skankdelvar

German Pirates: Surprisingly law-abiding

One thing that's common to copyright laws in different countries is that if a copyright holder knowingly fails to act on a copyright infringement then a subsequent infringer (?) can use this as precedent to demonstrate that the copyright holder does not defend copyright, ergo there's a loophole for full-on bootleggers to exploit. You can't pick and choose which copyright infringements to go after. You have to go after them all. Hence the steady stream of stories about mega-artists supposedly dumping on poor, wee, helpless individuals such as The German Widow. Now, lawyers who have been instructed to deal with copyright infringements and bootleggers usually take a softer line with private individuals who have got into a muddle unless that individual kicks up and starts briefing lawyers themselves. At which point it all goes to sh_t as it has in this case and probably rightly so. That's all entirely separate from the fact that Clapton is a man with a bus-load of demons on his back. I read his autobiography and his life comes across as having been a series of hideous disasters set in a grey wasteland. That's not to excuse his silly outbursts but it helps to explain them. Maybe even enough to feel a bit sorry for him. Anyhow, I'm fairly sure that most of us here would look dimly upon an audience member recording our performances and selling those recordings online or outside outside our gigs. We might even take some form of action about it and at that point we'd be doing exactly the same thingas Clapton, the only difference being we're mostly none of us famous enough for random people on interweb forums to w4nk themselves into a self-righteous frenzy about us.

Hi Stuey and welcome to the forum

Hi Andy and to the forum

He's not wrong, though.

Market researcher: Name ten famous bass guitar players Non-bass playing public: What's a bass guitar? MR: It's the big guitar. The guitar that's bigger than the other ones. NBPP: Why didn't you say so? MR: Name ten famous big guitar players NBPP: That's easy. Paul McCartney MR: ...and? NBPP: Sting? He plays the big guitar doesn't he? MR: ...and? NBPP: Freddie Mercury?

TBPH, I looked at that list and thought 'Well, some players have got a very well-organised fan base'.

I'm not in a band ATM but if I was I'd be pushing hard for Transfusion by Nervous Norvous.

There are so many different approaches to this common problem but I'm inclined to agree with the eminent Mr @chris_b that allowing some space in the arrangement is preferable to stomping on a pedal. I suppose if one must use a pedal I'd wait for the solo then step on an EQ with a boost somewhere in the mids. This will help to mask some of the temporarily empty frequencies without obviously banging up the overall volume or turning one's carefully crafted tone into sludge. If anyone should be using a delay pedal it should be the guitarist. In fact, they should experiment with using two delays, the first in the chain set for a short, single repeat slap-back and the other set to a longer delay with a couple of repeats. Get his second delay as wet as wet can be then dial back from there. Finally, the guitarist could try the TC Mimiq Doubler pedal which seems to combine a sort of fake-stereo Haas (Precedence) effect with pitch shifting to make it sound like more than one guitarist is playing. Which is fine except it will work best with two amps in stereo placed wide on the stage because the Haas effect is all about stereo.

Thank you all, you're very kind. It was indeed a strong month with some frankly mind-blowing compositions. Have a lovely Christmas, everyone

My favourite description seen here on BC was 'The sound of a crowd of angry squirrels hurling nuts at a tin roof'. Whoever came up with that deserves a medal or something.

M'mmm, dunno about the speaker. I was having too much fun blasting away in front of it to go poking round the back.

Peavey: the king of bargain amp brands. Had a bang on a mark one Bandit a few years ago. Storming little amp.

Well, the HH bass combo my pal Ricky brought home (and which subsequently went out the window) was the one I sold him (hee-hee) and I can tell you it was a nightmare to transport, weighed a ton and it wasn't really very loud for all its behemoth dimensions so he took it off my hands and the rest is history. Good for cracking pavement slabs though.

Got his priorities straight, then. I've always been lucky in this respect. The Missus, while supportive, evinces scant interest in the minutiae of my musical odyssey. The main thing is that she doesn't jib at me spending money on stuff. 'If that's what you want,' she says. Unlike a friend of mine; about thirty years ago he came home with one of those huge old HH 1x15 bass combos the size of a washing machine. His GF got hammered one night and pushed the combo out of a second storey window into the street. HH VS Bass Combo: Death from above

Gadzooks! It slipped my mind earlier that I once encountered exactly the same problem as @GreeneKing Joined a guitarist and singer doing acoustic covers stuff. After a couple or rehearsals I noticed the guitarist never played a song the same way twice which was a bit of a pain as he'd previously stipulated in no uncertain terms that I learn the set from the original recordings. Like a good boy I'd charted the songs out so it was a bit tedious when he inevitably went off the rails. After a discreet interval I brought this up. 'Oh,' says he. 'I don't like to tie myself down. Music's all about expressing oneself'. 'Fine for you,' says I, 'But it makes it a bit difficult for the rest of us in the room'. He was talking bollocks, of course. He just couldn't remember the songs. The singer cornered me afterwards and thanked me for bringing it up. 'He won't change, though' she said, looking over her shoulder nervously. She was right; he didn't so I had it on my toes. Shame that; she had a tidy voice and looked good too.

Hi Simon and to the forum

That ↑ would be reason enough for me to leave. Never held with non-band members coming to rehearsals. One band, the drummer's wife always came along. After a few weeks she started offering 'advice' about arrangements. Then about individual parts. Then about me "moving around too much" - in a rehearsal? Silly mare but he wasn't going to divorce her so I left the band.

Hi Dave and to the forum

Maybe go stand in the corner of a room (the khazi's good for this, being small and mostly hard surfaces) and sing straight into the 90-degree angle. This creates corner loading and bangs your voice back at you a bit.

It's always seemed slightly odd to me that in 2009 organist Matthew Fisher was eventually able to claim a percentage of the writing royalties for Whiter Shade of Pale because of his famous organ part (ooh, Matron). It sounds exactly like Bach to me but what would I know? Final judgement here. Key bit below: "This case ... has shown that there is no time limit for bringing an action for copyright infringement. On the other hand, the case has shown that when a piece of work is created by more than one party, arrangements need to be made to apportion the copyright appropriately and, if the copyright is to be jointly held, how the copyright may be exploited. Otherwise, copyright owners may find themselves having their ownership challenged at any time during the term of copyright (which is, in the main, the life of the author(s) plus 75 years). However, it obviously remains better to act when you believe your copyright has been infringed or at the time you first consider you are a joint owner of copyright, rather than to “wait and see”, because, as was the case here, the court is unlikely to offer a share of past royalties".

Thing is, pretty much everybody's recorded (or amplified) voice sounds horrible to themselves until they get used to it. Even Don Henley had this problem... ...possibly.

Stupid idea but maybe you could copy some karaoke tracks off YT into a DAW (Audacity) and record yourself warbling along. It might help you get used to hearing your own voice coming back at you from speakers. Better qualified people than I will know what to look for in a singing coach.