jimmyb625

2 hours ago, Geek99 said:

Maybe I just don’t  get them, I didn’t say they were not a good performance 

It could well be that. There's plenty of music around that leaves me ambivalent.

The Mary Wallopers are getting to be quite popular in the folk world. We met them at Moseley and their performance was very good.

First one of the year for us, at the ace Telford's Warehouse in Chester.

Don't be fooled by the low ticket price, we're totally not worth it! 

https://www.telfordswarehousechester.com/event/finelines/

On 31/12/2023 at 22:15, EBS_freak said:

You can get an ace setup for under a 100 quid.

^ this

The Behringer P2 and a set of KZ ZS10 pro's are a great way of getting used to IEM's without breaking the bank. 

First things first, you already have a job with both bands, which is playing bass. Don't forget that and make sure the band doesn't forget it either. If you're already mixing foh from the stage, you're adding another thing to think about and be responsible for (especially when someone asks for "more me" halfway through a song).

If you've got people willing to use the P2's you're onto a winner there as it simplifies things (and keeps the cost down) when compared to using wireless units. 

Schedule at least one "technical" rehearsal, so you can get everyone to try them and set a basic mix they all are happy with (bearing in mind they'll inevitably want "more me" when you get to a gig). It will also give you a chance to get familiar with whatever cabling is needed. If you can, it's also a good idea to mark the cables you use, colour coded if you're that way inclined, which will help to reduce your setup time and will also make it easier for the other band members to help you - "the yellow cable goes in the yellow socket" etc.

I'd be a bit hesitant to use the xvives, although I know people here really like them. My reluctance comes from them being digital units and you're already using a digital desk, so latency could possibly come into play, although people perceive latency differently, so it may be fine. I've also been really spoiled with stereo units, so I'd rather keep that if possible.

When it comes to setting the mix, that's all going to be down to preference, but a good starting point is to find out what people actually "need" to hear, as opposed to what they think they should hear. For example, I have very little "need" to hear the keys player most of the time, apart from the occassional intro to a song, so that's always very low in my mix. Our (acoustic) drummer still uses a monitor and probably won't change, so given he has my bass in the feed, I don't bother putting it in anyone else's IEM mix, except my own. 

Choice of IEM is going to be a personal one and possibly one of the hardest to make. We're all using the ZS10's now (the singer/guitarist had a set of Shure 215's which were starting to fail) but I'm not yet sure what a logical upgrade would be, or even if's going to be worth it.

Count me in! 

There's nothing I need, or particularly want, which means I'll no doubt be out by March...

For the first time in a long time, I gave it a miss. Sounds like it wasn't the worst idea I've ever had.

12 minutes ago, asingardenof said:

Last gig of the year was beset by technical issues. To start with our singist had forgotten to charge the batteries for his wireless mic, so that took a bit of time to resolve, after which it was my turn.

 

After some random cut outs during our first set, it was unfortunate that the first song of our second was A Town Called Malice. In an effort to find what was causing the – frankly mortifying – breaks, I tried changing over the cables and bypassing my pedalboard entirely, but it was only swapping basses that seemed to solve the issue, and although I think I detected one or two glitches after that it could have just been my imagination.

 

Thankfully the crowd took it in good spirits and our singist kept that mood light as I abandoned the P-bass and dashed across the bar to fetch the Sire. I managed to get through the rest of the gig without incident, apart from forgetting my coat in the rush to get home for midnight.

 

It's a good thing I have next week off work as I need to do a deep dive into what the frick frack snick snack is going on with my gear. I'm hoping it's not an issue with the electronics in the Squier as I can't really afford to replace them at the moment.

 

I'm also well aware of the irony of this happening after I'd started a thread about bringing spare basses to gigs...

Sorry to hear this. Lack of charge in batteries is a cardinal sin in my eyes. Hopefully your bass issues will be easily resolved.

45 minutes ago, TimR said:

 

Looking at buying a pair of TS312 for general use. How are they without the sub? 

I like them, I've used them without the sub when we've not put the drums through them and they worked well. A friend of mine us a DJ and he managed to fry the TS315, but that's because he's a DJ...

If used at sensible levels, I think they're a good choice for the money.

How about doing the old tried and tested method of just not telling them about future gigs? Worked for Pink Floyd...

The rule we have is "not in front of the public". Anything goes in rehearsals, but if it's in front of a crowd, we don't say anything (unless there's a mistake of epic proportions when you have to stop the song during the intro - usually the keys player in the wrong key).

4 minutes ago, Bluewine said:

EARLY NYE GIG WITH MAPLE ROAD

 

The Precinct 

Germantown 4-7

 

The senior citizens love early NYE . I'll  be home by 8:30

 

Daryl

You'll be exhausted after playing all of those gigs at the same time... 🤣

42 minutes ago, Baloney Balderdash said:

I just read the description, and for the audition you only have to chose 2 songs from the Grade 8 song book, one of which has to be specifically focused on technique (market with "TF"), but your are free to chose whichever 3rd song you wish, which can be a personal arranged cover or a piece you composed yourself.

 

 

Yes, that's right. Songs 1 & 3 are selected from the trinity book (3 is for technical focus) Song 2 can be free choice. 

For the free choice one, if it's not from the book, you need to bring a copy for the examiner, as per the below:

2 hours ago, ahpook said:

 

 I've no knowledge of musical grades (except that my wife has lots of them !), and to see a list of pieces of music, some of which I know, and know that they're what constitutes Grade 7 is really interesting.

 

Thanks for posting.

It's not just about being able to play them, you have to play them as they're transcribed in the exam pieces. So if you're not in the same key, or if you decide to add/remove parts, then you'll have points subtracted.

33 minutes ago, Norris said:

Higher grades still count towards UCAS points, certainly in classical music exams 

Trinity piano exams give UCAS points as well.

https://www.trinityrock.com/instruments/bass/grade7

If I ever take a spare to a gig, it's always in the bag backstage (or on the side of the stage). 

I had a pair of Alto TS312's, with a TS515s subwoofer. This combination worked well for us as a six/seven piece, with everyone going through it. 

I've subsequently gained access to a pair of RCF945's which we use with the Alto sub (or if the drummer is just using a cajon and not full kit, we'll not bother with the sub). When we do this, the TS312's get used as monitors for keys and drums. 

At some point in the future, I'll probably see if I can get hold of an 18" RCF sub, but I'm not in a particular rush. I think the rig we have will cover us for any eventuality now where we're supplying the PA. If anything bigger comes along, we'd be looking at hiring (if it's our show) or using the venue's own system.

I've used the Wharfedale Titan 12's with a guest band, who brought them for extra monitors and they seemed ok. I've also experienced people supplying The Box stage monitors, which performed well in the application they were used for.

As Phil says above, the skill of the operator has a far greater impact on the quality of the sound, than the boxes you're using.

I have one of these, which we use for comedy events at the theatre. It works pretty well for us.

https://www.gravitystands.com/en/products/microphone-stands/12182/ms-231-hb

Last gig of the year for Fine Lines, playing at our local little Theatre, which also doubles as our rehearsal room and tracking studio.

We decided to include "Fairytale of New York" which was only suggested after the last rehearsal, so we had to learn our parts individually. We're an originals band, not a covers one, so we didn't have it in our pocket already. It became quickly evident during soundcheck that some people probably hadn't put in quite as much as they should have done and underestimated how deceptively tricky it is (at least for us!) When we came to play it in anger, as the encore, we had a couple of false starts, but managed to style it out by all blaming the keys player 🤣 Once it got going, it went pretty well and the audience seemed to like it.

We added two new numbers, which will be on the next album. They both went ok, despite me having some sort of mental breakdown during the introduction to one of them. I was playing the right notes, even in the right order, but I had a moment where I thought everyone else was playing the other song.

I went ampless for this one, as I had enough time to get a monitor mix I was happy, so the trio of Origin pedals, plus the Shure wireless took care of DI duty.

I used wireless IEMs for this one, again because I had the time to set it up, so now we're down to just drums and keys using wedges and I'm working on the keys player.

Anyway, here's a photo.

27 minutes ago, JapanAxe said:

Now to strut freely around the stage like the true rock god that I am!

 And that's the reason we all do it! 🤣

47 minutes ago, EBS_freak said:

No you don't. Direct connect.

 

Although I'd ditch the g4m unit and use a wired connection so you can hear just how much better a direct connection using a Behringer P2 is compared to those wireless units.

I'd second that. The g4m one isn't very good (in my opinion/experience) and the P1/2 will give you much better results for less cost.

If you don't want to have 2 cables trailing from the guitar and monitor pack, you can get a combined cable (designacable, or Ernie Ball make them) which cleans things up a bit - you can put the pack on your pedalboard.

Have you tried right-angled plugs?

Check out this thread as well, there's a lot of useful suggestions:

2 hours ago, Silvia Bluejay said:

We always had our laptop physically connected to the XR18 (Ethernet port), ready for emergencies, but that obviously implied me getting on stage and fiddling with a mouse, which we prefer to avoid. This is what we have as an external router in our Soundcraft Ui. We have its correspondent older model in the XR18. We wanted something reliable that uses two channels. No point replacing the crap internal router in a PA system with another crap, external, router. Hence the price tag.

Yep, I have the predecessor to that one. Like you say, there's no point using something unreliable, given it's a pretty critical component.