Leonard Smalls

[quote name='xgsjx' timestamp='1456060960' post='2984955'] What I do get as well for that extra £1k is a solid built aluminium shell, software that works without me having to read the requirements & no viruses. Some folk prefer to spend that £1k elsewhere (like a new bass or expensive anti virus software), I'd rather have something that I know is unlikely to let me down & in 5 years time still be worth a bit of money if I did decide to sell it. [/quote] Funnily enough, I've just spent the weekend in a studio running Reaper 10 and Euphonix desk with a top spec Mac... They've recently changed to the El Crapitan (as they call it) OS, which they say has caused them nowt but problems; we had to re-start the Mac 5 times, 1 time it even lost all the display screens which had to be manually re-configured. We lost probably 2 hours of studio time as a result of all that! It appears that Apple, in their rush to sell more and more product are doing what Windows (used to/still) do which is bung out beta software, causing all the pro users who made Apple's reputation in the first place think about switching to PC! And there most certainly are viruses for Mac. The only way to stay virus free is to be sensible!

Go to www.pcspecialist.com They made one for me with i7 processor, 16Gb Ram, 1Tb hybrid hard disc and 17" screen/wireless mouse for about £710. You'd pay double that for similar spec on a Mac - and it runs Ableton 9 with no probs, even if there's 6 virtual instruments and 20 other tracks. Took them about 3 weeks to make it.

[quote name='Skol303' timestamp='1455632212' post='2980870'] Need to get something recorded myself. It won't be anywhere near as proficient as some of you guys. [i]Yes, I am making excuses already.[/i] [/quote] Don't worry about that - just turn it up and brazen it out - that's what I do (Emperor's New Clothes 'n'all!).

[quote name='JellyKnees' timestamp='1455625809' post='2980781'] +1000 I've said it so many times before, but when I started going to gigs over the water in late 70s early 80s, there was none of this Beatles nostalgia crap, bands clearly wanted to created their own scene and they did... the bunnymen, wah heat, the teardrops, omd, frankie etc etc ... [/quote] Me too - we weren't interested in our Dad's music, we wanted our own. So we'd make the pilgrimage from Chester to Erics, and watched all sorts of oddness from Pink Military to the Mighty Flock Of Seagulls, Big in Japan to Those Naughty Lumps. Rock'n'Roll was/is/should be about newness, rawness and individuality even if you're wearing the same clothes as the rest of your tribe. S'not about living in the past, but living for now and being yourself! Or maybe it's not... Maybe it's about product, or about re-living the glory days of your youth - depending on your perspective!

I'll echo Roland's comments... It was competently played and definitely fun, though I'm afraid that I feel it's the bass that's rushed - perhaps playing just a little bit more behind the beat with maybe a touch more syncopation would funk it up sufficiently. Either that, or play songs that don't require that sort of groove! (only listened to Walk This Way and Let's Dance, btw) However, I wouldn't necessarily take any notice of me as my tastes run to free inprov jazz and hard funk, where any melody is taken as a sign of weakness!

Prime Time! [MEDIA]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hSzC3ICoOds[/MEDIA]

Aerodrums are the answer! [MEDIA]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FAprpyGdgYk[/MEDIA]

You wouldn't catch me smiling at a gig, as I'm a miserable git. At least, not unless the singer fell off the stage, or the guitarist had a terrible "accident" while wearing white trousers...

Indeed! Nice variety and excellent work so far by all!

The Exploited. It's all much the same, wot with being punk'n'all. Apart from Wattie and the boys' collaborations with Joanna Newsom and Diana Krall.

Redone mine with delay and phasing on the vox... https://soundcloud.com/dredd-and-the-badass-weed/feel-the-burn

Worst thing is that Sister Bez won't be there either! How can we play without "her"?

[quote name='discreet' timestamp='1455098021' post='2975766'] Hmm... a whole band of cut-outs and recorded playback..? Then whoever turns up can simply be part of the audience. [/quote] We played a gig once where it was just me and the drummer; we didn't know till the day before that it would be only the 2 of us. We got 2 members of our support band to come and jam for an hour. In that case the audience may have been happier with jazz renditions of Cage's 4'33"... [quote name='discreet' timestamp='1455098163' post='2975769'] I don't want to bash the bishop, but shades on a man of the cloth?? [/quote] You never heard of the rockin' vicar? Well I was thee Cool Cardinal, the drummer was the Pervy Pope, and the singer was Harry Monk...

I'm liking the cardboard cut-out idea... Another plus point is that there'll be a lot more of the rider for the rest of us. He's fine with the idea of playing without him - but there's talk of hiring a helicopter to fly from Peterborough to Hildesheim!

Dep? That's unlikely, but doesn't necessarily mean we won't use another guitarist, or flute player,or theraminist; their instructions would normally be something along the lines of "this one's funky, in Eb (as the singer plays an Eb sax) apart from the bits that are in F#, we'll try and remember to give you a nod, but just keep it that bit crazed, and you can wear this codpiece and platform boots". But they'd only be a 1-2 song guest. Last gig we were all clergy, the guitarist who'll be missing is the foreground bishop in the cowboy hat... And there's no covers, so the audience won't know what's coming next! Only problem with doing more programming is that it restricts us; at present we've got 3 songs with backing. In the past we'd jam a song for 30-40 minutes if the crowd were enjoying it. 4-5 hour gigs were the norm back in the 80s!

We've been offered a festival gig in August - small festival of about 3-4000, last year's headline was Stereo MCs - playing on the Saturday night, main stage at 7pm. Which is nice. Trouble is, our 2nd guitarist can't make it - his other band is playing a goth fest in Germany! We do have a laptop when we play live which has a few sequences on, but do we turn down the gig or play without him and programme some extra stuff into the laptop? Punters won't know the difference either way as, despite having been formed more than 30 years ago, we've played maybe 5 gigs in the last 5 years, all but 1 (at Sheffield tramlines) were at parties... (paid? wassat?)

[quote name='Skol303' timestamp='1455017060' post='2974979'] Not cheating... very welcome!... but I'll need you to pick which recording you'd like to enter into the voting. This is simply to avoid people going ape and submitting oodles of noodles [/quote] Mmmm... Chips or daddy?

2 entries is cheating? Oops!

Having listened to the smeary mess that's happened to my song after uploading, I'm going to do a re-mix; I don't think Soundcloud likes the enormous amounts of reverb I try and hide the vocals with!

Here's mine: https://soundcloud.com/dredd-and-the-badass-weed/feel-the-burn It's about exercise induced euphoria... (remixed)

Infectious Grooves groove?

And in the spirit of having as many entries as possible, here's another one I've just done, this time no FX, just straight into Audacity. https://soundcloud.com/leonard-smalls/crispy-fried-noodles-with-meat

I thought I'd add something tuneless, which barely approaches the upper registers! https://soundcloud.com/leonard-smalls/crispy-fried-noodles Sorry!

Indeed. Deepest condolences from darkest Shropshire too.

Excellent! That's just encouraged me to get out some Mama Funk as well, and between them, I've now got inspiration for this month's Composition Challenge!