TimR

Seems pretty simple. I'm surprised you've not had many requests. Assume there are also fields for age, experience and genres on join my band. You didn't accidentally tick the box for "technical blackened death metal"?

Kept it really simple. Wasn't looking fir a band as my main band were on a gig hiatus due to other members' lives. https://www.bandmix.co.uk/timr/

Yes. I was in a band that pretty much happened to. The singer was actually asked to leave, the drummer took on singing duties. Then one of the guitarists said they were looking at houses on the Isle of Wight for retiring too. Then the drummer/singer announced he was moving and would have to leave. I politely told the remaining two guys I was off, but if they find a drummer and a singer to call me.

What does YOUR ad say? I couldn't find anything that was interesting at all on Bandmix. Once I'd sorted my own profile I had lots of requests. Good bass players are in short supply and I think anyone with a decent band isn't going to be advertising for random bass players, they'll be choosing people. Basically, don't be looking for a band, be the bass player the bands are looking for. Let them do the work. State your terms and that will steer those who are serious towards you.

Agree with that totally. They still need to be mindful of the rest of the band members. One band I was in the BL was oblivious to anyone else's personal situations, if someone couldn't make a gig he had organised it was a disaster and he'd be questioning their commitment, if he couldn't make a gig, there was no problem.

It's one of 3 I'm currently playing in. Each one has its own 'difficulties'. 😆

Ha, yes, I was introduced to another guitarist on Monday. That's 3 guitarists, a keyboard player, drums and me. I don't know where it's going as he's talking about a sax player. I just see it as something easy for me to turn up to at the moment. It's local and cheap. The only problem I have is that the writer is using us to work out structural arrangements and that means we have changes all the time and no kne really knows what's going on. 😆 I've been in a band like that before and my younger self didn't have the patience.

Bands should not be a democracy. Someone should be leading, even if they're taking everyone's views into consideration, someone should be the overall director.

I've come to the conclusion there are two types of band members. Those who are in a band so they can tell their friends they're in a band. And those who are actually interested in working on playing good music. The trick is to work which is which very early on and move on.

Yes. That's where volume wars start. Bass drum isn't bass.

I suspect e-drummers need to learn the same thing we learned a long time ago. What sounds great in their bedroom or headphones doesn't sound good in a band environment. Too much reverb and a smiley EQ? 😆

Is this Guitar Chat? I don't feel very well.

My drummer would have to have very long arms to reach my bass cab. 😆

Record everything that you're planning to record on a handheld recorder or phone, and everyone listen to everyone else's parts, well in advance. (May have been mentioned above) On the day is not the time to find out the guitarist has been playing a minor chord over the key's major chord, or the drummer's carefully crafted great fill is crashing the vocal line. That's the same time you decide what the tempo should be, as everyone will be nervous and playing at a million miles an hour.

Again that depends. If I'm being recorded it's because someone else wants the recording done. I don't even want to be in a rehearsal room unless it's for working on new material. I'd be happy playing my part and then heading off but staying contactable if anything major needs changing. If everyone has rehearsed properly then its just a case of playing and being recorded. Studio time is expensive and guitar or vocal double tracking can be worked out in advance using readily available software and a laptop.

And that's why I said "I would be wary".

It's like any drug. I drive much better after a couple of pints.

Well that and they don't actually work if you're in the studio for a long time. You get a high then a sugar crash, feel sleepy, take another hit, rinse and repeat all day. Pointless.

Yes. Sound was variable. But that just reinforces what I say about audience expectations. Most people were listening on mono AM radios in their cars or cassette players. As long as the musicians could pull off a reasonable performance that was all that was expected. In extreme cases - yes - ghost players were used. The problem now is the musicians don't even need to pull off reasonable performances. Stock, Aitkin and Waterman were pretty bad but it's like an endless stream now of female (and male) vocalists who can't sing, coupled with a bunch of engineers whose hearing is so "perfect" that they need to adjust everything to be pitch perfect. Karaoke... And bands expect to sound perfect (and loud) - so then the engineers have to polish using all the tools available. It's the snake that eats itself.

I wouldn't expect anyone to put their beer on my amp at a gig, but quite happy to put mine up there. One beer is manageable and if I spill it, its my gear. An amp turning into a drinks tray is a recipie for disaster while those responsible for the blue smoke and pyrotechnics dissappear in the nearest Uber.

Spillages are expensive. Had someone yesterday spill a whole mug of coffee into their PC. Took out 6 desks when the breaker went and ruined the PC. That's an hour out for 6 people while maintenance replace the power strip and reset the breaker, and another, for the persons whose PC went bang, while IT replaced the PC. A smoke head went off so security attended as well. The thought of energy drinks being spilled into anything worries me. Ultimately it's your control room and if you spill tea on your gear, you pay to replace it and you lose money while it's being replaced. If your guests are happy to stump up for replacement equipment and lost revenue then I guess let them drink whatever they want. 😆

I suppose that's another reason to give the drummer a few hours head start...

Regarding Studio Etiquette. If I do agree to record again, I'll suggest turning up 3 hours after the drummer and if I have to do any drop ins, to do them without the band present. Red light fever is real.

I think we are going off at a tangent to extremes now. There's lots of stories of ghost players being ushered in after the band have left. But I'm talking about regular normal bands who could play to the expected standard. What we have done is shifted the 'expected standard' to be a manufactured idea of perfection. Unfortunately I think its an engineers version of perfection rather than a musical version.

In the 70s you needed to be able to play live in the first place. Unless you had a load of money, you weren't going into the studio to record. You couldn't fix vocals or bad notes quickly. You'd have to redo and drop in whole lines. Audiences didn't have pocket video cameras. This had several effects but mainly people were used to hearing real music by real musicians. Now music is so sanitised that almost anyone can put out something from their bedroom that sounds 'good', but everyone expects perfection. Top selling artists won't perform live as they are afraid of not being able to reproduce the studio quality that people have come to expect. It'll only get worse with AI as 'engineers' decide that straight lines drawn by human artists must be over-drawn using rulers.