How was your gig last night?

[ezbass]

6 minutes ago, AndyTravis said:

small stage, increasingly frustrated by the use of music stands.

On a small a small stage they’re a no no and for just 9 songs, that’s ridiculous.

 

7 minutes ago, AndyTravis said:

guitarists amp blew up…properly dead in soundcheck…

The ‘joy’ of all tube amps, temperamental at the most inconvenient of times.

[AndyTravis]

3 minutes ago, ezbass said:

On a small a small stage they’re a no no and for just 9 songs, that’s ridiculous.

I don’t get it, personally…

 

I’m not going to have a row with them about it…but it is mildly irksome.

[peteb]

43 minutes ago, ezbass said:

The ‘joy’ of all tube amps, temperamental at the most inconvenient of times.

 

Seeing as I've just done a gig where the guitar player's Helix went down three times, I'm not sure that it's only tube amps that are temperamental. 

 

Edited 7 hours ago by peteb

[Merton]

55 minutes ago, AndyTravis said:

It was ok.

Played to sold out 150 capacity room.

 

Local indie stalwarts ’The Notion’ retirement gig.

 

9 songs, then when we’d finished - got told to play on, did a bass/piano/vocal version.

 

small stage, increasingly frustrated by the use of music stands.

 

guitarists amp blew up…properly dead in soundcheck…

 

fun.

Music stands and blowing amps - bleurgh!

 

Is that Gullivers?

[ezbass]

19 minutes ago, peteb said:

 

Seeing as I've just done a gig where the guitar player's Helix went down three times, I'm not sure that it's only tube amps that are temperamental. 

 

Yikes! 

[Woodinblack]

1 hour ago, peteb said:

 

Seeing as I've just done a gig where the guitar player's Helix went down three times, I'm not sure that it's only tube amps that are temperamental. 

 

Wow, I did hundreds of gigs with a hxfx and never had an issue. Mind you, never had an issue with my CTM100 either!

[AndyTravis]

1 hour ago, Merton said:

Music stands and blowing amps - bleurgh!

 

Is that Gullivers?

Yeah. Think that’s the fist time I’ve played there, used to be in a band with the owners - they have the castle too.

[Merton]

50 minutes ago, AndyTravis said:

Yeah. Think that’s the fist time I’ve played there, used to be in a band with the owners - they have the castle too.

Nice. Played both over the last couple of years with Katy Hurt. Next time I’ll drag you along 😀

[mcnach]

On 31/08/2025 at 19:42, dmccombe7 said:

Any chance you could give us some more detail of what you're doing with your IEM. ? Maybe what you use and how its all connected. I'm quite interested in going IEM for next year when we hopefully use a PA hire every gig.

I might even go ampless on stage perhaps use my Mesa TT800 as a pre-amp.

Dave

 

 

Sorry, I just saw this.

I'm far from being an expert in these matters, so take my comments with that in mind.

 

Whenever my bandmates and I brought up the subject of IEMS there was usually some confusion between two different aspects: 1) how to get a personal monitor mix, and 2) how to send that to our ears (often the assumption is this is done wirelessly, but it doesn't have to be).

 

I've tried a few different things in order to get some kind of monitor mix. The best is, of course, when you can get a dedicated mix from the desk, but this is only guaranteed if you're having your own band mixer. We've had a Behringer XR18 and lately an X32 as a 'band mixer'. When we're doing our own sound, that's the core of it. As a 6-piece band, the XR18 is enough as it can provide 6 individual mixes (more if you use the Ultranet system). When we have a house engineer, we use a couple of 8-channel splitters (Behringer MS8000) and that way one half goes to our mixer (controlling just the monitor mixes) and another half to the main desk for teh sound engineer to do their thing.

 

However, that requires the most £££ investment and also has to be a bit of a band effort, in order to get everything into the monitors, so I've tried other ways that are not as 'nice' but can still work pretty well, in fact I'd say they all work better than having wedge monitors and a loud stage.

Basically I use a small mixer (Behringer Xenyx 302/502) to blend two signals: my bass, and "whatever I can get". With earphones with a good seal you get a good amount of isolation, as if you were using earplugs (comparable or better than my ACS 17db) so you still get a LOT of sound from the stage, just attenuated. All I do is add a bit more 'me'. The 'whatever I can get' signal varies a lot...

I've used a microphone stage (Zoom H2), placed strategically so that I can capture guitars/vocals strongly, as drums I can hear enough anyway, and vocals and guitar is the only thing I really need to hear clearly, as we go 'off-script' a lot). That works, but it's better when I can get a feed from one of the wedge monitors. Most places have active monitors these days, with a 'thru' XLR connection. Take an XLR from a monitor, into the mixer, done. Many PA systems have the same on the main speakers, so you can often get a feed from there too. Yes, I'm not getting a dedicated mix there, but it can still be very useful, and it'll still sound way better than a loud stage does.

I'd recommend ensuring you can EQ the 'whatever I can get' channel, as I find it's often better to turn down the low end in there, makes the mix clearer with my bass. 

This is not going to give you a "CD listening experience", but that's not what I am going for either, I want something that allows me to monitor what's going on, which it does.

 

When we use the XR18/X32, you can use a PM-16 connected via Ultranet, which does not use the standard monitor channels, so you get better easier control, but also free a monitor channel for others, which can be useful. The PM-16 is basically a little 16-channel mixer connected to the main XR18/X32 via a single network cable using Ultranet. The output from that can feed your earphones.

 

If you use a small mixer for my ghetto approach described above, its output can then feed your earphones.

 

You can use a Behringer P1/P2 too. These are basic 2-channel mixers designed to be worn on your person. I have used a P1 to blend my bass with the "whatever I can get" signal, but I like the minimixer more, as it gives me more controls, EQ, etc. Again, the output from that goes into your earphones. 

 

Now we have a mix. We can use a wired method to send the signal to our ears, in which case we're done. For a drummer or keyboard player, wired is probably the simplest and easiest, and you don't need to worry about anything else, interference, dropouts etc. For others... it will depend. I have used a combined cable that carries both my bass and earphone signal (Ernie Ball,£45 or so) which sounded like a great idea, but the cable is thick and heavy and a bit of a faff. Ok in a small stage where you can't move much, but not comfy if you're moving around. I'd use separate cables.

If you don't want cables... then there's wireless, which is a different subject.

 

For wireless, live I've only used the MiPro58 system, which was around £400 (stereo, very low latency, 5.8GHz). At home I've tried the ultracheap Lekato WS-1 (£40, also stereo, but higher latency and operating on the 2.4GHz band that is more prone to interference), which didn't sound as good as the MiPro, but in all honesty, for a band mix it would do the job. My only concern is the higher likelyhood of dropouts and the high latency. The latency on its own is unlikely to be noticed, but the problem is we're using a lot of digital devices and they all add some latency... so it adds up: it can work very well for some people, but if you have a lot of additional digital processing it can get tricky... but you need to try and see. 

 

Wireless is nice, but I'd still prefer a wired IEM over no IEMs, in general. On a big stage, wedges can be great. With a considerate band who understands noise, wedges can be great in a smaller stage too, but my personal experience is that I encounter stages that are too loud too often, and IEMs just give me a combination of a quieter & clearer sound for the bits I need in order to play well.

 

I hope that makes sense!

 

I'm not claiming any of this is THE WAY, but it seems to work. Other methods may exist

 

 

 

 

 

[wateroftyne]

An Eagles tribute show in Richmond, North Yorkshire last night. A fun gig as always, but notable for being in one of the oldest theatres (c.1788) in the UK.

[Piers_Williamson]

24 minutes ago, wateroftyne said:

An Eagles tribute show in Richmond, North Yorkshire last night. A fun gig as always, but notable for being in one of the oldest theatres (c.1788) in the UK.

 

 

Looks like Statler and Waldorf were in attendance

 

 

[Stub Mandrel]

3 hours ago, peteb said:

 

Seeing as I've just done a gig where the guitar player's Helix went down three times, I'm not sure that it's only tube amps that are temperamental. 

 

 

I've seen a Helix require a few resets over a rehearsal more than once. Not at a gig so far.

 

 

[dmccombe7]

5 week gap for us at moment. Singer is off on hols for 3 weeks renewing his vows. We gig the day after he returns so that'll be a fun night.

Still it lets me enjoy all your gig reports at an nice easy pace. 😂

Dave

[Leonard Smalls]

1 hour ago, Stub Mandrel said:

a Helix require a few resets

Mine never has, in the 5 years I've had it! It's failed to boot up twice, and both times off/on started it up nicely.

Is the software up to date? Are patches too resource hungry, or from a dodgy source?

[Stub Mandrel]

51 minutes ago, Leonard Smalls said:

Mine never has, in the 5 years I've had it! It's failed to boot up twice, and both times off/on started it up nicely.

Is the software up to date? Are patches too resource hungry, or from a dodgy source?

 

I have no idea - I left the band. But why should it need a patch to work properly? 

[WalMan]

6 hours ago, peteb said:

 

Seeing as I've just done a gig where the guitar player's Helix went down three times, I'm not sure that it's only tube amps that are temperamental. 

 

Don't say that!! I'm just about to try to sell mine with flight case as it sits on the floor in the study/studio and I have other options to use for recording (also I quite fancy, and selling might go a way towards funding, a Darkglass Anagram)