mike257

Sound engineers love rimshots too. That first big rimshot they do when they've set up always seems to coincide with when I'm on my knees clipping the bottom mic on the snare!

What kind of gigs are you playing? When you say you aren't liking the sound of the DI, are you not liking what you get in your monitor, or what you can best when stood behind the PA on stage? I prefer using a DI taken before any effects for a big clean low end and a mic on the cab for mid/hi, but a DI alone can get a good sound in most situations if that is all that's available.

[quote name='JTUK' timestamp='1464025106' post='3055869'] Seriously, a pet hate. So if a venue/stage area isn't big enough, don't do the gig. Why the bass player should not have room to swing a cat is a mystery.... and I'm not standing right on top of cymbals either. [/quote] Seriously JT, the amount of reasons you come out with to turn down gigs, it's an absolute bloody miracle you ever play anywhere.

I've seen a few cheap 03Ds about but they've only got 8 mic preamps so of limited use to me. Might get another old 01V as a spare and to cascade for extra inputs though. Yeah, I've only used the QU on one gig but was happy enough with it. I prefer it to the Soundcraft stuff in the same price range but think it lacks a lot of the features of the X32, that's still my choice in that price range.

And Beatallica, who do Beatles songs in the style of Metallica.

I've done sound for Take Fat, good lads. There's Hayseed Dixie, who do bluegrass versions of AC/DC songs.

My 01V is the old silver one - a little long in the tooth now but you can pick them up for ~£200 all day long, and in terms of what else you can get for that money, they're head and shoulders above! Frequently use it for conferences, small function band jobs, anything that doesn't justify a 'big' desk going out. Very handy and has pulled me out of trouble on many occasions when I'd otherwise have been saddled with a little analogue board with no decent EQ to run a stack of lavs on. As for Fleur East, she got a QU-24, which was perfectly acceptable for vocals and track at a little private corporate gig in Manchester! The Vi are brilliant desks - I really like the interface, it's designed so you can see a LOT of information at once without any of it getting in the way or being too distracting. One of my favourites to work on. Good to hear TC are keeping the service up after being absorbed into the Music Group machine!

I had my trusty old 01V out last night to mix an Oasis tribute on a corporate gig in Manchester. The company I was working for had another gig on upstairs featuring Fleur East (off the X Factor, I believe), who had specced an SD7 for a tracks/vocals gig! They didn't get it, of course. Got some more work in Manchester Academy coming up soon so I'll be back on my preferred Soundcraft Vi-series. Love those things. Definitely come a long way from the Spirit 328!

I can't get to it sadly, but can I suggest you get there early enough to catch the support, Wild Rossa And The '88. Great band, loads of nice grooves and a brilliant singer. I mixed them on a festival recently and have had the singer out as a dep on a few function gigs. Great band and nice guys.

Great shout on Pink's band, took the kids a few years ago, absolutely superb. Drummer is friggin' marvellous. The lady herself is a very impressive performer too, real talent.

I run a small PA hire company, work with a lot of function bands, mainly though an agency contract. They're under no obligation to help me out but it's always bloody well appreciated when they do stick around and do it. Most don't bother (notable exception is a fantastic bass player who's Dad is a sound engineer, so he always offers, even if it means sticking around) but some will do if it doesn't mean a big wait.

How's the cascading going? I had serious desk overkill at the weekend. Little acoustic show in the small front bar of a multi room venue I tech at. The middle sized room had a gig on, tying up our M32, so I had to hoof the Avid Profile and it's mix rack through from our 1000ish cap main room to mix an acoustic gig for 40 people. Used six whole inputs. Sounded bloody good though!

For another perspective on this - I couldn't just give a bunch of yes/no dates and it be that simple. I have a young family (2 and 4 year old boys) and a missus with a teaching job that gives her very little flexibility because she's got a timetable to stick to. To make myself available, I have to make sure the kids have childcare arranged and often that someone else is around to drop them off or pick them up as needed too. I'm a freelance sound tech and musician so have to juggle this on a daily basis. It wouldn't be as simple as "these dates are free, these dates are not". I don't know your guitarist's circumstances but there might be reasons why he can't just block out dates. Having said that, he should be communicating that to you, and I don't know of many working bands that don't use deps to keep the gigs rolling when regular members are unavailable.

I Am Love is an epic, worth holding out the full 7+ minutes it lasts to hear it go from mellow slowie into space-funk workout.

Aye - typical room sizes, band line-up, backline used, number of individual monitor mixes needed, level of sound engineering expertise available are all useful things to know. What does your current system consist of and can you make use of some of it and just upgrade the bits that aren't up to spec?

Not yet, but I'm thinking about it! Only discovered them this week whilst googling this kind of thing. Been considering some diy Z bars but the positioning flexibility of these looks great. Hadn't seen a UK price until you posted, £20 is definitely worth a punt!

That takes me back. Looking great!

It was getting into the wedding/function circuit that enabled me to quit my day job and "go pro", for want of a much less w***y phrase. I earn my living from a mix of playing and sound engineering, but work with a couple of regular bands and am a go-to dep for a couple of other so get to do a reasonable amount of playing, although never as much as I'd like! I really enjoy it, for me the pros far outweigh the cons - yes, there's a ton of waiting around to do, but I work with a nice bunch of players whose company I enjoy so it's rarely a chore to spend an evening hanging around with them, or I use the time to get other work done rather than losing out on time with my family to sit and do my admin/invoicing and other such nonsense. It brought my playing on a load when I jumped from playing bass in odd time signatures for noisy rock bands to having to learn and absorb a bunch of different styles of music from the last six or seven decades, many of which it would never have occurred to me to play. It's not always the same old stuff, although there's a few songs I'd rather skip I just get on with it because I'm spending the night playing music, it's all fun! I worked for a "sensible" day job for a big company for seven years, it was a culture of distrust, performance management was bearing down on everyone, constantly expected to do more with less and do it quicker. I couldn’t go back to that world now. I always remind myself that the worst gig is still always going to be better than the best day at the office! So, in short... Wedding gigs are sound, go for it!

I got my rivet gun for a fiver in Aldi, plenty functional cheap ones about. I honestly think replacing the strip would probably be an easier job than trying to make new square holes in your existing strip.

[quote name='EssentialTension' timestamp='1455994233' post='2984427'] Some of the places Mrs ET and I enjoyed while in Liverpool and environs ... [url="http://www.everymanplayhouse.com/whats-on/i-am-thomas-a-brutal-comedy-with-songs"]http://www.everymanp...medy-with-songs[/url] [url="http://www.saltdogslims.com/"]http://www.saltdogslims.com/[/url] [url="http://www.thegrapesliverpool.co.uk/"]http://www.thegrapesliverpool.co.uk/[/url] [url="http://www.maray.co.uk/"]http://www.maray.co.uk/[/url] [url="http://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/walker/"]http://www.liverpool....org.uk/walker/[/url] [url="http://liverpool.gov.uk/libraries/find-a-library/central-library/"]http://liverpool.gov...entral-library/[/url] [url="http://www.salthousetapas.co.uk/"]http://www.salthousetapas.co.uk/[/url] [url="http://www.johnlewis.com/our-shops/liverpool"]http://www.johnlewis...shops/liverpool[/url] [url="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hilbre_Island"]https://en.wikipedia...i/Hilbre_Island[/url] [/quote] Maray is bloody lovely. There's a bunch of great food places sprung up on and around Bold St the last few years. Rookwood round the corner does a great burger. If you're up again and venture further afield to the "Baltic Triangle" area, a drumming mate of mine is the chef at The Baltic Social and cooks some stunning food. Glad you guys had a good trip!

The interface and features of the Soundcraft Ui series are great but the on-board WiFi has issues. Pair it with a decent external router and you'll be fine. Within the stagebox WiFi mixer world, I probably prefer the feature set of the Behringer XR series, but Soundcraft have the edge on price and also by not having a dedicated app - it's actually a web page hosted within the unit and you can access it from any device with a web browser. Means you'll never wake up to find your iPad has updated overnight and none of your apps work any more!

[quote name='mentalextra' timestamp='1455394939' post='2978837'] I'm talking about radio stations taking relatively modern chart singles and remixing. Just listen to kiss FM. Interestingly we have been out in the car and when they play their remixed version of "what do you mean" my daughter turns it off! lol [/quote] Remixes can be authorised by the label, or keen producers can get stuck in unofficially themselves, but I doubt it's the radio station that's responsible for them. It wasn't uncommon when CD singles were a thing to find a raft of remixes in lieu of a proper B side. Obviously it's more common in pop, dance, R&B etc than with bands.

It does vary. The artist may have terms in their contract relating to control/sign-off on remixes, or it may be out of their hands. As far as the extent it can be changed, sometimes a producer may be given stems, or a full multitrack to play with, on other occasions it may just be the main vocal parts that are made available.