nekomatic

Ooh, I was wondering about that. Have you seen her before? Does the band stand on its own merits or is it a bit of a bass hero(ine) showcase?

I used Rust-Oleum Satin Finish Furniture Paint on mine - seems to stick to anything including PVC port pipe and is available in small pots so you don’t need to spend too much. I will have got it from either B&Q or Homebase.

I'm looking forward to listening to all the above, thanks for posting everyone! I hadn't thought of a link between d'n'b and minimalist composition before, that's a fascinating angle. I just saw there's been a series about the history of drum'n'bass on the radio - haven't listened to that yet either. I was also never much of a clubber, to me drum'n'bass is what was always on the radio in the 2am minicab from one part of North London to another when I got to tag along with my slightly younger and cooler music student mate…

Brendon sold me this BDI-21, it arrived quickly, was well packed and exactly as described. Can't ask for more than that!

I certainly don't place Mitchell beyond criticism, but I find it hard to comment further without knowing a bit more about the supposed problem. Mitchell and Hancock have a musical relationship going back decades that includes Hancock choosing to record an entire album of Mitchell's songs, so I find it hard to picture him 'being kind and polite after shaking his head in disbelief' - he doesn't need to have anything to do with her music if he doesn't want to, so I have to assume he likes and respects it (if anything, for me his reinterpretations on that album are a bit too respectful of the originals). On the other hand, I don't find it hard to imagine some guitarist or rock critic trying to be controversial by claiming Mitchell's use of harmony is deficient in some way, and in that case, I completely agree that it's a shame if she was thin-skinned enough that felt she had to respond to it. But great artists don't always have perfect personalities.

Wait, what? There are people who reckon they know better than Joni Mitchell about what chord progressions she should have used? Can someone give me an example? See, for me this is exactly what makes songs like Coyote brilliant, and it's exactly the chord progression she chooses that makes it possible. If someone's concept of music theory tells them that's wrong, it's not Coyote that needs changing to suit, it's their concept of music theory.

I design boards in Fritzing fwiw, which has many issues but it always seems less hassle to live with them than to learn something like Kicad.

Not an effect circuit but I just received these from JLCPCB, took about two and a half weeks from order to delivery and cost about a tenner for five boards at this size, that’s using the cheapest shipping and VAT etc inclusive.

Can’t disagree with anything here. Although I will venture the opinion that some of her songs have been sung better by other people…

The obvious (to me) argument against is that it would be an obstacle to getting lessons from a bass teacher at some future date.

There is

That’s looking good! Well worth finishing properly. I built the LF side of my crossover with terminal blocks and the HF side on matrix board, just soldering the component legs together. Get hold of the bits and start trying out layouts and it’ll make sense.

I don't think it'd be remotely practical to have variable components of the values you'd need for a crossover. Variable capacitors you can buy are in the 100 pF order of magnitude, and you need ones about 10 000 to 100 000 times bigger than that! You can simply attenuate a tweeter with a variable resistor, but you'll be changing the load that the crossover sees and that will change its frequency behaviour too… …on which note, I asked about bi-amping rather than using a passive crossover in my own cab thread, and (I think it was) @stevie said it was certainly an option, but the interaction between the carefully developed crossover design and the dynamic behaviour of the speakers forms part of how the system behaves and therefore how the cab sounds. It'd definitely be interesting to try out the passive crossover versus bi-amping with the same enclosure and drive units - if anyone has the inclination and (ideally) the test gear… @GlamBass74 which aspect of building the crossover are you apprehensive about? Can you solder ok?

The R500h doesn’t have a fan.

There are plenty of dB meter phone apps. I assume the numbers they give you are nonsense in absolute terms, but would be worth something as a relative comparison i.e. when measured with the same phone and app, is the SPL in situation A louder than the SPL in situation B.

Ooh, I didn’t catch either of those, will have to put them on the list to look out for. I saw Kojey Radical, Lonelady (brilliant as expected), Mewn and Warmduscher (didn’t know what to expect, both good), Metronomy, Henge (inevitably), Anna Meredith, and Björk who was spectacular although apparently people who didn’t get a good spot up front didn’t have such a great experience. Managed to miss Squarepusher and ACR, booo. Surprise random discovery though was Grove who raps over drum’n’bass beats with huge energy, a pure punk attitude and not very much on 👀

I think Funeral Plans At The Retail Park are probably some sort of stoner metal, but welcome your suggestions

Had to get the young ‘un back to school after, so no, but having shown mrs nekomatic the picture she’s passing it on to her contacts there! Looked like a combo of neck angle, insufficient relief and a bizarrely high nut. It was a medium scale bass too so probably gets inflicted on the youngest and softest-fingered victims 😭

Child 2 is having his piano exam and there are various instruments lying around the practice room. My heart goes out to the kid who has to play this!

You could have a look at CPU heatsinks which tend to use thin copper fins rather than thick extruded aluminium ones? Might have to do a bit of bodging, but they’re not expensive on eBay

Not my sale, just popped up in one of my searches. Of course there is likely to be a reason that each one is no longer in its original cabinet… https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/314067272560?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=pjnapugors6&sssrc=2349624&ssuid=O0J6pgZgSC6&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY

That sounds wrong, what are the add-ons you aren’t getting refunded for?

See, this is why music is so great, because you and I can watch and hear exactly the same thing and have such utterly different opinions on it. I mean, obviously mine is right and yours is comprehensively and irredeemably wrong, but it’s great that you have it.

mrs nekomatic once got the kids a pBone for a bit of fun (as they already both played piano and violin) and for a further bit of fun got someone she knows to give them a couple of lessons. Somehow a couple of lessons turned into a full on third instrument, kid 1 let it drop after a while but kid 2 recently got his grade 7, on a King we inherited from my late uncle who used to play in an amateur orchestra in Belgium. Kid 2’s teacher is now trying him out on some jazz, much to his initial reluctance but last lesson while I was working upstairs I could overhear him taking solos on Watermelon Man to a Jamey Aebersold backing track, and I may coincidentally have got something in my eye.

Since last time I’ve watched Blossoms (good effort from my homeboys, I’d be happy to see them live one day), Khruangbin (not at all bad) and Billie Eilish (didn’t blow me away, but clearly gave the crowd what they wanted). What more is there to say about this? It is what it is: clearly not the same thing it used to be once upon a time, clearly a massive commercial machine now, but equally clearly not just mainstream pop, or just dad rock, or just anything else it’s accused of being. And, thankfully, not the only festival there is to choose from, so people who want a festival but not like that can surely find one.