WinterMute

Marillion haven't had a record label for 25 years, a band like them needed funding to record back then, and yes, it's very different today and I'm sure they take advantage of the available technology. Steve is still very much of the same opinions, and views the internet as a way to get away from the clutches of the labels, sadly the streaming scams have simply put the money back in the hands of the middlemen. Stu Hamm has a following, and he's leveraging it, more power to him, I don't think the situation for a new artist recently signed is much different in terms of label support and where the money goes, many of my producer friends have resorted to the so called 360 deal with artists, taking points from ticket and merchandise sales as well as releases, there are clauses for ads, films, TV. The reality is that everyone still wants a bite. I make my own music, I do it for pleasure these days and I release it privately, the tech means it sounds as good as anything I did in a studio in the 80s and 90s. I think this is a good thing for everyone, except for your last point about releases, the signal to noise ratio has worsened exponentially in the last 10 years, who can hear the music over the noise now?

Marillion have crowd funded albums for years after they were dropped by their label. You might want to look at Steve Albini's essay on the record industry and how the money goes almost anywhere but to the band/artist, and his later, more optimistic, comments about the internet. https://thebaffler.com/salvos/the-problem-with-music https://www.theguardian.com/music/2014/nov/17/steve-albini-at-face-the-music-how-the-internet-solved-problem-with-music

Hence my comment "make of that what you will", peer review is not as thorough as it used to be and there are many bodies willing to publish suspect research,

I genuinely though that cooker thing was an April fools joke like the mechanical compressor mic stand or the concrete speaker cab with pre-damaged 11" drivers and mini tow bar.

I've used the studio spares splitter for the same reasons in a few studios, might be a bit overkill, but multiple headphones outputs is always a benefit. https://www.studiospares.com/mtr-8way-ps-8-headphone-splitter-440520.htm

Indeed.

The American National Institute of health appears to think there's some valid science at work... https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4378297/ Make of that what you will. Actually, on further reading there have been a ton of studies done, many of which report some benefits to earthing. Appendix to this study has loads of links, how well the studies are policed or reviewed bears investigation. For clarity, I know people who swear by grounding, but I've always thought it was new-age b*llsh*t.

Quite fancy a noodle on a Zon Hyperbass, shame they don't do a 5 string version.

Yes, the Vault has a CD drive for ripping and you can add files to the 2Tb HD over the network, it'll play FLAC, but you can set the rip to AIFF 44.1/16 if you want to and it''l play back anything up to 192/24 and even some of the "master" files kicking about. You can also access a bunch of streaming services, and it has the TuneIn internet radio app. Useful little box. https://www.bluesound.com/products/vault/

Anything that gets recommended or I stumble across gets some time in the Apple Music library, if it survives a week or so, it gets bought on CD and ripped to lossless in a Bluesound Vault 2 network player. The 1500 or so CD's I've got are all in there and are playable round the house network. I've even digitised some old vinyl for SnG's. I compress the lossless files to AAC for the iPhone as it gets used in the car and on trains. I can't abide most streaming services, the only good one is Tidal, but the quality comes at a price for a service I wouldn't use that much.

Whilst you don't actually need to like the people you play with, you do have to know they value you as a player and band-mate, that's always been the kicker for me. Of course it helps immensely if you all do get on famously, because it's much more fun.

Yeah a lot, it's very tactile and "woody" for want of a better word, but it wears like epoxy or ebanol.

here you go.

I had a Squire Jazz with an ebanol board, it was ok, didn't have any issues with it, I had an Ebony board on a Wal Pro 1 which I liked a lot, smoother to the touch but it cut up a little more than the Ebanol with round wound strings. I now have an epoxied rosewood defretted SR5 which is lovely, and I had Alan fit an acrylic infused lava bubinga board to my ACG 5 string, which is absolutely perfect, combines the smoothness of ebony with the toughness of both the ebanol and the epoxy coated board. I can't say I can hear much difference with the amount of processing I use, but the feel definitely changes between woods.

My neighbour has BA55 NAV, but he's not a bass player, or called Nav...

Geddy Lee's Tom Sawyer tone, I started playing bass after hearing Permanent Waves, and Lee will always be an major influence. Love the Ox's tone on that track although his tone evolved quite radically if you listen to the Live Aid version of that song. Tim Comerford's tone is always great, his work with Audioslave is under-rated I think. John McVie's tone has always been absolutely perfect for the band, and his line in Go Your Own Way is an absolute peach, plus his timing is immaculate. What stands out is how poor some of the tones in the metal bands are, and how bad some of the timing is. The engineer in me loves Cliff Williams tone, it'll work all day long in that band. Honourable mentions for Nate Mendel, Chris Squire and Rick Butler.

Lovely work and the tone fits perfectly in the track. If my bass sounded like that, I'd be breaking out the new Rotosound swing bass...

My garage conversion studio follows BigRedX suggestions pretty much exactly, except for having a floating floor and false ceiling additionally, the conversion includes a baffled A/C unit for ventilation, as the very last thing you want to do is punch holes in your isolation for vents or fans. This is not a cheap option, but it works. Don't neglect the door/window fit if you have windows, decent double glazing is OK, triple glazing is more expensive and doesn't actually help that much. commercial installers won't know how to isolate the window frames correctly to prevent flanking. A well fitted fire door will help as they are naturally sound isolating, but the frame will need to fit tight and have seals installed to the rebates, mine is an FR120, and it's very good for isolation.

Yup, that sh*t's getting deleted without being read, that's if the spam filters haven't got it first.

Turning Japanese was not a song about emigrating to the Land of the Rising Sun.... Apparently.

Much like my old mate Bartleby I use the same name on most forums, it just saves time having to thing up yet another name, it's from a William Gibson novel Neuromancer.

I've fronted bands while playing and have done BV's in others, I find it much easier to achieve with original material than with covers, as you tend to write the parts to fit your ability/natural rhythms. I've tried to play Rush/Cream etc. stuff and it's very, very difficult to get it right. I remember Geddy Lee commenting that the first few weeks or Rush rehearsals sounded like a Rush tribute act, and that the most oft heard phrase was "I can't f*ck*ng play this".

Needs to be quite a lot lower to hit "the brown sound" 7-14hz at significant amplitude may affect the lower bowels... Consider that the shock wave of an explosion is essentially a 1Hz sound wave once you're out of the actual blast/shrapnel zone, I'm damn sure that'll have a major influence on your energy field... Otherwise, complete b*ll*cks.