TimR

[quote name='stingrayPete1977' timestamp='1510339282' post='3405815'] But that would go to the xlr input for phantom mics as you say not the instrument input on the di box? [/quote] You can also get balanced TRS jacks which would plug nicely into an instrument without needing a DI box. Don’t know, we weren’t there, so it’s all guesswork as to exactly what happened.

[quote name='stingrayPete1977' timestamp='1510335997' post='3405759'] Tbf I'm not sure all ampeg heads have a DI on the back so the sound crew might have had no choice, still not great putting the phantom up you though. I'm not sure that's supposed to happen either tbf, the phantom should just power the di box to save batteries afaik? [/quote] Phantom power is used to power condenser mics. Some equipment will ignore it. Some will go up in smoke.

[quote name='Dan Dare' timestamp='1510311921' post='3405475'] ... Going straight to the PA from the instrument via a DI box tends to give a very sterile sound that the eq on the average desk can't do much to correct. [/quote] This is the answer you’re looking for. I suspect the Keys player doesn’t like the way you’re EQing your amp and it’s not suiting the front of house PA. It’s a legitimate reason. You’ll need to experiment and see what the bass DI direct to the PA sounds like. Or as Pete says. If theres a pre/post switch on the amp DI you don’t need that additional DI box.

Once we have tunes up to gig standard I don’t listen to them again. Most tunes suffer from a bit of creep and if I listen to the originals I start to notice things that we have naturally arranged slightly differently to suit our line up. Plus there’s so much music out there, why would I listen to the tunes I play several times a month? I don’t think I even listened to recordings of originals bands I’ve played in. Thinking about it, I’m not really an active listener of music. I tend to listen to all my music in the car rather than in a darkened room. In fact I’m not even a very active TV watcher, most of the time I’m on the internet with the TV in the background. Think I need to go on a meditation course...

[quote name='pfretrock' timestamp='1510238247' post='3404907'] See here: [url="http://mlg.eng.cam.ac.uk/mchutchon/ResonantCircuits.pdf"]http://mlg.eng.cam.a...antCircuits.pdf[/url] See Figs 4 & 7: "The figure shows that the circuit exhibits voltage amplification properties. At the resonant frequency," There is an energy transfer between the inductor and the capacitor, both of which are capable of storing energy. So you can get a voltage or current amplification. But note that the paper says: "It is important to note that as this is a passive circuit the total amount of power dissipated is constant." So you don't get something for nothing! [/quote] I just think the wording that ‘the capacitor stores charge’ is quite humorous. It’s not the way you’d generally look at a capacitor between signal and earth in a high frequency application.

Wow! Where do I get a cable that stores charge from?

Yes. We’re in agreement there.

[quote name='The Jaywalker' timestamp='1510231344' post='3404789'] My point re Motown was that those guys, including Jamerson, were mainly Jazz musicians who were booked for the date, played a chart or cobbled one together in the studio and left without thinking about the music again until they were contacted re touring. You're incorrect on the styles thing. Plenty of folks have played on a variety of stuff. A serious dude I know has Pink Floyd, Bowie, Fleetwood Mac, Christina Aguilera, James Taylor and Spielberg movies on his CV, along with orchestral credits etc. Pretty mixed bag! [/quote] Yes, but they’re not Pink Floyd etc. The core of those bands are the artists. If any old session musician could replace them, they wouldn’t be auditioning people like Guy Pratt and sticking with them. There’s a huge human factor in each individual’s playing. The Who never sounded the same after losing Moon, it took ten years to find a Drummer that fitted, and now after losing The Ox, they’re quite possibly in serious danger of sounding cheesey. I thought most of Jamerson’s lines were improvised? .

No. The session guys that sit in for Mowtown or for Rock bands will rarely be the same guys. Different session guys are used for different styles. The Rock band at Butlins weren’t good enough to pull it off. As someone who spent most of my teenage years listening to rock, there is a feel or a vibe as you call it. The musicians are just not interchangeable. As you say the majority of the people listening weren’t trained enough in Rock to notice. Cheese happens when people think that music is a quantifiable fact and that a good musician can play all styles interchangeably. To play Rock, Reggae, Jazz, Funk, Punk etc authentically you have to have immersed yourself in the styles for a long time. It’s not something you can fake.

[quote name='The Jaywalker' timestamp='1510220551' post='3404666'] Ah! So the jokers I described above, "playing with passion" etc are somehow creating art by murdering 2-bit pop tunes...whereas the music and performances of Mahler, Debussy, Stravinsky, Ellington, Gil Evans etc are merely an academic exercise.... Erm, no. [/quote] The jokers you described above had the dance floor full and were enjoying themselves. As do musicians performing to an academic exercise for the money. Neither is right nor wrong. One is cheese, one is an assault on ‘trained’ musicians ears. There’s an awful lot of snobbery and inverted snobbery amongst musicians. I just think we should call it for what it is. I’m just trying to identify what ‘cheese’ is to me. It’s fairly cringeworthy, just as listening to the former band is to people ‘in the know’. I learned a long time ago just to go with the flow when listening to a band. If they’ve got the dance floor full, it’s pointless to sit there grumbling that the brass section is playing legato when the original is staccato. It’ll just chew you up and ruin your night.

No. It’s nothing to do with the energy on stage or reading the music. I’m not jealous, I’ve played in theatre pits and at brass band competitions. The playing of music is reduced from an art form to an academic exercise where the aim is to play the music exactly as written. It’s the cruise ship, holiday camp, theatreland, working mans club ‘cheese’ that they chuck out of XFactor for no musical reason other than it’s cheese. This is the type of music and band they want for society weddings and corporate events. People love it and pay big money but it’s just not for me. A case in point. I was at Butlins once where a heavy rock band where playing in the nightclub. Very good band, actually too good, note perfect solos, Drummer right on the beat but no feel, something wasn’t quite right. Then I spotted it: no tattoos, looking closer they were all wearing wigs and I realised it was the same house band that has been playing Agadoo to the kids in the ballroom 30mins earlier. That’s what I’m thinking about when I think cheese.

[quote name='blue' timestamp='1510179653' post='3404552'] There's value and hard work behind both types of bands. Respect to both. Blue [/quote] There is. And there’s a bigger market for the first type and people will pay more. Cheese sells very well.

[quote name='pfretrock' timestamp='1510174540' post='3404524'] This is not relevant if you are measuring a cable isolated from a passive bass as you have removed the pickup inductance from the circuit. The high frequency cut off is dominated by the large pickup inductance and the pots and tone cap which forms a low pass filter. The cable would contribute to the low pass point, but it may also resonate with the inductance and produce a peak below the cut off point, which would accentuate frequencies at this point. If the cable capacitance is very low, this resonance is above the cut off point and is negligible. It usually is for a bass and good low capacitance cable. Yes! [/quote] I agree, except that the bass and controls would be constant for all cables. The only variable is the cable. Attaching the bass and amplifier would tell you how the system changes but doesn’t tell you anything about the cable.

All coaxial (guitar) cable has capacitance. This will attenuate high frequencies. The lower the capacitance the higher the frequency cut off. The cable effectively acts as a low pass filter. To measure the attenuation you need a frequency generator and a scope. Measure the amplitude of the frequency at one end of the cable and at the other end simultaneously and increase the frequency. You’ll see the amplitude drop as the frequency rises. Cheaper cable will have more attenuation at lower frequencies. The crux is where the frequncy cut off is and whether you can actually detect it.

[quote name='roceci' timestamp='1510165192' post='3404435'] There are a whole bunch of wedding bands in the middle of your binary. We play a lot of the soul/funk standards but we rearrange some, always keep a rocked-up edge & I for one never copy a recorded bass line unless it's the signature part of the song. We play with tons of passion, even on the numbers we don't screw around with. I play in originals outfits too & it's a different kind of fun but they're both about equal. I guess in my world it ain't so black & white, & I like that. [/quote] Yes. Some bands are less cheesy.

[quote name='dave_bass5' timestamp='1510067268' post='3403689'] I'd' just direct them to the Alive network website and let them go through the bands on there. One man's cheese is another man's entertainment. [/quote] Quite. I just can’t stand that corporate stamped out function band. Usually made up of professional musicians on rotation, playing note perfect renditions and dressed in whatever uniform the band leader has chosen. Awful. Total cheese, regardless of the tunes chosen. Give me a band playing with passion, that have obviously been playing together for years, playing their own versions of a mix of tunes across the decades. Awesome.

6 hours for a party is pretty standard. You don’t want to be setting up while guests are arriving and you certainly don’t want to be packing down before the party officially ends. Ideally you’ll be playing right to the end anyway. At any gig, you should have a policy that the stage is out of bounds to punters and that one member of the band is within eyesight of all the gear at all times.

[quote name='DorsetBlue' timestamp='1509984266' post='3403025'] ... Wedding Anniversary ... [/quote]

Well, anyone using electronics that’s 30 years old and expecting it to be reliable has another thing coming.

[quote name='discreet' timestamp='1509959454' post='3402793'] You seem very sure about that. I'm sorry to tell you that you're not always right - you consistently post opinion as fact. It's irritating. [/quote] I apologise for irritating you. You do have a choice not to be irritated, it’s all in your mind. You are telling me someone is going to spend £7k and then gig that unreliable effects unit? They’re £140 new for the vintage 70s one. The latest model is under £80.

[quote name='discreet' timestamp='1509920377' post='3402669'] Me neither. Do people think that if they buy a bass (for example) that was owned by a famous bass player that they will somehow, by osmosis, suddenly be able to play and sound like said player and instantly enjoy the fame and success of that player? Or what..? Buying a phase pedal previously owned by [ROCK STAR] at an extortionate price isn't going to help you record and produce a million-selling album, is it? Unless you were on your way to recording such an album anyway, of course... Anyway, I like Behringer pedals. They're nineteen quid. [/quote] Not at all. These are bought by collectors who prize them for their rarity and as a piece of history. It’s unlikely they’ll ever be used.

It’s no different to people buying gold or diamonds. The value is in the rarity. It’s the effect of supply and demand in a totally inelastic supply market. If a few rich people want something they’ll pay whatever the market will stand.

I’ve got a pair of 211 pros. Decent kit.

I bend mine up to make them sharp and down to make them flat.

A terrible situation. How dare they? Whatever next? Members of the audience suggesting tunes?