Al Krow

Not everyone who plays live is relying on gig income to pay the rent. That's just a fact of life that struggling "pro" musicians need to deal with in terms of competition for gigs and pricing. A lot of hobby musicians love playing live because doing so is its own reward. Surely that's totally cool, if that's how they want to spend their free time? And it doesn't mean that bands willing to play for free will be crap either, although you would hope that musicians who are getting paid are bringing something extra to the party compared to those who are playing for free in terms of musicianship and professionalism, but that won't always be the case. I know it must come as an unpleasant shock to some, but making music isn't just about the money for many musicians...did someone say we're going round in circles?

That's actually an unexpected surprise to hear Stew. I always thought that the FI and C4 trumped the SY-1 in terms of quality of synth sounds, but the SY-1 had the advantage of outstanding tracking and immediacy of dials (oh and, of course, being a chunk cheaper!). Out of interest what setting were you using the SY-1 on and what tracks were you playing along to?

Unless of course you damage the boards on moving them back and forth! Not something I would want to risk, but hey that's just me. And adding £30 for a smaller box, £35 for a usb cable (Panda's own offering is euros 169!!), it does all start to add up...

+1 ^^ The LM3 head, which I still have in my CMD 121H combo, has a massive gap between upper mids at 800Hz and treble at 10kHz, which is an unusably high centre point. A 3.5kHz to 5kHz for treble centre would have been much better, IMO, for the treble centre. The bass EQ in the LM3 is centred at 40Hz - which is at the boomy low end and could do with being centred at 65Hz to 80Hz instead. The Marcus Miller head has dealt with each and every one of those issues. Having said that, a LOT of folk really like the warm MB sound that the LM2/3s deliver, so horses for courses.

A bit of a specialist topic, but in case it's of interest... The Roland UM-One Mk2 is the quality benchmark, but costs a hefty £35, or so, new. Came across this today on Amazon for 1/3 the price of the Roland: I've not used, but I suspect at that price will be tempted to give it a go (e.g. particularly if some of us end up with a replacement FI now that @Quatschmacher has completely rejigged the PC Editor and Manual!). A couple of points to note: There is no driver or cd installation for it, just plug in, the computer automatically adds it as a new device and you are ready to go, however: plug midi cable "IN" to midi device's “OUT” slot, midi cable "OUT" to midi device's “IN” slot. Which is both the seller's advice and backed up by user experience: "Works very well on my zoom gfx 8 effect pedal. Only one issue was I plugged the cables as labelled in and out to in and out sockets. But the program on my laptop I'm using for this could not detect the effect pedal, so I reversed it out cable wen into in and out cable went into out, and finally it was detected and now I'm able to modify my effect pedal." If any of you have tried this or alternative Midi to USB then please share your positive / negative experiences - be good to get some alternatives to the Roland.

But that is a solution which both devalues the resale price and costs an additional £30. No thanks. I'll live with the big ugly original box. But I don't understand why Andras is clueless on the importance of form factor in making a product attractive? I mean those boys at Apple also started in a garage, too, right?

Ah not just me, who feels this then!

Ah ok, so your comment was only aimed at pub gigs for covers bands, not at festivals or band "promo" events. In which case fair enough.

So everyone playing at Glasto considers their music to be without value? Really?

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The important difference is that there is nothing immoral or illegal in bands being prepared to play for little or nothing; that's their choice and one they are at liberty to make. Very different kettle of fish to the law-breakers driving without insurance.

Just leaving these on here for future reference. Looking forward to joining with you with mine!

Btw, just for the record, loving the way a lot of really good points are being made in a very civilised way on both sides of this topic, which I appreciate is an emotive one. We might even be in danger of hearing one another! Good one BC.

Wot no C4, even though you have an unfilled slot?! Now there's a surprise!

Of course it can be a proper job but you've got to be bloody good to make a career out of it. Not every footballer makes enough to support his family just from playing football. Some make a fortune, as we all know, as do successful pop and rock musicians. Believe me, classical musicians will, by and large, have paid a small fortune in tuition compared to us largely self-taught bass players. A lot of them are delighted to play for nowt as part of very good amateur orchestras. There is something wonderful about making live music to an audience; not everyone feels they have to be paid to do something they love.

@Salt on your Bass? how do you rate the MBD2 compared to previous drives you've had?

Just to balance things, let's bring in one of PM's other tunes...Live and let die 😁

Yes, of course, they can do something about it. They just don't play - it's their choice. Or if there are these vast amounts to be made then there is nothing stopping them hiring the venue themselves and organising the publicity and catering. Instead of whining.

Just wow!! So why on earth is anyone having a pop at Wayside Farm then?! Surely the "righteous" should first be up in arms against Glasto and all the "traitors" playing for the free there then? But of course they're not!

The issue here is a simple one: For some of us music is a passion and a fun hobby. For others it's a way of making money, pure and simple. For the rest it's somewhere in between. Playing live, these worlds can collide and can come into "conflict". Live and let live.

Wow - hadn't appreciated this!! Is that just some of the bands at Glasto or all of them?

I totally get this approach Dave. My two bands are exactly the same - we don't play for free. But we have no right to dictate to or malign other bands playing somewhere free if they want to. No one has to play for free. It's their choice.

So you're down £xx for studio hire. What price having the enjoyment of an audience to play to and a fun night out? Even with this easy example you can see that bands who are happy to play for "free" are getting quite a lot out of it and @Paul S's story above takes that further. I mean why does anyone bother uploading stuff to YT "for free" when Google is making a fortune from them?

I hadn't realised that Andras was also the brains behind the original Deep Impact. Yup prices are coming down, you can get a new one for around £265 (allowing for forex) and a Roland UM-One Mk2 and you're good to go. I may just wait for V4 and new hardware to come out next year. After all if Damnation Audio can provide a more compact version of their classic MBD1, and GisserD has already shown it can be easily done. Anyway back to OC-5s....

Tbf I probably need an FI having seen the amazing stuff of what you've done on V3.60! I clearly got my FIs too soon i.e. before you managed to work your magic on it turning it from a PITA to something sooooo much better.