Woodwind

What a niche event to use to fleece people. I wonder how many other niche events have been set to "take place" at a similar date or venue and it's just one bunch of scammers casting their net wide.

I keep coming back to this thread in slight disbelief. What on earth does it sound like to the audience when you singer repeatedly klonks his teeth on the mic??? Nevermind him worrying about not looking rock and roll by using a wind shield what about sounding absolutely dire? A few friends, admittedly not long in the tooth, use the pop shield foam on their vocal mics and it looks good, but if your vocalist really can't do it, then I'd do the following: Replacement sm58 3rd party grille balls can be found in ebay for a couple of quid. Buy one (or a few) Buy a pack of foam windshields. Buy a tube of contact adhesive. Carefully cut the windshields so they only really cover the top part of the replacement grille (ie the section that gets a good chewing) Affix the foam Using a couple of judicious blobs of contact adhesive on the outside edge. This won't last very long, but will be easy to pull off and replace and if you make a couple can be swapped mid gig if necessary.

Yeah, 35+ shows a year is the dream really. Of all my friends and acquaintances who were that busy pre-covid (various genres), none are at that level now.

In these times that sounds really good for an originals band! Excellent This has been my quietest year since my solo project began 9 years ago, but I have turned more gigs down this year than ever before.

I use beringher products and have done since starting making music in the late 90s. Aware of the snobbery towards the brand I liked what one engineer said to me (I'm sure he lifted it from somewhere): The difference between not making music or using Beringher is far greater than using Beringher or using brand x

Intonation is well out in that video. Judging by the bridge it's not surprising.

Excellent!!

Only just seen your original post. My situation was fairly similar (a condensed history) - Started playing bass guitar in the late 90's as a teenager. Joined loads of bands of various genres over the next few years and got to a pretty high level of playing. Having developed tinnitus I moved away from amplified music and started playing the double bass in 2005. This was brutal! Becoming a complete beginner again. Musically I was advanced, but technically zero which is perhaps even more frustrating as you are aware you cannot manifest your ideas yourself. I was writing for my band which consisted of bass acoustic instruments (cello, bass clarinet, bassoon) and drums, which allowed me to play simpler parts while I got better on the instrument. 4 years of concentrated study later I developed very bad tendon problems and decided to move instruments again. Through writing for the bassoon I had completely fallen in love with it, or rather it's contrabass brother and decided to become the player I could never find for my ensemble. Hiring an instrument and tracking down a teacher who could understand why someone in their early 30's, who had never played a woodwind instrument before and had no interest in playing orchestral music would want to play the contrabassoon. Again it was brutal - just allowing myself to sound absolutely dreadful and practicing slowly every day. 14 years later it's my primary instrument that has led to all sorts of opportunities. I only really play solo these days, which would have been impossible for me to believe 20 years ago. So in short commit fully to the saxophone!!! Once in a band Make a feature of what you can play rather than struggling with what you can't yet manage. Focus on making a Wonderful sound. I'd much rather hear a few notes with beautiful tone and conviction, than squonking through many.

Thanks for that BigRedX, that's very encouraging to read. My main experience of Spotify is from my day job - it's on in the workshop all day. I don't use it so rely on my colleagues' taste and playlists. They all seem to get twitchy if tracks go on too long 🤣 For my next album, which I'll be self releasing next year, I may well get some tracks up on Spotify.

My last two albums have been put out by small tape labels. Both have sold out from the label and I sold my quota of each in a couple of shows (I would have sold more if I had them). I can't say for sure if I would have sold the same amount of CDs at my shows instead of tapes, but that speaks for the genre I occupy, then venues I perform in and the audience I get. Neither of the two labels put their music on Spotify. It's all Bandcamp. My biggest earner by a very long way was when some of my music was used in a film soundtrack back in 2021. The payment for that saved me in the midst of a very bleak year and the PRS payments that have come off the back of it are a great bonus. Similarly when my tracks have been played on Radio 3 in the past, the PRS payments have dwarfed anything I ever would have earned on streaming. As @BigRedX says having music on Spotify should be regarded as promotion for something else not as an earner in and of itself (although in my case my music would not fare well on Spotify - with minimum of 6 minutes a track, which makes up part of a longer form piece.)

Excellent! The crystal Baschet is such a cool instrument. For anyone familiar with the film Drive, Cliff Martinez used one extensively in the soundtrack - although that was not a bass focussed instrument like in this video

While we're on this tangent, I will say that contrabassoon is my primary instrument. Not the loudest of acoustic bass instruments, but quite a spectacular tone. Https://www.instagram.com/thomasstonemusic

You can't use the regular 4ths tuning strings for 5th tuning. Well you can, but as you found the result was too low tension. If you want to use this bass for fifths tuning you will need heavier gauge strings for what were the E and A strings and arguably something lighter for what was the G string.