BigRedX

The * appears to mean that the artists in question are playing on the Thursday night, which strangely isn't one of the festival days.

I've found the only fool-proof way to avoid latency is not use software monitoring, but to monitor via a mixer.

There is a limit. Also IIRC there was limit put on the file size of individual photos as they were taking too much space on the Basschat server. Most of the time you are better off using an external image host.

Thanks! I see we nearly did a gig in Wakefield with you, but had to cancel as I was on holiday.

I intend to get one of these later in the year for one of my bands. The plan will be to run everything through this but split it out 3-4 ways for FoH mixer at the venue (Vocals on their own feed and other instruments either in stereo or split for drums and synths/bass) so they can fine-tune the mix for the room, although ideally they can just push all the faders up to the same level and they should be 95% there. We'll use a scene for each song so the effects and relative levels for the instruments are set automatically. Since the backing is run from a laptop, we can use MIDI commands to select the correct scene for each song, and also to mute the vocal effects between songs so that the audience can understand what our singer saying. There ought to be enough buses left over for each of us to have our own IEM mix too.

I've encountered this a few times. AFAICS it stems from general insecurity about either their playing or their equipment. It's generally worse at rehearsals compared with gigs but not always. TBH when I have come across it the practice is so ingrained and automatic that the musician in question is barely aware that they are doing it. A lot of bands I have played over the years have used some sort of backing which I am usually in control of. For one particularly bad example, I go so fed up with this at rehearsals that would deliberately not start the backing track for the next song until there had been a couple of seconds silence from all the band. When I was eventually asked why I was taking so long to start each song, I told them that if they were playing stuff then they obviously weren't ready, and it was only fair that I should wait until they were. After couple of rehearsals like this they finally got the message. For The Terrortones we got around this problem ever arising by simply not giving anyone any time between the songs. IMO for the majority of bands the space between songs should be taken up with: Applause, "Thank you, the next song is...." count in. That's it. If the intro is being performed by the problem musician, either give it to someone else or drop the song for one where everyone comes in together. With a bit of luck they will eventually get the message.

I've just been updating Hurtsfall gigs on the Goth Calendar, and it looks as though The InSect have a lot of gigs coming up, so if you get the place you are going to be pretty busy. @2elliot which band are you in?

"Festival" covers a wide variety of situations from playing on the back of a covered trailer to 50 people to Glastonbury and bigger. Therefore there is no "one size fits all solution". However for all but the very smallest festivals I would expect the bass to be delivered by the PA and my rig to be at best for on-stage monitoring only. From personal experience, even the smaller festivals I have played unless my rig was being mic'd up (and that mic being used as the main feed for the bass guitar to the PA) my rig was little more than a big, heavy and expensive stage prop. On any reasonable sized stage it stopped being even a personal monitor to moment I was no longer standing directly in front of it. So unless you can guarantee that your rig will be mic'd up and that mic feed actually used, or your are the kind of bass player who stands in front of their rig for the whole gig, there is little point agonising over what to take. Bring a decent pre-amp and go straight into the PA. There will probably be something on stage for the visuals anyway and I guarantee that none of the audience will have even the slightest idea that you're not using it.

The sooner Thomann drop DHL for UK deliveries and returns the better. They are most definitely the weak link in an otherwise efficient service.

I don't know. It was cringe-worthy when it came out and it hasn't improved with time.

It's not an either/or. Sometimes you need flats. Sometimes you need roundwound strings.

I've got a load of wide-ranging and some very eclectic influences, but if I was looking to join or form a band I'd narrow those down to suit the sort of music I wanted to play. Edit: And if I wasn't sure about the music I wanted to play, I'd probably run multiple ads each for a particular genre.

Like that a lot. Got to be doing a gig with you some time!

The easiest but quite costly method is to pay for some properly targeted PR. If you want to do it yourself it involves a bit more time and effort, but IME the most effective way is to have a look to see where similar bands are being reviewed, written about and playlisted and target those websites and social media pages.

IME there are people who are ONLY on Instagram or TikTok. If you are not posting there you could be missing out on potential fans. It doesn't cost anything other than a few more minutes to tailor your content to the relevant platform, so why not?

Good luck with the audition. If you get it, one of my bands will probably be doing a gig with you at some point.

Good. prompt communication is essential for all small businesses, especially those with long project times. I put aside time every day to make sure that I am up to date with all my business communications, so that no-one is hanging on for a reply.

Personally I'd start by getting that eBay footswitch. If it doesn't work as advertised you should be able to return it. If you need to trouble-shoot it, make sure you have some sort of MIDI monitor on your computer so you can see what messages it is sending out. One thing to consider does the effect on/off toggle with the same MIDI message or do you need two different ones for on and off? (In which case you may need two footswitches.)

According to the Vintage Hofner web site both are 34" scale.

What is the mixer? If it has a USB-A socket then it should work as a host device. If it doesn't act as a USB host device you will have the same problem with your eBay footswitch.

TBH that comment wouldn't be out of place for some of the bands we share the bill with. I can remember seeing one guitarist set up the largest pedal board flight case I have ever seen - it must have been at least 3 rows of pedals. And then brought out a second one almost as big. His pedals occupied the whole of the front of the stage. There was just enough room behind him for the drummer and his kit, and the bass player crammed into a corner.

Surely the whole point of a device like that is that it is its own pedal board?

Have a look at see if any of the the suggestions in this thread will do what you want.

I find the blinkers have always made me more focused. In the end it depends what the OP wants out of being in a band, and whether playing any music and being in a band is preferable to continuing as they are not being in a band but creating their own music. It also depends on whether earning money from playing in a band is an important consideration. As an example: I have a creative/artistic day job - working in graphic design for print. But because it is my primary source of income I will take on pretty much anything no matter how dull it might be from a creative PoV and AFAIAC the customer/client is the boss. I'm currently working on a massive book project that has been going on for over 2 years now and will probably continue at least until the end of this one, if not longer. I don't find the subject matter particularly interesting, a lot of the design work is a bit of a slog, and the client/author can be a pain and often very demanding, but right now it is almost 50% of my monthly income, so I knuckle down and get on with it and relish the more interesting jobs I am able to fit in around it. However I couldn't be like that about the music I play - I have to 100% invested in it, to want to be in a band. Luckily I'm in 2 right now that satisfy those requirements. Maybe if I was earning enough money out of playing, writing and recording music I could afford to be a bit more flexible about what I play/write/record, but until that happens I'll carry on just doing music I really like. So, without more input from the OP we're all just guessing.

No be picky about the sort of music you want to play. There's nothing worse than having something you should love being ruined because you can't stand the songs you are playing.