PaulWarning

joined my first band in 1979, and I'm still in it,  the only original member though, and it did have a 25 year hiatus 

1 hour ago, chris_b said:

£160 for hearing protection is cheap, compared to the £2-3000 that good hearing aids cost.

For anybody that's thinking about hearing aids. Good hearing aids are available from the NHS, I know, I've got some 🙂 go see your doctor and get a referral

I think all us oldies know the benefits of ear plugs, because most of us have damaged hearing, stable door and horses spring to mind, hopefully the youngsters will listen to that warnings the we never got, not holding my breath though.

The debate is whether pay out hundreds of £s on proper moulded ones or off the shelf generics, I couldn't get on with moulded ones

I've worn the same outfit, more or less for about 13 years, well not the same, it's like Triggers broom, thought about changing it but I'm sort of attached to it now

That is my set up, Trace Elliott GP12 not too heavy 13kg and 2 Fender V2 cabs 1 x 10 and 2 x 8, both also 13kg each, can't see me changing any time soon

9 minutes ago, warwickhunt said:

re. wearing 1 earpiece.  Having read those articles it is apparent the harm comes from the user turning up the volume to compensate when only hearing with 1 ear.  Ergo 1 ear bud in being worse than no buds in seems extreme but that is the gist of it.  I occasionally (depending on which band/gig set up) used to remove or partially remove one ear bud (moulded attenuated protectors not IEM) so that I could hear the band balance better but I always kept the bud in fully that was nearest the drummer.  At no point would volume have been increased for me to compensate, hence one ear bud in and one out would not be any worse, though I concede I was always happier with both plugs in. 

 

Just as an aside... I recently tried using a sealed plug (off the shelf silicone jobbie) in the ear closest to the drummer and my moulded attenuated -19db plug in the one closest to my monitor (mounted on a stand at ear height).  I was actually surprised but there was very little difference in overall sensation/hearing of frequencies when I swapped back to my x2 custom moulded, attenuated plugs.  

 a local band I went to see only used one IEM, I asked them about it they said it worked for them, like you say the trouble is if you have turn up the the IEM side to silly levels to compensate, an ear plug in the non IEM side might compensate for this

2 minutes ago, Dood said:

 

Vocal microphones are often cardioid to reject ambient  so the benefits are very limited. I've even tried the method using the drummer's overheads, which works a little better but not as effective. A dedicated system designed to pick up ambient sound (in stereo) will "pay for itself" in a very short time. 

This is by far the cheapest and simplest method to implement, furthermore, one of the benefits is that the ambient sound is coming from where you are stood and not spread across the entire stage, meaning you actually feel more connected to the sound you are hearing. A side effect is that you can hear your cabinet sound behind you if you are also using onstage amplifiers. 

 

Oh and proper, well mixed IEM mixes, in stereo for the win.

 

 

this is true, all I said was that it was worth trying, our singer can hear ok without an ambient mic, whether that's leakage past his earphones or what the other mics are picking up or both I don't know, but why add to the hassle (and expense) of setting up if you don't need too

11 minutes ago, pete.young said:

@Dood has another dodge which I found useful - use a Zoom H4N to mix ambient noise, monitor signal and mic/instrument and deliver to earbuds via the headphone out.

worth remembering (and trying first) other mics like the singer's, backing vocal mics and even the drummers also pick up the ambient noise, it could be enough without an addition ambient mic

yes sanding down the bridge bar is how you usually lower the action on an acoustic but it won't effect neck relief, if it's still bowed with the truss rod fully tightened there's youtube video's where a bowed neck can be straightened, worth a go 

8 minutes ago, vmaxblues said:

Cheers guys, really useful.

 

What is a good entry level bit if kit I could use?

our singer has used the gear4music own brand quite happily for a number of years, he did have to buy better earphones though

https://www.gear4music.com/PA-DJ-and-Lighting/Wireless-In-Ear-Monitor-System-by-Gear4music/OUE

if you haven't got your own monitor mix we've started using one of these recently, with good results

https://www.gear4music.com/PA-DJ-and-Lighting/Behringer-MA400-Monitor-Headphone-Amplifier/GX7

edit, we also only have vocals going through the PA, the singer says he can hear well enough what's going on

22 minutes ago, Baloney Balderdash said:

So it was how he used the pedals and not the fact that he used pedals that did it...

yes, I'm nothing against pedals, I use a zoom B1on myself, all the time, mostly to give me a bit of overdrive, subtle though, I've left it in tuner mode several times and not noticed 🤣 I guess the point I was trying to make is that for 90% of bassists for 90% of the time it's perfectly possible to get by without any pedals, and not used properly can mess up your sound.

Unlike guitarists , pedals don't make a huge difference to a bassist's sound (exceptions do apply), I see bass players at gigs stomping on various pedals, can't notice any difference most of the time

When I've been trying something different, a different bass or setting on my pedal I ask my partner if it sounded ok her reply? "it's a bass none noticed"😂

6 hours ago, Baloney Balderdash said:

Don't you think the issue was that lead all along and not the fact that he had 8 pedals, and don't you think he knew perfectly well?

 

no, because I've seen the band before and was less than impressed with the bass sound, I tend to think it's the classic, "the bass sounds great on my own so it must be good with the band", he's probably sucking all the mids out with his pedals

was watching a band a few weeks ago, the bass player had about 8 pedals in front of him, his sound was not good, just the occasional low end thump, about half way through the second half one of his leads packs up, he quickly went straight into his amp, bingo, the bass was suddenly cutting though the mix beautifully.

Now, I'd had a few beers so at the end of the gig I went and told him, he looked at me like something you'd scrap of the bottom of your shoe.

On that basis, I'd take Ace of Spades out of the set and plug straight into the amp and save £300 for something that the band really needed  

here's the vid 

12 minutes ago, Crusoe said:

I didn't know that WAP was a Cardi B cover of a Beatles song 😆

 

WAP

me neither, I do find it irritating when people, or documents, use relatively obscure acronyms or initialisms, with out explaining them (if that's what it is)

9 hours ago, acidbass said:

Beatles and Stones both charting this month - what decade are we in again? Someone said if it wasn't the Beatles who wrote this song, we would never hear it as it is simply unremarkable. I'm a huge Beatles fan and although I don't particularly like the track, I think it's amazing that it has been released and in awe of the technology used. Just fantastic to hear it and the surrounding documentary footage about its production is a real joy to watch.

4 minutes ago, gjones said:

You would have thought they'd have a bunch of great stuff hanging around that was never put on an album, because after all, they were all geniuses.

 

 

I think all the stuff they had hanging around was put out on the Anthology series

Just now, police squad said:

I think it embodies the spirit of the beatles really nicely.

It certainly wouldn't have been released as a single but a good album track.

 

Technology.

yes those were my thoughts, I think it's better than Free as a bird

just listening to it on Spotify, not as bad as I thought it would be

waste of time for the east midlands, is there an alternative?

54 minutes ago, Barking Spiders said:

Ha ha you've rumbled us......to an extent, well at least me anyway. I've never liked the Stones, Who, Kiss, Aerosmith, Foreigner,  Queen, Rod Stewart and many other classic rock bands still on the legacy circuit.  That said I'm a tad disappointed to see some first generation punk/new wave and 80s synth/pop/new romantic acts still at it. Viz punk I thought one of the ideas was to burn bright and then burn out quickly but no as the likes of the Undertones, SLF, Ruts DC, Buzzcocks, Stranglers - or rather new iterations with maybe just 1 or 2 original members - still tour.

 the Undertones are my favourite and to be fair they're all the originals (the drummer was temporarily missing the last time I saw them) except for Fergal, and Paul the new(ish) singer does a good job, SLF still have Jake Burns and Ali McMordie as originals, but I can't take Jake Burns seriously, he's put that much weight on and wears ridiculous shirts, shaved his head now, I did used to wonder whether he wore a wig.

Seeing the Buzzcocks at the Scarborough Punk Fest next year, not sure about that one tbh, no Pete Shelley is hard to imagine, the Ruts are good value, are they still Ruts DC? seen the Stranglers a few times I sometimes think they're just going through the motions, just one original now, wouldn't pay to see them unless they're on at a Festival I'm going to anyway.

And that's the rub, the Undertones are the only ones I'd pay to see at a stand alone gig, the others just happen to be on at a festival I'm attending.

I get the impression that the artists that some BCers think ought to pack it in are the artists the never liked much when they were at their peak

I suppose I'll keep going till I physically can't do it anymore, although I'm less keen, at one time if we didn't have a gig at the weekend I'd be "we haven't got a gig this weekend😒 now its "we haven't got a gig this weekend😀"

5 minutes ago, fretmeister said:

Bands should only quit when they want to do so.

The idea that anyone else should get a say is laughable. 

 

It really does fall into the "I don't like it so nobody else is allowed to either" category.

 

Maybe a big band will end up only playing to 30 people in the Dog n Duck on a Tuesday, paid in pints and crisps... but so what? Don't buy a ticket if you don't want to see it.

 

When Iron Maiden are on a break, Harris goes out to play tiny clubs and pubs with 'British Lion' because he lives to play. He'll still be doing that when IM finishes. Maybe they'll be so few people wanting to watch that he'll have to pick between crisps OR a pint for pay.

 

It's just as much of a passion for those at the top as it is for us dreamers, and I would never contemplate demanding that anyone abandon a passion that hurts nobody.

yep my thoughts exactly, carry on as long as they want too, one of the problems with social media and youtube etc, is, while people will enjoy a performance live, when looking at a video of the gig in the cold light of day it can sound awful

funnily enough I was listening to an old recording of a gig I did back in 2005, about a year after I took up bass, I was surprised how good we sounded (as a band) I always thought I'd (we'd) got better over the years, maybe I haven't, well not a lot anyway