TimR

It's the DJ who is performing live. Not the music. I'm guessing that most cover bands don't actually play 'live' music, they play carefully rehearsed copies of something someone else has created. Although the music is being reconstructed by humans so there is the potential for anything to happen, even the rehearsed copy may not be what you're expecting, even if it's what the musicians are intending (although it's not always what they're expecting either ) .

I suspect there are a lot of bands who don't have the experience of a really good bass player. I'm not talking about someone who can play blistering licks, but someone who can really make the band come alive just by locking in with the drummer on 8th root notes making them groove and not rushing or dragging. Hence you get adverts like that. They won't get anywhere because they're not looking for the right player simply because they don't know what they need. .

How many people participated in the end?

[quote name='tauzero' timestamp='1439215037' post='2840912'] You might be reinventing the wheel - there's a couple of bits of software available for the Raspberry Pi. Haven't looked properly at them as our guitarist does the DMX programming on a laptop. [url="http://lightput.com/"]http://lightput.com/[/url] (freeware) [url="http://www.qlcplus.org/raspberry.html"]http://www.qlcplus.org/raspberry.html[/url] (donationware) [/quote] Yes. My thought was to do programming on a laptop and then download the sequences to a Rasperry PI or similar. There's lots of third party software and hardware about. The key is getting the functionality right. What switches and knobs are required for a simple and basic foot controller while playing live. In theory you could program a whole show of scenes including advanced sequences with a single button to page through those scenes. With all the programming done at home.

You could be right. Don't know why it wouldn't be. It's just an Obey 40 in a foot case. Urm... Actually that gives me a better idea.

I would blame the death of 'nightclubs' on over priced drinks and pubs that can now stay open as late as they want. One poster was saying, the other week, that their band is now being asked to start at 10 and play until 1am. A group of my friends went to a festival on Saturday, not a band in sight. 10,000 people went to see the DJs paying £45 a ticket. That's a nice little earner.

Chauvet apparently do a foot-C. Bought out in Jan 2015. It looks like it might actually be what I'm trying to build! Not available in the UK and seems to be out of stuck in the U.S.

That's a very complex explanation. DMX is made up of 512 channels of data. The data consists of a value from 0-256. This value tells the 'fixture' on that Chanel what to do. For simplicity a one Channel red light would be off at 0 and full on at 256. And dimmed at all values between. A three channel par can might have Red on channel 1, green on channel 2 and blue on channel 3. Any one of 65,000 colours can be created using a mix of the three channel colours. That Par Can would have to be adressed and then would use the 3 adjacent channels based on that address. So the Par Can at address 1 would use channels 1,2,3. More complicated fixtures would use more channels. Add fixtures until you have used all 512 available channels. As an example you could have 4 Par Cans set to Adress 1 and they would all operate at the same time to the same colour using 3 faders. Or you could have 4 of them set to Channels 1,4,7,10 and operate them independently using 12 faders on the desk.

I like the idea of an 'expression' pedal to control values. Definitely an LED display for parameters.

I'm thinking. Everything programmed as sequences. Then a single colour could be programmed as a one stage sequence. Then two switches to page up and down and select a sequence, then a third to active the selected sequence. Maybe 4 and 5 for 'user programmed DMX sequence' which could be blackout, strobe or anything really. Maybe just 5 buttons for 5 sequences? Really I'd like to know how people use their current controllers at the moment and what the limitations are or if they don't have a controller, what they'd like to be able to do.

Seems to me there is a lack of programmable DMX foot controllers. I'm thinking of designing and building something aimed at bands. What features would you like to see? How many switches? My initial feeling is to build something that is programmed via a laptop and USB then taken to a gig as standalone. I think that would be the balance between ease of programming and portability and complexity of design. Fire away. It may never get off the ground but if I can pencil in some design ideas, get a few people interested, a working prototype might go places. Thanks for reading.

You're either too loud or the cans are too close to the band. I'm going to start a new thread. Please contribute.

I always think that the few bars of Rush's - Witch Hunt from 3:12 on could have been so much more. http://youtu.be/bFvpMPtGD7c

[quote name='lurksalot' timestamp='1439019809' post='2839384'] I have found the sound to light on the cans I have is next to useless , it's far to sensitive , I have recently bought a Ryger foot controller and daisy chain the lights to it , it is brilliant , you do need all the lights to talk the same Dmx language to make it run properly ie all he same make , as manufacturers often use different channels for different commands [/quote] My cans have an adjustment knob. I'm really surprised there are no decent programmable foot controllers out there. I keep toying with the idea of building one.

Having been down the route of controller etc I have come to the conclusion that setting them to auto with sound to light and just letting them do their thing gives fairly good results for pub bands. The important thing with any lighting is positioning. Getting them up high and if they're LED close to the performers is key.

A violin has only 4 strings.

[quote name='MarkW' timestamp='1438862806' post='2838143'] Every now and then I wish I had the ability to solo, but I'm hopeless at it: I have neither the proficiency to be melodic nor the technique to be flashy. But to my ears a bass solo can be every bit as pleasing as a guitar solo, provided that technique isn't used as a surrogate for musicality. Stu Hamm's solo at the end of 'Love Thing' is a very simple but beautiful piece of playing, whereas the pyrotechnics of Mark King et al, whilst hugely technically impressive, just leave me cold. That said, even if I could solo I'd never get the chance - our 'rock god' guitarist would be too busy starching his pants at the front of the stage to let me get a look in... [/quote] As Bilbo suggests: not all solo is improvised. In fact I suspect if you recorded your guitarist and disected what he played you'd find an awful lot of 'borrowed' runs and licks and probably not a lot of difference in each performance. What do you think guitarists spend all their time in their bedrooms doing? No one pulls solos out of thin air. At least not really good ones. Record an 8 bar loop on your phone or PC and just play. Next time you get the nod play something 'you just made up on the spot', anything you will play will amaze them.

[quote name='Rich' timestamp='1438863486' post='2838151'] I don't think it's the only defensible position -- to my mind, another one is 'I don't particularly like solos of any sort, but hey, each to his own'. Other than that, brilliant post. As ever, the trouble begins when opinion starts to be presented as fact... [/quote] Well the 'fact' is bass can be and is played as a solo instrument. The 'opinion' is that it shouldn't be.

[quote name='JTUK' timestamp='1438865924' post='2838195'] This is why the band runs a ktty, but agree the singer might get a decent deal as the band has paid for what might be perceived as his end. They say the band can use it...but funnily the bass doesn't get to go thru it. Basically, if you want an equal split of the money do an equal split of the 'chores; which means admin, P.A, lights etc etc etc. In the end you'll be billing for time as well.... and the band is on wages. Not insummountable, but you need people to 'understand' the way things work and how things get down..and not by 'magic' either [/quote] The equal split thing can also get contentious as well. Some people write out arrangements, some deal with bookings. Even spending an hour once every few months checking leads and PA consumables, keeping an uptodate playlist for breaks if you're a function band. Maybe sorting out first dance tune if you're a wedding band. I'd still rather stick to the singer/(other slacker) turns up, does their bit, goes home, gets paid flat rate for time at gig. Rest gets split. You'll always get people complaining 'it's not fair', that's life - they can always take up singing or playing the harmonica...

[quote name='leftybassman392' timestamp='1438841915' post='2837808'] I've had this experience too. Only in my case it was more extreme: because I owned the P.A. everybody else in the band seemed to expect that I would just do it all myself so they could stand around and discuss important issues of the day. This went on for a while with me getting increasingly frustrated by having to do all the donkey work, and then set it up and get everything working so we all sounded good, and then playing a 2-hour gig, and then striking it all afterwards. One day I announced that thenceforth I'd be taking an extra 10% of the gig fee for doing this work. After that things got much better. Moral: the threat of financial sanction can be a powerful motivator. [/quote] Indeed. I used to do that. The drummer used to complain he didn't get 10% extra to set up his kit that took just as long as the PA. Then he said the band must have paid for the PA by now and shouldn't have to pay any more. Financial is all well and good but people will still never 'get it'. In the end you just have to work with what you've got and if it's not working change something and see if it works better. As I say, often it makes things worse. As long as everyone isn't taking the p... out of one person it should be ok.

[quote name='Bilbo' timestamp='1438854854' post='2837976'] ... As for the 'bass is made to be a supportive instrument not a solo instrument' comments. Sorry guys but who put you in charge? All instruments are made for whatever the artist chooses to use them for. No instrument inventor I know of ever put conditions on it's use. Your preference may be for solid bass lines underpinning a song but that isn't everyone's bag and composers and performers alike are entitled to use them for whatever context their vision suggests. ... [/quote] I agree. I'm really hoping you have misunderstood what some posters have written. I really can't believe anyone actually does believe bass should only be a supporting instrument. Particularly any decent bass player who regards themself as a musician. Scary.

I've played with singers (and brass players) who you really don't want to have at a gig any longer than they have to be. In one band the guitarist used to really moan about the singer. I told him to just accept it because the alternative would be painful. Anyway, he had a word with the singer who turned up at the same time as us for the next gig, left his bag and mic stand right in the middle of where we were trying to set up, moaned about having to be there so early and then spent the hour chatting to his mates and getting drunk at the bar. The gig wasn't too good We went back to the old ways after that.

The secret of a good solo is having the bits that are missing when the bass drops out, covered by the other instruments. If you have no solid groove behind the music then the audience cannot understand what is happening. So an out and out solo, where the drums keep the beat, everyone else drops out and the bass goes off on one is never going to appeal to anyone. Likewise, if everything drops out but the bass and drums keep the groove (not really as solo, just a break) all is good. If the guitarist or keys player are regimented enough to play a solid groove under the solo there is absolutely nothing wrong with the bass player soloing.

There is an awful lot of good bass solo work out there. You just have to look for it. Jaco's wise words: before you even look at the bass line, learn and understand the melody.

I am working on a solo for Saturday night. About 16bars long tops with a repeating motif following the underlying chords. It should sound quite nice as the guitarist will stick to the basics. One song only.