BigRedX

Be aware that Warwick Red Label strings don't appear to be available with a taper-wound B and their ball-end wraps tend to be quite "chunky", so depending on the bass you intend to use them with they may not fit the bridge. It is possible to get the more expensive Warwick Black Label strings with a taper-wound B.

For me a 120 B-string is far too low tension. For standard 4th tuning, string tension is highest in the D string and then drops off as the strings get thicker or thinner. As others have said it very much depends and how you play what sort of feel/sound you want and ultimately there is no overall correct answer just one that works for you.

Who was making fakers in the UK other than John Birch? IMO they are only fakers in very loosest sense of the word since only the rough body shape and occasionally the headstock were anything like a Rickenbacker.

IME strings either break when they are brand new due to manufacturing defects, or when they are very old because they are badly worn and have lost much of their elasticity. I try and make sure I replace my strings every 3 months and have 2 rehearsals before using them at a gig.

IME the scale length on its own has little bearing on the how good the low B is until your hit 36" over. There are plenty of luthiers capable of making 34" scale basses with excellent low Bs. It's mostly about neck construction, especially stiffness, and how the neck is attached to the body. If your bass has a bolt-on neck you could try the following: Slacken of the strings and then very slightly loosen the neck screws (no more than 1 turn). Then tune back up to pitch and following than tighten up the neck screws. This has the effect of pulling the neck as tightly into the pocket as possible which should help with clarity. You can also try lowering the pickup(s) a couple of millimetres away from the B string which will reduce the magnetic pull on the string and allow it to vibrate more freely.

My understanding is, that from a historical perspective, the factory that made these basses is more important than whatever logo they chose to stick on the TRC before selling them.

If you only have one keyboard to connect and don't plan on getting anymore MIDI devices then the SubZero interface is going to be overkill for your needs. I'd get the cable recommended by @moley6knipe from Amazon as you'll be able to return it without quibble if it doesn't work. Cable only solutions don have a brilliant reputation but so long as as you are only intending to send note and controller data from the keyboard to the computer it should be fine. It's only when you want to also use esoteric MIDI data like Polyphonic Aftertouch, MTC and SysEx that they tend to fall down. If you just want to get MIDI data from the keyboard to the computer and don't intend to use it to have the computer playing the keyboard's sounds just connect the MIDI out socket otherwise you'll get a MIDI loop which leads to all kinds of nastiness. If you do want to have the computer controlling the piano you'll need to look for the "local off" setting on your keyboard and connect both the MIDI In and Out.

Having said that in the bands where I have been the guitarist, my success rate for completing a gig without breaking a string is less than 50%. I'm an "enthusiastic" guitar player and even more so in front of an audience. Add to that the fact that I only have guitars with vibrato mechanisms, I would never play a gig on guitar without having a spare one on stage.

We solved the problem by not having a guitarist.

If all you want to do is play notes on the keyboard so that Cubase can record the MIDI data, You will probably get away with one of those MIDI USB leads with two 5-pin DIN sockets at the other end.

1 and 2. My two Gus 5-string basses. I couldn't see myself joining a band where they would be inappropriate for the image and so the only way I would sell them would be if I was physically incapable of playing them. 3. My Line6 Helix. This would only be replaced if I could find a device that did everything I currently do with the Helix plus the inclusion of MIDI-triggered ADSR filters and gates. 4. Logic. I've been a Logic user for over 30 years now. I have no interest in any other DAWs.

Indeed. There is of course Clara Rockmore, the Etherwave Theremin I used to own came with a DVD of her in conversation and playing for Bob Moog. Then there is also Bruce Wooley (of Video Killed the Radio Star fame) Radio Science Orchestra. And a host of other talented players.

You do need to watch what you are doing with stereo, phase differences and low frequencies if you are intending to release your recordings as a records, as these can render the track(s) uncuttable.

Having stereo placement in IEMs can help with clarity in the mix when you have lots of instruments and vocals. However if you can hear everything well enough with a mono mix then you probably don't need it.

Considering that as of the beginning of 2025 In Isolation in it's most recent state has come to an end with Singer Ryan's departure to work on other things, we've been very busy recently. There was a farewell gig at The Salutation Inn in Nottingham as part of the Spellbound Goth night and an EP plus two new videos. The EP has three new songs - Light In Darker Times, Middle Child Millicent and Phantoms as well as a Matt Pop remix of Middle Child Millicent. It's available from Bandcamp as a limited edition CD version and on all the usual streaming and download sites. We also made two videos, Light In Darker Times which features the band: And Middle Child Millicent which doesn't: I'll be concentrating on my other band Hurtsfall, we have a new single out next month and are currently finishing off our debut album for release later in the year. We also have a number of high-profile gigs coming up including WGW and Twisted Firestarter.

I think one of the problems that anyone coming as new into "home recording" has now is that in the form of their computer and DAW software they have something that would completely surpass the multi-track machine, mixing desk and outboard gear of any pre-digital studio, and getting to grips with all of that is a close to vertical learning curve.

My first memory upgrade for a Mac Quadra 650 cost £399.00 for 8MB which was the cheapest option that I could find. Unfortunately the vendor had to supply 3 different SIMMs before I got one that actually worked.

I must have been exceedingly lucky in that I never had any SCSI problems during the many years that I was using it. That includes a setup that will probably be anxiety-inducing in anyone else who ever dealt with SCSI of: Mac > Removable Optical Drive > Akai S2000 Sampler. Surprisingly it worked fine so long as I remembered that once I had inserted an optical disc that was formatted for either the Mac or the Akai I couldn't then use a disc that had been formatted for the other device without rebooting everything first.

I'm glad I ditched DOS and Windows back in 1990.

To the OP. I'm going to be brutally realistic here and it's probably not something you want to read but here goes anyway. There appears to be a mistaken notion particularly with software, but also with a lot of high-tech hardware, that simply the act of owning it somehow gives you the immediate ability to start producing professional standard results when, as others have already said, these things take time and patience before you even start producing something passable. I bet you weren't ready to join a band within 10 minutes of picking up a bass guitar for the first time, you probably weren't ready within 10 weeks even, so why should recording be any different? Add to this the fact that some people simply don't have the ability to ever do anything more than passable not matter how good their hardware and software is. I learnt the long, hard and expensive way, that my recording ability is pretty much limited to being able to get a decent level signal from my bass into my computer. Everything else on my band's recordings is done by people with the appropriate skills and far more talent when it comes to producing a finished and professional sounding product. There is also no shame in recognising your limitations and accepting them. It seems to me that from the original and subsequent posts that the OP mostly wants to vent rather than actually sort out any problems. That's not necessarily a band thing. Venting does have its uses. However if they want some useful help we'll require the following: 1. What OS are you running? 2. There are lots of different Focustite Scarlett interfaces. Which one do you have? I have a Scarlett interface and although it's been a number of years since I had to set it up, IIRC all the associated software including a cut-down version of a DAW, is available for download once you have created a user account with Focusrite and registered the interface. To the OP: have you done this yet?

Have you tried coiling 30+ metres of cable using the under/over method?

Last time I went to a gig there (about 10 years ago) the sound problems were definitely down to the engineers doing the mix. HIM were just a mess of low-end sludge to the point that it was only possible to tell what the song was from when Ville Valo when into the higher register vocal parts. By contrast Fields of the Nephilim sounded great. The kick drum was big and tight without being boomy and the bass guitar parts well defined, and even Carl McCoy's deep vocals were clear and audible. So a balanced mix is possible. I'm lucky in that most of the gigs I go to are smaller venues, and the bands I like have bass players whose parts are often doing much of the important melody of the songs, so I hardly ever encounter the excessive/undefined bass problem. IMO the only way to prevent it, is to name and shame the PA engineers responsible.

I think I'd want to buy an Ethercon cable on a drum because that will definitely help protect it when coiling and un-coiling over and over again. I'd probably also want an identical spare.

This depends on a couple of things: 1. How important is it that what you hear in your IEMs is exactly the tone that you would hear without them. 2. What does the audience hear? The sound produced by the speakers in your rig or is it from the PA in which case at what point does the PA take its feed from your signal chain?

I think a lot of musicians need to wake up to the the fact that it is no longer the second half of the 20th century, the music business has changed, and trying to make a living based on the old model is not longer a viable option. Not that it's ever been easy making a living solely as a musician, that's something else that appears to have been forgotten. There's a lucky (very) few at the top and everyone else has to be doing other things in order to keep a roof over their heads and food on the table. It's not just the music business, it's society that has changed too. Traditional touring doesn't work because it's difficult to get enough people out on a "School Night" to make playing gigs on anything other than Friday and Saturday an economical option. Working people are much more caught up the their jobs/careers and students are desperate to have something to show for their tuition fees, to be going out on a week night. Apart from well established bands (most of whom became established under the old model) "tours" these days are a succession of weekend gigs spread over a month with the occasional Thursday and Sunday thrown in for cities and venues that can support them. And let's not forget that "popular" music simply isn't as important to people as it used to be. If we really wanted to make a stand, we wouldn't have our music up on Spotify or even use it to check out new artists, and we wouldn't go to gigs where Ticketmaster or any of its associated companies were involved in the sale of tickets or the promotion of the event.