simondee

Hi IEM pals, been losing myself in this thread and various YouTube rabbit holes so wanted to ask for some help. Apologies in advance if this is the wrong thread! Context: - 4 piece loud heavy metal band (Vox, guitar, bass&vox, drums) - 3 of us on IEMs (Vox, bass, drummer), guitarist is a refusenik (doesn't like the isolation and I think hasn't experienced what they can be like when mixed and fitted well) - no click or backing track but we do have a few drummer-triggered samples - We play a mix of pub gigs, toilet venues and the occasional bigger 'proper' venue as support. Big variance on what there'll be in terms of PA and I don't trust many of the engineers we're working with briefly to do a great job on monitoring vs. FoH - have had some pretty shit experiences to date. Gear: We currently have 3 LD Systems MEi-1000s running on their own frequencies in a 4u rack. At shows with sound checks we ask the FoH engineer to run through our individual mixes. This has had mixed results depending on the engineer and ability to get a decent soundcheck. I have been loaned an RCF M18 mixer to experiment with from a successful band who've outgrown their setup. The Problem: 1. Our singer INSISTS on IEMs for his vocals and doesn't really need much else in their ears so doesn't care about their personal mix much. Also a luddite so the prospect of mixers etc. as part of our load-out really stresses them out. Doesn't understand how we'd do our own mixes and control them ourselves. one look at the RCF was met with 'what the f**k are supposed to do with all of those inputs'. 2. I don't like using mine because it's been really hard to get a decent mix in that brief sound check window that we sometimes get, same for drummer really. This is a source of tension and I think as a rhythm section we're trying to choose between not hearing stuff well vs. hearing the wrong things in a weird mix. 3. Changeovers are 15-20 minutes and we're often mid-bill so having extra things to set up beyond our own instruments is stressful, often with just a line-check. The Solution: I'm aware we need some kind of patchbay and splitter setup to work with to add to the mixer, but I'm at a loss as to where to start and how to get it all working properly so we could use it at a gig. I've watched a few videos where the cost has been prohibitive, the rack is huge and full of Kempers etc. and I just glaze over a bit. We're an amps band still with a pretty loud stage - a lot of the venues we play don't work for quieter stages and we've seen other bands try and do this and it hasn't worked. Not to say I don't want to get there eventually but getting the monitoring issue solved is first priority before we start heading down the silent(er) stage route. Any examples would be hugely appreciated on how you've solved this issue and come up with something that's made the sound people happy as well as band members without a ton of over-engineering would be brilliant. The longer we put off solving it the less we'll enjoy performing and the bigger venue stuff especially could be way cooler if we know what we're doing. I'm keen to upskill in this area anyway since it's changed so much since the earlier 2000s when I was gigging a lot and we were all futzing around with wedges and being deaf. Thanks pals!

Clean. Gig rig worth it? Any loops going on?

Couple of specifics and some general areas I need to investigate a bit more. 1. A Dunable. DE or USA I don’t mind which. 2. A passive DI for my board. Need to split clean/dirty and am confusing myself with options. 3. An octave synthy noisy fuzz - probably the Mandrake 4. A second Barefaced cab. 5. Pelicase and racking everything properly since gig bags have been beaten up badly this year. 6. The Neural DSP rabbit hole…

They will sell a lot of these at this price point to people who never had a QC and don’t understand the differences. I was keen but now I understand what they’ve taken out, it’s back to saving up for the big one.

I hope it never breaks because it'll be very hard to get another one. It's a super distortion.

The Atreides is an absolutely bonkers thing. I recommend doing a YouTube deep dive since there are some good-ish bass demos, but it's a completely OTT synth pedal with a ton of phase, some filter and some other bits. I was using it at the end of a song but it's morphed more of an in-between song noise pedal now, and it may come off the board entirely in favour of a more reliable and flexible synth pedal. It's a bit of a one-trick pony and it depends on whether you like the trick. It also is unpredictable when it comes to sustain and the tracking can sound a bit broken. I've managed to get something better by stacking the Octabass, 76 and chorus together The timer is an Amazon special! Put some velcro on the back and both me and lead singer can see how we're tracking to set-time which is very handy. It even turns red in the final 2 minutes.

Spent half the day cable managing and swapping out a few plates for 3M tape.

Hey Warwick pals. On a similar note to the above I have a flame maple red 4 string 1997 Streamer Pro-M that needs a new home. What's the rough value on one of these you reckon?

OMG this thread. Frankly I’m just glad Mesa is available again and we have an official customer service point in the UK. Will the Gibson Garage service bass amps too?

Hi fellow Sandbergers i need to change the strings on my used but new to me VM4. Tuning to drop C for doom project and the nut isn’t wide enough for 110 or 120 gauge. any filing tips lads so I don’t bork it? Not had to do this before.