thebrig

You guys have far more serious health problems than me, and I sympathise greatly, and I really hope you can continue to play music for a good many years to come. The health issues that I have is concerning my back, the vertebrae is very arthritic and has various abnormalities, they are not sure whether they can operate on it successfully, so at the moment they are just giving me a massive amount of painkillers, and morphine every four hours to mask the pain, its helps to take the edge off the pain if I'm just sitting/lying around on a soft sofa, which is what I'm doing now, but I can't walk more than 50 yards without severe pain kicking in and I have to stop, and I can't drive anywhere because its too painful, but more importantly, the drugs are affecting me a lot and I'm away with the fairies most of the time, so driving really is out of the question. Luckily for me, I have a very understanding and sympathetic wife and she is going to drive to our rehearsal studio tonight, she's going to wait for me until we've finished, and then take me home again (its about a 80 minute round trip), and she has also been driving me to gigs, but quite honestly, I'm getting to the stage where I'm not sure whether I can carry on, the pain is so severe, and I'm all drugged up when I'm playing, I really feel that it is affecting my playing, I'm making silly mistakes that I've not made in the past, the guys in the band are great about it, and to be honest, I don't think they even notice, but I do, and it really bugs me. The other thing that is really worrying me is the fact that I now have to sit on a stool to play a gig, the guys make a bit of a joke to the audience about me being the old git in the band, blah! blah! blah!, and admittedly, it does give the audience a laugh, and sometimes the banter can carry on all night which I honestly don't mind, I always enjoy a bit of banter, but sitting down! its just not rock & roll is it? And to make matters worse, we are an old school R&B band, and about 80% of our set is made up of energetic Dr Feelgood material, so I should be walking about all over the stage whilst playing!

[quote name='Earbrass' timestamp='1476105185' post='3151298'] My last bass gig was about 5 years ago. Since then I've played an average of 20-30 gigs per year, but none on bass. I've had to cut back recently due to health issues (ME/CFS), but hope that won't stop me for too long. These days the bass sits in the corner and is only used for my (sadly occasional) home recording efforts. I wouldn't be without it, though. [/quote]Sorry that your health issues has meant you cutting back on gigging, I hope that can find a way to get back out there again soon.

[quote name='SubsonicSimpleton' timestamp='1476054967' post='3150941'] If the tracks you are recording with the zoom sound good, then they are good. Enjoy the process of recording and spend time experimenting with the stuff you have and figuring out what it is capable of - recording equipment can get very expensive very quickly, so before deciding to upgrade your audio chain, you really need to be sure about what is going to bring the best improvement. If you are concerned about recording 8 tracks at once, what circumstances are you going to do this in as an overdub where latency might be an issue? Go do it, and see whether it really is a problem - if there isn't a problem then great, if there is a problem, you need to ask how often you will need to record like that and what your options are (for something like full drumkit overdubs it may be economical to rent some studio time and take advantage of their mics and acoustic treatment and pro level kit if you are not going to be doing it on a regular basis) - do you need more kit, or can you change your approach to making the recording so the problem disappears. [/quote]Thanks for the advice, I will give it some serious thought, after all, its very early days in my recording hobby.

[quote name='Jow Bass' timestamp='1476102953' post='3151249'] I can do all of your mods, let me know if you are interested? [/quote]Hi Jow, I've PM'd you.

[quote name='chris_b' timestamp='1476100684' post='3151216'] I never wrote a diary, but I have a book that lists all my gigs for the first 10 years or so. [/quote]Its a pity you stopped after ten years, it would have made interesting reading to look back on almost a lifetime of gigging, and I'm sure there is a story or two to be told amongst that little lot. Anyway, well done, fifty years really is an achievement!

We always start with AC/DC's [b]There Gonna Be Some Rockin' Tonight[/b], we think its a lively number that really lets the audience know what to expect for the rest of the evening. Also, the clue is in the title!

[quote name='chris_b' timestamp='1476052834' post='3150917'] Gigging was all I intended to do when learning bass. Played at home or the Albert Hall, the bass is the greatest instrument. Whichever venue you choose is fine. IME nothing in the world feels as good as standing in front of 500 watts with the room rattling and your trousers flapping. And breaking news. . . . The 20th November is the 50th anniversary of my first gig. [/quote]That's absolutely brilliant Chris! but how do you remember the exact date?

[quote name='GirlOnADragon' timestamp='1476046391' post='3150855'] 2nd forum post. be nice. Picked up my bass again after almost 10 years absolutely determined to gig - 9 months from picking up my bass again I'm pretty keen to get gigging but current commitments mean its difficult to find and fit in a band. That said I'm a fairly tenacious creature and so I will gig - even if to start with the music isn't 100% my cup of tea. Somewhere deep inside is an exhibitionist just waiting to get on stage. [/quote]Go for it!

[quote name='Chiliwailer' timestamp='1476042766' post='3150800'] Memories of pain killer fuelled jams and gigs just came flooding back then, I can only remember that working for one of the bands I was in But seriously, you just know when it becomes self defeating and time to stop, until then I hope you find a way to keep on enjoying it. If that means having a Roadie then that's cool, stools are ok too! Bands and playing were my complete life at the time and I had invested so much into it, and had some incredible times along the way. I never thought I'd cope having to stop, but I eventually found a new career that is much more rewarding in the grand scheme of things as it's in the third sector. My life has a much wider purpose now and though it's still physically challenging just being there it is worth the additional pain that full time work brings. I wouldn't have found this new path had my health had stayed good as I was too focussed in music. Funny old world eh? Honestly, it all feels equally unfortunate for all of us that must stop through health, I was young but you're on far more serious drugs than I need and I feel for you massively. Still, no one will ever truly understand chronic life changing pain unless they live with it, or amongst it, so I guess that's why we can empathise here together. [/quote]Yes, I am in a lot of pain, but to put it all in perspective, what I am suffering from might be "life changing", but it's not "life threatening", whereas, I have lost a lot of people close to me through terrible illness's, and I have a friend who was told about six weeks ago that he has only two to three months to live, I'm actually going "Sober for October" in a bid to raise money for his favourite charity Macmillan who are looking after him during his final days, but the thing is, I can't drink anyway because of the medication I'm on ([i]people are still sponsoring me though[/i]), and unfortunately, he probably will have passed away by the end of October so he wont know how much we've raised, and spare a thought for all those unfortunate children who are born with all manner of illness's, some don't even see their first birthday. I feel lucky to have had a good life, and although I came into music late, I'm trying to make the most of it and if I do have to pack it in, I will try and get my music fix by making and recording music at home.

[quote name='LZD56' timestamp='1476034826' post='3150667'] Well, as the original suggestion for sonic blue with tort guard was mine & now there may be the possibility of a jazz neck then I'm more than just interested. Dots or block inlays on the neck? [/quote]A bit of binding would look good on mine!

[quote name='Chiliwailer' timestamp='1476037292' post='3150718'] So sorry to hear about your health. I had to stop gigging about 8-9 years ago due to health issues. Being only 30 then and gigging regularly it was quite a kick in the teeth. I did the odd recording session for a while after but could never guarantee if I'd be in a fit state to play on the day, so I faded it out as I had a tendency to push myself too far. But on the bright side, I still play as often as I can on a set up which I have at home. I have some fx and preamps that go into a Mini Mackie mixer, also into that goes a drum machine and a MP3 player and a set of headphones. This way I can jam to drum tracks or tunes and still enjoy playing and appreciating fine basses. I just feel blessed that I can still do that, there's too many stories of people who had to stop completely due to health which is a great shame. Best of luck to you. [/quote]Thanks for your kind thoughts, but it must have been far worse for you having to give it up at only 30, but its great you've found something you can do at home so you can still enjoy your music. My last gig was a couple of weeks ago, I felt so guilty because my wife had to carry my gear into the venue, and I had to play the whole gig sitting on a stool because standing is too painful, and having to take a cocktail of drugs just before the gig started meant I was in my own little world most of the time.

[quote name='SubsonicSimpleton' timestamp='1476023741' post='3150497'] Before you go hogwild buying an expensive multi channel interface, it is worth IMHO looking at the full signal chain of the equipment you already own, and make an honest assessment of whether you are genuinely being limited by the equipment. You already own a Zoom R16 - so how many recordings of your band have you made with it using all 8 channels? what mics did you use? how much time did you spend on mic positioning and gain adjustment before starting to record? and what were the problems with the end results? The preamps and AD conversion in the R16 are not on the same level as you would find in a pro studio, but problems with room acoustics, bad mic placement, poor mics or improper gain staging are much more likely to hold you back, and won't magically disappear buy buying a more expensive interface. At the point where you can positively identify that something in your signal chain is a problem, and why it is a problem is the point when it makes sense to make an informed decision to upgrade. Just to illustrate the point, go listen to Bruce Springsteen's album Nebraska which is notable for being recorded on cassette 4 track portastudio in his spare room with a couple of SM57s - it really illustrates what can be achieved with very basic equipment. [/quote]Thanks for the tips and advice Subsonic, you are right in saying I already have the equipment to do a job, and I get the point you make about setting everything up properly, I've only tried recording the band a couple of times, really without a clue about what I'm doing, but I did read up a bit on the subject and watched videos about how to record a band, but there is only so much you can do when you are doing it at a rehearsal or a gig, you don't have much time to get things right, its hard to isolate the instruments so there is going to be a lot of bleed, lack of space prevents you from proper placement of the mics, so it really is a case of "just do it, and see what it comes out like" which isn't ideal to say the least, but like I said, I'm a complete beginner who can only record something by seeking advice from videos etc. The guitarist from our band came round last week, and I downloaded the drum tracks and vocal tracks to a couple of songs that we wanted to try, I loaded them into Logic and we recorded our parts through the Zoom R16 into Logic, obviously, I'm just fumbling around at the moment, but we didn't notice any problems with latency, but I can't help thinking that if I tried recording eight tracks at once we might run into problems, the recorded tracks sounded good to us, but would they sound even better if we had used a Focusrite Thunderbolt interface?

[quote name='Dad3353' timestamp='1476021939' post='3150479'] They are both of an almost identical spec, concerning sound quality and features; the PreX is rather cased to be racked into a studio and never moved around, and so has the connectors doubled up. This would allow having both jacks and Xlr's connected, and the choice of which to use done through software. The Pre version has combi connectors; one would plug in a jack, or an Xlr, but not both at the same time. For your use, I'd suggest that the PreX features are not necessary. If 8 channels are not enough, either (or any...) of this range can be interconnected to expand the total inputs. It's possible, for instance, to add a Pre4, which would give a total of 12, or a second Pre8, to get 16 channels.The protocol that enables this is ASAT; it's just a way of getting stuff to work together, like MIDI, or USB. ASAT equipment 'talks' to other ASAT equipment, that's all. A clock is used for synchronising interconnected gear, much like an orchestral conductor. A world clock gives a common timing signal to all, so that the signals stay coherent. It's not a big deal with only an interface and a Mac, but once one gets lots of outboard accessories, such as reverbs, or other recording devices, it's required that one or other of the machines takes control of timing. In your set-up, I'd say it's of no importance; it's perhaps nice to know, however, that it's there if ever it becomes necessary. How does all this stuff work..? Magic, my lad; magic. I'd just add the warning that, for recording, live, a whole group, having all of those inputs available is only one of the aspects. Trying to keep each channel clear of the other instruments becomes important, as is microphone choice and placing. It's good to have excellent equipment from a technical point of view, but it's only going to be as good as the weakest link; any more is 'overkill', and won't give a better result. Not to say that your choice is not good (it is..!), but it can't give any more than the quality of signal going in. It's quite a challenge micing up this way, so don't expect to get Abbey Road results, despite the quality of your gear. You're off to a roaring start, though, I'll grant you that..! [/quote]Thanks for clearing a few things up Dad, just knowing these little things makes it a lot easier when I'm reading through the spec and watching the videos on the Focusrite website.

Sorry everybody, but lots of meaningless questions and queries get posted on here all the time, it was only meant as a bit of fun to find out what people who don't, or rarely gig, do if they don't gig very often. I started off just collecting guitars when I was in my early twenties, I will be 65 next month and I only started gigging in 2007 when I was 56, so I have spent more than thirty years where I have owned instruments, but did not gig, and because I might have to stop gigging myself soon, I was wondering if I can get any ideas from other BC'ers to find an alternative to gigging. Once again, I did not intend to offend anyone, it was just a light-hearted question, but if you think this post is offensive, I am more than happy to ask a mod to delete it, because I feel genuinely upset that it could be taken the wrong way.

[quote name='Geek99' timestamp='1476030113' post='3150597'] I have children and a disabled partner, it's not easy to achieve gigging. I can manage OM nights sometimes. I do find the tone of the question a little unthoughtful to be honest [/quote]I'm really sorry about your situation and I can honestly say that I did not mean to offend anyone by asking this question. I am on the verge of having to pack up gigging because of health problems, I am taking seventeen pills a day, plus morphine in liquid form every four hours, and morphine in slow release tablet form twice a day, I'm not able to drive any more due to the drugs and the pain, and I am now in the process of starting to sell gear off so I can fund recording equipment so I can continue to make music at home. Once again, apologies if I offended you, it certainly was not intended.

[quote name='TrevorR' timestamp='1476028615' post='3150566'] This clearly calls for a poll... Gigs Regularly/Not gigged in several years/Only jam nights, not playing for an audience/Never Gigged or played in public [/quote]Not sure how to do it I'm afraid.

A pleasure to do business with Tony, he is a highly trustworthy and recommended BC'er.

A pleasure to do business with Mark, he is a highly trustworthy and recommended BC'er.

It was a pleasure to do business with Dunc, the transaction was pleasant and smooth, he is a highly recommended and trustworthy BC'er.

Apologies if this has been done before, but I've noticed after reading many threads over a number of years, that quite often, people mention that they have either never gigged, or not gigged for many years. Now there's nothing wrong with that at all, but I'm curious to know what you do with your basses, or what do you get out of your obvious interest in all things bass, are you session musicians, just like noodling away at home, just like collecting basses, or just not interested about playing in bands? I hope you don't think I'm being nosey, I'm just genuinely curious. Me? I started collecting guitars because I liked them as ornaments, I then got a bass about ten year's ago to add to my collection of guitars, and I took to it immediately and have been playing in gigging bands ever since. I joined BassChat about five year's ago and if I packed up gigging, I would still check in regularly, because all you guys & gals out there make it such an interesting forum.

Ok, a couple of days ago I introduced myself as a total newbie to recording, and judging by the advice I’ve been given and from reading other threads, it looks like I have a decent enough computer to meet most of my needs, but since reading the threads on interfaces, I now realise that I could do with a better interface than what I’m currently using, and I think it’s looks like its best to go down the [b]Thunderbolt[/b] route. Having done a fair bit of research, I’ve settled on getting something from the [b]Focusrite Claret[/b] range, and because I will want to record my band from time to time, I want at least eight inputs so that I can record the band in a live situation by micing everything up, and recording them all simultaneously. The [b]Focusrite Clarett 8 Pre[/b] and the [b]Focusrite Clarett 8 Pre X[/b] both have eight inputs, but if I wanted to record more than eight tracks simultaneously, what would be the best option, and what advantages does the [b]Pre X[/b] have over the [b]Pre[/b]? Sorry if these are all daft questions, but I really don’t understand how they work, and what things like [b]ADAT[/b] and [b]World Clock[/b] mean or do at the moment, but I think I will be able get my head around them once I start going into shops and seeing them in the flesh, and talking about them to hopefully knowledgeable staff. I know it’s quite a big outlay for someone new to recording, but I would rather spend the money now on the best I can afford, rather than pay less on something I will probably want to replace in a few month’s time. All advice is very welcome. Thanks.