Jack

14 hours ago, EBS_freak said:

You see, I have made that mistake...

 

Ask a musician to put themselves into the PA, and they will buy the cheapest XLRs which will cut in and out with ends which get stuck in the desk sockets, the crappest DI boxes - and then look at you when nothing works. And that's assuming they actually remember to bring the gear to actually put themselves through the PA.

 

Thinking of stuff to save a gig...

 

I play through a Kemper because I know if the guitarists rig turns to 5h17, I can give my rig to them and I can go direct.

I carry round spare adapters for all sorts of things... and a soldering iron. I have been known to run an electric kit from a pedal board power supply because the drummer seemed to forget an important element of their electric kit.

I carry around spare strings for instruments I dont even play.

I carry around spare IEMs.

I carry a pair of drumsticks - which I have had to use, only for the drummer to then complain they were the wrong weight.

The amount of times the band would have been left high and dry without my ability to improvise and think my way out of issues is beyond a joke.

That's just the surface.

 

Basically, I own enough equipment and spares to be a band by myself... because people are inept. But whats worse, because they know I've got their back in all situations, they are even more complacent! 

 

The more "pro" a musician is, the more of a liability they are.

As has been mentioned a lot in this thread, different strokes for different folks. But I've got say man, that sounds a little mental to me. If they're not willing to think this through then I don't have the time to be babysitting them. Of course, I'll help out in a pinch if something has seriously gone unavoidably wrong, but if the guitarist has broken a string and they don't have either another guitar or another string then they're playing without. Happy to cancel the gig, I'll even go an tell the bar manager, party organiser, bride, whomever that the drummer says we need to go home because he's broken his only stick.

I have in the past purposefully drawn up plans to share gear to save carrying. When I had a full fat rack Helix the two guitarists in that band knew they didn't need to bring a shared amp because I had a stereo facility that I wasn't using. In my current band I've got an unused channel on the desk set up with a Sansamp emulator in case one of the guitar or bass processors goes down. Nobody needs to bring a spare mic because the backing vocals that the other 3 of us do aren't really that important, so one of us would just not sing if ours went, or the main singer would borrow one of our mics if his went. The two guitarists in my current band alternate which one of them brings 'the' spare guitar, etc. That's not a problem, because that's planning, but don't just shrug your shoulders and hope I'm bailing you out.

Every few weeks there's a 'do you bring a spare bass?' thread on here, and it's those people that we're dealing with here!

Yeah the tens are "this cab sounds great" and the twelves much more "this cab doesn't sound of anything". Within reason obviously.

I own the desk, my rule has always been that everyone is responsible for getting themselves 'into' the desk. I will happily consult on di boxes, mics and cables if you don't know much about them, but you can't borrow mine. 

7 hours ago, police squad said:

I have recently started using the MI Pro 58 and I can say that it is really great. The only downside is , if I clip the receiver pack to my belt, my shirt alters the volume. I havent tried clipping it upside down. So I usually clip it to me back pocket. It's small and very light. Audio quality is first class. I have KZ pro 'something' which I like. I get a great bass sound but I have another set to try but I have a slipped disk and really can't be bothered atm. But when I'm back at it, I'll defo give em a try

Thanks for the input! Does the engineer mode disable the volume control?

I'm the only holdout in my band still using a wedge, my two guitarists use the xvives and my drummer uses a wired kit that I'll admit I don't know anything about. However it might be time to bite the IEM bullet. Having read most of the thread, the talk seems to be on the pros/cons of the concept and then the iems themselves, but what about the systems? Is there any common wisdom on the best transmitter and reciever?

It would have to be wireless. I'd also need stereo, I have hearing damage in one ear (from a botched surgey, not from rock n roll excess). But other than that I'm not too hip on what's good. Digital or analogue? If analogue then what frequency band? If digital, then how would it play with 3 digital guitar wireless and two IEM wireless? The most recent 'system talk' in the thread seems to be the MIPRO MI58, is that the one to go for?

I'm in Wylam, happy to go with you if you want a more experienced eye.

Edit - nope, not on Friday though! Good luck! 

Jees, I thought the £100 behind the bar was in addition to the fee. 

You can get PA power amps for pennies these days as everyone has moved to active pa cabs. Might be worth finding a QSC PLX or similar on ebay? Assuming your Headrush has a proper line out.

But the real question here, before we can tell you what is 'right', is 'what's wrong about the Mesa?'. If you use the aux input it should be as clear as anything else out there.

Is it always really cold when you play bass?

My dream cab back when they came out. I've always liked a 610, very jealous. I remember walking into Sound Control and asking if they could get their hands on an Epifani 610, he smirked and told me that he didn't think "Ep-eeeee-fone" made bass amps.

On 08/05/2024 at 16:12, cetera said:

Very nice!

Euro ltd order runs are possible with a minimum order of approx 25 pieces. That's how I organised the Euro X basses last year...

Probably time to look into doing that again right?

I've got an SE Electronics S1S that is superb in the 'recording only' category and fits almost within your budget. However, if this is a first mic and you're new to this then I'd recommend the Prodipe TT1 Pro. I have two that I use for vocals on stage and they are superb. Google them and see what the reviews and the professionals on ProSoundWeb say about them. £40 for a microphone that you'll never outgrow.

My local post office is very rural. I booked my Stingray 5 (in a hard case, in loads of packing) to be dropped off there.

"Hi, I'd like to drop this off please."

"Here?"

"Yes please, it's booked in"

"You can't leave that here, it's too big to go in Ken's van"

6 hours ago, Al Krow said:

 

Interesting that you found the RCF subs to be noticeably better. Can you remember which model you used? The RCF 705s look like a decent compromise of weight/power but won't be able to compete price wise with the Altos.

We have a pair of the 705ii in my indie rock band. I'm on record (even in this thread) as saying that I think the Altos are great but the rcf walk over them. They go deeper and louder. To make the point we usually just run one, we've never ran just one Alto.

17 hours ago, lemmywinks said:

 

 

Think I've listed it on the last "I love IEMs / I hate IEMs" thread! It's a  Behringer XR18 and 2 x Alto TS210 with a single Alto sub, TS15 or something like that. The rack bag is the G4M 3u shallow.

 

The two lads that joined already had the speakers from their last band so I assumed we'd be using them on a temporary basis until we had enough for some RCF cabs in the band kitty, was genuinely surprised at how good they sounded in a decent sized room though. Years later and we haven't upgraded yet!

 

Our old setup was 2 x RCF725 with 2 RCF subs, did some huge outdoor events (playing on a league one football pitch to one of the stands) with that rig and was brilliant, the subs weighed a lot though and were pretty massive. Wouldn't expect anything like that from the Altos but for indoor use they're very capable.

 

We're a 5 piece with keys (and the keys player won't get a smaller keyboard) so can struggle for stage space, I'm pretty tall so always struggled with hearing myself if I was right on top of my cabs. Don't miss my amps at all but do miss those RCF subs!

That makes a lot of sense. My hard rock bacd has been using Alto TS for over a decade now. 15 tops and 18 subs, one stack each side (yes, yes, center cluster...) and we feel the same. They are certainly over that 'good enough' threshold.

I either own or have owned the MXR M80, the GK Plex, Sansamp BDDI, Studiospares 458190, Behringer BDI, TC Spectradrive, Two Notes Le Bass, probably a few others. You know what? Most of them have been great, it's just sound preference and feature sets my man. However, for about the past 5 years I've been really settled on either my HX Stomp (I used to use a faull fat rack Helix, bought the Stomp as a spare, then stopped using the rack) or a Sansamp Paradriver. Both are excellent. Top tier in their respective digital/analogue worlds IME.

On 23/04/2024 at 06:47, tegs07 said:

how about that tone wood or tailor swift folks …. zzzzz

22 hours ago, lemmywinks said:

Not carrying backline along with having a very compact PA is probably why I can still enjoy gigging properly. My entire bass rig including preamp, cables, IEM setup and tablet fits in a gigbag, our desk (with router, power strip and bluetooth aux adapter) is in a 3u shallow rack bag and all our cables are in one of the Thomann cable bags.

 

Never been easier or faster to load in, setup and packdown. We had a band member and PA re-shuffle a few years ago and decided to go for the most compact PA as lugging a ton of stuff around was becoming a chore which we just didn't enjoy any more. Had a think about how we transported things and ended up with a tiny setup that sounds great and gives us excellent monitoring on any stage. Wasn't even expensive.

What PA did you end up with?

Both good posts, thank you.

7 minutes ago, neepheid said:

 

Our users aren't "home users" though.  The computer they are assigned is a work tool.  They don't have any of those things you describe getting in the way.  That's because we manage our devices, they have Windows installed on them in a manner that we dictate.  Updates are pushed on a delay so we can ok them.  Privilege management is in effect so that we can tread a line between protection and letting people get on with it.

 

In a large, managed environment, such as the one I help maintain, the things you are describing simply don't happen.

Well thankfully I was responding to Baloney talking about being a home user.  

7 minutes ago, tegs07 said:

If you know what endpoint (intune), modern authentication (app registrations), CA, Entra, Purview, Sentinel etc are it would make sense.

 

Physical infrastructure is even slowing becoming obsolete. Pretty soon a couple of switches and a router is all that most sites will need. You don’t need phones or servers, maybe just a few printers.

 

Run whatever OS you want, on whatever device, from wherever you like and it can all be centrally managed including app deployment, SSO to the applications you want with remediation of software failures or security issues. 

 

Its pretty powerful stuff.

Yes and again I do appreciate the benefits of all of that, I even understand most of it. However, again, I don't know that any of that is something that only Microsoft can give you and also, none of this was in the original discussion. I responded after several posts from home users and non-IT professionals (as far as we know!) talking about how much Windows sucks for them. Specifically, I responded to someone saying that Linux was an inconvenience. I didn't even mention the wider MS ecosystem until you did! Me saying "linux can be much more user friendly than windows" and you saying "but how we possibly start to introduce a data risk management strategy across our 10,000 strong user base whilst still ensuring high availability without Purview?" are kind of two different points.

1 minute ago, neepheid said:

And another thing, I saw mention of "antivirus software" as an example of things a user doesn't need.  I hope you're joking.  Please tell me you're not hanging on to this old trope that "there are no viruses on Linux".

God, no. I take my security very seriously. I have just managed that without an annoying ping every 37 seconds that I need to perform a scan or that such and such a program wants to make changes to my pc.

3 minutes ago, tegs07 said:

I also work in IT and what people run as an OS is becoming less and less important to us, nor is the device they are using whether it’s an iPad or a PC.

Microsoft are supplying the glue to hold all of this together and make it secure. 

I got the impression that you did which is why I was careful to state that, whilst I play an IT person on TV, I'm not actually an IT person. I'm a teacher.

I will surely bow to your more significant expertise but, and I mean this sincerely, HOW are they the glue that's holding all of this together? I totally agree that device and OS are mattering less and less, which is a bloomin' great thing as now we can finally ditch Windows!

28 minutes ago, tegs07 said:

Microsoft has moved a long, long way from a PC operating system...

I think you think that's a pro, when it's actually a con.

28 minutes ago, tegs07 said:

.. I can’t explain just how much an E5 license brings to an organisation.

 

 

Microsoft has been phenomenal in reading the direction of travel in technology.

I'm a digital learning consultant by trade. Whilst I'm not technically an IT professional I am IT-adjacent and I fully appreciate the benefits of integration and management for an organisation. Active directory, single sign on and centralised MFA are all very useful tools to name just 3 and I do appreciate that my job would be extremely different without Teams. I might actually have to go into the office. Like, in town. My work provides a Thinkpad, it's a great piece of hardware and the Windows stuff doesn't bother me because I don't have to manage it. But I did have to wait 4 days last week for someone to reinstall Adobe Creative Cloud because a mandatory Windows update had broken CC, which meant that I couldn't actually use any of the Adobe apps that were already installed and working fine on my PC. But, the apps rely on CC... This is an Adobe problem for sure but if I hadn't been forced to upgrade and if all of the updaters actually talked to each other then we wouldn't have had this problem. Like, I dunno. sudo apt-get upgrade?

However, firstly all of those management things are possible on Linux too. Hell, our Windows servers are all virtualised anyway, running on Linux machines for stability. And secondly, none of that matters for a home user. Home users want to turn a computer on, have it work, and do something. They don't need an AI assistant, adverts, integration with xbox, adverts, candy crush, adverts, a million free trials, adverts, forced updates, adverts, an army of widgets vying for attention, adverts, everything starting on startup, adverts, antivirus software, or adverts. And if they do, they can install them. The one thing that seems as though it would be really useful to low IT capital personal users is Office 365, particularly having files saved in the cloud. But nobody seems to understand how that works!

4 minutes ago, neepheid said:

 

This is what they don't understand - the reputational damage caused by accusing your customers of incompetence/dishonesty.  They won't care, because they're a big fish in a small pond and there's not a super amount of choice in these specialist markets.  Still sucks though.  I'm kinda out of the game right now, but I will take what you say into consideration when next I need computer bits and bobs.

Speak as you find. They are an award-winning, successful business with what must be millions of satisfied customers. Whomever dealt with me 15 or so years ago has probably moved on from the job.

Me and my brothers have a weekly gaming night on a Wednesday that started during the pandemic. Middle brother spent about £850 on a 4070ti super a few weeks ago. From Overclockers. Because, as a family, we know that Scan can be dishonest at times.

7 hours ago, Baloney Balderdash said:

Mircosoft and Gill Baits ought to be dead too, but can't be assed to go through the inconvenience of Linux.

I have been Windows-free (aside from the occasional gaming pc) since 2007.

I boot up my gaming rig once a week or so to play and it's just horrible. There was a time when Linux was an inconvenience compared to Windows, I was there, but those days are long gone. Modern distros like Mint and Ubuntu are user friendly in ways that leave Windows in the dust. What Windows has going for it is momentum: one knows how to do something on Windows almost by muscle memory, so Linux seems harder. It's not.

Scan Computers.

Sold me a faulty power supply, no problem there things happen and there's no way a retailer is going to unbox and check everything they get in. However, when I tired to return it they claimed that I'd broken it and that I should have purchased their 'scansure' insurance that protects against installation damage. Wouldn't budge. In the end I got my money back from the credit card people rather than the shop. I am the 'computer guy' in my circle of friends and family, and I tell this story every time I can. I know I have funneled quite literally tens of thousands of pounds away from Scan and towards Overclockers, Palicomp Aria (rip) and the like. Not that it seems to have hurt them, but you shouldn't rip people off.

3.

I got a brand new (and at the time top of the line) Nokia N96 in about 2008 when I was at uni. It hardly ever worked, went back and forwards in for repair and I didn't have it for 5 of my first 7 months. No courtesy phone either, despite paying what was a top-tier price at the time. The final straw was when I was a designated first aider on an open day and one of the parents on one of our tours had a heart attack on campus. The tour guide called me, lots, my phone didn't react. Later on that night I got about 17 missed calls. This was outdoors, in the middle of Newcastle, and my phone was reporting full signal. I told 3 I was done and I was cancelling my contract. They said I couldn't. I said (over the course of weeks and many emails) that they were charging me for something they weren't providing. When this got nowhere I just cancelled my direct debit, which started the letters, bailiff threats, credit score threats, the works. Eventually someone called saying they were taking me to court, I gleefully accepted and asked them to please send times and dates. 4 months of no contact except regular letters (from 3, not any government body) that my court case was coming up. Three days before the supposed court date the head of UK operations called me, refunded me all my money and said I could keep the handset. Technically this one ended ok and 3 did the right thing in the end, but it took me about a year and a half of stress so I'm never going there again.