BigRedX

Every serious originals band that I have been a member of, has had a band van (or similar) normally with a driver/roadie. For local city centre gigs I usually get a taxi. It drops me and my gear off directly outside the venue (and if I know when the gig is going to be over I can pre-book it to pick me up again at the end of the evening). The cost both ways is about the same as parking a car for the evening and overall it's more convenient and a lot less stressful.

10 songs at a time I'd tend to agree that I'd probably be able to learn 10 new covers in less time then it would take to come up with 10 new original songs that were similarly varied. But one song at a time IME there is no difference in length of time from coming up with a new song idea or picking a song to cover and getting it to a suitable stage to be ready to gig. Maybe I'm more creative/productive/prolific than the average musician songwriter and have surrounded myself with equally creative/productive/prolific band members, but I generally come up with 2-3 new song ideas every week, which in conjunction with one songwriting rehearsal every two weeks and normal band rehearsals each week, translates into - at the very least - 1 new completed gig-ready song a month. For me it's probably harder work learning cover - working out what the notes in the part that I am supposed to be playing are, learning how to play them and the overall song structure, and then modifying what I have learnt to fit an arrangement that suits the line up of the band that is going to be performing the cover - compared with writing a new song from scratch where I am learning my part at the same time as I'm developing the structure and arrangement with my fellow band members. And if you think that playing a cover is simply a question of copying what is on the recording then IMO you're being completely naive. I've always found that if you want to do the song justice rather than simply bashing your way through it, you have to consider an arrangement that suits the instruments at your disposal, what to do about the numerous overdubs on the studio version that you'll never be able to replicate with your 4-5 piece band, if the key or the original suits the singer, and what to do about songs that have been written in non-standard tunings. IME there is just as much work involved in doing a good cover version as there is in writing a song from scratch.

In that case the simplest thing would be to switch stations. If it was me I'd be quite happy with Radio 1, Radio 2, 6 Music and Planet Rock, with a couple of days to a week on each before moving on. I'm sure everyone here can find a handful of stations they like and can swap between to stop over-familiarity creating in.

IMO while a 3.5mm mini jack might be better than the average computer connector, it is still pretty flimsy to be of much use in a serious gigging environment. I make all my removable connections with XLRs as far as possible, and hide all the delicate mini and computer connectors away inside racks where they can't be got at.

I know almost nothing about Fenders, but even I can say with 100% certainty that that is not a Fender bass.

Yes it is. Simply write some more songs. IME writing a new song is no more complicated than learning a cover.

One of the problems is that all streaming services are losing money even when they are only paying peanuts in royalties. Until someone can work out a way of making streaming profitable without it being propped up by VC investments or other parts of the parent company's business that do actually make money, royalty payments are going to continue being low.

Maybe? I suspect that most of these devices are merely doing some reverse envelope shaping to the effected sound. After all, it does't matter how low your processing latency is, it still can't predict the future, so you'll never get that classic reverse reverb into your opening note in real time.

Doesn't Ableton come with a drum plug-in?

So what about all those pop acts that have a load of scantily dressed women (and men) dancing behind them? Perhaps while pretending to do backing vocals. Is that any different?

How can you do backwards reverb in a pedal? On recordings this effect is created by reversing the audio file/tape, passing it through a reverb unit, recording the results and then playing everything back in the correct direction, giving the effect of the reverb fading up into the sound. This can't be done in real time without first having invented time-travel (even if it's only on a scale of seconds) as you can't produce reverb for a sound that has yet to happen.

TBH almost every broadcast radio station tends to repeat itself. Stick with 6 Music for a couple of weeks and you'll be just as fed up with hearing the same songs over and over.

But it is easy to break your ramblings up into bite-size chunks, with a RETURN. Also here on an internet forum there is no need to use weird abbreviations that often only lose one letter in a 5+ letter word or TXT talk where you are (not) being charged by the character. Still the OP is not quite as bad as a character on another forum I frequent, who insists on typing everything in a geezer/mockney dialect. It must take him about twice as long to compose his posts as he battles with his device's auto-correct trying to turn his phonetics into proper words, unless of course he has already spent several hours programming everything into custom dictionaries! Needless to say I've had to block all of his posts too.

But in face to face spoken communication no one would be allowed to ramble on like the OP. It would be broken up into more digestible/intelligible chunks by questions and other interruptions. And informal shouldn't also mean incomprehensible.

I don't know. The ratio of what I liked to what I didn't on OGWT, wasn't significantly higher than TotP.

I'm dyslexic. And because my dyslexia can make written communication difficult for me to read on occasions, I do my very best to make sure that what I type is clear and legible. Occasionally my brain will run ahead of my fingers and I'll miss out words or put the wrong ones in when autocorrect collapses two half words in a new single one. You've probably all seen them in posts from me. It's also why I rarely post from my phone or iPad, because the typing interface on those devices is just too much hard work for me. I can read properly formatted text because I've trained myself to be able to do it. However when confronted with something like the OP my brain simply shuts down, and I have to move on. Luckily for me it is only occasionally a problem, and I've only had to block a few posters here and on other forums because everything they type sends my brain into meltdown trying to decipher it. The OP is not dyslexic. They are either too lazy or too stupid to take the time to try and communicate in a clear manner. And because they haven't done that, they have run into problems. I also feel sorry for anyone who has to try and unravel what has been written. I wouldn't want to deal with someone like that on eBay (or anywhere else) either. It only takes 10 minutes with a book or a decent quality newspaper, to realise that you do not format text like the OP has done, so why do people still persist in putting spaces before punctuation symbols, typing everything as a continuous stream of consciousness without breaking it up into neat paragraphs? If you can't take the time to make your post legible, I certainly can't take the time to try and work out what you are saying.

Then you need a 25kΩ audio (log) taper pot (with the correct spline for the knobs you are using).

I think you should take the time and patience to point out why xgsjx is wrong, because I think he's pretty much hit the nail on the head.

Exactly. It's the physical connections that are the problem. IMO they are just about fine for gentle use in an office environment, but completely unsuitable for use in a live gigging situation.

I don't think anyone serious uses Windows for live music for exactly those reasons. ;-)

Do what I am currently doing and built everything into a flight case, with a removable top. At the gig I simply open the case and switch on the laptop. All external connections are made via gig-worthy plugs like XLRs and all the fragile computer connectors are hidden away inside the case. The laptop is held in place with hard flight case foam and all the connections going to it are cable tied into place so that they can't move. I'll take some photos of my set up when it's finished and showing how it's constructed if you want.

What DAW are you using? Many come with drum software included, so no need to spend any extra money.

We’ll the way mine is working at the moment if I save the patch with the volume set to 0 then that’s how it will be when I recall that program.

My main rig is BassPod>Tech Soundsystems Black Cat Amp > EBS Proline 410 + 210, but recently I've been using a TecAmp Puma and Dr Bass 612 + 210 Cabs for rehearsals and live use as it's a bit more "portable". When I was setting up the sounds at home volume I was a bit worried that I was missing a bit of the low-mid presence of the bigger rig, but in the rehearsal room, if anything I had slightly over-cooked the bottom end and could have done with a bit more clarity and definition in the high mids. There was actually a noticeable bass being transmitted through the solid floor of the room which definitely wasn't there with the Dr Bass cabs. Maybe that's due to using the RCF in its wedge position? One thing that was very gratifying with the Helix and RCF combination was that all my different patches sounded a lot more "balanced" straight off and I don't think I'll need to do anything like as much level adjustments as I had to with the BassPod. I'll be doing some tweaks between now and the next rehearsal, and then the real test will come next Friday when I'll be gigging it for the first time. That will be interesting - especially as I think the opening band will be hoping to use my rig (IIRC the headlining act doesn't have a bass player). I may have to create a couple basic Amp/Cab patches for others to use.

Martin Sims