TimR

No it couldn’t.

My worst experience regards timing was when the drummer counted and then proceeded to play Moon River in 4/4. We had ‘learned’ it specifically for the couple’s wedding anniversary for their ‘first dance’! I’ve never seen anyone waltz in 4/4 before or since.

Without a doubt. I spent 10 years in a band with a drummer who tried to play everything too fast. It was hard work holding the tempo down. One gig was so bad that I gave up and went with the flow. By the end of the song the singer was glaring at him as she couldn’t sing any of the words. It wasn’t until I did a few dep gigs that I found out how proper musicians play. I left the band pretty soon after. Although I played a dep gig last month where the drummer was speeding up in a lot of songs towards the end of the gig. I put that down to his age and getting tired as he’s normally spot on and it was fine in the first half.

It’s whoever starts the song that sets the tempo and everyone’s job to keep time. If a song has to change tempo then anyone should be able to do it. It’s all about communication. If everyone is following a stubborn drummer then the song won’t breathe.

One band I was in was booked having been seen in a pub. The bride’s family all sat on one side of the room, the groom’s the other side. The only activity on the dance floor were kids running up and skidding along the polished wooden floor on their knees. Afterwards the groom came up and thanked us for an awesome night. No one from either family ever danced and we had been booked because we put on such an entertaining show that they could sit and watch.

The only 2 really bad gigs I’ve done have been venues with tiled floors. The first was a dinner and dance in a golf club. The singers mum was in attendance and had drunk plenty of wine and all I got all night was abuse from her that she couldn’t hear her daughter. The room acoustics were appalling everything was mush and there was nothing we could do. Then a couple of years later we opened a Porsche garage one evening and played in the sales area. Hard tiled floor. Awful. Other than that a gig is a gig.

80’s cheese wasn’t even acceptable in the 80s!

It seems quite common in lots of amateur bands I watch. It’s quite a skill to play in a band and sound like a band rather than a bunch of individuals playing parts of a song in the same room. Supergroups would come under the same umbrella. Taking the most talented (and often egotistical) members of several different bands who have never worked together and putting them into one band is a recipe for disaster.

@mcnach yes. Higher than low. In whuch I would include mids. Notching out a frequency around 120hz on the bass to make room for the bass drum might help the bass drum to be heard without having to turn the bass drum up ridiculously loud in the mix and hence overpowering the bass guitar.

If it sounds fine isolated once it’s recorded then it’s whatever you’re doing to the mix. Most of the bass definition is in the higher frequencies.

I have 3 band EQ at my fingertips on my bass. That’s nothing like having it on the amp or a pedal. It makes a big difference to be able to control on stage/room sound like that.

You will start to hear distortion from the preamp well before (hours) the battery dies. In my experience, they don’t just suddenly stop working.

Yes. 7.6v is what most batteries deliver under load. Could always replace the standard volume control with a push/pull (on/off)/ volume control.

In fact the 3 only has pre amp volume whereas the 6 has gain and volume. So I don’t see how “all controls” can be set the name. The OP doesn’t say whether the DI is taken pre or post eq.

Why not? If the preamps are different why should having the dials set the same have the same result?

They have different preamps. The 3.0 is a MOSFET and the 6.0 is an 12AX7 tube.

The 80s. Anyone who lived through them doesn't want to go back. I’ve managed to avoid a bunch of 50th birthday parties this year although there’s one in November I have to go to. Kill me now.

“The Beatles could have made another album” - well, I suppose there’s nothing really stopping them doing one now... https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-49991164

Well yes. But the process is different. Ideally the singer/songwriter would come to practices with a song arranged ready just to add bass and drums to having already sent out recordings. 😉

I’d never expect a song to work at first play through by default. Which is why I’d still say some practice happens as a band. You’re only rehearsing once you’ve set the arrangements. That’s the point when you’re setting the song to memory and to some extent everyone will be making minor adjustments to their part of the arrangement so that it fits with what everyone else is playing. I’d block out a part at home with rough bass parts and refine it during the first few play throughs with the band then take it home and learn the song properly once we know it’s going to work. Most songs are very simple and just work though. That’s for cover bands. Originals are a bit more complicated.

Of course we are. And you’ll probably find that within any band each member looks at it from a different perspective. Certainly in my band we do. One is a busy director who works most nights well past 8pm, one works 7-4 5 days a week, one is a self employed mum with 4 kids, then there’s me who has many other hobbies and odd work times. Pleasing all 4 is pretty difficult and it’s important that good communication happens, or in my experience, one or all will get very frustrated.

That’s not exactly what I said. Practice is practice and rehearsal is rehearsal. They’re entirely different activities. You only rehearse once the songs have been practiced. Continually rehearsing songs that have mistakes in them is pointless. You need to identify where the problems are are practice those bits. So the question is; what’s not gig ready? Are the band still making mistakes? In which case they either need to practice those parts or individual members need to go away and practice their parts. If the band can play a song from top to bottom with no mistakes a few times then it’s gig ready. Too many bands I’ve been in have no agenda set at the beginning of the practice/rehearsal. So in answer to the OP, once every two weeks won’t solve the problem. It’ll make it worse as I doubt anyone is picking up their instrument between practice/rehearsals.

I just see socialising as something to do in spare time. If the guy has a family and teaches, then his spare time is at a premium. Setting aside a whole evening a week for ‘socialising’ is fine if you don’t have young kids and other evening work. The social element of a rehearsal is one element of being in the band. Unfortunately people will put that as their only reason and that’s when you head into difficulties. If members of the band just see band practice as a reason to socialise and aren’t interested in gigging then the band is heading nowhere. The fact that they’re still not gig ready speaks volumes.

It’s more fun if everyone is being productive by producing good music and feels they’re working towards a common goal. As Dave’s mate is finding out, the fun gets sucked out really quickly if you’re just continually rehearsing the same mistakes, or one band member is being anal over the quality of the tunes. You can socialise down the pub for a fraction of the cost.

What do people do in a 3 hour rehearsal? Probably time to remind everyone what a practice is and what a rehearsal is. Practice takes two forms. Learning the material at home, or going over tricky bits together. Rehearsal is playing songs from beginning to end to make sure you can all play them. Normally just before a gig. If songs aren’t gig ready and assuming you have practiced the arrangements and they work, then the people who can’t play the tunes need to practice their parts at home. No amount of rehearsing the whole band together is going to fix people who haven’t practiced their parts. Band practice should be limited to targeting only the parts of the songs that need practicing. Tell him to record a rehearsal on his phone, take it home and listen to them, identify where the problems are and make a hit-list for the next practice.