BigRedX

TBH it's not such a big deal anymore in this digital age. Anyone with a recording and a spare $50 can get their music up on iTunes, Amazon, Spotify etc. Of course if you are talking physical product, then it does take a bit more financial commitment, but I suspect that most of us who have played in originals bands have at least a box of unsold CDs or vinyl lurking somewhere. I've still got several hundred copies of the D i c k Venom & The Terrortones album along with a box or two of just about every other record and CD I've been involved with. In fact the only releases I don't have multiple unsold copies of lying around are those that were paid for by someone other than the band whose music was on it. That for me is the proper test of a band's worth - can you persuade someone else (not a friend or family member) to put up the money for you to make and release a recording? EDIT - A note to the mods. Can you please do something about the stupid American-entric profanity filter, that won't even let me type the name of one of my previous bands properly?

For the OP here's a sensible answer: Go to the Keyboards & Synthesis section of the SOS forums. Lots of knowledgable people there including some pro players and people who are keyboard techs for pro players.

IMO MIDI connections should be made with XLR cables only. It's the only serious and reliable option.

I've had lots of problems with so-called pro audio gear using computer cables to join it together. My particular bug-bear is Cat5e cables. I had lots of these which are roughly 20 years old and have performed perfectly well for that time connecting all the devices in my home/office network. However when I start using one to join my Line6 Floorboard to the BassPod and it fails within a couple of months of weekly gigging and rehearsals, as do its next few replacements. Finally I went out and bought some very expensive versions made with Van Damme coilable Cat5e cable and heavy duty booted RJ45 plugs. These have lasted quite a bit longer but even then one of them failed after a couple of years of moderate gigging. On the other hand I have (1/4") jack and XLR leads made with good quality components that have lasted for getting on for 40 years, without any attention. Because of the sort of music I am playing these days, I find myself sharing the stage with a lot of bands using computer-based set-ups, and it always fills me with dread when I see them assembling their systems on some rickety stand, joining everything together with consumer-grade computer cables. Conversely our laptop is housed in a flight case with all the required peripherals - audio and MIDI interfaces, DI/Isolation boxes, PSUs, bolted/screwed/cable-tied/glued in place. All the flimsy computer cables are contained within the case and connections with the outside world are made with XLRs via a front mounted patch panel. It takes seconds to set up and has proved to be completely reliable.

Because like all high end basses they are different instruments made for people who want something specific that only a Fodera can give them. If you want a Wal or a Ritter or an Alembic you buy one of those and not a Fodera. If you can't get that then you are obviously not the sort of person that these basses are aimed at. If all you want is something with strings capable of playing low notes you'll probably be fine with a Squier.

Is MIDI over Bluetooth sufficiently latency-free? Audio over Bluetooth is unusable for real-time applications. I'm still not convinced about the durability of personal computer standard connectors and cables in a gigging situation. None of them lock properly and all the cables are thin and weedy.

I would imagine that in order to do this, you would have had to strip down the bass and if the bass had a bolt-on neck you probably also removed that for the finishing process. Can you categorically say that simply the action of disassembling and reassembling the bass didn't contribute to the change in sound?

Every studio recording with the possible exception of the most basic of home demos will be compressing the bass at some point, whether or not the bassist in question has compressor in their personal signal chain. Also every bass player's sound will be subject to some form of compression if: 1. They have one or more valves in their signal chain. 2. They use an effect or amplifier with a "drive" control. 3. Their bass sound also goes through the PA.

And less ugly than most Warwicks too!

I have a feeling that at least one of them has free delivery. And £330 for 100 is very good. That's what we paid 5 years ago for white print on one side only of a black shirt.

I hope that the OP would question what exactly it was about this Fender copy that made it more desirable when compared with the hundreds of other Fender copies that are far more easily available .

Most T-shirt printers offer a range of styles and fabric types and it's up to the customer to pick the one they want. If you buy band T-shirts have a look at the one that you like for quality and see what the brand is. All the T-Shirts I've had done in the last 10 years have been on Gildan Softstyle which IMO is a compromise for feel and toughness, while still being good value for money. BTW you need to be looking at an run of at least 100 T-shirts in order to get a decent unit price and have a good range of sizes to sell.

I don't know about backdrops - when my bands have had them in the past we've always made them ourselves. However there was a thread about them recently so if you do a search you should find it. For T-shirts do a search for local fabric screen printers, you may find someone offering a really good deal. If not try either Awesome Merchandise or Shirty Something. Go for good quality T-shirts - there's nothing worse than a band T-shirt that has faded and looks ratty after a couple of washes. It's always hard to work out what sizes you need, but IME it doesn't matter what proportion of your audience are skinny hipsters, the people who buy band T-shirts always seem want Large or bigger sizes.

Are you sure the pickups are humbucking? The size of the casing is no real indicator of the type of pickup contained within, especially on budget instruments. Even my Warwick Starbass II with it's massive pickup covers they are only single coils.

I don't think that they are SuperSteps, because the ball end of the string isn't taper-wound. They look to me like ordinary LaBella Steels (used to be called Hard Rocking Steels) but for some reason these are much harder to get in the UK, which is why I think Strings Direct are trying to sell you SuperSteps. Personally I've given up with LaBella Steels, because although they are very nice strings, they no longer make one of the gauges I like (45-135) as a set, and because they are difficult to find and expensive when you can get them. I've switched to Warwick Black Label which are very nearly as good and about half the price.

Not wanting to rain on your parade, but having had a look at the Jericho Guitars web site, all I can see is yet another Fender copy bass. I can't see what is so special about it.

IME the bigger the stage the less reliant I am on backline for monitoring. When I was playing with The Terrortones once we were on anything decent sized (Camden Underworld or bigger) the only time I could hear my bass from my rig when when I was stood directly in front of it. Anywhere else on stage I would be using the monitors to hear what I was playing.

It's difficult to tell with recording costs because every studio has a different hourly rate and bands record in different ways. I think our total cost for recording mixing and mastering were somewhere in the region of £1200 for 16 tracks (of which 13 made it onto the album) but that was a couple of years ago, as I said we got a special rate on the studio time and recorded most of it live. We did all the instruments and guide vocals in a weekend, and then spent another day recording vocals plus some guitar, theremin and percussion overdubs. Regarding getting a record label involved, it will depend entirely on what the deal is, but IME most small labels these days want a lot without offering very much in return, that couldn't be covered by a well organised band. If it was my band I'd be looking at getting any interested label to front the entire manufacturing cost of the album, and have a promotional budget or contacts that go beyond what the band itself could manage. I'd be very wary of any label asking for money for anything other than recording costs and perhaps the commissioning of sleeve artwork/design. If the label isn't prepared to put money to put out your record then they probably aren't worth bothering with. Also I'd want to retain the rights to any part of the project that the band paid for as opposed to the label - or at the very least have the rights revert back to the band after a few years.

Let's face it. Anyone in a band who isn't either The Singer, The Player of The Main Melodic Instrument (not necessarily the guitar) or The Main Songwriter, can be considered a 5th wheel.

Maybe because the Terrortones were a very visual band and we had a reputation for our packaging and promotional items. When we put out The MonsterPussy Sessions mini album on cassette we produced a special CD promo version for reviewers and then got a lot of complaints (including one in an actual print review) that we hadn't sent them a copy of the cassette to review. After that we made sure that the promotional copy was the same as the actual product.

9. IMO there is very little point of going for anything other than standard weight vinyl for your pressing. These days the quality of the vinyl used and the pressings themselves are excellent compared with the terrible pressings evident in the late 70s and early 80s. Heavy weight vinyl only impresses the vinyl snobs and does next to nothing to audio quality of the music on it. 10. When deciding on production quantities and final sales price, don't forget to factor in the cost of review copies, designing and printing your press release material, and the packaging and postage to send them out. You can send a CD in a Jiffy bag for under £2. To get a 12" album safely to its destination expect to pay at least £6 a copy for packaging and postage. If you are releasing you music on vinyl, reviewers and broadcasters are going to expect you to send them a copy on vinyl (as well as a copy on CD so they can actually listen to it!) The Terrortones were a fairly niche band and we did a highly targeted campaign of review copies (sending mostly to people who had given us favourable reviews in the past), and it was still getting on for 100 copies. For a band playing more mainstream music you might need to consider even more.

IIRC The Terrortones LP cost about £5000 for everything: That was 7 days in the studio - 3 for tracking, 4 for mixing. Separate mastering for vinyl, CD and downloads. 10 x Illustrations and a title "logo" for the packaging. Test pressings. 500 copies on standard weight 12" vinyl with full colour labels in black paper sleeves. 500 copies of packaging - clear plastic sleeves with the name of the band and the title of the album printed on it in a single colour. Five x 305mm square sheets printed full colour both sides which are arranged as 7 alternative front covers, a back cover and a double-sided lyric sheet. We saved quite a bit of money because we got a deal on the studio time, and because graphic design for print is my day job, I did all technical aspects of the design for free, and I was able to get a better price for the printing through my contacts that the bundle price the vinyl production brokers could offer. Also we did all the assembly of the various component items - records packaging, download code stickers/CDR versions ourselves. If we'd had to pay for all of that it would probably have added another £1000 to the overall price. On the other hand we could have saved money by having simpler packaging, but IMO that defeats a lot of the point of getting your music put on vinyl rather than just releasing it on CD or as a download.

8. On top of all the other compromises you have to make when cutting to vinyl, there is a trade off between audio quality and running time. IIRC it's about 3 minutes per side of a 7" single running at 45RPM and 12-13 minutes a side for a 12" LP at 33RPM. Once you go over these running times the cutting engineer will have to reduce the level of the audio which in turn increases the noise to signal ratio of the delivery medium. The decreased cutting/playing speed of 33RPM will also reduce the audio bandwidth. For ideal reproduction quality an LP should be delivered as 2 x 12" 45RPM discs with a running time of under 10 minutes per side.

I think for solid electric instruments too much emphasis is placed on the qualities of wood, when at best it is unquantifiable and most likely has negligible impact on the overall sound of the instrument compared with the electronics. IME what a solid electric instrument is made out of is irrelevant so lang as it plays, feels, looks and sounds like you want it.