Al Krow

Isn't a key point that the US doesn't charge VAT on imports but levies a generally lower sales tax? They are now looking to level the playing field using tariffs. The rest of the world is going to have to suck it up or negotiate mutually beneficial trade deals.

Do you count fuel and adult clothing as luxuries? VAT can be quite a regressive tax, and is the second largest source of government income in the UK after income tax and NI. Surely it's up to each nation to sort out their own tax system? Ireland chooses not to levy much corporation tax on US multinationals, undercutting the rest of Europe. So US multinationals set up shop there. The US has sales taxes and not VAT. The EU actually has huge trade barriers: it exempts exports from VAT but charges VAT on imports. How is that not a tariff in all but name?

Agreed. Not sure why import tariffs are any different/worse than sales taxes or VAT which, as you rightly point out, are also paid by consumers? As you say, it's just another form of taxation. Personally I'd tax imports over slapping extra payroll taxes on domestic workers every time.

Sure they may not achieve anything other than to allow the US government to collect additional taxes on imports? And fwiw, personally I'd suggest that is a better way to raise taxes than (say) by taxing domestic companies on their workers' salaries, which will simply cause them to cut payrolls (pretty basic economics that last one, agreed?) If so, no reason for all the fuss?

The EU levies 10% tariffs on US car imports The US levies 2.5% on EU car imports Are the US bad guys for looking to match the higher tariffs that the EU levies?

Sure, Pete, but what about if you already have a super efficient domestic car industry (eg Germany) but decide to slap on much higher tariffs on imports than the overseas countries do on your exports, anyway? No real grounds for whining if your major export markets decide to match your tariff levels? And what about agricultural produce high import tariffs driving up food prices for everyone? I don't think it's fair to say the USA are the bad guys in everything here?

Question: if another country sells us $billions worth of cars, partly 'cos we only charge them 2.5% tariffs, but they slap on 10% tariffs on our car exports and take hardly any vehicles from us, would we feel that was fair on our domestic car workers?

Don't think you need to beat yourself up/feel bad about it Phil? Paid gigs are the lifeblood of any covers outfit, and if you're managing to get them for your duo as well as for your band then more power to your elbow mate!

@mike257 - with regard to our specific line up, we have a male low bass vox with a C2 to C4 vocal range i.e. 65Hz to 260Hz, but he mostly sings in the C2 to C3 range i.e. up to 130Hz. He's not got a particularly strong vox and the bass vox is harder to hear in the mix anyway. Setting the HPF across the board at 150Hz has left his vocals sounding thin. So I was thinking of making an exception for his vox, and lowering the HPF to 60Hz in line with what we have for the bass guitar, and as with the bass guitar giving him a 3dB boost in at around 120Hz (2nd harmonic of C2). But, unlike bass guitar, keeping that 3dB boost up across the full 120 to 240Hz range i.e. up to the 2nd harmonic of C3. In isolation his vox does sound a lot richer with the updated EQ settings, but we've not had chance to try it in a band mix and I guess the proof of the pudding will be then! However, I wanted to run it passed you (and others more expert than me on here) before I cause chaos at a gig when I'm unlikely to have the bandwidth to figure out / remember / correct for what's causing us to sound awful!

Hi Pete, it's not configured in the same way as the OC5/OC3 i.e. the basic octave patch is full range. I tend to think of the OC5/OC3 (optional) range setting as being more aimed at guitarists, as us bass players will more often want the octave thickening on the upper range rather than purely on the lower strings i.e. if anything we would want it reversed? If however you did want something similar to the OC5/OC3 then I think you can insert an fx block so that only the lower frequencies are impacted by the octaver - not tried this yet, but I suspect @MrDinsdale has made good use of frequency selectors already! Fyi - I've also offboarded my EBS filter pedal too now, so currently down to just the Core + SY200

Definitely! I think the money for most BC bands these days is going to be more in live performance, and material releases almost become promo material to get a following/fan base to come along to hear us play live? Btw loved your band's track 'We're connected' - great lyrics (and bass line wasn't too shabby either!)

Just came across this, which might be of interest: The Best Compact Analog Mixers for your Studio Flattering to discover two of the desks I've had over the years on the list (Allen & Heath and Soundcraft)!

So in answer to your question with regard to filters... I've now been using the GT Core for a week and getting my head around it's various features and possibilities. The EBS IQ filter pedal I've currently got on my board (pictured above) is one of the very best analogue filters I've come across - almost on a par with 3Leaf filters I've had the privelege of owning, and considerably less expensive. I've set up a filter patch on the Core, [using the Touch Wah fx in band-pass filter mode - in case of wider interest] which gives me the choice of up or down filter. I've also included an octaver, but just with the up-filter, to thicken up the sound. Really like what I'm hearing on both up-sweep and down-sweep. And the excellent EBS... well that's just been taken off my board and will likely be appearing in the for-sale section in due course 😊