Norris

I "sing" lead on a couple of songs and do a few BVs. I'd never make a career out of my voice though - the guitarist has a great voice and the drummer is pretty good too. The more you do though, the better your voice gets and the easier it becomes.

Don't put up with it. Although you probably write it off as "banter" at the moment, it is bullying and will eventually eat you up. I was in a similar situation when I played in a trio for 10 years. Over time the drummer's ego grew out of all proportion and I was the butt of increasingly nasty "jokes", "pranks" and comments. I haven't spoken to him for the last 20 years. I still play with the guitarist, who is a great bloke. The long and short of it is that it will get to you in the end, and you are best to nip it in the bud as soon as possible. If that means walking away from the band, so be it!

I could never quite get the same tone as I got from an old 15" speaker with a torn cone that I mended with tissue paper and wood glue and then mounted in a cab that my dad made for me. Probably for the best really

My guitarist is currently playing his LP deluxe (with the smaller humbuckers) through his Mesa. It sounds gorgeous. There again in our trio he can play what the heck he likes

Living On A Prayer Black Knight (or any other Deep Purple)

[quote name='Bilbo' timestamp='1439448737' post='2842870'] Pulling a crowd has nothing to do with it or footballers would be musicians. I think the Performance Artist label is the closest. That makes sense to me. [/quote] I was thinking more of pulling in the punters to music festivals - excuse my mobile phone based brevity

Any backing track or MIDI sequence within a "live" performance could be classed in the same category as DJing. However live DJs will be a lot more fluid in their performance - almost like stringing a few pre-rehearsed licks together to make a guitar solo. The line gets increasingly blurred to the extent that I am prepared to class DJs as performance artists, and therefore musicians. And whatever anybody thinks, they are still pulling a good crowd

No link I'm afraid. It didn't stop me breathing, but did stop me playing tonsil hockey with a young lady. She wasn't too pleased as I recall. I went and bought the album the next day, never saw her again Crossing the Corpus Calloseum from the album Marc Johnson's Bass Desires.

Have you got a Dremmel? If so try cutting a slot in the top of the remaining screw so you can get a flat blade screwdriver on it. Failing that you could try drilling a hole in it and use a very small stud extractor

That looks fantastic! Cracking job! Got any pictures of the construction in progress?

Could you control the Pi gadget with a MIDI pedal? Admittedly you wouldn't have a display on it but you could probably program the lights to flash a bit of morse code to indicate settings

Despite being an old fart myself, it's not just playing a few wax cylinders. Some DJs actually make up their own music using computer generated jiggery pokery, occasionally borrowing the odd riff. Whether they should be allowed out of their bedrooms is another matter

I started on bass when I was about 16 and have never had any lessons. However prior to that I had many years of classical training on trombone and piano, and spent a lot of time playing the 'bone in orchestras, brass bands and big bands (Glenn Miller type stuff)

All the ones I haven't heard will form my new "to buy" list. No-one mentioned any Van Der Graff Generator yet? Pawn Hearts then Edit: How can you possibly pick a "best"?!

[quote name='4-string-thing' timestamp='1439053625' post='2839695'] I do remember the other thread started by Norris, but I must be a complete dummy coz I didn't understand much of it I also never really got to grips with MIDI either... Norris, we're from the same neck of the woods though so I may just have to pop along to one of your gigs and have a look at your system! [/quote] You're quite welcome to. We're at the Willow in Thurmaston tonight

On my controller I have two programmes - "band playing" which has cross fades on three channels, either timed by a slider or sound-to-light for the last spot. Then I have "standby" which is a slow, dim mono colour wash for when we are not playing. The only other thing I use is the blackout. I'd suggest - bank up and down, blackout, mode (timer/sound trigger). Then maybe a knob (or expression pedal) to control speed/sensitivity. Edit: Oh, and some sort of display - 7 segment LEDs or similar so you know which bank/mode is active

Not an easy call to name the best. Close To The Edge is up there, but I'll throw Selling England By The Pound (Genesis) in the ring

DMX is a bit like MIDI. A controller sends instructions on several channels and you set each light to listen to one channel - although more than one light can listen to the same channel. Different lights will need different "instructions" so only group the same type of lights together. The channel/mode is usually set on DIP switches on the back of the light. Some lights may use more than one channel depending on what they do e.g. moving scanners will need the moving instructions as well as the colour. They tend to go from one base channel. You will need the instruction manual for each light to know how to set it up. To control pretty much any light look for a controller that supports DMX-512. Thomann do suitable stand-alone controllers - I have a Stairville one (can't remember model) although you can get boards that plug into a laptop for instance. Check out the "Let's Talk Lighting" thread I started some time ago as that has quite a bit of info. They can be awkward to set up initially but once you have are dead easy to use

And if you're lucky enough to find someone who can actually keep time, it's always on the first and third beat

[quote name='RhysP' timestamp='1438879549' post='2838386'] He'd probably fix the hole by shoving a Mars Bar in it.... [/quote] Actual LOL at that

I've bought Sgt. Pepper. I've never bought a Stones album. Says enough I think.

The one "temperamental" singist I've played with showed the same symptoms. Late for rehearsal, hadn't learnt the songs, turn up 5 mins before the start and expect to just plug his mic into the desk, gone 30 secs after pay time. He turned out to have a few alcohol issues which explained a lot. Bye bye singist! My old drummer used to take extra money for PA and lights. We ended up getting rid of him mainly because he was an egotistical tw@. These days git/vox does the PA, I do the lights and drummer sets up his drums - money split equally, peace reigns

No

Oh my goodness. That photo made me cringe. Please stop fannying about and get back in touch with your sparky

You made a copy for the law?