itsmedunc

The Skids!

[quote name='bassjim' timestamp='1491230251' post='3271376'] This weekend just gone....... So for once I have a gig in my hometown and all my fam and friends came. So did a lot of curious whats he up to now. Really good turn out. Thanks to the inability of the band members who want to go IEM and IMO not really yet knowing how this stuff works properly, plus a nice high ceiling, plus a digital "its all on a tablet " desk, its a f***ing disaster. Half an hour of " one two....one two....no i still cant hear myself.....one two FEED BACK FEED BACK...one two...no that sounds terrible...ect " 9:10 pm = Ok we just have to get on with it now, gigs got to start... I take my rig anyway because it bloody well works. I have already told em thats what Im gonna do. Drummer is in no mood to use hot rods and although not exactly building a shed type, its a loud room so its....well you know. After two numbers in we had to stop the gig because the sound was just terrible. No one really knew what was going on. Its bloody awful. I went out to the car , got the usual mixer back in and we got it connected up really quickly ( good old thing with knobs and sliders you can touch ! ..) and turned the guitarists amp back on. Keys went back into his usual monitor. They bring this stuff along " as a back up till we know where we are at with the IEM set up" . Just as well. Singer however has no monitor at all because she is told every thing is gonna be ala Trump... just great. Switch on the old school mixer, take the IEMs out and instantly and I mean to the second...all sounds good again. (well a lot better than it did. High ceiling, wood floor ect ect.) Thankfully a really nice and loyal crowd soaked up a lot of bad stuff and eventually its all back to normal...ish.Couldnt hear the vocals all night because no back up monitor for that. She made a lot of mistakes due to being so isolated she wasn't aware when various things were going on. Like solos. Or Intro parts after a chorus. These are all seasoned giggers that on paper never put a foot wrong reduced to sounding like a bunch of first timers having a stab at it within a short space of time thanks to this IEM lark. They really should of known better but you know what its like...band politics...let em do it..see how it goes... I was embarrassed, pissed off and angry all at the same time. Our gitard is the main cause of the problem. Wants to use the digital desk plus IEM mainly because we always are fed up with guitar being too loud on stage. This is his solution and we have so far put up with allowing him to try it out. Not once so far has this proved to be a good idea. Everytime the IEM come out its a problem. Yes most likely the operator rather than the kit but if these guys cant make it work what hope do I have? ...... Well thats it now. New rule in my band. The digital desk is out. IEM is ok as long as you use it in addition to not instead of. Its too risky. Anyway so what I think I'm trying to say here is if you are going this route, be careful. Dont take it out in public till you have taken you and your band plus the sound system to a place where you can lock and load it at full band volume, in a band playing a gig configuration and test it out. And maybe use a sound man. Also make sure the peeps doing the PA fiddling know the difference between one room from another. IE: its not a set and forget thing. All our vocalist wanted to do was just sing and hear herself and the band. Not unreasonable so why all this grief. Ok our chap obviously doesn't know what hes doing with it but if its that complicated..... If I was biased against it before I'm even more so now. All I can say is Pre IEM = all sounds good. Post IEM = all bad. Yep so not a happy bunny this week. Maybe in the future I will get to work with a PA/tech head who really knows their stuff and can be but persuaded but right now........."dont talk to me about IEM. I'll give you IEM...ect ect" Think I'd rather wait for another ten years for a better solution to be invented than go through all that again [/quote] I got IEM's for myself and a digital desk for the band to use specifically because the guitarist is far too loud onstage and often our sound guy has to explain that the guitar is louder than the rig to him. In ears now block him out! Now I hear that our monitoring is, "over engineered"! There's only me with in ears! Rehearsals are the same, we can't hear the vocals because of the guitar. Asking him to turn down does not work - because he needs to be that loud to get "his sound". The singer has to scream. I sorted out silent rehearsals through a jamhub, an excellent Yammy electronic kit, modellers etc. We can now rehearse for free at mine. It sounds great (I bought all this gear myself by the way) and all the other members are more than happy apart from the guitarist it would seem. Now I get "I feel like a fly in a bottle"! He wants to go back to "live" rehearsals. I love conventional rehearsals but don't see the point in lugging all the gear, driving 10 miles for 2 hours to get a little more deaf each time! Played loads of gigs being "thrown" on and had good and bad sounds but what we hear onstage is not what the audience hear. I'm beginning to think that guitarists don't understand that. I've played with a good few with the same outlook. I've seen audiences raving about how good the band was but the guitarist saying that we were sh*t based on the onstage sound? It's cost a lot of money for me to find out that most guitarists will NOT turn down.

[quote name='markstuk' timestamp='1491148101' post='3270813'] I think there is a thread on here somewhere about this, I'll see if i can find it.. [/quote] Thanks for that. Some good information there. This plan of mine is heading the BF route!

We often use our own PA which is an HK Elias PX. 1.6k but loud as hell for it's size and sounds great. This PA lives upstairs at mine and I end up moving it up and down, to gigs etc mostly on my own. This has been going on with differing PA's for over 10 years! To be honest the Elias is the most most compact PA we've ever had but I'm getting rather P'd of with it all. Other members basically refuse to store any of it! Question - Would a pair of FR800's be a suitable replacement? A 5 piece band would be going through it. Drums, 2 guitars, bass and 4 vocals? Max 200 people audience. I'm not a great fan of subs anyway as I think things (sound to me) get a bit muffled and wooly but adding one or two FH800s' later on is an option. I'm hoping for positives!

Did a trade with Will today. Was really nice to meet him too. Item exactly as he said.I wouldn't hesitate to deal with him again. I haven't quite worked out why he thought I would meet him wearing a green bag on my head though? But that's another story! Thanks again Will. Cheers Dunc

I got together with some like minded friends after years of playing original stuff to play a load of Clash stuff. Never had as much fun ever and made a few quid for a change. Just enjoy yourself in whatever you want to do.

More like a typo and £50?

Love the Westones http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/172577431001

From a smoke and pet free home though.

Bought a Promethean from Martin. Totally as described. Great communication and a pleasure to deal with. He went up and beyond the call of duty to make the sale happen too. I wouldn't hesitate to deal again. Lovely chap too! Thanks again Martin. Cheers Dunc

Done

Bought a flightcase from Vindi. Arrived superfast in stout packaging, just as described. Great guy to deal with. Have no fear! Thanks Vindi. Cheers Dunc

[quote name='spectoremg' timestamp='1489098240' post='3254455'] [attachment=240114:Ibanez.jpg] You couldn't make it up. [/quote] You couldn't make it up. He is clearly barmy...

[quote name='Paul S' timestamp='1489078445' post='3254237'] Must remember that line if I ever sell a bass with an unadjustable bridge. Has Philips Cleartone Conversions moved across the pond? [/quote] I too thought Mr MDP had moved. USA Cleartone eh?

I've seen some bad attempts but... http://www.ebay.com/itm/262880912025?rmvSB=true

As above, boxes bubble wrap etc. Collection from bb22sh.