Owen

I have a Spitfire. It was mind bendingly expensive, but it does set the bass off nicely.

You are clearly already treating yourself. I salute you.

The joy of the 14" ones are that they will run 2 monitors as well as the screen. Treat yourself!

Fair play, that is pretty lush.

14"? My work one is an M2 14". Coming from a 13" I was thrilled. But then my son bought a 16" and I was less thrilled. I shall be buying a mac soon and am considering a MBA M1 for browsing and a Mac mini M4 for grunty stuff.

For me, any is too much. I want to see musicians interacting. That is where it is at. But I am fully aware that what I want is not what everyone wants. And when it goes wrong, it is grim. We did West Side Story at work (FE college). The Perf Arts dept needed a band. I was young and foolish. How hard can it be? I downloaded it all on MIDI files, tabbed it out through Logic and off we went. WSS guitar, bass and drums. But I had a piano track on CD becaue the potential for disaster was too much. I was not THAT foolish. We had a silent pit and the guy running playback/monitor was stoned. On the CD the tune before the Act 1 finale segued into "Tonight". The stoned guy heard the number before Tonight slowing down and ending so hit stop.The actual track continued on the CD, Tonight starting at 2:36. There was no way he could cue that up. There was a pregnant pause and I started to sing accapela. The cast did the whole routine accapela, dance moves to the non existent orchestral hits and all. In retrospect it was comedy gold. The on stage energy levels went throught the roof.

Same. Twice. Grim.

Yep and yep

Without a doubt. But very few of us are paid exclusively for things which only bring us joy. I am actually in the privileged position of enjoying my job, but there are many aspects of it which I would happily trade for sitting in a theatre pit playing Fame.

Yep, sight reading is constantly reading new stuff. Which, if you are a "trained" classical player, you are doing all the time. Many orchestral concerts are likely to be a 3-hour rehearsal in the afternoon and then a show in the evening, and that is it. It might be repertoire you are familiar with. It might not be. I do not play multiple instruments. But for me, sight reading is tied into the physical parameters of the instrument I am playing. I started reading on a 'cello. The top string on a 'cello is A. I have not played the 'cello in any meaningful way for over 40 years. When I am under pressure and not thinking, I have been known to read A at the top of the bass clef but play my open G on the Double Bass. But not on bass guitar. I have also started playing a 6-string bass with a bottom F#. This means that what my hands are used to has changed, and I cannot sight-read reliably on this. I can follow chord charts when I concentrate, and it is getting easier - but I would not take this 6 string to a paying reading gig because I know that the pathways between my brain and my hands are not in tune with each other. The older I get, the more I realise that none of us perceive music in the same way. I have some students who listen to ......... stuff I would not choose to listen to. But they REALLY relate to the energy and noise coming off what they are hearing, which does nothing for me. I know people who are multi-instrumentalists, and their approach to any instrument is that they pick it up, and it makes sense to them (Keys, Bass, Guitar, Drums, Reeds and Brass), so the reading is an extension of that for them. I am not wired that way, so relating the written to the instrument would be a whole new learning process.

I have never had any interest in Gibson basses. But that is lush!