TimR

[quote name='WHUFC BASS' timestamp='1331211038' post='1569431'] ... on a number of occasions and on each occasion he'd be warned by all band members about his speeding up. He'd be drinking too ... [/quote] Is it acceptable for a pro musician to drink?

"Let's wear the band t-shirts to play in." God not more corporate wear. I'll wear it to turn up in and get changed into stage clothes later but, please, not to play in them!

Get some of that modelling clay that hardens in the air. Mold it round the edges of the socket to your aesthetic pleasure and paint. I suspect if you apply a thin layer of oil first then you could remove the hardened clay easily if required later. If your nut keeps coming undone then apply threadlock. You can get it in Halfords.

It's funny the gigs you get through agents who should know better. I would tell your agent you're not going back and why. We did a gig in a club we'd played before and gone down a storm. Only the second time we played the enertainments manager kept telling us people didn't like what we were playing and to play some rock and roll. Despite having a full dance floor all night. Though on that occasion it was our drummer who was going to initiate the violence.

The only time I ever got stage fright was at my wedding. I learned the speech, and who to give what to. My father-in-law did his speech and completely knocked me for 6. I stood up knowing exactly what to say, looked around the room and just forgot everything. It's the pressure of trying to live up to other peoples expectation when you think their expectation is greater than yours. Musical stage fright? Never. We're the band, we've practiced and we've been asked to play. We don't have to be there, we choose to be there. People want to be there and they want us to be there. Make a mistake, laugh it off, it's live music, no one will die. AND most of all no one will remember or notice the mistakes (other than the OCD band leader) they'll just remember the good bits.

£250 is about right. I'm looking for one to pair with mine at the moment. One went on eBay for £170 a few weeks ago but I wasn't in a position to buy it.

My brother saw David Grey mess up the start of a song 3 times in a row. It could have been recovered with live musicians. Quantisation is worse than auto tune in my book. A drummer that can't play in time to a click isn't a drummer in the same way that a singer who can't sing in tune is not a singer. I'd use the Jurasic Park Quote about people doing things because they can but I can't remember it. We used mini disk and the drummer just had a mix in his headphones which worked. You need a way to stop it while you continue playing in case it goes t*ts up rather than having to stop the tune. Because it undoubtedly will.

[quote name='SidVicious1978' timestamp='1330538004' post='1559096'] Won't Mani feel weird/scared about all of us talking about him like this? I'm just saying [/quote] No weirder than I feel exchanging posts with a dead person. I've never heard of him either. There are girls here?!

[quote name='skankdelvar' timestamp='1330532677' post='1558997'] Indeed. 'The effects of global warming on the Arctic oceans' is a good icebreaker. [/quote] Go to your room!

I don't have a s**t day job! How very dare you. I find putting screws in widgets very stimulating but having discussed the finer points of widget screws during the day I'm not really going to get that fired up talking about widgets to a complete stranger even if they have a room full of widgets that I have personally built at their home. Sure people will talk about music and be polite when cornered but surely it's better to start off talking about something less obvious when in a non music situation.

[quote name='Bilbo' timestamp='1330522941' post='1558779'] My brother was at a festival of some sort (may have been bikes nto music) and was walking along and saw a mate of his so wandered over only to find the mate was with a friend of HIS; one Gary Moore. My brother was a huge fan and, being a bit awestruck and trying to be cool at teh same time, said to Moore 'hey man. Nice to meet you. I've been a fan for ywars'. Moore responds 'Hey man. I don't like to talk about my music' to whcih the mutual friend says 'Oi. Stop being a c*** and talk to the guy. He's been paying your wages for decades'. So he did. Which was nice..... [/quote] I'm not really surprised. It's what he does for a living and he's enjoying his day off looking at bikes. Talk to him about bikes. There's nothing more tedious than being at a party and being asked what you do for a living and then trying to make putting screws into widgets sound interesting when I'd rather talk about my hobby of bass playing. Big name bass players on forums talking about their day job? Shouldn't they be on golf forums?

The difference between playing live and mixing on a recording is exactly as Simon says. Too many musicians play their instruments as if they are soloing all of the time. Internal and external dynamics as well as arrangements are what are key. Especially as most of us don't have a sound engineer when we play live. Another aspect is appropriate volume for the size of the room. How many bands just turn up as loud as they can until limited by feedback or PA power? Instead of boosting guitar solos etc, the rest of the band would do well to come down in volume. Frequency mixing live is pretty hard to do when most of the players are using their own amps.

[quote name='12stringbassist' timestamp='1330264688' post='1554794'] ... This was fine, except that the legs on the lighting tree and the power amps for the PA were situated at stage right where (ideally) the bass rig would go. he had mic'ed the drum kit up and had cables running over the space where the bass rig belonged. ... moaned that a bank of 4 small stage lights that I put on top of my bass rig got in his eyes from the back of the room, as they pointed forward. What a control freak prat. ... [/quote] Why was the bass amp supposed to go stage right? Why are you shining stage lights out into the audience? I've played some small venues usually it's the same guy (drummer) who complains about the lack of space and how we can't possibly all fit in - unless of course he booked the gig in which case we'll easily fit into that space. We did have some interesting discussions on how the drummer needed his huge kit and couldn't the keys just not use an amp.

This interactive frequency chart shows where each instuments characteristic frequencies lie. http://www.independentrecording.net/irn/resources/freqchart/main_display.htm The main problem is that the fundamentals from the Bass aren't really what you're hearing because most rigs can't produce at the low frequencies, what they're producing is the frequencies around the fundamental frequencies that the guitars are producing. This is a fairly characteristic frequency for the guitar so you are a bit knackered really. Boosting the mids will help as long as they are the right mids and not clashing with the mids from the guitar. As has already been said: boost at around 550Hz to 2K and you'll be out of their area and everyone should be happy.

One analogy that does work is the Sky one. Pubs seem to be happy to pay up to £13k a year for footie!

I agree with Bluejay. And would go further and say that as musicians we ourselves have forgotten how much work goes into just getting to a level where we're trotting out 'easy' numbers. They're only easy because we've practiced and worked at making them look and feel easy. To most of the audience what we do is magical and practically everyone I ever talk to about being in a band says "I wish I could play a musical instrument."

[quote name='silddx' timestamp='1329399878' post='1541850'] If you had to replace yourself by auditioning new bass players for your band, do you think that would be an easy thing to do? [/quote] I don't think it's my job to audition or find a new bass player. I just turn up and play bass, loads of bass players do that.

I used to play The Trooper with 4 fingers. I don't remember anyone saying that my playing was uneven. I went to see Nicko McBrain the other month doing his "audience with". He doesn't use a double bass drum pedal! Ever! when the guys are playing that music every night for two years you would expect them to be able to play that fast. I'm not touring with Maiden, or anyone else, I just hit the string with whichever finger is ready.

The point I was making is that you have to do something different from the big online shops. They can buy bulk etc but don't have that casual walk in and browse thing. If you have a PC in the shop that you can let customers see what you can get in and they know it will be there next day you may not lose their custom. I get told "We can try and get some in for you", rather than "I don't have any in stock but can get some here for tomorrow." Mainly it's a lack of dynamic customer service but I do realise that it must be the hardest thing in the world continually being nice to tyre kickers. There may also be tie ins that I'm not aware of maybe to be a string/bass/amp stockist you have to order a minimum quantity?

Sorry guys you've lost me. Why does being a high street retailer prevent you from being an online retailer as well? Surely this is a case of evolve or die out. There are a couple of shops near me with a great set up. In the back room they have a mini photo booth set up. Secondhand gear gets photographed and straight onto their websites. It can't be hard for them to sell you a set of flats, take payment and you pick them up next day. Saving all that hassle of collecting stuff from the post office or missing the courier because you're at work.

I wonder how many people play in a band and think that it would be easy to rent some space that they can use for rehearsals and hire out when they're not using it. Musicians don't usually make good businessmen, that's why there are so many agents around. Running a studio is going to be like any other business and there will be a ton of overheads. A friend of mine tried it and fell at the first hurdle when the council came round and pointed out that his lease wouldn't allow him to do what he wanted to do. He was stuck with a unit that he couldn't use and couldn't sub let. An expensive mistake. Get a solicitor to look over anything like that. I'm not sure that being in a band, having a full time day job and running a studio in the evening is something that is easy to pull off.

[quote name='funkyspuke' timestamp='1328086884' post='1521438'] Is there anything that you would wish your studio offered or did? [/quote] If you're looking to set up a studio my thoughts are: Be on site all the time or get someone you trust, who knows about gear and pay them well to be there. I think many owners just think they'll hire a unit, sound proof it, fill it with gear and pay someone a few quid to take bookings. An online diary system so you can see what rooms are free before you phone up to book. It's a nightmare trying to book when the girl at the desk is trying to be helpful but you can't see what she can see. Check out [url="http://www.graphicnature.co.uk/"]http://www.graphicnature.co.uk/[/url] Chris is an all round nice guy and has really put some time and energy into getting it right. I think if you price rooms appropriately you will weed out the Chav element. Have a couple of bare basic rooms with el cheapo gear and price it a lot differently to rooms with high end gear in it. Don't allow eating or drinking in the rooms, other than water. Basic consumables available for sale, strings, sticks, leads, snare heads. Have a few spare leads and mark them up for people to borrow. Be available on the mobile phone at all times and get back as soon as you hear a message. If you are planning to run the studio and do recording sessions and not available to take calls you need to have someone who has access to the diary and can take the calls for you.

One studio I used had a 4x10". Every week I reported a different blown cone in it. I've also seen mods done to volume controls on amps to stop them being driven to max. There is always the DI option if there is a decent PA. I suppose the answer is for the rehearsal studio to check before and after a band use the room that it's all working correctly, but I guess arguing over who pays for a bust amp when one of you is trying to run a budget studio and the other is a peniless musician who can just about scrape together the rehearsal fee plus a few tins of lager is a frustrating task. A few studios do have storage options. I'm fairly sure Farm Factory mentioned by Lozz do. They've been around for years and are well organised. You could even hire a basic PA for gigs from them. However, you never know when a studio is going to go bust and your gear gets held byh the recievers while you try to prove it's yours.

Because anyone can get together a few quid and strap on a bass and plug into an amp. Find a couple of mates and all of a sudden you're in a band. Copy a few tunes and you're good to go. Fast forward a few years, you've been in a few bands done a few gigs infront of some mates or a few drunk people in a pub and then you can call yourself a musician. It's a bit like putting together an ikea wardrobe and calling yourself a carpenter. The difference is 'feel'. There are people who can pull of tasteful slap and widdly stuff and people who can play root notes. Everyone can do this with enough practice but unless they know what they are listening for when they play it will always sound like a mechanical bag of bolts. If one person likes what you have done then you have done it well. My wife likes her ikea wardrobe.

I would just have reiterated what you had originally said and toldl him to call you back when the choir were ready. Chances are they'll never be ready. Lots of the choir will turn up weekly because they enjoy each others company and get to sing a bit. A few of them will drift off when they realise they're never going to sing to an audience. A few others will leave because of his attitude.