How was your gig last night?

[Leonard Smalls]

1 hour ago, cheddatom said:

sound was fine FOH

It was, at least in the acoustic stage! Couldn't see you because of the acres of black cloth on the sides of the stage!

I found the Empress, Opera and Casbah all suffered from over loud kick swamping everything at the bottom. Insufficient gating, perhaps coupled with metalhead drum obsession?

Edited Monday at 13:05 by Leonard Smalls

[cheddatom]

15 minutes ago, Leonard Smalls said:

It was, at least in the acoustic stage! Couldn't see you because of the acres of black cloth on the sides of the stage!

I found the Empress, Opera and Casbah all suffered from over loud kick swamping everything at the bottom. Insufficient gating, perhaps coupled with metalhead drum obsession?

 

On the videos I've seen you can clearly hear everything FOH at our Opera set. Obviously the phones have a built in hi-pass which will help with the old "Subs go brrrr" problem. For us it seemed like the stage crew couldn't be arsed. The monitor guy didn't turn up until 3:06 and we were due on at 3:05, which I think tells you all you need to know

 

The acoustic stage is always a nightmare for sound, or at least it is since they moved it upstairs. I just get on with it. The guy running the stage is such a weird funny old punk, it's worth doing the gig just to have a good/bad natured argument with him back stage 😂

[WalMan]

On 10/08/2025 at 10:49, dmccombe7 said:

Bingo at half time ? 

Always do that at our gigs in BL clubs.

Dave

Spot prizes…? Only two I can remember at this remove are…The first person to the stage with:

• a wooden cigarette lighter
• a pair of stockings/tights over their arm (round their neck if the crowd weren’t pensioners and/or on the larger side 🤣)

[asingardenof]

Saturday we played our much-hyped (and I mean much-hyped, I don't think as much effort has gone into promoting a gig since I've been a member) gig at The Hop in Wakefield. Our guitarist Jen is a local to the area (three of the others are all from over Bratford way) so had been going mad with excitement for the last month and there had been a great many posts on "the socials" including from her employer. She had gathered a huge list of shout outs that she wanted to do but which we had to quite sensibly curtail - I made the point that with the amount she wanted to do we may as well ditch the set list and just do shout outs!

 

The venue was reasonably compact but a nice size, and the stage was a decent size. It was a warm evening so we managed to get the AC turned on above us, but it was pretty useless and so it was a pretty sweaty one. I decided to go with my Sire V7, Ashdown ABM and the trusty Barefaced cab, with the Elf on standby just in case. During soundcheck everything sounded OK but the on-stage sound during the gig was very hit and miss - there were a few songs where we were relying on some sequenced drum tracks to keep the drummer in time, and thence to keep the rest of us in time, but there were a few songs where he could barely hear it and so we went a bit wrong on a few occasions, notably during the bass solo of Club Foot where I made a right hash of things. For the most part though things went pretty well, playing-wise, and our newly-prepped track Shout was amazing to play live, as well as giving me a chance to break out the Mooer octave pedal I got for Christmas!

 

The atmosphere in the venue was absolutely tremendous, and playing issues aside one of the best gigs I've had with the band. Our guitarist's husband even went so far as to say he thought it was the best one he'd seen of us. People were up and dancing and singing right from the start, and the number that did so only increased through the night. We played two encores and left them wanting more - I was at the bar getting a drink afterwards and two lads were talking to each other about whether we were coming back on or not, and were disappointed when I told them we were done. My next door neighbours came to see me and looked like they were having a great time, possibly too great as they left immediately after we'd finished.

 

We'd priced ourselves as low as we'd normally go to get the gig, but from what I was told they took almost  well over double behind the bar what they'd normally take on a Saturday night. We hope we'll be invited back after that, and we'll definitely be pushing for a bit more in the way of fee. It's an Ossett Brewery pub, and we were told that they would pass on our details to others owned by the brewery, so fingers crossed. I think someone from another pub may have been in that night because we got an enquiry over Messenger during our mid-set break. Hopefully this will lead to us getting a few more diverse gigs for next year.

Edited yesterday at 08:32 by asingardenof
Update for bar success

[Bluewine]

On 10/08/2025 at 10:52, dmccombe7 said:

Been looking at the G&L L2000 models (US models rather than the tribute) They get fantastic reviews.

Dave

 

I love mine. It only has one flaw. If the 9 volt battery for the pre-amp dies it won't play in passive mode.

 

Daryl

[Bluewine]

On 09/08/2025 at 23:45, Bluewine said:

 

We played The Major Goolsby stage at Wisconsin State Fair this afternoon. 

 

It was a good gig. We were well received.  The whole thing went over a lot better than last year despite the 100° weather. 

 

We played three 45 minute sets. As usual I couldn't get any decent pics.

 

We

 

 

State Fair Park a few hours after we left. 14 inches of rain. They closed the fair on Sunday.

 

https://www.facebook.com/share/v/19UAzxynQP/

 

Daryl

[neepheid]

20 minutes ago, Bluewine said:

 

I love mine. It only has one flaw. If the 9 volt battery for the pre-amp dies it won't play in passive mode.

 

Daryl

 

That is at odds with my experience - admittedly with a Tribute L-2000 - it would play fine in passive mode even with the battery removed, never mind dead. In that case, the active or active with treble boost settings on the switch became an effective kill switch.

[Stub Mandrel]

13 minutes ago, Bluewine said:

 

 

State Fair Park a few hours after we left. 14 inches of rain. They closed the fair on Sunday.

 

https://www.facebook.com/share/v/19UAzxynQP/

 

Daryl

 

That's what we call a shower in Wales 😁

[Bluewine]

1 hour ago, Stub Mandrel said:

 

That's what we call a shower in Wales 😁

 

Wow! We had cars floating down the street, flooded basements and backed up sewers  

 

Daryl

[Geek99]

5 hours ago, Bluewine said:

 

Wow! We had cars floating down the street, flooded basements and backed up sewers  

 

Daryl

Wales is famous for its rain frequency, Daryl

[Woodinblack]

8 hours ago, Bluewine said:

 

I love mine. It only has one flaw. If the 9 volt battery for the pre-amp dies it won't play in passive mode.

 

Looks like your wiring has been modified. With the original wiring in passive mode the switch bypasses anything to do with the battery and routes the sound from the volume control straight to the jack socket.

[Stub Mandrel]

7 hours ago, Bluewine said:

 

Wow! We had cars floating down the street, flooded basements and backed up sewers  

 

Daryl

 

I exaggerate a bit, but we can get a lot of rain here.

 

Flooding is awful, even if it only damages property. 

[dmccombe7]

9 hours ago, Bluewine said:

 

 

State Fair Park a few hours after we left. 14 inches of rain. They closed the fair on Sunday.

 

https://www.facebook.com/share/v/19UAzxynQP/

 

Daryl

At least people will be inside watching the bands. 

That's a lot of rain.

Dave

[dmccombe7]

9 hours ago, Stub Mandrel said:

 

That's what we call a shower in Wales 😁

Just another summers day in Scotland.

Dave

[Boodang]

9 hours ago, Bluewine said:

 

I love mine. It only has one flaw. If the 9 volt battery for the pre-amp dies it won't play in passive mode.

 

Daryl

You could always get a bypass switch fitted. Easy enough for a techie to do.

[neepheid]

20 minutes ago, Boodang said:

You could always get a bypass switch fitted. Easy enough for a techie to do.

 

The point is (been made by a couple of people now) that the L-2000/ASAT should already have one, if it's wired properly.  Don't need to fit anything, just fix what's already there.

[Leonard Smalls]

Better photo from Rebellion...

 

[dmccombe7]

2 hours ago, Leonard Smalls said:

Better photo from Rebellion...

 

That's a decent pic.

Dave

[Bluewine]

On 11/08/2025 at 10:58, asingardenof said:

During soundcheck everything sounded OK but the on-stage sound during the gig was very hit and miss .

 

 

 

 

Seems like that's the way it is most of the time for me. Of course I can hear my bass and vocals when nobody else is playing. Why don't these sound guys come on stage when your actually into the set with their tablets and chrome books and and check the stage sound then ?

 

Daryl

[dmccombe7]

7 hours ago, Bluewine said:

 

Seems like that's the way it is most of the time for me. Of course I can hear my bass and vocals when nobody else is playing. Why don't these sound guys come on stage when your actually into the set with their tablets and chrome books and and check the stage sound then ?

 

Daryl

Yep same here. Bass sounds great and on stage sound is excellent. PA fires up and all of a sudden its either hard to hear the bass or its booming out front.

IMO the SE should listen to the on-stage sound and simply recreate that out front.

I've had one venue where the sound guy does wander about the stage with his tablet during soundcheck and makes adjustments and then goes back to the desk. When we're playing he'll come to the sides of the stage with his tablet. He's also in a band so probably understands it better.

Dave

[Boodang]

28 minutes ago, dmccombe7 said:

Yep same here. Bass sounds great and on stage sound is excellent. PA fires up and all of a sudden its either hard to hear the bass or its booming out front.

IMO the SE should listen to the on-stage sound and simply recreate that out front.

I've had one venue where the sound guy does wander about the stage with his tablet during soundcheck and makes adjustments and then goes back to the desk. When we're playing he'll come to the sides of the stage with his tablet. He's also in a band so probably understands it better.

Dave

Where we can, we take control of our on stage sound. We give the FoH engineer DI's and tell him not to bother with foldback, then feed an XR18 stagebox which from which everyone uses IEMs and controls their own mix. For the most part the xr18 settings don't change now they're dialled in, so it's just a case of plugging everything in. And to make matters easier, we use cables rather than wireless.

[dmccombe7]

1 minute ago, Boodang said:

Where we can, we take control of our on stage sound. We give the FoH engineer DI's and tell him not to bother with foldback, then feed an XR18 stagebox which from which everyone uses IEMs and controls their own mix. For the most part the xr18 settings don't change now they're dialled in, so it's just a case of plugging everything in. And to make matters easier, we use cables rather than wireless.

what's the XR18 stagebox ?

How does that fit into the system. ?

Dave

[Boodang]

24 minutes ago, dmccombe7 said:

what's the XR18 stagebox ?

How does that fit into the system. ?

Dave

Behringer XR18; 16 input stagebox with six monitor and two main outputs. You can control the mix of the monitor outs with an app, so each person using one is in control of their own mix. Each musician has a DI which goes to FoH, the 'thru' goes to the XR18 and the monitors to the IEMs, the mix of which each member of the band controls via the app (doesn't work so well if you have more than 6 members!). Once you've set it up it pretty much stays the same and it's not so bad to cable up.

In the old days, or when we're not using IEMs, we have an amp for each member of the band each side of the drums so at least we have a good mix of every instrument across the whole stage and vocal monitoring is this only major issue.

[Steve Browning]

My gig last night was horrible.

 

I play is a Stax-orientated soul band. The singer (a good fried of ours) has Huntingtons, and the band has existed to keep him gigging. There are gigs when things go ok (never more than that) but last night may have been gig that we all knew was on the horizon. I won't go into detail, but it was horribly below par.

 

Desperately sad though it is, I think we've reached the stage where he is unable to deliver a gig that can be classed as acceptable. In truth, we're probably past that point already, but we've kept going through the bond of friendship. The guitarist is a particularly long-standing mate of his.

 

To complicate matters, the rest of us are a band in our own right that is, dare I say it myself, awesome. We are well known locally (where this band gigs) and we cannot allow the one to affect the other. Tough decision (in some ways) but it is simply a case of the negatives have now exceeded the positives - and there was only one positive really.

[ezbass]

1 hour ago, dmccombe7 said:

IMO the SE should listen to the on-stage sound and simply recreate that out front.

Seconded. I mixed a FoH sound once, in a decent sized venue (not a pub/club). All I did was listen to the stage sound, then brought up the individual instruments so that it just enhanced/reinforced that original sound, no thumping/booming bass drum, etc. There were no complaints about the sound not being loud/visceral enough.