SumOne

Torch - Good Reggae Music Silly Walks Discotheque have produced quite a lot of good stuff.

It looks good, when my NUX Mighty Plug dies I'll probaby get one. I know it's asking a lot, but I'd like it to have a 1/8 jack out like the Mooer Prime as then it's potentially a whole basic live pedalboard - or at least will do for practice sessions, as can switch between presets (assuming you can add a chain of a few effects in each preset), and can use it as a tuner.

I wasn't really taking it seriously and checking for peer reviews, more of a joke meme than anything else. Saying that though, just because someone else manipulated a version of it doesn't prove the Bass one is fake. That Dailly Mail article from this week says Bass music = Psychotic (re-hashing old 'evidence'), so it wouldn't be that odd for Fox to pick up on it.

So there, I am, in Sri Lanka, formerly Ceylon, at about 3 o'clock in the morning, looking for one thousand brown M&Ms to fill a brandy glass, or Ozzy wouldn't go on stage that night. So, Jeff Beck pops his head 'round the door, and mentions there's a little sweets shop on the edge of town. So - we go. And - it's closed. So there's me, and Keith Moon, and David Crosby, breaking into that little sweets shop, eh. Well, instead of a guard dog, they've got this bloody great big Bengal tiger. I managed to take out the tiger with a can of mace, but the shopkeeper and his son... that's a different story altogether. I had to beat them to death with their own shoes. Nasty business, really, but sure enough I got the M&Ms, and Ozzy went on stage and did a great show.

The Bass music one was on Reddit https://www.reddit.com/r/silversunpickups/s/cFXcxaTG2D It found be fake.... But I think it was referring to this study which the equally dis-reputable Dailly Mail had a story on: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-13165253/What-music-taste-actually-says-personality-according-science.html

..... (or, they might just not be the sort of people Fox News viewers like!)

It's already the case that recorded music isn't much of a money maker and artists make most money through playing live and merchandise. My guess is AI probably won't make much difference to that other than perhaps making recorded music less valuable and the experience of seeing live bands more valuable. Interesting that Thomas Bangalter of Daft Punk having spent nearly 30 years pretending to be a Robot, disbanded and said "the last thing I would want to be, in the world we live in, in 2023, is a robot." and went on to write a score by hand for a 55 piece orchestra and 20 ballet dancers.

I know this is just GAS that I need to avoid, but the trouble with the CK 61 is I just know there are things like the Yamaha YC 61, and Nord Electro 6D 61 that will be even better (but £1k more), I'm close to convincing myself it's worth the extra for something that'll last for years and hold it's value well.....but of course, once I got that I'd then I'd be eyeing up the Nord Stage 4! I thought Bass buying was an expensive game! But really, a £700 Fender Player series J or P will not sound or feel all that much different to a £4k vintage or custom shop one. Whereas, arguably (at least my internal monologue) a £4k stage Keyboard probably does actually sound, perform, and feel significantly better than a £700 one.

I asked chat GTP to respond for me: --- Hey everyone, I recently received an AI-generated pub gig booking email, and I have to say, I was impressed by how seamlessly it mimicked human communication. It had all the right elements - a friendly tone, relevant information, and a clear call to action. However, I couldn't help but wonder about the implications of using AI for tasks like this. On one hand, it's incredibly efficient and can save a lot of time for both artists and venues. On the other hand, there's something to be said about the personal touch that comes with human interaction. What are your thoughts on using AI for pub gig bookings? ---

Yamaha CK 61, arrived today. Early impressions are that it's a good 'un. I'm sure something like a Nord Electro 6 would be better, but is also more than twice the cost. Or perhaps the Yamaha YC 61. But £750 was about as high as I wanted to go, I play in some quite grotty and boozy pubs, the risk of it getting knocked over or having a pint dropped over it is quite high! It seems in my Goldilocks zone for pub gigs: I've got an 88 key home piano that's great for home piano stuff, not great for other sounds though and is big/heavy to move. Also, I've got an M-Audio Pro 49 which is good for using with a Laptop/DAW but I've had hassles using this setup live. I had an MPC Key 61 that was excellent for home use and making full songs, but is complex and doesn't have quite so obvious/simple on-hand keyboard controls as the CK (like organ drawbars) for live purely keyboard playing. The CK 61 is small (fits in my 49 key flight case), light, decent enough sound for the main things I want - Piano and EP and Organ (not quite so good sounding for some other stuff: Horns sound very digital - like an 80s keyboard, and Bass Guitar players have nothing to worry about being replaced by the Bass Guitar sounds!), seems okay build quality, fast startup, obvious and useful hardware controls that are relatively foolproof - it's really good to have pretty much anything you'll need directly there with a corresponding button/slider/knob (I haven't opened the manual and think I've got it all pretty much figured out within a few hours), semi weighted keys, easy to set 3x split points. Lots of in/outs. Added bonus features of in built speakers, battery power, and bluetooth to stream music through it. My main gripe (which unfortunatly I find quite an issue) is the keys are slightly smaller than my other keyboards (15.9cm per octave vs 16.4cm), it's the Yamaha synth width keys rather than piano width which is a bit annoying for a stage piano, I find that small difference a hassle for muscle memory while also using my other keyboards and doesn't really save much space so seems a bit pointless (2.5cm over its 5 octaves). It's enough of an issue for me to consider other keyboards, but I don't think there is anything else with all the features and wider keys in this price range so I'd better get used to it.

Yeah, the form factor of it has just about won me over. It ticks a lot of boxes, but the MS-60B + is perhaps going to do all that and more. (and of course, there's always the B1-4 which is tough to beat and is less than half the cost of the Pod Express).

Linval Thompson, Westbound Plane

UK Garage MJ Cole, Sincere Roy Davis Jr, Gabriel Scott and Leon, You used to hold me

Well, not exactly - I agreed to pay fees for a service, but they didn't proivide that service. And I tried to sort it out, but their systems didn't allow it. I don't know why you're quite so combative and presuming to know all the details and would immediately side with the big faceless money making corporation over the lived experience of an individual. It was 15 years ago and was perhaps a different scenario to yours and perhaps eBay systems have changed since. To be honest, as it's from 15 years ago I hadn't remembered all the details correctly in my previous post but I just did a search on my emails and this is what I can find from 2009 sent to eBay: "I sent a message explaining that there was no payment due to you - the 2 identical items 'sold' were the same listing and I have not received payment for both, something has gone wrong on your system and there is no obvious way for me to fix it or respond to you or speak to anyone. I sent the message over a month ago asking what action could be taken as 2 sales were not made, but I received no response until these messages today canceling my account and threatening debt collection unless I pay you. This is especially poor customer service- if I can discuss it with a human or get human to read these emails then it can be resolved - but you are just going direct to some automated response of 'cancel account and send in the debt collectors'." That was my last correspondance with them, account cancelled, I moved house but a long time later debt collector letters were eventually sent to my parents. I can't remember the subsequent correspondance, but in the end I paid them for money that was not owed to them - so they basically used dodgy faceless beauracracy to bully and steal from me. I don't know about you but that seems like some sort of Kafkaesque dystopian situation where faceless beauracracy and systems are used to erode the rights of individuals, like we are seeing from the Post Office from a similar time when people put too much faith in shoddy automated systems of big organisations and prefer to presume blame on the individual victims.

Facebook is also bad as a seller. In quite a few years selling on BC I have never had a bad transaction or dealt with time wasters. I've only declined one sale that seemed a bit fishy (someone with a new account asking me to post to a PO box). .... Facebook on the other hand - trying to sell a keyboard lately really had me losing faith in humanity! I had about 10 obvious scam attempts, and about the same amount of time wasters, and so many of these:

I would be keen, but the trouble I'm finding with that route is that external modules for Piano/Rhodes/Hammond don't seem that common, most tend to be focused on synth sounds and are quite old tech - discontinued for about 20 years so I don't know how well they'd compare to modern stuff, they are quite big and not too convenient for gigs (unless I start getting rack mounted stuff), I'd forsee connectivity/reliability faff (e.g. Midi mapping organ drawbars), and the ones I can see avaliable are quite expensive. Hardware soft synths just feel like they would bring a world of connectivity and reliability pain for gigs. A second hand Yamaha CK61 or Roland VR-09-B are top of my list right now for about £400 second hand budget.

I'm with you on the newfound keyboard GAS. Bass Guitars are bad enough, but arguably one £500 Bass can pretty much do everything, but there's an almost legitimate 'need' to have a few different types of piano/keyboards/synths! Personally, I've got a Yamaha home piano for... well, home piano playing (big, heavy, 88 weighted keys, built in speaker, good piano sounds but other sounds not so good). An M Audio MIDI keyboard for Laptop DAW/VST stuff (and live stuff while I'm selling my MPC Key 61), it's fine - but I've ran into reliability issues using it at gigs. So now I have my eye on something sort of in between: a stage keyboard for gigs, smaller than a home piano and more sounds, more reliable live than MIDI keyboard and Laptop. Ideally with decent organ sounds and drawbars. It's not a cheap game though (Yamaha CK 61 & Roland VR-09B being my front runners for my budget).

Nice new mix from Earl Gateshead https://on.soundcloud.com/UhW4y

HX One looks good, I'd be interested to hear how you get on with it @Rodders handy for occasionally needed things like modulation and delays and looper, and the flux controller looks useful.

I kind of regret selling my GT Core. All I need for gigs are: Tuner, Compressor, EQ, Drive, a way of switching between two basses, and to split the signal - XLR to Mixer (for IEMs) and line to my Amp/Cab (I can do the XLR to mixer from my Amp though so don't really need a pedal doing it). I've gone for Boss Compact pedals for foolproof/bomb-proof (LS-2, TU-3, LMB-3, BB-1X, and a SubZero DI Box) and that covers those needs. But actually, they probably cost about the same that I sold the GT Core for, they're bulkier, in some ways the 'what you see is what you get' of individual pedals is more foolproof - but in other ways there are risks like patch cables and power cables coming loose, and obviously individual pedals don't have the option to do all the other stuff I don't really need but is nice to have (HPF would be good live, cab sim to mixer would be nice, all the other more exotic effects for mucking about at home). So, if anyone isn't into their GT Core, perhaps give me a shout!

Yeah, I'm not saying in generalised terms one is better than the other. But if generalising (which is what this is all about), my view is that the UK tastes are for slightly more quirkiness, US a bit more conservative and macho/boastful.

I'm talking in massive generalisations (and have lived in the US)

Back once again, the funkiest paint job in the pedal kingdom: To be quite honest though, it's not quacking as well as I remember - probably due to my dull flatwounds and the rest of my setup. It has no use in the bands I'm in. So I dunno, might sell it, or I might keep it until I invariably get a new Bass/strings and lust for the purple funkyness again.

US mainstream market seems to me generally more macho/conformist. UK Ska was quite political/anti establishment, the US stuff was a bit more for the Bro's. US hip hop has generally been more macho and boastful. Queen's 'I want to break free video' pretty much killed their US career but didn't do them any harm in the UK (or most of the rest of the world). Not so much US popularity for bands along the lines of Erasure, Pet Shop Boys, Pulp, Suede, The Cure. They'd be considered too sissy and odd for a lot of the US market that go for more conformist stuff like Country music that doesn't do so well in the UK.