cheddatom

O2 Academy 2 in Birmingham on Saturday night. We were first on. It was my first gig with my new moulded earplugs. They're so quiet! It was a bit disorientating for the first half of the set but I got used to it. We played well, even though we had a dep on bass, and we got a great reception. Ace!

Alexanders. I don't really know Chester but it's the 2nd time I've played there and both times to pretty much no-one

one of the drummers things would probably do it, something like this: https://www.roland.com/uk/products/spd-sx/ I've never done it myself though, maybe check out some youtube demos?

A small pub in Chester last night with my band Dandelion meow meow. A very small audience, and I've been knackered all week. I was expecting to have a bad night but playing with this band is just too much fun. So funky!!!!

the one you linked will be fine

Good find! I looked at the manual but missed that

oh well, it seems it's just a fact of life and I'll have to live with it. I'd still prefer if the sound for the support acts was "acceptable" IE drums audible to the audience, but then if they want to turn the whole thing up and put on a light show for the headliner - fine. I have to say we've headlined quite a few shows and it's never happened for us, but then we don't take our own light or sound engineers

The Xvive v19 only supplies 300mA I can't seem to find a definitely spec for the current draw of the tonehammer, but a couple of talkbass threads suggest it's 500mA MXR 87 is only 19mA according to this site: https://effektpedaler.dk/en/product/mxr-m87-bass-compressor/ Boss TU-3 draws 30mA So you want a power supply can can do 550mA or more. It looks like the Xvive won't cut it v19

Outstanding work, I'm really enjoying this thread, thanks!

If a promoter said to me "Would you like us to do terrible sound and lights for the support acts before you come on?" I'd say no, and I'm pretty sure that's the case for 99% of other musicians, so I just wondered where this practise comes from

I get that, it's a similar situation to the touring band who take their own sound engineer.

I always thought that as most of the audience are there (or should be) to see the headline act, then they would see it as a climax anyway. I'm not talking pyros but lights and sound should be decent all night, surely?

How does it benefit the venue at all?

Like I said, if they bring their own sound/lighting people then I get it, and for most "big" shows that's the case, but I'm talking about small 100-500 capacity multi-band originals gigs where the same people do sound and lights all night

I've heard it said that on some multi-band gigs, the sound and lighting is intentionally improved for the headline act. I'm quite cynical but I also believe that in general, people are nice, so I really don't believe this to be the case. That being said, here are some of my experiences: Playing at Sound Control in Manchester. The sound is OK but the lights are just static - fair enough, but when the headline band go on after us the volume is turned up and the lights change and move in time with the music I can't remember the venue but the same deal, same headliner a couple of weeks later, except this time they kept the house lights on for our set, turned them off for their set, great lights, and a smoke machine Many, many times I've been asked to show up at 4 or 5pm to sound check, only to hang around waiting for the headliners to get their sound perfect, leaving no time for anyone else to check Last night the drum mics were very quiet in the PA for all 3 acts before the headliner came on and the same sound man cranked them up If the headliner has their own sound and/or lighting guy, then I can totally understand why things would improve for them, but that doesn't apply to any of the above. What are your experiences? Does anyone know if this is a real thing? I can only think of those few examples and I've played hundreds of gigs over the years. One of my bandmates thinks it's the done thing to try and make the headliner look/sound better but I reckon he's just paranoid. P.S I thought we'd done this topic a year or so back but I can't find it so sorry if I've duplicated anything

I thought I'd done a thread on this before but I can't find it. I'll start one now

Esquires in Bedford last night, I was on drums, 3rd act on a 4 band bill. Watching the first two bands it sounded to me like the drum mics were barely on. You couldn't hear the bass drum and there was no clarity to the cymbals or snare. The guitars were very loud so the drums did need reinforcement. When I finally got behind the kit it sounded just as terrible up there. I was having to use the headliner's gear and the bass drum was very quiet indeed, meaning it definitely need a lot of help from the PA, and it got none at all. It's not a big place so I could really tell there were no drums in the FOH We played really well and went down well, so I'd normally just shrug it off, but as soon as the headline band came on there were the drums, booming out of the PA. Same sound man, same drum kit, WTF?!?

only just seen this - great stuff! Awesome bass tone

The young guy on drums at that gig is a good mate of mine. He's on tour with them now. Phenomenal player. I think there's a good debate to be had about it - blokes can get away with being topless in many more situations than women, for example. Is this blatant inequality or do breasts have some unique place in our society? This is probably not the thread for that debate

The Soap Girls get a lot of stick for this. A lot of people think it's just a gimmick and that they're nothing more than that. IMO as far as punk bands go they're very good, and the message they're trying to get across is that we shouldn't always sexualise women. I think there's a debate to be had about whether you can untangle nudity from sex but I respect them anyway

Thanks! I guess it is supposed to be a bit jarring - the lyrical themes are definitely "adult oriented"

And this is how we perform live - there's a backing track with percussion, some synths, and some backing vocals. I play drums

A video for track two:

We turned up at a venue, we'd been told there would be a PA and soundman, but the PA was a couple of knackered 12" speakers and a knackered powered mixer, one mic, and a woefully short XLR-jack cable. We had to do our own sound. The next time we were booked for the same venue, we took the bassist's PA and did our own sound. Fine, except there were two unexpected support acts that demanded to use our PA and needed us to do the sound for them. The next time we were assured, 100%, there would be a brand new PA and a sound engineer to operate it. When we got there it was the same old knackered PA and no engineer. WTF?!?

Yeh he mentioned some problem with the gear but I know F all about PAs. Why do speakers need processors? It's all beyond me! Good to see you anyway mate