BigRedX

But the size and number of drivers in a cab are only part of the overall sound of the cab. Every cab I have ever owned has sounded different. Even when I've owned cabs by different manufacturers that had the same combination of drivers in them they sounded very different. Not surprising really considering that the cabs were all different sizes and the drivers while being the same diameter had different technical specifications. So why do we keep defining the sound of a cab by the number and size of drivers it contains?

Thanks. The illustration was based on two photos, one where I liked the expression and the other which captured the "hair" better. I did a Google image search on the finished version (before I added the googly eyes) and neither of the inspiration photos showed up, so I considered that a job well done. I also did illustrations of the band in the same style to go on the back cover...

Probably somewhere in between...

IME no ethernet cable is as robust as a good quality Jack or XLR lead. I have jack and XLR cables that I made myself in the 90s which have been in use continually for gigs and rehearsals over the past 30 years that are still going strong, whereas the best ethernet cable in a similar environment lasted about 12 months. As you have discovered the typical office ethernet cable is completely unsuited to the rigours of gigging. It's designed to connect a device to a wall-socket in an office and never be touched again until the device is replaced. In the days when I was using a rack mounted BassPod with the Floorboard footswitch unit I was going through a cable every 2-3 weeks. Eventually I bought two very expensive Van Damme coil-able ethernet leads with heavy duty shrouds on the plugs which were supposedly designed for gig use. Each of these lasted about a year at which point they would stop being coil-able and then fail very shortly afterwards. Luckily for me the failure of the second cable coincided with me replacing the BassPod with a Helix Floor. I deliberately chose the floor version of the Helix so I wouldn't have to deal with ethernet cables in a gig situation again. A coil-able cable with heavy duty shrouds would be the minimum spec I would go for and I would always carry a spare. As soon as your lead shows any sign of less than 100% reliability chuck it in the bin and buy a replacement. Be aware that plugs with some of the chunkier shrouds do not always fit snugly in some sockets, but the locking mechanism on un-shrouded plugs will break with moderate use rendering the connection unreliable. If I was using ethernet cables ideally I'd like them to be fitted with EtherCon plugs, but they only work if your equipment is also fitted with the corresponding EtherCon sockets and for some reason very little supposedly gig-worthy equipment with ethernet connections has these.

The bassist in on of the bands we find ourselves playing with a lot has a Kemper. I don't like his bass sound much, but he and the rest of the band do, and anyway it's all subjective.

Different processing? Sit differently in the mix with the different instrumentation? It's the same vocal track. Also for a "pop dance" mix you'd expect the vocals to be a bit more prominent in the mix. Matt Pop also did us an instrumental version of his edit mix. We've been considering dropping this version into the set for selected gigs.

Unfortunately you can't just look at your audience. You have to know them and that doesn't happen without actually trying to sell them stuff first. Plenty of "younger" audience member are interested in buying vinyl. Also as I said previously it doesn't matter how big a proportion of your audience are small and skinny, the people who buy band T-shirts tend to be size L and bigger. At our last gig we sold all the size L T-shirts we bought with us and nearly all of the size XL.

As a band you make a lot more money from a T-shirt sale then you would from music on physical media. Sad but true. In October last year my band did a run of 100 T-shirts in two designs. We have already made enough money from sales to cover the production costs. We won't break even on any of our CDs until nearly all of them are sold.

It's not so much viruses but as has been said executables that are likely to be the problem. A less than scrupulous band might include something that would make your computer stream their Spotify catalogue 24/7 in the background. Having said that most short run CDs are on CDR these days. Even if you have them duplicated by a commercial outfit do they actually check what they are producing? Most of the services will ask for a DDP file which could have pretty much anything on it. And even big labels aren't immune from including undesirable files on their manufactured CDs. Anyone remember the Sony Records root-kit that was supposed be for copy protection in the early 2000s?

IME having speakers at head height or at least pointing at your ears rather than your knees is always going to make it easier for you to hear yourself. Until I changed to an FRFR wedge, the best rig I had for being to hear myself was a home-made Bi-amped set up. Not specifically because it was bi-amped, but mostly because the arrangement of cabs and amp/effects racks put a 2x8 cab which contained the treble component of my sound at head height. Everything also went through the PA so the bass side cabs on stage were essentially stands for the rest of my equipment.

This is very much my thinking too. For the bass I rarely use any of the amp or cab sims and when I do it's normally a guitar one chosen for the sound it produces in context with the other instruments in my band. I've yet to use the Helix with the guitar, but as I'm selling my guitar amp this weekend that will change in the next few weeks. However given that there (IIRC) over 100 different amp models in the Helix I'm sure that I can find one or two that make my guitar sound howe I want.

As someone who has played in many bands where the drums are produced by non-human means and has shared the stage with lots of bands with human drummer this used to be a massive problem back in the 80s and 90s and we were always having to ask the drummers in other bands to turn their snares off so they wouldn't rattle along in sympathy with out backing track. However this thread made me realise that I can't remember the last time I had to make this request, so at least the drummers in the bands on the small bill as us are clued up to this now.

Only the most naive of users would put a USB stick from an essentially unknown source into their computer. It's positively begging for your device to be hacked at turned into part of a bot net.

This.

Have you watched "Mr Robot"?