Woodwind

I never thought I would miss the schlepping kit to gigs by public transport as much as I do! I'll be looking to upgrade my trolley so will investigate all the suggestions here

@Trylle After I moved back to bass guitar after stopping playing the double bass I brought the four fingers to cover three semi-tones technique with me, having previously been a finger per fret player on bass guitar. My playing was more relaxed and consistent using the third and fourth finger together. Based on your hand photo it looks like there is a lot of tension and more of a bend in your wrist to compensate for the finger positioning. See if you can get comfortable using first finger, middle finger and then ring and pinky together on the third fret. You'll potentially be moving up/down the neck more often, but your hand will be much more relaxed in the process. All the best

The tippex is vital! I was doing a lot of shows where my stage lighting was a dark red wash which completely knocks back the contrast of things on stage so I needed a big bold line to see the position of the knobs. Fun Stickers would have been better, but it was applied in an emergency in a soundcheck and has remained ever since 😂 I'm not a bassist per se anymore although I play big bass frequencies as well as lots of high frequencies from a woodwind instrument in contemporary solo chamber music settings. I layer chords with the two freeze pedals and use the looper in a similar fashion

the irony. When I was early in my bass playing career I would beg sound engineers to mic my amplifier. I just knew that the sound of my marshall B65 combo being driven to an inch of its life to keep up with a drummer trying to compete with a guitarist with no perception of volume produced the most amazing tone (still 20 years later it's a tone I would have any day of the week). The di sound was lifeless in comparison.

Practicing for some shows planned later this year (fingers crossed they materialise) so thought I'd put my board up. Input from my instrument into: Mantic Hulk set for dry through - dedicated sub out goes to separate mixer channel. Loop station Freeze 1 Freeze 2 Pitchfork Obscura Delay Skysurfer reverb (set very low, just gives an extra bit of bloom on dry stages). Eventually I'll add an isolated power supply which will go between the Hulk and reverb pedal.

Thanks for posting this @Bart Funk Bass Beasties had a lot of good bass lines and great bass sounds. rip MCA

Great to see people getting bookings! It is intriguing what shows are being planned and what aren't. Absolutely no promoter I work with is planning anything.

Good to see your latest set up 😎 I wasn't aware of the Cioks range. That DC7 looks like an incredibly versatile power supply. I need to investigate further.

Yup I can completely relate to this. I've had to resort to wearing ear plugs when near traffic if I'll be near a main road for prolonged periods. All the best

Please be careful Taha_Never! What is the work you're doing outside? I do a lot of work outside and just the increased high end content in the sound of london traffic on wet roads can irritate my hearing. Sustained fatigue will eventually lead to permanent hearing loss.

It won't be just the sound from stands going into your downstairs neighbours ceiling, but the whole floor resonating to the air moving from your speakers as well. However in terms of isolating stands from resonanat floors adding mass is very useful: concrete paving slabs under the speaker stands is a first step, a sandwich of carpet between two slabs is better. In terms of stopping the whole floor transmitting sound Your best bet, and not cheap alas, will be to put a layer of deadening rubber mat across the whole floor, ideally a layer of MDF over this and then your normal flooring. Of course then your doors won't travel over this so you'll need to rehang them with half an inch shaved off the bottom etc etc. I've had to do this in various flats I've lived in as well as helping friends with piano isolation for their flats and it works. As an aside I'm not far off building a new isolating ceiling above my room as well to allow me to practice more than I currently do.

Is this complete plays/streams? On a tangent - What I have found with my own bandcamp is I am selling less, but (complete) plays are increasing. Essentially people are using it as a streaming service.

I'm a big fan of those TC pedals, but my eyes keep being drawn to your Cyrus (1 or 2?) Hifi amp and Systemdek8 record player. That must be a great combination! I digress

I agree completely. However I think it is subtle - the wind instrument in the Planet Jam thing seemed to have a different tuning system which the player was trying hard to bring into pitch with the fixed pitch instruments. I have a Cd of baroque, renaissance and classical organ music recorded on historical organs tuned to their correct historical temperaments (meantone, Werckmeister etc etc) Some of the sounds are SO alien or just completely "wrong" sounding, even though it's still 12 tone. This video is quite a fun exploration of breaking the scale into higher numbers of microtones:

A friend of mine irreparably damaged his hearing seeing my bloody valentine in the 90's. He then went to see them again a couple of years back(I think it was that recent) and despite ear plugs, worsened his tinnitus even more ☹️

Good Loud - Sunn0))) 2004 Bad Loud - Mogwai (as I mentioned in the gigs you left early thread). 2003 The Sunn gig was so loud it actually seemed quieter when I removed an ear plug as a test and my hearing was completely overloaded. The bass frequencies were a physical entity. Absolutely brilliant. There was a point to the volume Mogwai on the other hand were pointlessly loud. It worked against the delicate moments of their music. Everything I've seen at the Kentish Town Forum has been loud and sounded crap.

Mogwai, Norwich Waterfront circa 2003. They were touring Happy Songs For Happy People. Support came from the superb Kling Klang who stole the show for my friends and I. Mogwai were proficient and obviously into it, but my God it was so, so loud. My ear plugs weren't enough and after spending the first 4 songs moving further away from the stage I decided to leave. Outside were many others who had done likewise.

Wow Brilliant, thank you so much for the heads up on these!!! I'll investigate now. I'm a bit new to all this so I really appreciate those pointers! Cheers Thomas

I have just discovered they aren't available now. Looking at some of those low current ones, but I'm not convinced and I worry the old adage "buy cheap buy twice" will very much apply to these forty quid jobbies, so I should maybe just go straight for a one spot cs6 etc etc

Bit of a thread resurrection, sorry. Anyone who has been using a vitoos iso8 got any long term feedback? Cheers Thomas

That's a great solution for the bag Itu! i'll be making mine, but the design will evolve so once I'm set I may commission something much better from a specialist. As for the watch, I'm in a more modest price bracket 😀

Damn, I can totally empathise with the annoyance of losing a workspace. My pedal board will be quite crude as I've already decided to change things as I got working. I need something for a recording session in two weeks, so I'll get this done and refine it thereafter.

Any progress @stewblack ? I Just found this thread as I'm making my own pedal board. The requirements being - as light and as strong as possible, while being very low profile and easy to travel with. Today I'm carving out the Aluminium sheet to mount the pedals on which will then be sewn into a custom bag. Eventually all the holes will be drilled to half an inch, but I want to use the better pillar drill in my other workshop which is currently closed. I'm more used to working with silver, gold and titanium - making Jewellery and woodwind instrument repairs, but I can see more of this type of thing happening.

I was lucky enough to catch Khanate at the Underworld around 2004/2005. Absolutely Phenomenal gig, however I passed up the chances too see them when they toured again as, as you say, it can be punishing.

Yup, every time I pass through Soho, I can't believe how corporate and "developed" it has become. Souless.