Nicko

I would say buyer collect but you're too close for comfort.

My last band folded at the beginning of the pandemic - mostly for reasons unconnected to Covid. I'm not missing being in a band as I have become frustrated by the getting one together, getting a decent set, getting a few gigs and then it all falls apart a couple of years in routine. So the question is should I get rid of my stuff. It's only a mid range amp, a 2 x 10" and a 1 x 10" and possibly one of my basses. Have you done this and then suddenly felt the desire to get back on the horse again and had to buy it all again? I never really liked gigging that much. I enjoyed the practice sessions but I've recently been doing some home recording and songwriting rather than learning covers. I don't need the kit for that and I could use any money I get to improve my home recording set up. If the answer is yes, what's a reasonable second hand value for kit that's a few years old but n good nick and lightly gigged?

Funnily enough I was once fortunate, or not, to receive an ayuvedic massage where I was pummelled with a bag of spices dipped in warm oil. The result of all this was that I smelled like a Christmas pudding for a couple of days. It was slightly lucky that it was, in fact, Christmas day that I received the massage.

Amplitube Custom shop (free) has a few cabinets. The amps are a bit meh but you can buy an amp or cab that suits for not much cash once the free library is installed. I was fortunate to get Amplitube SVX free too where the amps are better quality and also paid for a Fender pack (special offer of around £25) where the bass amps include a Bassman 300 which is absolutely cracking!

Here is my entry to this months challenge. The theme of the song is Urban Decay. The lyrics (such as they are) are about towns disappearing but the music starts with a clean, simple theme and the idea was to add more and more layers to represent the graffiti that builds up over time . Of course, it's urban so I went for a bit of poor rapping. As usual recorded in Cubase all the real instruments are Fender (Squier CV Bass, Telecaster) and most of the Amplitude simulations are Fender too with a tape echo and loads of compression on the guitar. All the rest is Xpand Air2. Lyrics in the spoiler.

I have two DAWs and apart from setting up the interfaces there really isn't a lot of computing skill required to get something onto "tape". If you can operate a multitrack you'll be able to do the fundamentals of recording with a DAW with little effort. There's loads of tutorials on Youtube too - take a quick look at the setup for interfaces and basic DAW use and you'll realise even drummers could so it (Sorry @Dad3353). Looking forward to hearing your first effort. I suspect your biggest hurdle will be whether any DAW will run on the laptop to be honest - but Reaper would allow a free trial and is less tech hungry than most and is cheap if you decide you can live with it.

I just cut and paste the address.

I've seen the rest of the thread and thought I'd chip in with an alternative option. Some digital mixers these days will allow you to record direct so if you have access to something like a Behringer X Air you could do the track in analogue on the Zoom and then use the L and R inputs on the mixer to digitize. The only need for a computer would be to upload the digital track to soundcloud.

I have an Alesis Q25 - I wanted full sized keys and as a complete novice didn't really know what to do with all the midi controls anyway. In hindsight the 25 key option isn't a great choice so I'd go for the Q49 but otherwise I've been pleased with it. Really easy to set up and very responsive - although I'm a PC user mainly on Cubase. It comes with Ableton live lite which is OK but not great and Xpand Air 2 which I think is a fantastic VST.

It's a great picture and I was not sure whether I was amused, intrigued or a little freaked out by it. I started a little ditty but I'm going on holiday tomorrow and won't get a chance to finish it off. It's a bit Arctic Monkeys and for anyone that's interested I went down the freaked out route. I'll try to finish it off and put it on Soundcloud when I get back. Lyrics are here.

Audio Plugin deals is offering ReAmp studio at $25. Seems to be a lot of gear for that price although everything I've seen and heard seems to be very metal oriented.

Funnily enough I prefer RW necks as well (more for the look), but I only own two basses and they are both maple.

I started playing bass on a bass that was owned by the band (an Ibanez SG copy I think), and grew to hate the sound of it when cranked up. I was in a place that had very limited options to buy my own bass. Back in those days I was earning big money so on a trip home went to Denmark Street without a strict budget, and bought myself a nice new Peavey Cirrus BXP which had a really thin and narrow neck and was the most comfortable think I could find in all teh shops there. This stayed with me for a while but when it failed one evening at practice I borrowed the studios Squier PB which had quite a chunky neck and liked it so much I bought a American Special Precision (narrowish slim C precision neck). After using this for most of my playing I found the Cirrus a bit tight for my fingers and Pex'd it for a Squier 70s CV Precision which is slightly chunkier than the American special. So in answer to the OP I'll play what I've got but when buying will choose what feels right at the time, and in a few years I might change my mind.

Assuming that a collection of guitarists would be an ego, a collection of bass players would be and id*. * in common parlance at least - Freud would probably have the guitarists as super ego and bass players as an ego, leaving the drummists to the more animalistic instincts.

Well done Dad. Another fine set of toons for you to win against.

The Tide is High by Blondie is a cover of a song by the Paragons, although it still retains much of its reggae feel.

I guess the most obvious is Roxanne by the Police, where Sting allegedly sits on a piano and then laughs. I always thought it was the bum note at the beginning. (Cue argument - a lead in note not a bum note etc etc.) Others that spring to mind - The lead singer of Jet clearing his throat during the intro to Are You Gonna Be My Girl, and Dave Gilmour doing the same at the start of Wish You Were Here.

I don't know enough about the genre to separate the crap from the genuinely terrible. As someone who listened to a lot of rap it's something I shouldn't object to but it takes all the worst bits of something that I enjoy and puts them together.

Definitely eclectic. I only really remember classical from my early childhood, and then when my older brothers got into 70s rock and moved onto punk. I've been an a bit of a musical journey and had periods where I mostly listened to one genre - Ska, NWOBHM, New Wave, New Romantic, Hip Hop, Post Punk, Indie. I still listen to a lot of this mixed in with a bit of classic rock, heavy rock, blues, various vintages of pop. My Mp3 player is pretty much on random and it would not be unusual to have Prince followed by Black Sabbath, Plan B, Arctic Monkeys, the Ting Tings, Eminem, Bowie etc. My list of don't likes is easier. I rarely do classical music other than opera and generally only if its live - and I don't like musical theatre even though its basically modern opera. I don't like grime/drum and bass or the kind of RnB that basically a beat and the only melody coming from the singer. I don't really like country and western and and modern jazz is a dreadful waste of my ears. And I can't stand that kind of soft mushy rock that Bryan Adams does.

Yep, I wouldn't suggest asking the bloke holding the sticks😀

Me. A quick chat with the singer or guitarist "How does this go?" normally does the trick.

Above all, enjoy yourself. You may not play everything right but the chances are the audience won't notice and most of your bandmates won'r either unless you make a big thing out of it. I've played gigs where I thought the band were awful and the audience thought we were great (and vice versa) - expect that you and the band will be much more critical than the audience. It may not be practical at the mo, but open band nights are a great way to get some real experience of playing in a band with an audience without any pressure. We've all had mind freeze on stage and its usually the first note that's a problem - once you start it all comes back. Write the first note of your opening line on your set list. When you finish a song and the applause had ended/the bottles have stopped flying clam down and concentrate on the next song. You don't get long to settle yourself but if you can't recall what you need just let the band know that you are not ready.

I've come to the same conclusion and will not be looking for another band. My experience of covers bands is that its difficult to find a bunch of people who can play together and have a roughly equal vision of the band and you make compromises to get the thing going. Once you have started building a setlist and are ready to gig a few things happen. 1. The compromises you made start to interfere with the original vision of the band - eg that bloke that likes blues wants to introduce blusey stuff into your metal/alt rock/prog rock set* (*delete as appropriate) and it becomes increasingly difficult to agree on new material. The old material starts becoming stale and people get bored. 2. Some of the band see gigs as a necessary evil and want to rehearse the new material which isn't even what they want to play anymore and gig once a month, others want to gig every week and can't afford the time to do new material as well. 3. The personality flaws that you were prepared to compromise on start to aggravate more and more because 1 and 2 mean the band is lacking direction. 4. Gigs are hard to come by but the band is unable or unwilling to coordinate holidays and other commitments meaning that half the gigs you get offered have to be turned down which is a relief to some and a frustration to others. 5. You end up playing the same old material cos you can't agree on new stuff, with people you find it difficult to tolerate , in the hope that you might get a gig or two that you can commit to playing and the whole thing appears to be more a frustration than the bit of fun it was supposed to be. 6. Repeat.

Here is my entry for this month Inspiration? Seeing pigeons go round and round in circles reminded me of the discussions on certain, ahem, internet forums and the feeling that they aren't fully in control of their thoughts. So I took a synth and let the synth take over to an extent using the auto arpeggio function. Like @xgsjx I ended up with 80s synth pop. Bits of it remind me of the Pet Shop Boys which would be a good tie in but that's incidental and I didn't set out to recreate that sound. For those interested its actually not that many tracks - but most are multi layered parts in Xpand 2, including the drum The only exception is the Prophet 5 sound which is Dexed. No real instruments were harmed in the making of this track. All in Cubase although if I'd set out to create this I'd probably have used Live10.

I had pretty much the same experience with our last singer, who wasn't a name at all and was good without being good enough to demand that kind of thing - just thought the band were there to fuel her ego.