Leonard Smalls

Good thing you couldn't see the pedal board as well! The Wal goes into the Yamaha FX770 fx unit, which is basically functioning as a pre-amp and tuner; this goes into one channel of the dbx, which feeds the active input of the Marshall amp. FX loop of that goes into other dbx channel - with much more compression and some level reduction into Wounded Paw V4 blender, which has a bass whammy and Darkglass distortion on 1 loop, 3 Leaf envelope filter on another and Boss bass synth and DOD envelope filter on another, then back into the Marshall. Speakers are the MarkBass 2x10, and the enormous one is a Yamaha reflex cab with a 1x15" Precision Devices driver (just reminding myself how it all works, though why it all is thus is a different matter entirely!) And the Markbass cab is by far the lightest of all of those things...

Dave and Tim are like fire and ice. I feel my role in the band is to be kind of in the middle of that, kind of like lukewarm water.,

I've thought on't and am sticking with my previous choices, only with video emphasis... Parliament - Mothership Connection James Carter - Layin' in the Cut Colonel Claypool's Bucket of Bernie Brains - Great Eyeball in the Sky

Why thank you! It would have showed up even more in tighter trousers

Today: Parliament - Mothership Connection James Carter - Layin' in the Cut Colonel Claypool's Bucket of Bernie Brains - The Big Eyeball in the Sky Tomorrow, who knows?

Went very well - played too fast (drummer's fault, we could tell that from the lo-kwality recording!) but tight and no other major pink torpedo-ups. A free-improv jazz drummer who happened to come along is interested in doing a "rock project" with us, which could be interesting! Whole album of pics here, courtesy of Tom Helme: https://www.flickr.com/photos/willowshoots/albums/72157690193763005/with/38656271532/

Debut gig for new funky rock band, 16 Choke Start, at Knighton Community Centre in Powys with Some Weird Sin on 1st, then us, then Hereford rockers Wolfcryer. Shame there was only 40 or so people there, but despite the drummer and guitarist being unable to hear much of the bass it went very well; we played a bit fast, but no major pinktorpedo-ups. And afterwards met a veteran free-jazz drummer (ex Evan Parker and the like) who was interested in doing a rock project with us - who knows what the rest of the band will think of that as an idea!

Two wildly different offerings from me...

But many of the more expensive Nordost cables are either made from, or plated (!skin effect still lives!) in silver... I've also got some Nordost silver cable inside my Leema speakers - they were re-wired by Nordost for a hifi show (before I bought them, I might add). And as the speaker maker himself said to me - "it was just a gimmick by Nordost to sell more of their monofilament cable". Transmission of a signal down a wire is wholly a function of the LCR values of that wire - what it's actually made of or what the dielectric or sheathing is is largely irrelevant. At the end of the day it's down to the impedance, capacitance and resistance of that cable. Those properties are affected by the material, obviously, but they are what counts... And I've measured those values for both the solid silver Nordost internal speaker wiring on my Xaviers, and for the 6mm Van Damme blue (at about £6/m) that supplies them. And you'll be pleased to hear that all 3 were lower in the Van Damme at all audible frequencies - meaning that there would be less signal loss in the Van Damme. Differences weren't huge - they would have translated as tiny fractions of a dB, i.e significantly lower than the threshold of the most golden of ears... However, if your expectation bias gives you more musical enjoyment with fancy cables in place, that's excellent - it is about the music after all!

For some reason I can't get into General...

EEK! The shame! When you get to my age etc...

Electrical quality will only make a difference if the kit that is being supplied has a poorly designed internal supply... Unfortunately some hifi kit does seem to be susceptible to the slightest variation of mains, even if that mains supply is within the spec of the supply regulations! However, I'd say that kit like that shouldn't exist as it doesn't comply with EU regs, or at least with the spirit of the regs (i.e. it should work optimally at any voltage between 216 and 253 volts, at frequencies between 49.5 and 50.5 ohms), and should be able to cope with mild DC offsets and small spikes and rf caused by motor switching etc. And even if it does exist, as it does, a sensible consumer shouldn't buy it! You can get better sound without the shenanigans! And any signal cable that is electrically sufficient, ie has low LCR will do basically nowt to sound quality; however, if you spend lots on, say Van Den Hul carbon cables or the like you're adding what is effectively an uncontrollable tone control! This will sound different because it basically removes some of the top end! And if you buy some of the seriously expensive cables, such as Transparent, Siltech etc the fact that you've spent a fortune on them will pre-dispose your ears to hear a difference where there isn't actually one - it's called expectation bias. At the end of the day it's down to enjoyment of the music - if you get more enjoyment and perceived better sound by lifting your £10k cables with cable lifters at £250 each, having Shakti Stones littered all over your kit, everything standing on 12 levels of Mana and a generous spattering of Machina Dynamica foo gracing your room that's excellent. But I want kit that just works - it's the music i want to enjoy rather than spending a ridiculous amount of time faffing around searching for some impossible-to-find audio nirvana! BTW, I was also a BBC sound engineer for 17 years before retraining as a sparky...

Newish funk-metal band here... Ages range from 48-55. Found each other on Bandmix. Been writing and rehearsing since Feb/March with 1st gig coming up 25th November. We plan to do 4 or 5 gigs a year, in places ranging from Cardiff to Sheffield to TheMiddleOfNowhere (i.e. here) for a bit of fun and an excuse to act like starry eyed wannabes. And we've got recording booked for December, plus our first PAID gig in the new year (it's not much but it's the thought that counts!). My other band has been going on and off since 1983 - we get together a couple of times a year to write some new material and do a gig.

In both bands I play in we all write the songs together, and both bands are funky and rocky which is a lot of what I listen to. Neither band does much in the way of electric or improv free jazz which is also one of my favoured types of music - though I find most folks leave the room when I out on Last Exit, including both of my bands! As for covers, the rockier band has just started on a first cover - a version of DAF's "Der Mussolini". We'll see how that goes down in the Welsh Borders...

[quote name='Rocker' timestamp='1510242475' post='3404950'] One tip for better sound, and I have done this myself, is to get an electrician to install a dedicated SPUR from your mains MCB panel to an unswitched socket for your hi-fi system. And to use 6 sq. m.m. twin & earth cable and to run a seperate 6 sq m.m. earth wire from the socket to the earth block in the MCB board. Unless the electricity supply in your area is very poor quality, this relatively small investment will give a return way in excess of the outlay. 6 sq. m.m. is about the largest cable that can be used with a 13 amp socket. Also to ask your electrician to ensure that the earth connection is actually connected to the earth via an earth spike. [/quote] You'll be telling us we all need a Russ Andrews "Grounded Grid" next! There's absolutely no benefit at all in having an extra earth cable from your "SPUR" to your consumer unit (MCB Panel? No RCDs then, or RCBOs?)); the earth conductor is there mostly for safety purposes. It's there to allow a safe path to ground in the event of a fault - though some switch mode type supplies do dump a little bit of current down it. If there is a fault to earth, it makes sense to have the lowest possible earth loop impedance (i.e. the impedance of the line conductor all the way to the mains supply transformer, and back via the earth conductor), as lower impedance means higher fault current, which means faster operation of the RCD - something you'd be glad of if you happen to be touching the metal case of your amplifier when there's an earth fault. And if you want a low earth loop impedance, the best way to do that is via a TNCS, or PME system (Protective Multiple Earth) - basically the supply neutral is the earth, which ensures a very low impedance, typically 0.35ohms or less. Having an earth spike is basically something you should only have if your incoming supply is not suitable for PME; the loop impedance is likely to be anywhere between 100 and 600x greater than 0.35 ohms (max allowable by Regs is 200ohms), which means slower operation of an RCD. As for the "SPUR" often loudly promoted by some hifi types, it's not a "SPUR", it's a radial circuit. And using 6mm T&E is a bit of a waste of time - after all most hifi isn't likely to use even the maximum current supplied by a 13 amp socket (that would allow for ~3000W of power), never mind the 32Amps that a 2.5mm ringmain is rated at! Still, if it makes work for us sparkies, I'm all for it!

Ta!

My new band (been writing and rehearsing since March) has its debut gig on 25th November supporting the mighty Icarus Falls...

[quote name='tauzero' timestamp='1510093431' post='3404018'] Unless the mains supply is exceptionally bad, those of us with class D gear should be fine without mains conditioners. Might sneak some noise in through the primitive power supplies of class A and AB amps though. (A slight simplification, class D and SMPS power supplies aren't always twinned up). [/quote] Not just class D gear - any [i]properly designed[/i] amplifier - whether for hifi, PA, bass or guitar should have a power supply that filters out RF... Problem is, some gear is lacking a decent power supply section! In the instructions for my hifi amp (a Bryston), it says "do not use power conditioners or mains reshapers"; that's because its own supply filters RF and other nasties and removes d.c offset.

Not sure if this has been posted yet, if not it's time it was! [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wBh1869ayNg[/media]

[quote name='SpondonBassed' timestamp='1509950590' post='3402735'] Great post. You are one of the influential posters in this topic. [/quote] Fixt!

[quote name='mikel' timestamp='1509886870' post='3402305'] But I didnt say they were the ONLY influential act, because they were not, I said most influential. I am also only talking about the short time they were recording material. I also did not say ever, I am talking Pop/Rock as a genre. I could argue that people who deny there massive influence on music and popular culture are simply trying to be different because they don't like there music. I am not a fan of Elvis, but I would never deny his influence on what has followed. I have followed and been involved in music for 55 years and I cant think of an act that has influenced as many musicians before or since the Beatles. Elvis was a catalyst but his musical scope and breadth of influence was not as wide ranging, or Michael Jackson. I dont think its such a big claim to think the Beatles are the most influential pop act, so far. You can correct me and I will have no problem accepting if it is patently not so. I have no axe to grind by the way, I dont have shares in them or anything, its not that important to me I was merely answering the OP. [/quote] It's the use of MOST influential that I object to. They were influenced by Dylan to write more interesting lyrics; Dylan was influenced by them (and many others!) to go electric. They would have been influenced by the psychedelia of the likes of the Electric Prunes to produce their later stuff (see the Nuggets and Pebbles albums series for examples). It's not like they invented rock'n'roll! Meanwhile you've got the whole of black music to ignore as the MOST influential on rock and pop; I spose Chuck Berry, Little Richard et al had no influence on anybody. Or for that matter, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, or Robert Johnson or a host of other blues men did nowt to change music. Or James Brown, Motown, Hendrix, George Clinton/Bootsy, Sly and the Family Stone, Africa Bambaata etc. It's ridiculous to say someone is the MOST influential; it's like saying Dali is the most influential artist, or Charles Dickens the most influential author; Everybody is influenced by all sorts of stuff, including the Beatles; nobody lives in a bubble, and most importantly, it's not a bleedin' competition!

[quote name='mikel' timestamp='1509815953' post='3401858'] the most influential musicians and songwriters in the history of Pop/Rock music. [/quote] This is my problem with the Beatles, or at least with those who say this sort of thing... It's never "among the most influential", or "they were very influential", it's always "they were the most influential musicians ever". And there's no argument allowed. The answer to any dissent from that position is "you don't appreciate history", or "you weren't there, how could you understand?" I personally feel that having such an intractable position is an insult to all the other great innovators in music, some of whom made very little money and got none of the adulation and worship (and huge piles of cash) that the Beatles got.

[quote name='funkgod' timestamp='1509660643' post='3400742'] Can i lend that frock ..... [/quote] Tis a highly flammable baby-doll nightie, complemented by a cod piece made from a black rubber glove... And the back-drop was quite badly stained.

This is what I wore in a very early 90s very indie band...