ambient

The Irish Centre in Digbeth, Birmingham. I went to a few gigs there in the 1990s with my brother. It is, or was, just a few hundred metres from the college I teach at. Now, sadly reduced to a pile of rubble. Probably to make way for more of the flats and apartments you can see behind it.

From my experience with Fender basses, it would be quite easy to spot the difference between the fake and the real thing. The fake is almost certainly going to be better made.

The Darkglass Element and I believe a few of their other pedals will. I have their ADAM pedal. It does too but it's quite a large pedal.

It's as complicated really as you want it to be. I teach it on an evening course and start of very basically.

I did my PhD using Reaper and hated it. I was pushed into using it by my supervisor. Saying that though, many use it and like it. I've used ProTools and hated it too. I've used Logic for years and like it. I find it works how I want it to work. It's the main DAW at the place I teach at. Quite a few of the students at work use and recommend FL Studio. I quite like Ableton too. You can get free ‘lite’ versions free of charge when you buy bits of equipment.

I think they were quite surprised. Dan wasn't playing particularly hard. He was rather nervous. It was a shame Miles hadn't done the live drummer demonstration the previous day at the other campus.

It's how much less hard he was playing though and how much quieter he was. If you look at the chart on the sticker I posted a photo of, there was probably about 30 minutes of safe exposure before the level would start to cause damage. Believe me, I've heard far louder drummers than the student. I've left bands because they were too loud.

Indeed. I teach across two campuses and got to see his talk and demonstration twice at two venues. Yesterday though, when we went into the live room next to the classroom, and he did the experiment with the drummer, it really showed just how much more controlled the sound could be, and just how loud it was otherwise. I don't teach on the performance modules. If I did though I'd certainly be buying a set of customs to protect what's left of my hearing.

The students where I work had a really interesting talk from the guy who runs a company called DCA yesterday. They specialise in IEMs and hearing protection for musicians. They don't use latex in the moulding process. They have a tiny little laser scanner that takes just a minute or so to 3D map the inside of your ear. He did an experiment using one of the students playing drums along to music played through a normal fold-back type monitor. He held an SPL meter by the student’s head and got a reading of about 102db. He then repeated the experiment, this time the student used a pair of IEMs for monitoring. This time the SPL meter peaked at 85db. You can see why so many bands, at all levels, are switching to IEMs. I have tinnitus, particularly badly in my left ear. When I gigged a lot I invariably used to stand with the drummer to my left. He gave out these handy stickers.

Tbh, I'm not either. I know people on here do so thought I'd share it.

https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2023/nov/16/rush-geddy-lee-reader-interview

Does he play with his feet?

We had a radio that would have been tuned to Radio 1 and later Radio 2. The only records or CDs were mine that I started to buy as soon as I started to receive pocket money.

Do you reckon you could carry any of them off?

He must use two-factor verification for his Facebook account. The code he input into the fake site was the 2-factor verification code sent by Facebook. He'd inadvertently given it to the hackers to use.

An interesting article here about the most recorded bassist in jazz. Still going strong at 86. https://www.theguardian.com/music/2023/nov/03/ron-carter-jazz-bassist-miles-davis-aretha-franklin-roberta-flack-interview

I quite like it. I'm not a Beatles fan.

I've travelled to gigs in both the UK and mainland Europe by train. It takes organisation but it's quite doable.

He certainly wasn't a Pavoroti, his voice suited the music though.