BigRedX

I haven't properly heard any of the latest electronic drum kits, but back when I was last playing in bands using electronic drums (10-15 years ago), by far the most convincing electronic cymbal and hiatus came from an original Clavia D-Drum kit and brain. Even at the time on paper it was supposedly less good than the competition, but for sheer playability of the sounds it was miles ahead.

Squier Vintage Modified Fretless Jazz. I was playing in a band whose music was calling out for some fretless bass and to that end I'd bought a cheap Acrylic Bodied Wesley that had already been de-fretted for £70 off eBay to get me started. I'd seen nothing but positive reviews for the Squier both on the bass forums and in the musical instrument magazines, where the overall tone was that the VMJ fretless was just about the best fretless bass you could buy for under £500. One Saturday I spotted a Squier in a local music shop, and after half an hours playing I paid my £209 and went home with my new bass. Unfortunately playing in a music shop for half an hour is not really a decent real-world test for any instrument. The first thing I noticed when I got it home was that it didn't hang comfortably on the strap, and I had to pull the whole bass over in order to reach the G string machine head - something I never had to do with my 36" scale Overwater. Next I discovered that in comparison with all my other basses including the cheap Wesley, the Squier sounded thin and weedy, and in rehearsal with my band I really had to pump the volume up when I used in order to be heard. So I embarked on a round of upgrades. First came the Badass Bridge which made a slight improvement, followed by a J-Retro pre-amp, that allowed me to overdrive the input to my amp in all sorts of new and "interesting" ways, but still didn't make the bass sound as full or fat as my other basses. Finally a set of Bartolini pickups which were supposed to be darker sounding than the standard J-style models started to get me into the right ball park as regards sound, but by that time I'd get fed up with all the other short-comings of the bass like the huge (in comparison to my other basses) body and the awkward neck joint that seemed to be constantly in the way when I was playing up the neck, and the fact that for me it just didn't hang comfortably on the strap, and so I went back to playing the Wesley until I go the opportunity to buy a second hand Pedulla Buzz at a very attractive price. I'm sure that there's nothing actually wrong with the Squier, but 3 decades of playing basses that owed very little to Leo Fender's designs - Burns Sonic, Overwater Original and Gus G3 - meant that I wasn't ready to step into the past and put up with design issues that even the Burns, originally made in 1960, had improved upon.

[quote name='Nicko' timestamp='1508311652' post='3391191'] The problem is that an originals band has no real purpose if the members are weekend warriors. Yes, you can make an EP or even an album but unless you are going to commit to the publicizing/touring you will sell diddly squat. [/quote] Actually so long as one or more members is taking care of the non-musical sides of the band during the week, an originals band is perfectly OK being "weekend warriors" as that is when all the decent gigs are on. From experience unless your band is capable of filling a 200+ size venue anywhere in the country (or is on tour with a band who is) there is absolutely no point in playing other than at the weekend. Perhaps Thursday and Sunday can be considered given the right venue and other acts on the bill, but the rest of the week forget it. What originals bands do need to do is promote the hell out of themselves at every opportunity and be prepared to travel to get the worthwhile gigs and realise that there is more to being in a band than a ability to play the songs they have written. If you can't put on an entertaining and memorable performance at the same time, then there is little point unless you are doing it simply as a hobby for your own musical satisfaction (although that last point also applies to covers bands).

[quote name='mikel' timestamp='1508261827' post='3390979'] Its the duty of the young to come up with the originals, and to push music to new places. Its the duty of old guys like me to play covers in a pub band cos thats what I now enjoy. When I was young I was in originals bands, its the way of the world. [/quote] I'm glad I haven't "grown up" then ;-)

So what is the wrong way? You can't bend all the strings the same way, because the ones at the edges will drop of the fingerboard if you bend them towards the edge rather than away.

[quote name='tony_m' timestamp='1508242602' post='3390747'] Maybe I'm just being a bit thick / missing the point here, but the spec says: Inlays Ebony Side Blocks Frets Fretless Isn't that what we're seeing in the picture, a fretless fingerboard with ebony inlays stretching halfway across it rather than lines, and definitely not half-frets? [/quote] You are quite right. Still doesn't stop it form being ugly though.

I know that your post was mostly tongue in cheek Dad, but covers bands would do well to remember that all their songs were once part of originals bands sets. With no more originals bands there will be no more new songs to cover. And as a continuation, if as a covers band you can't keep your all of your audience up and dancing all night then you are not doing a particularly good job, as one of the hardest parts of being a band - writing a decent set's worth of songs - has already been done for you. ;-)

Ibanez make something similar. The neck joint on that Schecter is particularly ugly though.

I'll give that a go if some of the other solutions I've been given elsewhere don't work I'll give it a go. However AFAICS the outputs are just 6 individual outs and whether they work as 6 mono outputs, 3 stereo outputs or anything in between depends on how they are configured in Logic or the Saffire Mix Control program, so I doubt it will make a difference. When I originally tried it it didn't make any difference which of the other 4 outputs the click was routed to, as soon as I plugged the cable into the corresponding output socket the sound of the click could be heard faintly from outputs 1&2 as well.

1. Write a new song 2. Is it better than the least good one in the current set? 3. If "yes" replace the old song with the new one. If "no" either discard the new song or work on it some more until it is better. 4. Repeat.

[quote name='charic' timestamp='1508141329' post='3389934'] Short term fix and far from ideal but can you pan the click hard left and your FOH mix hard right and see what happens? [/quote] You mean changing the routing so that the backing is only on output 1 and the click on output 2?

[quote name='scrumpymike' timestamp='1508070091' post='3389543'] Strange - that certainly seems to go against the experiences of most on this forum, mine included. [/quote] I know. When my Superfly developed its problems, I got in touch with Ashdown expecting a good result from everything I'd read on this site. I certainly didn't expect to be fobbed off with excuses and then ignored when I continued to be politely persistent. Perhaps they had someone different on customer support the week I was talking to them, but what is done is done. I won't make the mistake of buying another Ashdown product again.

[quote name='chris_b' timestamp='1507932526' post='3388948'] You guys look at the ads? [/quote] You guys have ads???

Dad3353, if you mean turning down the click in either Logic or the Safire Mix Control program, then yes when you do that the sound of the click disappears from the main outputs. The click only appears in outputs 1&2 when the lead from the interface to the headphone amp is plugged into whatever output the click has been routed to, and the click is actually going to the headphone amp.

Sibob, On another forum it has been suggested that it might be an earthing issue. Are the jack line outs on the Saffire balanced or unbalanced? Unfortunately trouble-shooting the interface in situ is not going to be an option since our we can't even get a phone signal in our rehearsal room, let alone get on the internet. We really need this sorting for our gig on Saturday.... Any ideas

MacBook Pro 13" Mid 2012, 16GB RAM, ElCapitan, Logic 9, Saffire Mix Control 3.7 My current band wants to ditch their ancient Minidisc player that they have been using for their backing tracks and I suggested using my MacBook and Focusrite interface as it would give us more flexibility live. However at our first rehearsal last night I noticed that we were getting bleed/cross talk of the click track on the main backing track. In Logic I have 2 tracks on the arrange page one with the backing in stereo, and the second with the click track in mono. The stereo backing is routed to Saffire line outputs 1&2, and the click to Saffire line output 3. When I play the track I can hear the click faintly in the stereo outputs. Not a problem at rehearsal, but live it will be easily notable through the PA. The strange thing is that the click cross-talk only happens when I plug in the lead from output 3 to the drummer's headphone amp. Things I have already checked: 1. It doesn't appear to be a routing problem since the click is only audible in Outputs 1&2 when the lead is plugged into output 3. 2. The click is definitely bleeding through into the main outputs and not some psycho-acoustic effect caused by it being massively loud in the drummer's headphones 3. I have tried routing the click to the other line outs, with the same result. As soon as the lead to the headphone amp is plugged in the click also appears faintly in outputs 1&2. Any ideas?

[quote name='Dad3353' timestamp='1507921121' post='3388861'] It's a row of privet hedges planted such that one's house cannot be seen from the road. [/quote] No seriously what is a home screen?

My sense of rhythm was originally very poor (and still can be quite ropey for anything rhythmically complex and I have to ghost note pauses in order to be able to hit the beats in between the obvious ones), but I was young desperately wanted to be able to play the guitar and so I stuck with it and eventually got better. Also 10+ years of playing bands with drum machines where I knew if I was out of time it was definitely my fault helped immensely. I suspect that most people with my lack of rhythm haven't got either the time or inclination to go to those lengths.

What's a home screen?

[quote name='charic' timestamp='1507903960' post='3388713'] Windows 10 should be the same as windows 10 on a PC Providing the tablet has the capabilities then look at programs rather than "apps", think of it as a laptop rather than a pad. To that end you have at your disposal some quite powerful bits of kit (providing the tablet can run them, usually there's free trials), ableton lite might be worth a look for live performance [/quote] If it is a standard Windows 10 machine in a tablet form that will make a difference. However because it is designed as tablet rather than a laptop you may find it is rather under specified for music. Do you know how much RAM and storage you have? From the reviews I've seen it could be a little as 2GB of RAM which is woefully inadequate for most music apps. What ports does it have? I'd hope for at least USB 2.0 or better. The main disadvantage you find will be cost since you will be looking at "program" prices rather than "app" prices.

[quote name='BassBus' timestamp='1507892466' post='3388582'] As above. I use iPad for synths (iM1, iProphet etc.), backing tracks (iReal pro) and recording and looping (Cubasis, Loop Tree). There are endless apps in Apple's app store and I'm sure Google Play. However as yours is running Win 10 you might not have access to any decent apps. Every time I look for specific apps in Microsoft's app store there is never anything there. Just this week I read Microsoft are giving up on apps as they couldn't persuade any companies to make apps for their system. [/quote] Unless Google have significantly improved the timing issues in Android over the past year, I think your only real solution for a Tablet for music is an iPad. Music apps are all timing critical. As musicians we can hear a timing discrepancy as subtle as 10ms. Therefore everything needs to happen within 10ms of when it is supposed to. For most apps timing is nowhere near as critical and even for games only some actions will be timing critical while others have far more leeway, For a music application whether it be a composing tool/DAW like Garageband or a virtual instrument almost every action needs to happen exactly on time. That needs to be built in to the OS. AFAIK that means iOS.

[quote name='Jazzneck' timestamp='1507893686' post='3388600'] Coz it means cold, dark, evil winter is on it's way with Haloween, Guy Fawkes Night and Christmas poop! [/quote] You are weird.

[quote name='xgsjx' timestamp='1507881732' post='3388467'] I use an iPad to run Korg Gadget (which is now on my phone). It's a great bit of kit. I also use it for just storing music related things, like chords, score & lyrics. [/quote] AFAICS the Korg Gadget is just for Mac and iOS. And that I think will be your problem if your Tablet runs Windows. Most decent music software for tablets is for iOS. Last time I looked there were timing problems on the other Tablet OSs (especially Android) which rendered most music composition software or instruments useless. I'd have a look at the Windows equivalent of the Apple App store and see what is available.

Why do we need cheering up? What do you have against autumn?

[quote name='peteb' timestamp='1507763119' post='3387876'] In my experience the gigs full of drunken idiots are few and far between. Most 'music pubs' are not like that at all. You would feel completely at home at all the gigs I do these days. [/quote] When I played covers the drunken idiots were also few and far between, but then we mostly played charity events with audiences that appeared to consist almost entirely of friends and family of the other band members. However since then I've been to see several covers bands play what I would assume are more "normal" pub gigs because I know people in the bands. Most of the audience ignored them and those that didn't used the presence of a live band as a excuse to act like dicks. And these weren't what I would consider to be "rough" pubs.