Beedster

I stopped playing for close to 20 years between 1985 and 2003. I had far more success and status in the former, far more joy and satisfaction in the latter 👍

Thanks so much for the offer, I think we've sorted it now mate 🙏

Sorry all, yes Whitstable, but it's really no big deal and I can now collect from Nik the following weekend so perhaps let's not make things any more complicated

For the last year at least I've used Parcelforce whenever possible, due in large part to the really good driver here. Anyway, tried to book a collection for Wednesday and it was a lot more complex than usual and didn't offer the usual time slots, which delayed the whole thing as I was only going to be home in the afternoon, albeit when the driver usually comes by (around 3.00 each day). Postman arrived yesterday morning with a load of bills and also asked for the items he had to collect, which were going into the back of his small postie van. Turns out that Parcelforce have now handed collections and deliveries to Royal Mail, which strikes me as a pretty bad move for us punters given RM are not exactly state of the art

I think that's absolutely the case, I sadly have neither

Great post 👍

Many thanks @silverfoxnik and @Wombat, my time is a little tied up for the next few weeks so any help would be hugely helpful. I'll check a few logistics this end and drop you both a PM 🙏

When sampling first hit I was studying an HND in Electronic Music Technology. We had one of the first Fairlights in the UK, in fact I think we had ours ahead of Trevor Horne (who was based just around the corner at the time). What did we use that powerful new technology for, playing the national anthem in harmonised dog barks was one of the extraordinarily creative outputs I remember. The first wave of any new technology can be pretty awful, AI will settle down as did sampling

That's increasingly not the case Steve, much of it is done in the box in offices. The digital voice processing tools these days mean that you can record a voice in a kitchen and it can be made passable. To a degree it makes music production more democratic and accessible which is a good thing, but there are negatives

Session in Nashville, taker a Fender. Session in NYC, take a Yamaha

Re 'focus and energy is elsewhere', it's hard to see your angle really, I've always seen Yamaha's focus and energy as being focussed on the production of a constantly evolving range of well designed, well engineered and well priced instruments. Where do you see it?

Nice work on 1st and 4th Josh, 2nd and 3rd appear to have no sound on my device? Either way, lovely playing. Baritone is such a glorious instrument

That's the truth of it. AI is simply another tech tool that will provide some people with new opportunities, allow others to continue as they are, and no doubt piss off a few people. I wasn't around when Dylan and The Band caused uproar with electric instruments in folk, but I was around when synths appeared and people described it as the end of music, when digital recording appeared and people described it as the end of music, when sampling appeared an people described it as the end of music, and when pitch correction appeared and, well, you get the idea. I've no doubt there were similar emotions when recording technology, amplification, electric instruments etc were introduced To me the problem with this thread is the idea that something in the artistic/performance space 'overtaking' something else is in any way meaningful. It's simply change.