WalMan

I really ought to buy my Sunday ticket. I shall be the one wandering about with a slightly glazed look after two night of gigging, and sadly the Saturday is the longer trip Hopefully no engineering works this year. The taxi to cost me an arm and a leg last year.

[quote name='Mykesbass' timestamp='1329388415' post='1541547'] Really envious - I usually have about 30/40 minutes drive as most of the gigs are local to the rest of the band. [b]I find that I need at least an hour, sometimes two before I can go to sleep[/b] [/quote]This. and this week I have to get back up at sparrows f@rt and drive for 4-5 hours

Indeed. Used to enjoy a drive home to Whispering Bob. Best one ever was the night the keys player had arrived at the gig bemoaning the fact tht his soon to be ex wife had given him a pair of shoes for his birthday. Bob Harris used to read out messages from bands / people on their way back from gigs and I managed to leave a message that he read out that went something along the lines of "Happy birthday Nick from the rest of the band, and ...nice shoes" Shortly after I had a phone call from the birthday boy who had been listening in his car Worst one was falling asleep whil driving the hire van. Nearly home having driven 30 miles the wrong direction to Brighton to get the vocalist, turned round and driven to Southampton picking up others on the way, done a two hour gig + set up & breakdown of the gear, and then the same journey in reverse. Managed to get to about a mile from home before I dozed off & left the road, THANKFULLY on an S bend that at the time went onto an unfenced bit of grass (now there are fence posts & trees and it would have been a bit different. Then the van bounced up the kerb and across the grass. I came to, stopped the van, had a little think about things then drove home and went to bed intending not to say anything about it to MrsW. Unfortunately shortly after my head hit the pillow and I dozed off I redreamt it and woke up shouting, so had to own up

[quote name='Darkglass' timestamp='1328778960' post='1532408'] Hey! I will be there as well helping out in general and answering any questions about Darkglass pedals! See you all there! [/quote]Can either of you make sure there's a long Mono strap left for me on Sunday I need one more and it seems easiest to do it direct there & save the postage. Sunday looks the likely day for me & I shall have to remember the badge I made up with an ols BC business card picked up at a BassBash years ago and the laminator (the first & only time I think it has ever been used since MrsW bought it because "[i]it was a bargain[/i]". Gigging Friday & Saturday (I think though it's deps and I [i]still[/i] don't know where ) So Sunday's probably best.

I'm afraid I was guilty of a cancellation for next week on the grounds that MrsW "had a hissy fit". I was anticipating us going away for a few days Sat-Wed with me back in time for r/h on the Weds eve. Russia & China (in the form of MrsW) operated her block veto by getting snippy as she had to work the Sat (I thought she was off). To be fair that rarely happens and I do get away with moider most of the time trying to fit in 3 1/2 bands at the mo. Worst otherwise was the keys in the prog band ringing at 9:30 on the morning of a r/h due to start at 10:00 to say he had things to do at home. This for something that had been in the diary for weeks if not months, as we get together infrequently so things get planned and put in the diary well in advance in the run up to a gig

Nope. Firewood is too kind a term for it Actually it was not sold, but lent to someone who left it ina greenhouse where it warped to heck. First proper bass (Black Shergold Marathon later converted to a silverburst 8 string). Not really. Nice enough bass, but hardwork as an 8 string

So the gear "war" continues. Wanted a better smaller keyboard than the M-Audio 49 I have. I was thinking os one of the 25 key controllers to run in a chani Roland PK5 bass pedals->?? key keyboard on a stand->Mopho, this having established that it gave me some more control over things likeMod & Pitch bend, and sometimes a keyboard is easier than the pedals (particularly with my size 11's as my feet dont do winkle pickers and it is easier to accurately control the pedals with bare/socked feet I have found. Went to GAK, having been to Andertons at lunch on Friday and realised that the cheaper 25 keys master keyboards were mostly USB and not DIN cable MIDI, and then looked at more on-line and had another S0D1T moment deciding to get something I could use to control the Mac/PC for recording at home. Still thought 25 keys would suffice, but ended up being talked into the 32 key Roland A300 (by the Roland rep they have in there I subsequently realised ) along the lines of "it's only another £20" and ought to tie up better with the Poland PK5 - not so sure there, but having looked at 25 keys and the additional real estate required for the 32 keys went for that. Bit of a Mr Creosote moment "but sir it's just a wafer thin couple of keys..." etc First try oiut at r/h this morning was a little awkward as the Roland power supply I use to run the daisy chain for effects, PK5 and ultimately A300 died - I think it has been on the way out for a while with a break somewhere in the lead near where it comes out of the unit, allied to the fact that I was having to run everything through the Line In / Effects return as I could not get a lead into the normal input on the studio's Trace combo. Got it set up but the bass pedals wold not talk to the Mopho through the A300. Turned out that was a matter of RTFM, which I only did when I got home tonight and have been sat in front of the BAFTA's with gear over the floor to prove it all. The A300 has a MIDI merge swith that I had set to ON in the studio, but which required deeper editing to actually assign the MIDI In from the PK5 to MIDI Out on the A300. Now working loverly The A300 means that I can change programs on the Mopho so that can live back at the amp and I only need a note of the patches and what they are at the front. Keys player in the prog band commented that it was a bit much when the bass player had better keyboards that the keyboard player It will be better when the PK5 is working as well now I have worked that out, but I was getting some nice bits going on less fiddly bits when I could hammer on the bass with my fretting hand and hit notes on the A300 that sits on a stand on my right. The Mopho has some good basses in the factory sounds so I should not need to get too deeply involved in editing patches thankfully, and a lot of those have a reasonable release tail so that the note doesn't always just cut out when I take my foot off the bass pedal / cancel the Hold function. That being so, and as the Mopho is a mono synth (not the poly rack I was using initially) I shall probably set the PK5 to Poly rather than Mono. When set to Mono the PK5 defaults to Hold on, which requires a separate tap of a button on the board to cancel the hold. Unless there is a release tail the note cuts straight off, and the Hold cancel button is also the initial button to change the octave and I had a couple of occasion where I forgot to press it again so that the next note I touched reset the octave setting and instead of a deep bass I reset the octave to C5 or somesuch and got a really high note instead. In Poly mode Hold is set to off, but as above as the Mopho is mono the fact that the pedals are polyphonic is not an issue, and with a decent tail on the patch I do not think this will be a problem. One less thing for me to worry about killing a note at the end of a section/song. Anyway that's the current plan. We shall see how it all works at next r/h, and at the same time I can try the volume pedal I have into the A300, which I forgot to do tonight.

Last Friday was: [b]Waiting For An Alibi[/b] [b]Dude Looks Like A Lady[/b] [b]Comin’ Back For More[/b] [b]Wishing Well[/b] [b]Fire[/b] [b]Burlesque[/b] [b]Wayward Son [/b] [b]Helter Skelter[/b] [b]Good Times Bad Times[/b] [b]Loading Up[/b] [b]La Woman[/b] [b](WPOD)?[/b] [b]Are You Ready To Rock?[/b] [b]Hell and High Water[/b] [b]Ready and Willin’[/b] [b]My Kind Of Girl[/b] [b]Foxy Lady[/b] [b]Unconditional Love[/b] [b]I Want It All[/b] [b]Whole Lotta Love [/b] [b]Maniac[/b] [b]Are You Gonna Be My Girl?[/b] [b]Rosalie[/b] [b]School’s Out[/b] [b]Mony Mony [/b] [b]Encs: Gimme All Your Lovin’/Smoke On The Water/Since You Been Gone/Rebel Yell[/b]

So the Mopho got its first outing at r/h last night. first attempt at running master keys MIDI out to Roland PK5 bass pedals MIDI in then MIDI out from there to the MIDI in on the Mopho, and after a bit of swapping around (initially thought I needed to go MIDI Thru on the PK5 from the M-Audion keys but that didn't work) and the system was running. It means I can use the volume control, pitch & mod wheels on the M-Audio and either hands or feet to play the synth. Only trouble was the keys amp in the r/h studio was SH1TE!! so all the nice basses I was hoping to use from the Mopho came out with a horrible rasp, and nothing I could do to the keys amp control seemed to help. In the end I plugged the synth to the effects in socket on the knack'd Trace rig I was using for the basses and that was a bit better. Still the principle works so persevere. It does mean that my "corner" with the prog band is getting cluttered. Basses, pedalboard (chorus, octaver etc), bass pedals & keyboard on a stand. Lucky the gigs we tend to do are on slightly larger stages with a bit of room and not cramped pub gigs!!!

[quote name='MoonBassAlpha' timestamp='1328224452' post='1524219'] Do all Genz have an hpf? (wondering about my Shuttle 3.0). Would certainly make sense for the lower powered amps. cheers Jules [/quote]I believe so. I know I emailed the company and had an exchange of emails with [size="1"]Jeff Genzler [/size]himself. I am sure when I looked at the manuals at the time it seemed pretty obvious what/where it was, but looking now I'm am not so sure. I think on the block diagram for the Streamliner it is the HPF before the master. Can't see that on the Shuttle 3 diagram, but I thought it was on all models. Best bet is email Jaff/Support & ask.

[quote name='stef030' timestamp='1327578118' post='1513540'] used to play this pub on a regular basis, the six bells at chiddingly, some of the people who lived local and always came to see the bands were keith emerson,I spoke to him a few times,smashing bloke he would sometimes play the piano on a sunday lunchtime,a bit of jazz and ragtime [/quote] - Yup [quote name='tombboy' timestamp='1327592756' post='1513915'] Played to Bruce Foxton once.... he tapped his foot to our songs. Must've been very drunk! [/quote] him too - legend has it, though I suspect it was the guy who did our sound & lights having a laff, that he was heard to ask if we were recording the gig having seen the Copicat Once played a gig with a club band that was supposed to be the first of a run of the things where the promoter got a band a comic/entertainer and a sports "hero" along who would do a Q&A session as part of the night. The first & only one was with Alan Ball. Got a very poor turnout so we had to spend the early part of the evening phoning friends to come down for free and ask planted questions.

[quote name='woodyratm' timestamp='1327928283' post='1518851'] I need to get into this. Got a macbook, interface, usb keyboard and cubase. Anyone reccomend any free stuff i can play around with? [/quote]Try IK Multimedia [url="http://www.ikmultimedia.com/sampletankfree/features/"]Sampletank Free player[/url]. It's free and comes with a [url="http://www.ikmultimedia.com/sampletankfree/sounds/"]set of samples[/url] that includes a few basses

Whilst I don't have a Thumpinator, the Genz Benz amps have a similar system built in (one of the things I checked with Mr Benz before I bought as I was considering a Thumpinator at the time). We tune down a semitone and it has no noticable effect on the sound, just a solid low B/Bb. As I understand it what both do is filter the ultra low harmonics that you cannot hear anyway, but that lead to big speaker excursions expending a lot of energy to no audible effect.

As elsewhere I picked up a DSI MoPho yesterday to use with the Roland bass pedals, but I think I shall also take my M-Audio keyboard and try running that through the pedals to the MoPho. It's only a mono synth, but for what I was after (something for the pedals) it sounded great on last nights first tinker. When I originally got the pedals the idea was to use it to fire Sampletank on the laptop, but with the pedals on MIDI connections rather tha USB from the keyboard it would not work & I had notes sticking on etc so had to rething things. That became a really cheap D110 rack that worked OK and now the MoPho which sound like it will be just the job. Roll on Thursdays r/h to give it its first outing

[quote name='Westie9' timestamp='1327664147' post='1514905'] Like grunge666, i too have just pressed the button!!! Never heard them or even seen one in the flesh !!! Madness? probably, but not all the reviews can be wrong can they.......... [/quote]You will then have the same rig as me, which may or may not be a good thing, but I love mine Had a quieter r/h this afternoon and it was just sat there beautifully.

[quote name='essexbasscat' timestamp='1327837562' post='1517338'] A left field one - make sure you are hydrated enough for the gig and have some water handy while playing. Wouldn't hurt to gradually build up your playing stamina to train your muscles to cope with the task. [/quote]Beat me to it. We have one long gig that is also more often than not a hot & sweaty one, and I can get through 2 or 3 litres of water over the course of the night. If I don't I know I run the risk of cramping in my fretting hand by the end of the night. Probably digging in too, but the water definitely helps

Well in the end I got neither, but I did pick up a DSI MoPho from eBay today and it has some corkers in there that'll work just fine methinks. The "Tom Sawyer" & "Bass Pedals" patches are particularly thunderous (well through the headphones anyway)

Now there's a thought. When I have decided on a day and mode of transport I'll be back

As elsewhere, currently loving my Genz Benz Streamliner 6.0 & Barefaced Super12T rig

I have a Boss CE20 for sale if you're interested. Only because I have ended up with EBS pedals, which are smaller and work well - said he stymying a potential sale The CE 20 is good and has a number of different modes including Bass, Dimension D & CE1, as well as 4 memory slots, so 5 possible "patches" with the manual space

[quote name='wmsheep' timestamp='1326305860' post='1495259'] Brilliiant intro music It's available from [url="http://freedownloads.last.fm/download/300095148/RosFest%2BShow%2BIntro.mp3"]HERE[/url] That Mr Godfrey is far too clever!! [/quote]I knew I'd found it somewhere - though not there, it was Frost* Toys I think - and yes, dmn him, he is

[quote name='Count Bassy' timestamp='1326136780' post='1492821'] Just remembered that I lent this to a pick player on a few occasions. Would that be why the coating had peeled off? [/quote]Yes. That's what mine do. Still last a good six months+ before they go off, and that is gradual so it is often only when I think "these have been on a while I probably ought to change them" and a new set brightens things up. Elixirs all the way for me. All coated strings are not the same. I tried a set of D'Addarios I picked up at the bass show last year and hated them. Sound wasn't great and they didn't seem to last long, mind that could be because I didn't like the sound so changed them back to Elixirs

I used a Markbass CMD121H for a long time. Gave more than enough for stage monitoring and into the PA for larger places. Compact & light

[quote name='Johngh' timestamp='1325766368' post='1487232'] I'd love to be in a band that could do Black Rose, awesome track. [/quote]We played that for years. It got dropped in the end but lasted as a staple in the set at some places for many years. Still get asked for it now, but time & set songs move on

[quote name='Clarky72' timestamp='1326020619' post='1491009'] I would need a nice middly 80s pop tone out it too, have you managed to get something like this out if it without it sounding too modern and clinical? [/quote]Not sure. It's not the sort of stuff I do, but if you could find somewhere to A/B it I would add the Streamliner to the (evergrowing ) list. The STM has bass, middle & treble controls with a selection of three bands for the mids so you might well find it there. The Shuttle probably has more overall control, but like I say for me it wasn't what I wanted.