BigRedX

I'm sorry, but IMO that's just about the most stupid thing ever. Even if I was in a band that only needed one sound for all the songs I'd still be using my multi-effects because I know that one sound I've created with it would be the perfect one for that band. Whilst I may be using more of my multi-effects than most on here I'm still only using a fraction of its capabilities. Most of my patches are made up of the same 3 or 4 modules just with the parameter values tweaked to fit the rest of the arrangement. Every so often I'll try an alternative distortion or chorus or delay or flanger and then I'll go back to the ones I already use and like. And you know what? It really doesn't matter. Those alternative versions of the effects I use aren't for me. They are for all the other users who want something different out of a multi-effects unit. And that's why they are so great. TBH the only time I "play around" with my multi-effects is when I am working on sounds for a new song. I had a quick listen to all the built-in Presets the day I bought mine, decided that none of them did what I wanted and have never bothered listening to any of them again. When I am working on a new song I'll start by going through all the Presets I've created for the other songs we play to find the one that works the best for the new song and when I'm ready to actually create the Preset for that song it will be the starting point. I'll probably go through a few more tweaks once I'm in the rehearsal room with the rest of the band, but after that I'll only edit it again if we change the arrangement of the song. My multi-effects is a tool. A very versatile one but still just a tool. Use as much of it as you need a quit worrying about it. The only people who get close to using all the facilities of one of these devices are those who are being paid specifically to demonstrate just how versatile they are. They are not real-world users and you don't need to try and emulate them.

I'm a Helix user (but the principal is the same). I have a separate Preset for each song with Snapshots for each song. Admittedly I play Bass VI and I'm alternating between bass and melody parts with our synth player, but I'm often using two or more different bass sounds as well as "guitar" sounds for different parts of the song. For instance on the song we are currently working on: Snapshot 1 is a "lead guitar" sound with a bit of dirt and lots of delay which is used on the intro and the middle eight, where the synth is holding down the bass. Snapshot 2 is the verse bass sound but it has an octave "guitar" part generated from a pitch shifter which is a muted version of the sound in Snapshot 1. Snapshot 3 is the chorus bass sound which a Cure/Peter Hook style high part with rhythmic delay and is doubled up with a more conventional bass sound an octave down. Snapshot 4 is for the last chorus to create a lift and has a more pronounced flanger effect to Snapshot 3 whilst still keeping the same relative level within the mix. I use MIDI to control the Preset and Snapshot changes which is run from the computer the is our drummer and second synth player, so I don't have to worry about my tap-dancing skills, as some of the Snapshot changes come very quickly - we have one song with a section where each part is only 2 bars long and another where the there are changes that only last 2 beats at 171bpm! Because of the electronic nature of the band even if I was to use the same sound for all the bass parts, each song would still need it own EQ, drive and volume tweaks for it to sit in the correct place in the mix with the other sounds that are being used.

There is little point in "conventional" one gig every night touring these days unless you already have a sizeable and enthusiastic following. Most tours by indie/small bands now consist of a month of Friday and Saturday gigs with the occasional Thursday and Sunday at venues that have a reputation for getting the punters in on those nights. Mid-weeks gigs for relatively unknown bands are IME poorly attended as those with jobs are more concerned about their "careers", students are trying to get VfM out of their loans and debts, and everyone else is too poor to go out. These days the smart way to gig is to be an a band that doesn't have a drummer or use backline, or to just do gigs where the drum kit and cabs will be supplied and you can cram the whole band plus their instruments and merch in a single car.

Low C is only a semitone higher than low B on a 5-string, where I would consider 125 to be the absolute lightest string that has any chance of sounding decent. So I would suggest ditching the 110 in favour of a 120 and see how that sounds and feels. Also try lowering the pickup slightly further away from the lowest string as the chunkier strings are more affected by the magnetic pull.

A P-Bass that doesn't look like a P-Bass?

The simplest way is to treat it just like a normal pedal board. Find either a blank patch or if there aren't any, one that you definitely don't have any use for and delete everything in it. Then start populating the slots with modules in the same way that you would a pedal board made up of individual devices. Start with your most important effect first probably compression, distortion or chorus and work your way through the options to find the version and settings you like the best, and once you are happy with that start adding the other effects you need. One important point is not to discount any module that isn't designed specifically for the bass. In the real world this is normally because they can't cope with bass frequencies at gig volumes. With digital devices and modelling the worst that can happen is that you won't like the sound, in which case you can simply try something else. The only thing you will want to consider in advance is if you are going to be changing sounds mid-song in which case you will need to be looking at Snapshots and to build your Presets with this in mind. Basically what a Snapshot does is to allow you to turn individual effects on and off and change selected settings on the effects in a Preset with a single foot switch press without any glitches in the sound. Good luck.

Looks as though just to top section of the bridge has either been replaced or modified.

But audiences tend to like things they are familiar with. IME lots of musicians tend to be "too clever" when it comes to song writing because they are deliberately trying not to be "formulaic" and end up with nothing for the typical audience member to relate to.

That will definitely get your foot in the door as regards getting noticed. However it is my experience that you have more chance getting your music played on proper broadcast radio if it is available in a physical format as well as on-line, and in your case with having reasonably well-known people in the band might even work against you if there is no CD or vinyl version. People receiving notice of your album may well be asking themselves why a band with known musicians in it has only gone for an on-line release. There's only so many slots available for new bands on broadcast radio and unless they REALLY like your music they may well favour another artist who has enough faith in their music to pay to have a couple of hundred CDs or records pressed. It is also my experience, now that everyone can make up their own minds about your music in seconds by checking you out on Spotify or some other streaming service, that reviews are of little value other than good ones being gratification for your egos. Certainly with my bands over the last 10 years no matter how good the reviews have been there is little reflection of this in immediate increased sales or streams. TBH these days there are very few bad reviews for new music. If the reviewers don't like you they simply ignore you. Edit: As regards money, if you have song writing credits on this you need to be a member of the PRS. Unless you decided to go for a physical release where the numbers are in the 1000s rather than 100s you are more likely to make money off the performance royalties than you are from sales of the album.

I like that a lot! What you need to do will depend on what you want out of the project. If you are happy with simply lots of people listening to your music and don't need any real financial reward then short-form videos like the one above and streaming is the way to go. You'll need to get your tracks on popular playlists which will probably mean searching out ones where you think your music is a good fit and contacting the people who curate them and ask for a track of yours to be included. It's most effective if they are actively looking for new tracks to add. Otherwise you are going to need to get out there and play gigs and have physical product available to sell at those gigs ideally in vinyl form, although TBH if you just want to make money you'll be better off producing an eye-catching T-shirt and sell those instead. For both approaches, my experience is that unless you are very lucky you need to be doing lots of promotion otherwise it's just vanity publishing and no-one but your friends, family and few people on here will ever get to hear it. Even for bands that in the past have been popular I've found that the moment you stop promoting whether that's through playing live or being interesting and entertaining on-line the number of listeners you have will rapidly decrease. Once The Terrortones stopped gigging our sales of physical product and number of streams dropped off very rapidly. At our most popular we could have been out gigging every Friday and Saturday had the money and logistics been right (as it was we were playing at least 3 times a month) and we were selling serious amounts of T-shirts, CDs and vinyl both at gigs and on-line. These days it's down to a handful of streams each month and nothing else.

So much music I can't even begin to list it. Last time I looked somewhere between a third and quarter of the music I have on vinyl or CD was missing from Spotify. Most of it was from Japanese artists and indie bands from the late 70s and early 80s, but there are also some surprising modern artists missing too. As a punter streaming services are useful for checking out artists I haven't heard of before, and as an artist I see it as free advertising for the band. Until our debut album is released later this year the only way you can listen to my current band is streaming, buying download, or coming to see us play live. We did a limited CD run of our last single simply so that we would have some music on the merch table, but we have also made a deliberate decision that we will only sell it at gigs, and bonus track that comes with it will only be available on the CD. Looking at our Spotify streaming figures, most of our audience is not in the UK. When the album does come out we will be selling physical copies on-line so it will be interesting to see how many people are prepared to pay international shipping...

The last time I had a gig in January was 2019... However this year is looking pretty healthy already with 8 definite gigs between now and July and a few more still be confirmed.

Just as well as we could pick three. I was torn between the track I liked best as a pice of music and the one I felt had best captured the intention of the inspiration image.

Loads of great Japanese bands, but you can start with anything by Shena Ringo or Polysics

Unfortunately the only nice thing I can say about Elites is that they were more consistent than Rotosound if you needed 5-string and alternative scale-length sets. I haven't looked back since I switched to Newtone strings is the early 90s.

BTW if you have the right phone you don't even need the SumUp card reader anymore as you can use your phone instead.

To the OP: there are IMO two ways you can go. 1. Buy a cheap Zoom (ideally second hand). It will get you started and you can work out what you like and what you don't like that will inform any future upgrade purchases. If you have little experience with effects pedals and none with programmable multi-effects you really won't know what is going to be essential and what features you can easily live without. 2. Alternatively buy the top of the range Helix, Kemper or Neural on the assumption that once you've got your head around the interface it will do everything that you are ever likely to need. I'm a Helix user and although I've been using programmable multi-effects for over 35 years now (and was a synth player before that) I bought the top of the range Helix on the assumption that if I bought a less-featured model I would discover things that I needed that my chosen device couldn't do. I was right although the features that I have come to see as indispensable weren't ones that I would have thought were important at the time of purchase.

I spent most of the 80s playing synths. I have owned a couple of 80s made Overwaters since then.

My direct experience is that if you don't accept card payments it will significantly affect your sales. Last year I was in two bands. One has a SumUp reader and although we still do cash sales the vast majority of our merch at gigs is paid for by card. The other band, despite me continually telling them that we need a card reader, was cash sales only and over the past 12 months our merch sales have been next to nothing. All the people I know using SumUp got them 3 or 4 years ago when the readers were cheap and there were various promotions where if you got a recommendation from existing user you got the reader for next to nothing and person who recommended you got a payment in return. Now that they are well established I don't know if that's still the case. Certainly back then it was the cheapest card reader and the smallest percentage on sales. It's also worth being able to accept PayPal, although IME it is often too much hassle. IME not everyone who uses PayPal has it on their phone. Also remember that if you are accepting cash you will need a healthy float for change as you can almost guarantee that first 5 sales will all be made with a £20 note payment. Regarding payments on card sales and PayPal, everyone takes a cut per transaction, so you will need to factor it in to your pricing, but since you ought to be making 100% mark up on each T-shirt sold, in the grand scheme of things the additional cost of card and PayPal payments should be close to negligible.

They've probably been at the NAMM exhibition so it may take a couple more days for normal service to be resumed.

Peter Hook has a whole range of "signature" instruments from Eastwood derived from his Shergold Marathon 6-string bass. Bootsy seems to have basically the same thing over and over again but from different manufacturers (although IIRC there was a Bootsy Warwick that wasn't star shaped).

Bootsy Peter Hook

On the other hand, in the pre-internet days when retailers only had manufacturers' price lists to go on my synth band were to do a straight swap with our very expensive, but also very crap Yamaha CS15D synthesiser for a second hand Korg MS20, simply because the list retail price of the Yamaha was about double that of the Korg in 1983 and the shop knew next to nothing about synths and their relative features. The Yamaha synth was still sitting unsold in the shop at the beginning of the 90s.

A P-bass wouldn't have looked as interesting.

On any of these devices with touch screens can they be used and edited without needing to actually have to touch the screen? I'm one of these people for whom touch screens often don't respond at all.