Skinnyman

I might do this for, say, a valve amp where there’s a small possibility of thermal shock or condensation on electrical components. Maybe an hour or so at room temperature to acclimatise. Not for an instrument though, not in the UK.

I have the Uno drum which is great for noodling. I’m permanently tempted by an Alesis as a cheap’n’cheerful accompanist and the elektron model cycles has an appeal because of the sequencer capabilities they have. Oh, and I really fancy an original Drumbrute. In fact, I’m a complete tart for drum machines but I’m managing to stay strong. For now, anyway

It was this stuff BENECREAT 40cmx2m Black Self... https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B089M27T16?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share £12 for a roll big enough to do a couple of dozen guitar stands 😁 There are cheaper/smaller options and you can probably get it from any craft supplier

I bought some sticky-backed fabric from Amazon and wrapped that round the foam bits on the stand that were causing black marks on a couple of my guitars. Cost about a fiver and took two minutes to do.

I sold a Digbeth preamp to Dale. Easy transaction - good comms, easy to arrange a meet and lovely to chat with. Great Basschatting, thanks Dale

Is it the Mk2? I’ve got a trip to York booked tomorrow so I’ll check out as many as I can and if the Akai is as decent as it appears for the price I may well take you up on that….

Is a definite contender and you remind me that I need to get to Gear4Music this weekend to try a few out

The Music Lab (rehearsal rooms, studio and teaching facility) in Hoddesdon has classes for drums, bass and guitar and they put students together in bands for end of season gigs. They have students of all ages and abilities (the drummer I worked with in my last-but-one band studied with them and was well into his forties). That’s the closest I can think of to what you’re looking for and it seems to be really popular. Of course, it’s no use if you’re not in Hertfordshire but there may be other schools/studios who are running the same sort of thing.

That would be great but the M32 is a bit bigger than I’m after. The Korgs look like they might do the trick

I’m looking for a small 25 key midi keyboard to use with my tablet when travelling. Obvious candidates are the Akai LPK25 and the Arturia Microlab. Anyone with any experience of either of these able to share pros and cons? Or recommend anything else that I should consider? It needs to be rucksack-portable (so fairly rugged) and be iPad, laptop and Android-friendly…

I really hope they survive - the Argon is a great machine and their app is brilliant

I see that Modal are in administration which is very sad news. That said, there may be some good clearance bargains to be had on Argon and Cobalt models…

I’ve long been of the opinion that trying to prevent cookies is basically pointless. Pressing a button that says “reject all” does not guarantee that all advertising and tracking cookies are being rejected - we are basically taking it on trust that the sites and their affiliates are actually disabling all of the advertising and tracking features as we’ve requested. Saying that, I trust BassChat a darn sight more than most (any) other sites and I’m prepared to accept that the guys are trying to find a way of generating some income from the lurkers and non-supporting members while giving paying subscribers an ad-free and track-free experience. With all due respect though, I do wonder if this might have been implemented in a slightly more inclusive fashion? This is a community so maybe it would have helped to give us a bit of a heads up about what was going to be implemented. I’m not suggesting that we should be given any kind of say in the matter but I generally think that if you tell people what problem you’re trying to solve, they’ll work with you to solve it rather than react badly when change just happens for no obvious reason. Anyway, I’m happy to let the guys work through this and iron out the wrinkles. On a separate note, I cannot understand how companies can believe that online adverts beyond a simple banner can ever be effective and help sell a product or service. How on Earth, for example, Grammarly expect me to subscribe to their appalling word-mangler just because they interrupt anything I want to view on YouTube every thirty seconds to show me 5 seconds of the same fecking advert is beyond me. Still, if someone seriously wants to pay money just to know that I’ve entered this month’s photo competition and am a bit interested in the Ampeg DI box then good luck to them. As someone pointed out many years ago, if you’re using a service and you’re not paying to do so then you are the product…

Sold a Behringer X Touch to Andy. Fuss free transaction and an absolute gent. Exactly how a BC transaction should go. Thanks Andy!

Current encryption technology relies on it taking so long to try and break the encryption that it’s not a practical approach. The promise of quantum computers is that, among other things, they will be orders of magnitude faster, making it practical to try many different key combinations. There seem to be legitimate concerns that the encryption approaches we use today will no longer protect the things we want protected.

Do quantum computers, when they become mainstream, make things a little easier or more challenging for the hacker, I wonder?