Dad3353

It's all in the design, getting it to clip together as it does, and having a nice finish is a real bonus, so the shop cost doesn't seem excessive. If one was stuck for a stand, however, it looks like a promising way to go, as a 'one-off' private project. The folk that made that one certainly new what they were doing. I like it.

How hard would that be to make..? It's basically two identical sides, a front and back spreader and a top seat. Granted, that looks like a quality finish, at surely low production runs, but it's half a sheet of ply and some padding for the seat. Anyone with a band-saw could do that, I think. Is there a woodwork class at a nearby school or college..? T'would be a nice project, making something along those lines. Just a thought.

Horn players have to anticipate their notes to compensate for the physics of air producing the sound. Most noticeable for the bassier stuff, such as tubas, sousaphones, bass trombones et el.

I use a Sonuus i2m for recording MIDI tracks into my Reaper DAW. I'm not worried by delay, as I can shift the resulting track to line up with whatever else is there. It wouldn't do for real-time synchronising, such as you seem to want to do. A 'standard' audio interface (Focusrite and the like...) should give much better results. Keep the i2m solely for MIDI conversion when synchro is not an issue; it does a pretty good job for that. Hope this helps.

Yes. ...

Frivolous..? Good gracious, no..! I'd pop it straight into the savings account, awaiting a thunderbolt from the blue. Ha Ha..! Take that, Fate..!

My first e-kit was simply for commodity, to have a practice kit to stay 'on form'. I learned what was missing from my point of view, and upgraded, twice, until I got the e-kit that does what I want it to do. This involved adding a laptop and a screen, all in a flight case with an audio interface, so that it's a quality feed going to the PA, whilst I enjoy my perfect dosage in my wired iem's. We don't gig much nowadays, but I'd now rather take the e-kit out than dismember my acoustic kit, which stays in our micro-studio, semi-retired. We did a rare gig a few weeks ago, though, using the e-kit, and it worked perfectly. If I add up the cost of an e-kit such as mine, with the laptop, screen and software, it's still at least half, probably less still, than the cost of any equivalent acoustic kit, with decent cymbals. Far easier and quicker to set up, perfect volume at every gig, with the option of swapping drum sounds for every song, if required (I don't do this now, as I've set up a sound that works well with all our current repertoire, but I can dial in timpani, or steel drums, or even marimba if needed...). If it's only the 'look' that counts, count me out, as it's never been a concern; others may have a different opinion. Weird..? Maybe, to some, but, as a drummer, I'll take 'weird' if it means getting so many advantages. There are a few things it does less well, such as brush swirls for light jazz numbers, or changing sticks mid-song for timpani mallets, but for most modern or classic pop-rock, it's all win, I say. One does need a decent PA, of course..!

It must have been a similar shock when the first players to use an electric bass turned up, leaving the Luddites drop-jawed when they realised that there was no 'bass fiddle'. The Stratocaster looked a little strange, too, when it started to replace the Dreadnought folk guitars everyone was using. It's just the wheel turning, s'all; it's all done with software on an iPad now, anyway, so even these new-fangled novelties are 'old hat'. One gets used to it all after a few generations.

I'd vote for Jack Casady, Phil Lesh and Ashley Hutchings, were they to appear on the list.

Bert Weedon's Play in a Day ... Still relevant, after all this time...

Oh, I dunno; where does this gobelet land..?

Energy Drink Consumption ... Extract . Conclusion ... ... Energy drinks may show positive beneficial effects on exercise performance in various sport activities. However, while energy drinks might benefit performance, possible detrimental health problems have been documented, particularly amongst children and adolescents. Various parts of the body are negatively affected by energy drink consumption. Considering this fact and the increasing popularity of these drinks, caution should be exercised while consuming energy drinks. Overambitious marketing and non-scientific claims should be regulated by governments until independent studies confirm that that these products are safe.

Mmm... Tea...

Steady on, there, old chap..! I attended a fair number of concerts 'back then', and my (admittedly failing...) memory and rose-tinted glasses tell a quite different story. There were some ropy events, but, on the whole, I'd say that the quality was there. Special mention for Jefferson Airplane/The Door at Chalk Farm's Roundhouse and the Godshill, Isle of Wight Festival, and a Traffic concert at Bracknell; there were dozens more, but those, at least, stand out. It's true that some venues were rather, shall we say, 'over loud' (The Ox, at Brunel University, and The Marquee, for instance...), but I didn't stay around too long in those cases.

Classical orchestras (and soloists...) are still playing, 'live', the music of yesteryear by the likes of Mozart, Bach, Dvorak etc. Could we not consider this as being in the 'tribute' corner, and have 'tribute' bands playing stuff from Kiss, Abba or whoever..? T'would be a 'live' performance, at least, with the option of having 'real' interaction with the audience. Just a thought.

One like this, then..?

Yes, it would cause problems, as this unit has only one, fixed, frequency channel, so another would interfere. There are plenty of other systems available now that don't have this inconvenience, so you might be best advised to choose another. I can recommend SmoothHound; there are many others, at no higher cost than his AKG. Have a look at the Thomann range of products to see what's out there. Hope this helps.

I have a Fostex MR8HD for this, which records up to 4 simultaneous inputs onto up to 8 tracks. Very old-fashioned, and clunky to operate, but one gets used to anything, and it certainly works well enough. A bit of a 'faff' to transfer tracks to PC for further DAW treatment etc, but, again, it works. Recording quality is good, with native WAV files. Long out of production; can be had for less than £100. The User manual is easy to download from the Fostex site, and is indispensable to understand how to operate the beast. Hope this helps.

As it's all we have from this past year, here's a medley of 'punter's' videos, taking at our rare outing, September. A bit long for the Challenge rules of 5 minutes; if that's an issue I could just post just one, but you'd be missing out on the others ... ... starring Steph, our singist, Our Youngest on bass, Our Eldest on guitar 1 (stage left...), the local lad Flo (previously our guitar 2, a couple of decades ago...), for some songs, stage right, and I play drums, of course. Note the broken string upsetting the very last number, stage left. Very cramped quarters which did nothing to hamper the ambiance, as can be seen, I think. Better as a video track than audio alone. Happy daze; enjoy. Douglas

I agree with the above. Set your bass/amp volume levels using passive mode, then adjust the trim pot in active mode until the level is the same. Tiny adjustments would be best; about 1/10 of a turn at the time, as it may be quite sensitive. The ideal is to have the same perceived volume from the instrument whether in active or passive. Hope this helps.

Yes indeed, symbiosis. Working in harmony together to mutual benefit.