dave_bass5

That will be when the bank statement arrives 😅

So, a week later and im wavering on sending the Air back and getting the 14' Pro. Ive spent more time with my M1 Pro on the couch in the past two weeks than I have since getting it, and really enjoy using it. Im just wondering now that maybe I should just bit the bullet and get the M4 Pro. For the same spec 24/512 and pro chip it will cost me £500 more. It's heavier than I was looking for, but 14" just seems to be the sweat spot for keyboard and screen. I could see me using it more away from the desk. Bloody hell!!! 😬

This is exactly what I do with amazon. We live in a 5 story block and quite often packages are left either in the public entrance, anywhere in the stair well, and always marked as 'handed to resident' or 'left at reception'. We (most tenants) have complained to Amazon many times, and while it's not the fault of Amazon, they should be cracking down on this sort of thing.

Totally agree, but it's a gamble for the venue. With one foot in the door like you have I guess its easier to get a proper gig over a band that contacts them, says they can bring in so many people, and doesn't. Because my band do mostly private gigs we find it very hard getting pub gigs, as we haven't got a following that will bring money in to the pub. We do a couple and do get a good turn out, but it's more that the pub is always busy anyway. I guess my point is that an establish band on the local scene is more likely to get paid gigs than someone just starting up and can't bring in more money for the venue. As you say, one way is to build up a following at a certain venue, but I think this is what 'exposure' means' some of the time. Personally im experienced enough to weigh up the pros and cons of playing for expose, so wont always discount it. Most of our gigs have come from people seeing us, albeit at paid gigs. That to me is where playing for exposure can work.

Ive seen some bands do that without any help 😇 I get that a pub has to make a living as well. Having to pay out another £200-£300 extra at the end of the night, with no increase in beer sales can't be easy. Ive seen bands who have pulled in a lot of people, but ive seen many that have emptied an already half empty pub. A pub is a business, a band is not, its just a hobby, I dont agree with the 'see if a pub will give free bear for publicity' argument, its not the same thing at all. A band at this level has nowhere near the overheads a pub has. Ok, it could be the pubs responsibility to get people through the door, but a lot now rely on the bands pricing extra drinkers in.

Yeah. These days its more likely to be clamped to the drummers high hat stand, sitting right above the snare for recording purposes. I find the vocal mics give enough ambience now. Never had it distort as far as i can hear.

I use the H4e now. Love the fact that it doesn’t need setting up compared previous recorders I’ve used.

I used to use a small digital recorder strapped to the lead singers mic stand, or placed roughly in the centre of the stage. This feeds back to the XR18 and goes out to the IEM mixes (mine in stereo). This also gives you the ability to record the gig as well (although not much use if it's a silent stage).

I sold my cab when we went in to lockdown. Last year I was rehearsing with a new band on bass, and used my Yamaha DBR-12 active PA cab. No issues at all seeing up with the band, and it felt a bit clearer than I had been used to with a 2x12 (a very good one though). I was driving it with just a BDDI or Zoom B-2 Four. I wasn't expecting FRFR, It was just all i had to hand, but id like to go this route again when I find another band to play bass with.

I spend most of my time (other than music stuff) on an iPad Pro M4 13'', and find that sized screen comfortable. My MacBook is always in clam shell sitting no my desk connected to a larger monitor, so a 13'' or 15'' screen is not really needed most of the time. when im gigging ill use the built in screen but Gig Performer is quite well laid out so a small screen isn't really a problem either. Saying all that, now my MBP 14" is going to get sold off and not stuff on the desk ive been using it on the couch instead of my iPad most evenings, just to get a bit of use out of it, and ive fallen in love with it again. The screen being slightly larger than my iPad makes a lot of difference, and im really getting to like typing on the keyboard over the iPad Smart Keyboard. Could end up seeing both Macs for a while.

This is a good point. I see many 'musicians' saying how they wont play for free etc, but quite of a few of them really should as entertainment wise, they are worth bugger all 😇

Hobbies cost money, and a lot of people are happy to spend a fortune on them without expecting to recoup (especially bedroom players) what they spend. Even buying the gear is part of the hobbit enjoyment. Ive done gigs for free and really enjoyed them, but if there is money in the pot, I want a share of it.

The guy used to work for Amazon Logistics. Maybe it was made up, maybe there was something in it, why knows or cares. I just know most times ive got a parcel arriving via Evri its late by at least a day or two.

I was told, and i dont know how true this is, that Amazon use Evri when they want to lose a faulty return so claim for a new one. Ive canceled a few orders from companies when ive found out it’s Evri delivering.

Just wanted to post about my initial findings. The Air arrived today and i cloned my old Pro. All went well and other than having to activate the plugins everything was ready to go. The Air seems snappier than my Pro. A little bit faster all round i guess. As far as GP goes, the Air opens the same file in about 30 seconds less time than the Pro. I checked a few Rackspaces and on the whole the Air was showing 5-8% less CPU usage in GP. Swap file usage was around 150MB, compared to a few GB on the Pro for 31 racksapces. I cant see me having any issues like i was having. Im surprised at how better the Air is compared to the Pro, and no heat issues at all. Its a costly upgrade, but not one i regret.

Thanks, thats encouraging. Ill always use just one monitor at home so the new 3 monitor feature isnt one ill every use, but the more RAM will certainly be welcome. With gig performer i use a lot of soft synths, which is why i need the RAM, but other wise i rarely tax the MBP as it is.

That's a really good deal. I did look at that place, and was quite tempted with some of the refurbished ones, but my other complaint is the weight of my MBP. It's not horrendous of course, but I would like something a bit more public transport friendly for rehearsals. My rucksack always feels light until that goes in, so a MBP was ruled out (im pushing my budget even now, but as Amazon were over £100 cheaper than Apple and on an interest free 12 month payment scheme it was too good to pass. Never maxed out my MBP as such, I just need a bit more ram. Hoping the M4 Air isn't a step back for whet I need.

I too have the iPad M4 pro (13') and keyboard, and I agree, it's a power house that has never even broke in to a sweat doing all sorts. It's my main device at home, I rarely use my MacBook Pro (always in clamshell mode attached to a monitor) other than music making, and I take it out for gigging and rehearsals. Even photo and diode stuff is mostly on my iPad. I was going to keep the MacBook Pro and get an M4 Mac mini, but I really do need the extra ram that I can get in the Air, and feel the MBP is a bit on the funky side even for the odd occasion I do take it out. Guess im so used to the iPad's weight. I have ordered it and I'll give it a go over the weekend once ive cloned the MBP to it.

As much as I love my MacBook Pro M1, ive recently noticed some of my plugins are using quite a bit of memory. 16GB is fine most of the time but id like bit more. Very tempted to get the new Air M4 with 24GB and sell the MBP. I also like its smaller form factor. Just wondered if anyone is using one and how it performs. Im thinking mostly about any thermal issues with, say, 20 tracks in cubase or Logic. I do have another real reason for changing, as I use Gig performer live, and that can use up to 30GB if everything is loaded, so more ram is definitely going to be useful there to avoid too much swap file use.

Can I ask why Mono?

You could try an envelope follower to cut the reverb down, and there are De-Verb plugins available.

I tend to use something like Ozone to finish off the recordings i make using my Zoom H4e. Recently ive got a plugin called Fuel that does a really good job of bringing out the instruments and give ign the recording more depth and volume.

We use Macs for our daily drivers at work. We find the older Office 2021 stuff runs perfectly on our M2’s, although e hate having to use those apps. im probably going to get an M4 MacBook Air this week. It will involve me trading in my M1 MacBook Pro, but i want more ram as 16GB is not quite enough for what i need to run Gig Performer comfortably at gigs with everything loaded. I have also recently got the new iPad 11 base model, and that seems to record fine from my XR18 in to Cubasis, although so far only used it for rehearsals.

I was a Windows user for decades, even built my own from day one, but when i made the jump to Mac i was shocked at how little set up and tweaking was needed for music making. Saying that, it’s even easier on iPad, which is wha it use for live recording. I was using Logic no ipad but have switched to Cubasis as it seems a bit easier for this. Not suggesting you make the jump, but wondered if you had tried a tablet or phone?