions even glass-mastered manufactured CDs will deteriorate to the point where they will no longer play. It's not a problem that we really need be worried about in the UK (yet), but in other parts of the world the CD is not the permanent musical delivery medium that it was originally hoped to be.

If you can already read the treble clef why do you need lessons specifically for the bass clef? Surely it's just a transposition exercise?

For those of you using Spotify exclusively now, have you checked to see how much of your old CD and record is missing from Spotify's catalogue? Spotify is fine for new music - provided that your tastes are firmly Euro/US-centric, but otherwise for me there is simply too much music that I would class as indispensable missing.

Actually there's more than a grain of truth in the fact that CDs are not as indestructible as Philips would have us believe. Here in Northern Europe if properly looked after they should last a very long time, but in hotter, more humid climates there are micro-organisms that will attack the playing surface of the CD eventually rendering it unplayable. CDRs are even worse. In an adverse climate their life can be measured in months at best. Even here in the UK I would suggest that anything on CDR is backed up to a more durable medium, and even if looked after for their life to be 10 years at the very best.

Yes there is. Although there isn't an actual photo of it on the the Keith McMillen website just an illustration... I don't know why they just can't built MIDI DIN connections into the 12 Step in the first place. After all USB connectors have no place in a gigging environment.

I though I recognised the roller work bench! The guitar looks nice too.

Possibly (the 12 Step isn't specifically listed as a supported MIDI device), but's another box, more fiddly computer-style connectors that aren't robust enough for gigging use, and it might even require yet another PSU depending on how the 12 Step draws and outputs power on it's USB connection, and then you've still got to convert the DIN connectors to XLRs to make them suitable for live use.

AFAICS the 12 Step only does MIDI over USB. Is there any way of using it with devices with a traditional DIN MIDI socket without having to have a computer in-between.

Any MIDI footswitch that will send MIDI note on (and note off) commands and will let you assign separate MIDI note# to each switch will do the job. You'll probably need to study the manuals in detail to find out which ones will and which won't and of those that will which have enough flexibility for your needs. I'd start by having a look at the Roland FC200 and the Behringer FCB1010.

Pretty much all the features that make a Les Paul Triumph bass desirable have been removed.

But do they all have exactly the same pickups/pre-amp/hardware/construction? If the bodies and necks are made of multiple pieces of wood are all the joins in the exactly the same place? The problem I have with trying at attribute a tonal characteristic to a single element on a solid wood instrument is that there are simply too many variables present to be able to isolate a single wood type as having a particular conic characteristic.

For me it's every single Fender bass (and guitar) that came into my local musical instrument shop in 1979. Not withstanding that fact that the entire shipment was in three colours - dull 3T sunburst, sh!t brown, and "we couldn't be bothered with the last coat" slightly see-through white. They seem to have every single fault that late 70s Fenders were notorious for - wonky three bolt necks, over-generous neck pockets, excessive weight, and a generally poor standard of fit, finish and seemingly no quality control. If I'd been the manager rather than just a part-time helper I'd have sent the whole lot back to Fender and told them where they could stick their sorry excuses for musical instruments. I think the only member of staff who looked happy was the freelance guitar tech who realised that he was going to be on a nice earner trying to get these instruments into a state where they could actually be put on display to be sold. It also wasn't helped by the fact that in the previous two weeks they had also received shipments from Ibanez and Aria whose instruments were not only superior in every respect but they came out of the box playable and perfectly in tune (and had a cheaper RRP IIRC).

Visually everything about that instrument is nasty IMO.

Of course most of Mick's playing with Japan was done on a Travis Bean TB2000. He didn't get the Wal until around the time of the Tin Drum recording sessions.

While the extra business of Mr Squire isn't too distracting, this new arrangement is seriously lacking bottom end so they'd need some other instrument to fill in down there. Maybe a bass guitar? 😉 Out of interest and because I haven't listened to any Yes since 1975 which Yes song does the bassline come from for this mash up?

They are most effective on chords of 3 notes and more, and as you say in helping to compensate for intonation differences between plain and wound strings. So lots of use to guitarists with sensitive ears. I have a Peterson Stroborack tuner so I had a play with sweetened tunings when I first got it. TBH I couldn't tell any difference between the sweetened tuning and the normals one on the bass.

There is no tone wood science when it comes to solid electric instruments. There is speculation, heresy, and urban myths, but no actual science.

Or it could be a duff new string. It does happen. If it hasn't sorted itself out in the next day or so, get in touch with @D'Addario UK on here.

And how is that working out for you in terms of sales? My experience selling records and CDs of the various bands I've been in is that we've made back a bigger proportion of the money we've spent when we have actual physical product then when it's simply downloads and streaming. Add to this the fact that almost no-one buys downloads anymore and the revenue from streaming is negligible for bands whose following is just a few hundreds rather than tens of thousands. And as a punter, if I've enjoyed your band, and I still have some cash in my pocket at the end of the night there is a very good chance that I'll buy a copy of your record or CD if you have one available. Buy a download the following day even if I've remembered who you are and where to get it from? No where near as likely. Listen to you on Spotify? Probably not more than once. So thats somewhere between £5 and £20 depending on the format and what the band have decided to charge for an album as opposed to 0.45 ¢ (which is roughly what I get for each Spotify track streamed). Put another way a listener what have to stream a 10 track album in its entirety 15 times for the band to get the same revenue as they would for a single £5 CD album sale.

TBH it's not such a big deal anymore in this digital age. Anyone with a recording and a spare $50 can get their music up on iTunes, Amazon, Spotify etc. Of course if you are talking physical product, then it does take a bit more financial commitment, but I suspect that most of us who have played in originals bands have at least a box of unsold CDs or vinyl lurking somewhere. I've still got several hundred copies of the D i c k Venom & The Terrortones album along with a box or two of just about every other record and CD I've been involved with. In fact the only releases I don't have multiple unsold copies of lying around are those that were paid for by someone other than the band whose music was on it. That for me is the proper test of a band's worth - can you persuade someone else (not a friend or family member) to put up the money for you to make and release a recording? EDIT - A note to the mods. Can you please do something about the stupid American-entric profanity filter, that won't even let me type the name of one of my previous bands properly?

For the OP here's a sensible answer: Go to the Keyboards & Synthesis section of the SOS forums. Lots of knowledgable people there including some pro players and people who are keyboard techs for pro players.

IMO MIDI connections should be made with XLR cables only. It's the only serious and reliable option.