EBS_freak

The Flea bass didn't do so hot. The Fender Flea from what I can see (so may be wrong) - sold mostly because of it's pricepoint. The players I've seen had them don't seem to care for Flea or RHCP. Musicman? I dare say they've sold a hell of a lot more Stingrays to people not in RHCP than are. I'll stand by this - when I was looking closely at this with a marketing head on, I still say Mark King is the only person that can shift basses. If Status Rob and Mark announced a new King bass, there would be a load of people who would order one there and then, sight unseen.

64 Audio TC Electronic Kala He did have a couple of string endorsements too. Thing is, unlike most bass players, Nathan East is a multi-millionaire, so I guess he doesn't really give a hoot about such things... and he doesn't strike me as a musician with an ego that feels that he should go out and force such arrangements with manufacturers to somehow elevate their standing.

Endorsement is mostly a nonsense. I think the only person who really translates equipment use to sales is Mark King... and I would say that's mostly because of the fans being the doctors and lawyers etc who have money to burn on trying to live out their fantasy of being Mark King.

For me, this is more of a case of what don't I bring? Gigging was never meant to be this hard!

I used to really want a Hofner violin bass... kinda still do... cos you know... Hofner. If I could get a 5er, I'd have one. I keep toying with the idea of getting something commissioned but I've never gone as far... But... the other day, I realised, that when it comes to violin guitars/basses... nobody has done it quite as well as this luthier.

"Hi, I'm Lobster" Grow up.

So the above didn't work... try this.

banjo.mov

Just trying to figure out how you can maximise your system. Being analogue with only 2 auxes, you are quite limited in terms of what you can do IEM wise. You've probably figured out that you can only have two mono mixes - or one stereo IEM (albeit a bit difficult to set up due to there being two gains as opposed to two gains and a pan for each channel sending to that pseudo stereo aux bus). You are pretty much at the limits of your system unless you change your desk. Ideally, if you change your desk, you'd get access to EQ on a stereo bus, with compressor. Being able to roll off the bottom end is would tighten up your mix for sure. Upgrading your IEMs are always a good move (if you are keen about this, invest in good customs). Wireless/Wireless - stick with wired unless you can get a good wireless system. XVive will do you OK with an analogue desk - but obviously are limited to mono. Being able to run stereo IEMs is a MASSIVE upgrade. So if you are looking at spending money, don't go down the high latency, mono route if ultimately you are going to have a digital desk and want to run stereo IEMs (unless you are prepared to lose the money on the XVives) In order for your band to sound better in smaller venues, it's best to get everybody on IEMs and drop those volumes. In order to do that, you'll want everybody to be on IEMs and not on a shared mix. So if you wanted my "next steps" thing, it's to get everybody to buy into the IEM route and get the desk upgraded to something digitial with more auxes. You'll have access to much much better DSP - giving you a lot more scope for notching out reverb, more options in terms of compression and fx... and of course, the opportunity to mix everything remotely. Get talking to your band mates!

@warwickhunt- what desk are you using?

Its not really a looker is it?

Nup. Usually requires an old school key to open and inside you'll find some rotary pots.

You'll be amazed how far sound travels when there is nothing to absorb the soundwaves. Having nothing but open fields surrounding a wedding venue can actually be a nightmare for surrounding villages.

And this ladies and gentlemen, is how you commit commercial suicide.

Do you just want to slam your man meat on the table now? Jeez.

You’ve got this wrong. I don’t have to build anything to have an objective view on your bridge. I’m your target market. Maybe listen a bit more and you’ll have more people on board with your product. For example, I don’t have to to build cars to say that a Fiat Mulitpla looks fricken awful.

“I’m out”

Good stuff. If you are using a QU16, you may want to consider a ME500 - it only copes with 16 channels but it will save you some cash if you don't need access to 40 channels.

California you say? You've got to power the hydroponic lights somehow.

Either that, or sharpen your strings.

I can well imagine. Lots of bands play at a volume where you'd think that they were playing Wembley without any front of house support. Keeping the onstage volume low cleans up the mix incredibly... and then you let the FoH do the heavy lifting. ... but for lots of people, that's not rock and roll. They will still want to use a Marshall stack when a little 15w combo and a mic, or a modelling processor would sound infinitely better.

Additionally - just cos you don’t hear clipping, doesn’t mean that you aren’t clipping. And that’s what folks mastering music to be as loud as it can be for on the radio rely on. But they have golden ears and a high level spec of equipment and a treated room that would expose any clipping as the waveforms are squared off.

That doesn’t capture what’s happening across the whole frequency range. Hence why you use pink noise. Plus, you also have to take into account the addition of waveforms (across the whole frequency spectrum) as other instruments are added into the mix. When you start adding in all the other instruments all those waveforms start adding. A peak with a peak and all of a sudden, you are peaking again. This is why it’s important that the gain staging between systems of spot on. If you are under unity on the desk, you should be able to assume you are under unity on the venue system. So if you hit -3dB for example, so does the venue system. That’s all great - and to be honest, some venues have got their systems set up perfectly like this… but that doesn’t matter when people start complaining that you aren’t loud enough. There’s only one way you can go to boost the perceived volume… and that’s into limiting compression.

There’s ways and means - and none of them cheap. I’ve played a few venues with isolated rooms as you speak of. Floating/suspended box within a room. All massive investments - but small fry compared to what some of these venues are making. For a while, I ran silent disco bands - which is all really good until the guests think it’s great to take the headsets home as a momento. Yes you can put all sorts of things in the contract to ensure you get paid - but funny - nobody likes to acknowledge that their guests have nicked stuff. For it to work, you need to have a room with one door where nobody gets in without taking a headset and nobody gets out without relinquishing a headset. In theory, it was great. In practice, not so much. Especially when you turn up to the venue and you can’t find a clean radio channel - so the whole thing goes to sh111t. The let thing is, nobody really digs on the restraints imposed by a limited… but experience tells me, either play along and accept it for what it is… or don’t take the gig (if you can afford not to take it). When your whole band is on IEM, the reality of playing a limited gig, is that nothing much changes. As a band leader, if you are on the end of complaints of the volume not being high enough - and accusations of the band sounding lifeless… I made the decision to not entertain them so much (hence me hiking the prices up for those type of gigs). I’d rather not want the agro or risk of the band being name being hit with negativity. A single bad gig that results in a string of negative Facebook reviews can kill a band in one sitting.

Pretty much. It’s locked in a box with a couple of XLR sockets to plug into. The only visual cue is… err… nothing. Just two XLR sockets. And that’s your lot.