Franticsmurf

I have the EHX Neo Mistress and I've been trying for a few months to get a decent sound with my set up (Sterling Ray 34HH with compressor) but I find it heavy handed and I haven't been able to come up with the more subtle sound I'm looking for (as an occasional effect rather the often used sound). I also have the EHX Bass Clone and I found the sound I wanted from that very quickly. I assume that as the Neo Mistress isn't specifically a bass flanger, it struggles with the bass frequencies. I'm currently playing with a Zoom MS60B, using it to find the kinds of sounds I'm after with the intention of finding the dedicated pedals to reproduce them. However, the MS60B is proving to be ideal for what I'm after and I think, for the amount of use these spot effects will be getting, the Zoom will be my solution.

I built my own boards from a strip of plastic fascia board. Solid but light weight and you can trim it to the size you need (I have three single strips of various lengths). I covered them in black tape so they don't stand out on stage.

If you're not switching them on and off mid song, you could put the board (or a customised version of it) on the amp/cab or even in a purpose made stand - they remain accessible but clear of the performance area. As easy access by foot is no longer required, you can source or make a board to fit the footprint of the amp/cab/stand or if you rack them, to fit on a rack tray. I made a small stand from an old music stand to house my in-ear monitor kit. I started by using the full music stand with the lectern bit flat but it was bigger than I needed, so I used an old off-cut of MDF, covered it in black tape and bolted the lectern swivel attachment to it. It's just the right height so I can make adjustments, but the overall footprint is small and it can sit out of the way on stage (usually behind the PA speaker).

Perhaps the question should be 'When should we stop going to see them', as I suspect there will be many opinions. I remember seeing Brian Wilson too, at Glastonbury I think, and I agree, it was sad to watch. I remember seeing Hawkwind in Cardiff in the mid 90s. I'd been a huge fan and seen some amazing shows they'd put on, but that night the three support acts were better. It was the last time I saw them as they had become a parody of themselves. I saw Genesis in the late 80s with Phil Collins playing the audience like an instrument. I wouldn't have wanted to see their last tour. As for 'who should tell them', perhaps that's the last difficult message that a manager should deliver. Although in some cases it probably would be their last message if the artist decided to continue anyway.

Hi Jaz.

Hi Kickass, welcome. I dare not show my drummer your kickass basses, or he'll want one and I'll be relegated to tambourine. 😃

First band I was in played a biker rally - it was probably our 4th or 5th gig ever, acquired through a friend. We were naive and had a set of largely originals that with hindsight were not suitable for that kind of gig. We played, they yelled for heavier/faster/rockier songs that they knew. We put all the rock stuff we knew in but we were stopped after about an hour (it seemed like 20 hours 😃). We were expecting to be shown the door and, indeed, we were taken to one side. But they said thanks but it wasn't what they wanted. They got we were new and paid us in full. A decent bunch of guys and gals. 30 odd years later and I've played 'nice' venues with 'nice' audiences and had to put up with far worse behaviour and attitude than that rally.

They were calling it an EP on the radio.

I remember this being played on 6 Music when the EP was due to be released. Absolutely beautiful - stood out from the rest of the playlists.

Welcome on board.

I've been in a similar situation (20 minute slot in a multi band line up). We devoted a rehearsal to timings with a short list of potential songs and ended up with 4 (we were vaguely proggy so they weren't your 3 minute pop songs). It gave us about 2 minutes over run/audience interaction. While we didn't plan word for word, we knew when and roughly what was going to be said. It might seem like overkill but for me it was about making the right impression (not looking rushed, for example) and being smooth and professional about it. The result was good, we had time to cope with a minor issue with the FOH sound and the crowd liked us. In fact, the organisers gave us time for another song and fortunately we had a couple spare from the rehearsal.

Cheers. TBH it's not a problem as I wasn't planning on using the compressor with the FOH setup, as the final signal is compressed at the mixer. It was just convenient to plug the pedal into the chain to try it out. Had I made an effort and used the non-FOH board, I wouldn't have discovered the issue. I'm really happy with the Digbeth as it stands. I hadn't noticed the difference between active and passive inputs either. Although I have both breeds of bass, the signal always goes into the passive input. FWIW I was using a Laney RB7 combo and I found the tilt option (called 'Enhance') really useful for tuning to a venue. Good response from Laney.

My current board has the Digbeth at the end of the signal chain and I use it with one of my bands, as everything goes through FOH. I was trying out a new compressor pedal the other day (first in the chain) and no matter how I adjusted the ratio, there was no discernible difference to my ears. Assuming there was an issue with the pedal, I ended up taking everything else out of the chain and connecting it directly to my bass amp. No problems, plenty of variation. So in the great tradition of fault finding, I started to try combinations of pedals and the compressor. It turns out the when connected to the Digbeth input (active or passive), adjusting the compression ration has no apparent effect on the output (although the volume can be adjusted as I would expect). I tried a second compressor pedal just in case it was something specific to the original, with the same result. I assume there must be some additional compression at work in the Digbeth pedal but I can't find any further info. Any ideas? Am I missing the obvious? (I have been known to in the past).

Probably less 'fortune' and more 'ability and effort'. The challenging gigs that go well 'despite...' are so rewarding in the end (though perhaps not as they are taking place 😃).

Dammit! I could have been the guy who broke that old saying. 😀

I played a pub in Mountain Ash a few years ago with a separate room for the band to play in. The pub was full of your average punter mix but the room filled with a younger crowd. We kicked off with our usual opener to test the audience reactions (I think it was 'Walk of Life') after which they were calling for more modern stuff, so we played a few contemporary songs. The reaction was 'play some oldies' and one guy yelled 'play Apache'. It felt like they were taking the urine. We were playing to around 50 people for most of the night and this back and forth went on for a while - we play an old song ("play something we can dance to"), we play a 'dancey song' ("play some oldies"), play some pub classic ("play something modern"). We didn't lose the crowd and there was always clapping and cheering in appreciation, but then the inevitable call for old or new. And always in the gap between songs there was the lone voice shouting 'play Apache'. In the end we went into stubborn mode and they got our favourite songs at our favourite volume with minimal gaps in between. But still there was the lone voice calling for Apache. We were glad to finish and as we were packing up we had the usual 'great band, lads' from some of the punters as they left. And one guy came up to us and said 'you're rubbish, you can't play Apache.

When I'm practicing I have a small digital dictaphone on hand and any riffs, chord sequences, rhythms etc that pop up are recorded. I trawl through these every so often and anything that still inspires gets transferred onto my laptop, where my copy of Studio One 5 lives. I'll play around with the ideas I have, see where it goes and usually end up with something vaguely song-like which I will work on over a few days until I have something more solid. I will usually record a basic drum pattern and add guitar and bass as guides, with the intention of replacing them later. If it's still working, I will start to re-record parts and this often results in changes to arrangements and structure. Only at this stage am I starting to think about specific sounds, little fills and riffs and all the other details that make up the final song. Lyrics appear at almost any stage. I write lyrics independently of the music and I have several dozen pages of scribbles, phrases and lines that provide a starting point. I try and leave gaps of several days between major stages of recording so that I can come back to the project with some freshness and objectivity. Like other have said, sometimes I find that what I thought was the next no.1 when I was working non-stop on it is actually fairly non-descript when I return after a short break. Once I have a 'finished' item complete with rough mixdown, I'll put it to one side for a week or so and then put it on my iPod and listen to it a few times when out walking, or in the car. Final mixdown is done after making notes based on the listening experience. As I am usually recording solo, these are largely for my own pleasure and not intended for general release. I think if I were considering a commercial release I'd get a more experienced pair of ears in to listen and help with the mixing and mastering.

I'm quite new to this IEM lark and rather than shell out for a complete system I thought I'd try out the concept to see if it worked for me using budget kit. The last few gigs I've played I've used a feed from the mixer's headphone out into a Behringer Headphone amp (to split the signal for the drummer) into a Behringer P1 into a pair of Sony earbuds. Only the drummer and I use IEM (he's using slightly more expensive ear buds. The guitarist/singer and the lead guitar use on stage amps. If I'm using an amp rather DI then I run a line from the pedalboard to the second input on the P1. Because the earbuds aren't 100% noise cancelling, I can hear enough ambient stage sound to keep me grounded. I've always had problems hearing my own vocals but with this set up that is no longer an issue. My ears no longer ring after a gig, which is the main reason I wanted to go down the IEM route. This set up is working for the drummer and me at the moment and for the level and frequency we play, I'm not looking to upgrade in the near future.

Yes, me too. My experience is that most times the audience don't spot it unless it's a particularly spectacular fail. Watching a recent video of us playing, I squirmed my way through the version of 'I'm a Believer' I sang (for the first time) as my vocal was not quite a semitone flat. But on the night I was told by several people, friends and strangers, that I had a great voice and sang well. I suspect the time of day plays a part. Towards the end of a gig, as the alcohol has flowed, most of the audience are no state to discern mistakes. 😃

Namaste Manish. Welcome on board.

I used to share the ride to and from gigs with the singer and sometimes the other guitarist in my old band. Inevitably after a bad gig there would be arguments. Never anything that resulted in a long walk home, but there's be 'lively discussions' about the night's performance. The most common topic revolved around the singer's total lack of preparation which usually resulted in missed lyrics, random arrangements and random song choice deviating wildly from the set list (we played a mix of heavier blues and modern rocky pop - Born To Be Wild, Dakota, Psychokiller, Walking By Myself, Heartache Tonight to give you a flavour of the set - and then he'd throw in 'Leaving on a Jet Plane'). My point is that it's never good to get into that kind of discussion immediately after a gig as emotions are running high - and this applies to positive emotions as well as the negative ones. 😃 The cold light of a Monday morning sobers everyone up and the real decisions are made then.

Hi Funkyjsp.

Its good when it all comes together. 😃

Thanks Dave. In a way I cheated - I'd been playing with the singer/guitarist for years, although not in this line-up. I knew pretty much what he would do (although as I said he can be unpredictable). I spoke to the girl singer (whom I also know) and she gave me a list of songs that could be done on the night along with keys. I'd say 50% of the set I'd played before in some form, perhaps 30% I was able to go through in the afternoon and make notes and 20% was 'wtf?'😀 I only failed on 'American Pie' and one of today's chores is to familiarise myself with in just in case. (I may be depping for the same line-up in two weeks). The hardest part was on the songs where backing tracks weren't being used - the singer/guitarist tends to play his own arrangements which vary each time. In the past it has sometimes felt as if he's doing it deliberately as challenge to those playing with him - albeit without any malice. (Certainly the last second key change for Hotel California was definitely to test me - when I asked after why he'd done it, his reply was mainly bull). The drummer in my band once commented that when the singer was with us in the band, we played Hotel California a lot but never the same way twice. Pre-lockdown I would never have had the confidence to do the gig but I spent some of that time trying to learn the fretboard, playing along to songs other than those in the band set list and generally practising technique. Two other things helped on the night - I had decent monitoring (another thing I worked on during and just after lockdown), and I took the attitude that I was just there to make up numbers and had no responsibility other than to be professional. I have so much respect for those who can get up on stage and play a range of songs in a range of styles with no preparation at all and I see that as a worthy goal to aim for myself.

This was my lineup for last night's gig. Still in the development stage but I think I'm edging closer to 'nearly there'. Signal path is Tuner>MS60B>Octave>Soul Food>Bass Clone>Delay (the pale blue pedal)>Tube Amp Sim>DI box. The MS60B provides a compressor (Dcomp) with a clean patch, a slightly filtered patch, a deeply flanged patch and an uncompressed acoustic amp simulator. The octave was there to thicken the sound as we were a duo last night. The Soul Food gives a bit of bite or grit to cut through the inevitable guitars and the Tube amp sim is set up to just colour the sound nicely for the older tunes in the set. The delay is set to slap-back, which at £10 new is what it does best, but it will be replaced by something with more options in the coming weeks. The DI was a late addition (as you can see by the jaunty angle). It may well be relegated to the underside of the board to free up space for another pedal (because you can't have too many pedals 😀). Incidentally, the board is home made from off-cuts of plastic fascia board covered with black gaffa tape. It's slightly angled so that there is room for a powerblock under the top row of pedals.