Happy Jack

I was disappointed to find that Joanne Joanne didn't come from Newcastle. https://www.facebook.com/joannejoanneuk/

I've had so much trouble with band line-ups, organisation and attitude, and it's happened in so many bands, that I've started looking for the one common factor that explains it all. Turns out, it's me. 😎

In all fairness, @Silvia Bluejay was there too and she has much better ears than I do. 🧐 I tend to avoid these topics since they end up being so sterile but, seeing as I'm here, here's my tupp'orth. My hearing was never that great to start with, and adding pretty severe tinnitus has done absolutely nothing to help. I've never been able to distinguish between tonewoods or between active/passive or between cheap/expensive basses. I hear the output and decide whether or not I like it. I've tried compression, everything from one-knob pedals to DBX166 rackmounts. I don't know how to use such stuff properly, I hate devices with lots of knobs and switches, and I've never understood the attractions of "transparency" ... if I can't hear what it's doing then how do I know it's doing something? So that must put me in the Anti camp, right? Nope, not a bit of it. I am well aware that pretty much every serious musician, recording studio and radio station uses compression as a basic tool all the time, on everything. What that tells me is that compression is great, it's my lack of understanding that's the problem here. So I live with it, and stay away from topics about compression ...

I've used Alesis Crimson drums into XR18 reasonably often, including recording sessions, without any issues so I'm afraid I have no answers for you. It seems that you've checked / tested / swopped all the things I'd have tried, but there are so many moving parts involved here (all those individual cables connecting pads to brain, all those different virtual kits, etc.) that - especially with an intermittent problem - I think you have to adopt a very back-to-basics approach. Is the drumkit yours or does it belong to the rehearsal space? In other words, are you in a position to carry out further tests on dull evenings at home? Can you clarify why you thought the problem was drum-related? I have to say that my start point would always be to look at the guitarist's pedal board ...

That's what they told you, eh? 🧐

Oh Good Lord! It's only Music Outlet Shop up to their usual tricks. There's no suggestion that anyone will buy this complete POS ... this is a type of marketing, and the existence of this topic (and many other, similar topics) tells you that it works. 🙄

That looks like a very nice gig for someone, Nik. Shame they're not closer to Harrow.

Unless you were in France, in which case it was Nouvelle Vague ...

Technically speaking, of course, this post constitutes a Wanted ad and should be moved elsewhere ...

Where do we all stand on the brown M&Ms?

I love Earthquaker Devices generally and I've had quite a lot of their stuff, but six knobs for a Chorus pedal? SIX KNOBS??? The pedal I've ended up with actually an 'anti-chorus' - https://reverb.com/uk/p/digitech-luxe Very rare and hard to find these days, but I just love this thing with fretless bass. It's a simple 2-knob device, almost all of the settings are musical (whatever that means) or at least useable, and it doesn't give you that seasick sound that so many Chorus pedals saddle you with.

That's close on a thousand quid! You'd need to be pretty obsessed with 'quirky' to justify blowing that amount ...

Unbelievably, they actually removed my SnoPake dot markers and I had to re-do them!

I believe that, traditionally, the start point was always today's newspapers. 😉

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/133758450908?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2060353.m1438.l2649 How NOT to sell a DB.

If you find this stuff interesting (as I do) then it's hard to beat https://www.amazon.co.uk/Ta-Ra-Ra-Boom-Ay-dodgy-business-popular/dp/178352104X as an intro to the subject. Despite being written by a music industry insider [BLURB: Simon Napier-Bell has been a leading figure in the music industry for over forty years - a songwriter, record producer, artist's manager, and entrepreneur. Amongst others, he has managed the Yardbirds, Marc Bolan, Boney M, Asia, Ultravox, Japan, and Wham!] this is not the usual shallow money-grabbing ... this is a comprehensive, properly-researched, well-written history of how the finances of the music biz came to be what they are today. Apart from being a very entertaining and informative book in its own right, it also makes a great companion read for https://www.amazon.co.uk/Electric-Shock-Gramophone-iPhone-Years/dp/184792218X

AFAIK, all the Sims work is actually subbed out to Bow Finishing.

I have that stand: https://www.thomann.de/gb/km_42040.htm I also have https://www.pmtonline.co.uk/tourtech-tts-mxa1-adjustable-stand-for-mixer-or-keyboard?utm_source=google&utm_medium=shopping&utm_content=lia&gclid=Cj0KCQjw4v2EBhCtARIsACan3nzEWITpVNxHVBTGW9ddxhSACyB53kDF9ZA4YHyOJbiD158K_bXn5y0aAphsEALw_wcB But the one I normally use is https://www.gear4music.com/PA-DJ-and-Lighting/Quiklok-DJ223-DJ-Performance-Workstation/1YT9?origin=product-ads&gclid=Cj0KCQjw4v2EBhCtARIsACan3nw85vTRxQSVJS5skT7rzipPwS2mlsh-My6mCoVa2ga31o3wI87wVRkaAjJLEALw_wcB I've used all three fairly regularly for the last 10 years. IME the K&M stand is wonderfully light and a very easy thing to transport and set up, but it verges on being flimsy and if the permanently-angled top isn't at the right angle for what you need, then it's a bit of a PITA. The knurled knobs aren't captive, which means that a clumsy bandmate would be able to unscrew one completely at a gig and lose it. Don't ask me how I know. These days, I use this stand primarily to take a https://www.djsupplies.co.uk/products/studiomaster12activefloormonitor to sit alongside the electric drumkit. The G4M folding steel table is brilliant, every bit as strong as it looks, and provides great stability. On the other hand, it is heavy and takes up valuable floor space on stage. Our PA is a heavy 6U Gator case so the size, strength and stability are what we need. There's plenty of room underneath for my bass cab, plenty of room on top for my amp and other gubbins. The TourTech unit rather falls between two stools and hardly ever gets taken to gigs these days, I mainly use it as a handy temporary table in the studio for recording sessions and such. I should also mention that the 'kick-out' of the four legs to stabilise it feels rather unconvincing. It's never actually fallen over, but I do wonder ...

Bloody Hell Douglas! I used to be quite good with numbers ... Too quick with the typing, too slow with the thinking.

+1

Great post, but in truth you really only needed to post this sentence. 😂

By and large, the best solution is usually to play in a 3-piece. Each additional band member increases the complexity and the likelihood of problems by - quite literally - a geometric progression. I have my own problems and issues to deal with, but that's just me so it's problems of one to the power of one = one. Add one other musician and we're dealing with the problems of two to the power of two = four. A 3-piece band is therefore three to the power of three = nine. It is NINE times harder to coordinate a 3-piece band than a solo artist, but on the other hand it is 90x as much fun to play bass in a 3-piece than it is to play bass as a solo act. And a 3-piece is way easier to cope with than the classic 4-piece line-up (16x), let alone a 5-piece (25x). This is of course a very simplified model. The numbers should really be re-stated with weighting in place to account for the ego of vocalists, the selfishness of lead guitarists, and the reliability of the drummer's van.

Pilates, mate, Pilates ... (I know, I know, it's never that simple.)

Well of course yer classic Rickenbackers, well they always had two output jacks, innit? I mean, that's yer bleedin' Ric-o-Sound, innit? Stands to reason ... 😉