Happy Jack

The last time I watched Eurovision it was being presented by Katie Boyle ...

Almost certainly Yes. The default (detente) position is at 12 o'clock which is "mild" pitch correction ... only someone with acute hearing will spot that it's even happening. I tend to keep mine set at 1 o'clock which is - obvs - a bit more aggressive, but then I'm using it in front of a harmoniser pedal. If you can find your way to Harrow, you're welcome to come and try out my selection.

And of course you don't actually need to build off the root. In major keys, you can get some very interesting harmonies by building off the 3rd or 5th of the chord, and in minor keys you'll find you have to build off the root of the relative chord or you'll get some horrendous clashes. It's important to treat a harmoniser pedal like an instrument (a keyboard would be a good comparison) rather than a pedal. You need to understand how it works, and then experiment with it to find the settings you need. To make that happen, either record your singing so that you can play it back and listen properly, or find a collaborator prepared to fiddle with the settings while you sing.

Hi Kevin, first up there's nowt wrong with a single harmonising BV ... it seemed to work pretty well for Simon & Garfunkel. 🤣 On harmoniser pedals, though, the only limiter is your own imagination. The one I use offers eight different settings in each key, so straight away that's a lot of options. If the song is in A and that's the root note being played then yes, it's likely that LV will be singing an A and your harmonies will be built off that same root. No action is needed though, since the harmoniser will probably be generating three notes (A, C and E perhaps) with a combined volume equal to a single voice. Plus the BVs will be set lower in the mix. The A that you contribute will likely be about 1/5th as strong as the LV's A.

Unisex? UNISEX???

That's a 'Farnham conversion' by Abbott's of Farnham, a famous coach-builders who spotted a gap in the market when Ford failed to offer an estate version of the Zephyr & Zodiac. AI Overview: Zodiac Farnham conversions were estate car, or station wagon, variants of the Ford Zephyr and Zodiac (MkII, MkIII, and MkIV) saloons, coachbuilt by E.D. Abbott Ltd in Farnham, Surrey, between the mid-1950s and early 1970s. These rare, high-quality conversions featured extended roofs, unique rear tailgates, and sometimes bespoke GRP (glass-reinforced plastic) components. Abbotts sourced brand-new cars direct from Dagenham, then did the conversion to Ford standard, re-using as many components as they could. That tailgate looks odd because it's actually built around the original rear windscreen. The completed vehicles were then sold through official Ford dealers. I had to buy a Farnham simply because it was the only classic car that would accept a 7/8 DB.

I've had two Powersoft units for a long time; the one I bought from @Acebassmusic was a replacement for one I sold in a fit of absent-mindedness during Covid. Wonderfully light (in context!), totally reliable.

Yup, fun to be there, and of course I got put with a "character" as well which is why we ended up playing Move It On Over as a 13-bar, a novel approach and one with many advantages. 🙄 Nice jam that. Decent venue, loads of free parking over the road, good selection of beers, above all a very friendly bunch. Made a nice change from "Slow Blues in G" and foot-on-the-monitor, braindead Dadrock ... What's that you say, Sooty? Would I like another extended guitar solo? Oh well ... if you insist ... https://www.facebook.com/groups/772330602298385

Always surprises me when eBayers (and others) put "Location = London". Big place, London. Very big. Really very big indeed. In terms of travel times, it's the equivalent of giving your location as "somewhere in the Midlands". I'm in Harrow, NW London, and I can get to Birmingham faster than I can get to Catford or Dagenham. Not really a rant, as such, more a vague musing about how inept some sellers are.

Well I'm real, you can trust me on this ... I know exactly which squares contain traffic lights. Meanwhile, my rig has spent the last 18 months in constant evolution and for tonight's gig will comprise TWO of these CK61s on an uber-lightweight 2-tier ally stand. Both signals go through a Zoom L6 micro-mixer which then feeds my wired in-ears and the FoH PA. The L6 attaches to the lower keyboard with velcro, and the 6-way gang attaches to the ally stand with velcro & cable ties. I sold the Korg Kross (despite the brass sounds being just brilliant) and the Hammond SK1 rarely gets a run-out ... which is a shame because it's a lovely piece of kit. My CK61s are set up to be absolutely identical; I can switch from keyboard to keyboard on the fly should I need to, knowing exactly what sounds I have where, and should one CK61 ever die during the gig then I have a replacement right in front of me. I use no Midi, no controllers, no triggered sounds. Everything I play is deliberately bog-standard sounds that come with the keyboards (with the usual tweaks, natch) generated live on stage. I'm immune from wi-fi interference, Windows updates, and re-booting DAWs. Both CK61s fit in a single case which is a 1-man carry from the car, and the IEMs mean that I don't need to bring backline or monitoring to gigs where @Silvia Bluejay is running the PA. I'm not claiming that these things have the quality or the functionality of a ModX or a Nord or whatever, but what they have (in spades) is practicality, simplicity, ease of use. I might not want to use a CK61 at the O2 London or Newcastle (offer me a gig there and you'll find out) but it's a perfect keyboard for pub'n'club gigs around the Home Counties.

I thought Martin had finished writing Game Of Thrones?

In truth, not as bad as I feared. For a first attempt we deliberately used far more glue than we probably needed, because my main concern was having the whole kludge fall apart the first time I took it out of my ears. Next time, we'll be a lot neater.

So, three months later, did this work for you?

But Shirley that defeats the object of buying a cheap sub?

I've used ACS Custom moulded plugs for so long that I've ended up with a couple of pairs of moulds that are surplus to requirement, one pair not even having filters any more. Stumbled across a Basschat post from a few years ago (which I now can't find again to link to) where someone in this situation had bought some cheap earbuds and glued them into ACS moulds. So I thought "what the heck" and bought pair of £20 buds from Amazon plus some special silicon-friendly glue. @Silvia Bluejay and I then spent a happy half-hour gluing our fingers together, and left the resulting Blue Peter mess to cure overnight. Tried them at rehearsal (on keys) last night and - knock me down with a feather - it worked.

https://consequence.net/2024/06/duran-duran-rio-cover-model-identified/

Are those diagonal stripes actually parallel?

Boogie.

I'm now three months in with the Protec and, while I'm very happy with it, in truth it has yet to do a dozen gigs (most of my gigs in that period have been a better fit for my BSX Allegro) so it's too early to be writing any reviews yet.

That could easily be a side-effect of the fitting of new strings, regardless of what type or tension they are. I assume you replaced one string at a time, rather than taking off the old ones and then installing new ones?

Just in case you’re wondering what other earth-shattering events took place on that fateful day, here you are: Key Events & Themes: Austerlitz Reenactment: Thousands gathered in the Czech Republic for the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Austerlitz. Ebola Discovery: Scientists identified fruit bats as animal reservoirs for Ebola in Gabon and Congo. China Tax Abolition: China announced it would end its national agricultural tax in 2006. Hurricane Epsilon: Became the 14th hurricane of the record-breaking Atlantic season.