Leonard Smalls

Anyone got any ideas about cheap means of connecting the FI to my laptop? I've got an Alessis midi-usb interface that doesn't work at all... Or do I need to upgrade my Scarlett 2i2 to 8i6 or more?

What's your band? We're Choked....

Was that with Terminal Rage? Their bass player's girlfriend is our singer... And we played with them last week in Leominster.

The SYB5 is a bit limited... But having one of those made me decide I wanted a proper synth! And it cost me £351 including shipping and tax. Don't know how long Mr Postie takes to bring it from Hungary though.

I hope that "FI is still king"... I've just ordered one from Panda! Now which of my pedals should I sell - 3 Leaf envelope filter? DOD envelope filter? FwonkBeta? Darkglass microtubes? Digitech Bass Whammy? Definitely Boss bass synth!

Ta! Next time The Weeds have a Sheffield do I'll give you a shout... Last time was for Tramlines. Not convinced by the Enzo - perhaps I just haven't seen a good demo but seems to be very much about synthy textures rather than phat'n'pfunky-ness. And it seems to be a bit lacking in switchable presets?

Despite all this, I'm still tempted by the Boss, if for no other reason than polyphony... Might have to take a trek to somewhere that's got one to have a play. Shame the Future Impact is so hard to find, which makes testing a bit difficult.

In that case could a full fat Helix do the PFunky stuff that an FI or SY300 could do? Though I like the sequency stuff available on the SY; but either would freak out the band - I could imagine their little faces if I start producing noises like that Gundy Keller on his FI and SY reviews!

I've been looking at the Boss SY300 as well as the Future Impact... The Boss looks like it could replace all my pedal board as well as give me access to sequencing and phatphunky stuff too. Looks like it does more than the FI, but never tried either and there's no means of trying them here in darkest South Shropshire. I assume both can be edited via USB, but I like those Tamas Barabas sounds for the Boss. Which to buy?

Photo from Reet Petite last night...

First gig for Choked last night at a teenytiny venue in Leominster... The place was full (though being teeny that meant maybe 30 people!) as we were supporting 2 local bands. And despite the fact that there was no monitoring so we couldn't hear the vocals, and the drummer couldn't hear bass or guitar as we had to be in front of him, in went OK - too fast obviously but hopefully that'll calm down. No major woopsies, tight and in tune - couldn't ask for much more! Apart from monitoring, less drum speeding up and louder bass out front (or that could just be phone video didn't pick it up - though octave up plus down, 2 envelope filters and bass synth usually cut through; never sounds the same playing through someone else's cab - a 4x10 Trace just doesn't cut it compared to my usual PD 15 and Markbass 2x10). Next one 23rd March, at Paradiddles in Worcester.

[Pedant mode]Or possibly even Elias and his Zig Zag Jive Flutes[/Pedant mode] I've got the original single; bizarrely, it used to go down very well at a funk disco I did in Leeds in the mid80s as the penultimate song, followed by Edie Gorme's "Yes My Darling Daughter"!

Yesterday's rehearsal - ready for Reet Petite 2nd March with local punk heros Terminal Rage and Alvin and the Angry Barrels:

There would be a whole heap of extra confusion for the band if audiences had actually shouted "Craddock", or perhaps the more conventionally trained musos might have chanted ""Waterman".

I saw an interview with them a while ago... They said they were very surprised that British audiences knew them, and wondered why the audience would all chant "craddock!" as soon as they came on stage.

An excellent intro to music not conforming to the bourgeois notions of melody and rhythm. This is where it gets hardcore...

I like music with cojones, so long as they're not just wrinkly, but also groovy and pumpy. And preferably much more rhythmic than tuneful. Even better if that rhythm is crazy, daddy-o. And if everybody is playing far too many notes, I'm even happier. For full nirvana, any singist has to be part of the music, as opposed to backed by musicians in order to bolster the warbler's ego, unless it meets the groovy pumpy cojones condition. So Screaming Headless Torsos, yes. Coldplay, no. Kenny G, no. Ornette Coleman, yes. P Funk, yes, yes, yes. Van Morrison, no. Metal, usually no, but: Suicidal Tendencies, yes. Etc.

In my other band we have a sequencer, plus drummer on e-kit. Funnily enough we're Right On Time!

That's usually what it is... He's a rock drummer who thinks he can do funk, but can't. I've been trying to beat the GoGo groove into him for months now, even getting on the drums to demonstrate (and I'm no drummer!) but we're still stuck with that Stone Roses attempt at the Funky Drummer! To be fair, we are a rock band but I'm trying to make it interesting by giving it a funk vibe. Anything to stop that annoying thing all rock drummers seem to do, which is constantly hit all the crash cymbals so you can't hear owt else.

Annoying thing is that I'm starting songs deliberately slowly, as I know it'll be 15-20bpm faster by the end, and what was a funky groove has become a punky thrash! Mebbe if I start them fast we'll be slow'n'soulfull by the end.

Not many drummers round here... In fact there's not many people, so that's not surprising. Problem is, because the rest of the band don't mind speeding up it looks like it'll only be me who gets wound up by it. In fact the singer comes from a Hardcore background so she wants it to speed up a lot more!

Has anybody got any experience of their drummer playing live with a click track? Our drummer always speeds up... Only problem is we don't use IEMs - could he use just one with his ACS plug in the other ear? Or would tha distract him even more?

Not at all! I use the bridged Crown to power my 1x15 Precision Devices and 2x10 Markbass cabs. The Markbass is fine on it's own for small venues, even without going through the PA. And on 1/2 power amp volume with both cabs I can drown out both drumkit and our guitarist...

You could do what I did... Buy a pedal or pre that covers your eq needs. That covers DI-ing to PA. I use a large pedal board plus a BBE pre. Then get a Crown PA power amp to power your on-stage ,monitors. I got the XLS1502 at about £350, which when bridged into 4 ohms gives 1500W. XLS2002 gives more! The sound is incredibly clean, cuts through wonderfully with no traditional bass amp honk, and I can hear 20Hz if I use down octavers!

If this was me my neighbours would be admiring my lovely new patio, and asking if the wife was on holiday... 😁😈👍