SumOne

Lifting up an old cab last week I realised how lucky I am to have a modern one which is probably less than half the weight and sounds just as good/loud if not better. And I'm a bit behind the times with this, but I'm just now moving from DJing with vinyl to digital - I wish I did it years ago. Obviously a digital file isn't collectable like a record, but in terms of DJing it is much more versatile and practical.

RIP Gaps

Jah Screechy, Walk and Skank 'Answer' riddim. Sampled on SL2 'on a ragga tip'

Following that logic, there's close to zero 'cost' of being a Spotify CEO.

Reviving this! I know Aftobeat generally is more associated with the Fela Kuti kind if sound/era, but some of the best pop music from anywhere nowadays is from Nigeria, I suppose it's just Nigerian Pop rather than Aftobeat, anyway, whatever you want to call it - I'm loving this stuff:

The best sunshine pop tune I've heard in a while:

Decent bit of new Dancehall: SHY FX, Mr. Williamz, Breakage, 'Shebeen'

Do streaming services pay any PRS royalties at all?

Couldn't the 'it exploits artists' issue also count for Radio? Artists want to be on these platforms as they mostly treat it in the same way as Radio (and at least they can choose to be on streaming platforms or not). They'll get a small amount of income (streams or royalties), but that's not the real benefit - it gives them exposure so they can make money in other ways: merchandise, vinyl, downloads, live audiences, and increases their social media audience (Selena Gomez gets $2.5m per advertising Instagram post, Ariana Grande $2.2m) It's why I wouldn't be too concerned about recording from streaming services, it doesn't make much difference to artists and still helps them achieve their main objective of getting their music heard - so you are more likely to see them live, or follow them on social media etc. And I don't think the amount of people that can be bothered to record are going to be the downfall of streaming services. There was probably fuss over jukeboxes 'killing live music', and radio, and home taping, and go back far enough there was probably concern that recorded music being bad for live musicians. Streaming is just the latest thing, there will be something else in a couple of years: AI is already curating playlists.

If you can be bothered with it: Free trial for a month, build lists of everything you want, record, cancel subscription. Repeat with different services. It's not illegal: https://audials.com/en/company-audials-ag/streaming-recording And if you feel bad for the denying the income an artist would otherwise have made from streaming (I wouldn't feel too bad, Spotify pays artists $0.003 per stream - artists are on there for exposure rather than direct revenue) then you could help them out a lot more by spending the money you saved in subscriptions by buying stuff like vinyl and merchandise direct from them and seeing them live.

That is sort of my attitude, I've got well over 1000 records and about 1TB of digital music so it'd take years to listen through everything I have. However, I don't have ALL the good music ever made, and people are still making good music....so unless I take the view that I don't want to listen to anything else because I already own all the best music there ever was and ever will be, then streaming is a quite attractive option. Personally, I quite like the halfway house that is not paying for streaming, but finding new stuff via things like online radio show and mixes and digging through online shops and Bandcamp's free streaming and then instead spend that money on downloads or vinyl.

I use Spotify, it seems the biggest library of music and a decent interface. I'm about to cancel it though and see how I get on spending the equivalent money on downloads - to encourage myself to get back into a bit of digging around/quality control to find things I really like and pay to own them forever and properly listen to them rather than just 'streaming' through 100's of mediocre songs every week. I'd recommend Bandcamp. It's not got much mainstream stuff, but it's really good for independent stuff and buying more directly from the artists, and even without buying it's still pretty good for streaming (free) but takes a bit more digging around rather than having playlists made for you.

Yeah, I've found them to be good. Especially as people pay a bit more from a shop than they do from a Private sale, so I've actually got more £ from a hassle free commission sale via Bass Gallery than I'm sometimes able to get selling Privately. Getting the stuff to Bass Gallery might be an issue though - either having to drive it all over, or having to post it and perhaps getting hit with taxes.

I think they are one of the only groups that can pull it off as artistic endeavour: Given that they never signed to a major label and they've always done things quite originally, and their love of kung fu sort of mythology, and this album being titled 'once upon a time in Shaolin' (which fits with previous albums), it's the sort of rare/mystical 'artefact' that fits into the themes they've always had. And (so far, after 9 years) true to their word, this hasn't been more widely released or heard. I think it'd have been better if they'd gone all out though and made it a from gold vinyl or a phonograph cylinder or something, a CD seems a bit cheap and common!

They look good to me, and I don't usually like the singlecut look. I doubt neck dive would be an issue seeing as there's no headstock and tuner weight is moved to the opposite end.

Finished work, long weekend (with a gig), sun shining and beginning to set, dinner and a beer in the garden.... So it's about time possibly my favorite reggae tune gets played:

Out to the Junglist Massive! .......The fact that mix is about 27 years old and RIP to both MCs makes me feel really old. The music is timeless though.

Yaardcore, 'Say that you love me'

Played Radiohead 'no surprises' a couple of times, it sounded good in rehearsals but it killed any live mood (even early in the set) so we dropped it. I suppose it depends on the gig and the audience. Radiohead sell out stadiums with people wanting to hear it, but with a local band at a pub on a Saturday night there are different expectations.

You can do it with the Boss GT 1000 and GT 1000 Core:

It's taken be about 2 years, but finally got one: I don't expect Space Echo as an effect to have much practical use for Bass, good fun though and good for keys. Seems a great bit of kit, sounds good, good build quality. I had the old RE-20 and this RE-202 seems better, main things being additions of: presets, midi, saturation, wow/flutter with 'age' setting, and smaller but with more controls. One unexpected thing is that reverb + saturation can make some great sci-fi foghorn sort of noises. Doom! Can also just use it as saturation (mild overdrive) with no reverb or echo. And the 'warp' and 'twist' effects are fun. I expect these are the main things I'll use for with Bass rather than playing along with an echo on. Lots of extra editing can be done too (reverb types, twist effect types, echo quarter/eighth notes etc.) my only gripe being that editing needs a convoluted 'hold switch while turning on' manoeuvre, an 'edit' button to access it would be good.

Nice one. the Aguilar is probably my favourite Phaser that I've used but I think I prefer the sound of the Warm Audio in your clips, like you say - a bit warmer and smoother. ...but then again, playing live with a band and through an amp/cab perhaps suits a slightly harsher sound to be heard. And at least brand new, the Warm Audio is quite a bit cheaper at about £140 vs the new shape Grape Phaser is about £240 (although there is an older shape one for sale here for £95 which I'm also tempted with). Both are tempting, I do have a multi-fx that has a decent Phaser but I like the simplicity of 'stomp on Phaser switch for Phaser' rather than mucking scrolling through presets (and hoping I remembered to keep all the other parameters like EQ and Drive and Amp sim the same as the previous preset). Of course, this is a slippery slope to getting a board full of individual pedals again!