Boodang

Not sure this is the solution you're looking for as it would require a rethink on your setup but.... the band and I have got so fed with the random quality of stage sounds that we've decided to take matters into our own hands as far as monitoring goes and have bought a digital stage box (xr18, nice and small) which we all plug into and which then feeds our iem's. Guaranteed sound and monitoring levels everytime as it'snot at the mercy of an engineer. Each band member basically has 2 feeds, one for our own stage box and one for foh. No amps involved and as we use an Ekit that's easily sorted and in the mix too.

So, are we talking Billy Cobham / Herbie Hancock or more Stevie Wonder / EW&F? I was in a trio where we did the Cobham style material which I consider more jazz/groove tv theme tune music rather than funk, but although the audience mostly didn't know it would get them on their feet. So is EW&F more the thing your thinking of?

When it comes to musicians tourette's I don't know whether to laugh or cry(actually it's mostly cry). However, in another thread I've been talking about our bands recent use of a digital desk which in the absence of a sound engineer I'm in control of, so, as a friendly word hasn't had the desired effect in cutting this out, I'm now just going to hit the mute button on the guitars between songs... should be fun. I won't say anything, I'll just look for his expression of 'my guitars not working' after he tries to noodle. PS on the desk you can type in a description for each channel, for the guitarists I've entered 'feckwit1' and 'feckwit2'.... we love each other really!

Ooh, might have a look at the mixing station as having issues with the x-air app.

Yeah, the wifi remote tablet thing is great. No more snakes! When we get a new sound guy sorted that'll be the way forward.

The xr18 is just a small stage box with no controls. I connect a laptop and have that next to me. The fx and input gain settings are all done in advance of a gig, I then just have to worry about the overall mix and master level and with scene recall that's easy than using an analogue desk.

We're going to use the xr18 even if there's a sound guy at a gig just so we're in control of our own in ear monitor mixes and not at the mercy of the engineer.

We've been using a Behringer XR18 for the last few gigs and it's been quite the revelation. Impressions so far; metering is great, so setting gain levels is easy, as is keeping an eye on send/returns and bus outputs, plus an RTA which helps with overall eq'ing. Fully parametric 5 band eq, comp & gate on each channel is brill. The effects modeling is amazing, shame there's only 4 stereo fx slots but that's only a minor gripe. Still a lot of stuff to get a grip on like the dca groups and ultra net monitoring, so still on the learning curve with it. Oh, and it's got a small stage footprint and doubles as an interface for the home studio. Our foh and monitoring sound have definitely benefited from using this desk, I can't see me or the band going back to an analogue desk again. Anybody else using / getting into the digital desk thing and your impressions on using them?

I play drums in another band where the guitarist finishes a lot of the songs with a solo. In fairness they're pretty good and fit the moment but unlike songs with a definitive ending the solo can be indeterminate in length, so I've developed a method of ending songs by doing one bar of kick drum / crash as a signal. The beauty of this is that if I feel like I can make him solo forever!

Well, I think one of the issues with playing metal songs is that it would be a bit at odds with the rest of the set and what we're known for, which is a mix of lounge stuff like 'fever' 'feeling good' and Stevie Wonder and EW&F numbers. And we have a violinist so it also goes into wagon wheel territory. I think there's some people in the audience who would love some metal songs but A. I wouldn't and B. They're at the wrong gig. We could always try and do Enter Sandman in the style of wagon wheel, that might be novel. Might also stop the guitarist noodling if he realises we'll take his favourite metal numbers and turn them into country songs!

Very much an adult band. 8 piece and nobody under 40. In fact the guitarist and I started this band last year and between us we provide everything (pa, mics, stands, keys, drum kit, even the bl**dy tambourines) and he has a rehearsal facility we all use with everything setup. The guitarist is very talented and dedicated, puts in the work so he knows the songs, which makes this tourette's all the more awkward as in every other respect he's spot on.

It's like an 'adulation' syndrome some musicians have (I'm looking at guitarists here) where the audience appreciation has to be just for them.

Id settle for a bit of ‘teddy bears picnic’ rather than whole segments of sandman… spare me!!!

I’m in a covers band and at gigs, between numbers, the guitarist blurts out death metal riffs, none of which we do in the set. Recently we got a second guitarist and, encouraged, is now doing the same. I was talking to the 2nd guitarists wife and she said ‘well, the audience seemed to like it’ but my point is yes, but A. We’re not doing the song the riff comes from (which is metal) & B. we do lounge numbers like ‘fever’. We’ve talked about this issue, particularly that I don’t think it’s very professional, but it still continues. I’ve never come across this before in any band. I’ve suggested that separately they form a metal band to get this out of their system! They want, and enjoy, being in the covers band but it’s like a guitarist form of Tourette’s where between numbers they can’t help themselves. At the moment we’ve lost our sound guy so I’m doing the mixing. Their noodling fecks me off so much that the ‘automatic’ mute function operates on whichever channel a feckwit metal noodling guitarist is using. They think this is unprofessional! So touché. Has anybody come across this sort of behaviour before? I haven’t come across this problem before at this level, but it doesn’t seem to extend to keyboard players, drummers or vocalists, if anybody it seems to be the province of guitarists.

"Give me a gig!" at the very start of this video says a lot about where Jaco was mentally when this was recorded. Has to be one of the most unexpected starts to an interview for someone of his talents!

'Cross stage' monitoring only, how was that? Or were you wearing in-ears?

Love the drum set up!

Acrylic drum set is cool!

Jaco wasn't in a good place mentally when this video was put together and I think Jerry and friends did it to highlight his talent. It's a shame it's not a full on structured tutorial 'method' style book/video though but given the circumstances at least we have this to look back on. Two years later he was dead, a really sad story. Anyway, if you haven't seen it, a really good documentary with some great interviews with Zawinul and others who played or knew Jaco is; Jaco Pastorius "The Lost Tapes Documentary" (on youtube).

Eq is what you need. Basically you're going from a more mid emphasis finger tone to a scooped mid slap tone. There are various ways to go about this, a pre amp with two channels of eq, a pedal with eq presets like the source audio eq2, or keep it simple and have the creation audio funkulator which has one knob to scoop the mids, just kick in when you need it.

I'm a pedal board guy, my current setup has 14 pedals on it (soon to be more!). I've been down the multi-effects pedal route (and I still check out the latest offerings) but the reason it's not for me is the interface, I like knobs and hate screens. Also, with few exceptions (mostly synth sounds I'd say, so not bothered), my pedals sound better and I have some analogue pedals which digital versions in a multi can't really replicate. I think the nearest I came recently is the TC Plethora as the interface is ok, but I'd still have to integrate it with my analogue pedals. And then there's the biggest reason for having pedals... the artwork on them is better!

Have had success with parcelforce. No hassles with the length of the case (for some couriers it's too long). Even managed a delivery to a remote part of Scotland with no problems. Worse ever was Hermes, now called Evri I believe. It's still the same company and if the name is the only thing that's changed I wouldn't touch them with a hazmat suit on.

On the basis that the pups on a ric and a jazz are in different places, would be good to combine them into a 4 pickup bass.

I can't comment on the Maui, although it does look a good solution for small venues. We did however buy the LD Icoa 15a speakers and they've been great, so a thumbs up for LD with our limited experience of them. Did a small outdoor gig (around 150 people) and the Icoa handled the FoH duties no worries. Was particularly impressed with the reproduction of the kick which sounded like it was coming out of a bin rather than just a ported cab.

I have to say it seems almost a random way to achieve your sound! After all, every active eq will have different Qs, peak frequencies etc. Having said that, if the ears say yes then who cares!