mike257

I'm staying on an extra day after the show I'm doing at Glasto and hoping to catch him there. They've (very inconsiderately) scheduled Queens Of The Stone Age to clash with him, but they'll be back again, and he won't, so I think I'll be sticking around for Reg.

You'd be correct. The Ui16 is particularly dreadful. A company I used to freelance for had one that they'd send out on small corporate events when it was just a couple of mics and some playback, and I had such horrendous, show stopping issues with the control interface seizing up (even with a wired network connection to my laptop, sometimes) that I stopped taking it on shows at all. I wouldn't trust the built in WiFi on any mixer from any brand in a show critical situation.

And on the Yamaha front, I had the great displeasure of a very tired PM5D as a festival monitor console that I had to throw and go on the other week. Had an absolute stinker of a gig for various reasons, but that old dinosaur definitely didn't help 🤣

Looks like a good run! Every time I get behind a Midas Pro and hear how bloody great they sound, I (almost) forgive them for the bloody trackball and the patching screen 🤣 Spent today prepping an SD12 package for a couple of weeks touring with Circa Waves. Had to do some chicanery to make it work, but have squeezed my SD Rack, the FOH dLive rack, split/patch and all the IEM in to a double wide, so it'll be a nice easy build each day! We're in production rehearsals tomorrow so I'll try and snap a couple of pictures. Haven't had many chances for desk photos for a while, been pretty solidly in tour manager/production manager mode and doing less audio, although I did just have my SQ5 out for a few weeks round the UK with Bad Boy Chiller Crew. Even more compact package with my stage rack, splits, power distro, RF and battery chargers all tucked in to a little 12u.

Got a lovely unsealed maple neck on my '04 Stingray. It's got a mildly grimy vibe to it that it's had for many, many years. Don't think it's going to go away any time soon, I'd just embrace it if I were you!

Stereo DI boxes are just two mono DIs in a single enclosure so you shouldn't have any issues caused by the DI itself. Any phase differences incurred by the blending of your two signals as discussed above would be the same whether you used two individual DIs or one stereo.

The general rule of thumb is tone and then time - so your chorus, being a time-based effect, is probably best at the end. Effects that depend on pitch tracking tend to work best with a clean and consistent signal, so on that basis I'd try the synth right at the front. The preamp is simulating the front end of an amp, so I'd start with having that after the drive. Tuner > Synth > OD > Preamp > Chorus would be how I'd start, but it's always fun to move things around and see how different pedals interact with one another.

This film was a gateway drug for me and plays a big part in my love of this sort of music. Have played a bunch of the songs with a soul band I used to be in. Great lines, great grooves. A drummer friend of mine plays in a touring Blues Brothers show and has an absolute ball doing it.

As a live sound guy and a bassist, I'd absolutely prefer that to be two lines. As others have said, both sources will have a different sonic character and need treating differently in the mix. As for DI boxes, my go-to recommendation is always Orchid Electronics. Small UK based company, hand assembled kit for a very, very good price. Old school website, you have to actually email to place an order, but you're dealing directly with the guy who's building the kit! http://orchid-electronics.co.uk

For my sins, I've never owned a really good Precision, so the nicest P I could get my hands on, black/black/maple, job done.

Usual advice is that you need fresh moulds every 4-5 years, as your ear shape continues to change over time.

Band I've done a lot of work with this year had two basses in an Enki double and it's been rock solid. Much prefer them to the Scott Dixon's. I've yet to see a well-toured one that isn't bashed in and struggling to fit together.

I'm currently touring with this show. All of the string players playing custom electric instruments through guitar effects pedals. Hearing our lead violin flawlessly knock out the solos to Killing In The Name, Sweet Child Of Mine and Master Of Puppets is quite something!

Played a wedding gig with a hideous case of Norovirus once. Wouldn't recommend it!

Monitor engineer here. I mix very few shows that are fully on wedges these days. Did a first show with a new client the other week who were on wedges and genuinely had a "how long is it since I've done this?" moment! Of my regular touring clients, there's a handful where one or two members still use a wedge, but it's becoming the exception. It gives the FOH engineer more control as they're not fighting tons of stage noise, protects the ears of the artist from damage, means I can give them studio levels of clarity and separation in the mix (if that's what they want) and is a much more consistent experience from venue to venue than wedges will ever be.

You can already get 1/2 rack cases - lots of pro radio mic receivers, IEM transmitters etc are half rack width (for mounting two side by side) and the cases are pretty widely available. Just manufacturers not bothering to look if an existing standard would have done the job!

I stood in for the guitar tech at Glasto. Band had chops for days and the girls were on top form. Great show!

Four piece band and they play their derrières off! No miming anywhere on the stage either.

Done it before on Ryanair, you put the passenger name as "Extra Item Seat" and give it the same passport number as the actual passenger. There's info on the process on their website if you look hard enough!

Mixing Station is great - it was that much better than the official apps that they hired the developer to make the official XR-series mixers Android app.

Glad to see you're keeping busy mate! I've had a lovely SD12 package out for a few festival shows this summer, spotted here on the main stage at Reading (or Leeds, can't remember which of the two this was!) On a run of much smaller shows out in Europe with another artist at the mo so have downsized to an SQ5 for a few weeks, wouldn't have fancied dragging the big Digico in some of these load-ins! Was hoping to fly my own one out but the logistics didn't work out so this one's come from Clair Bros out in Switzerland.

God, this is going to take some digging up.... The Funks - aged about 9/10, with some kids from the next street. I was on lead vocals. Lasted two "rehearsals" before we got bored and went back to riding bikes and playing football Blueprint - aged about 16, some semi-competent original material and a load of covers, imploded when the drummers classical musician parents disapproved of us booking a gig at the Cavern. He became a very successful orchestral percussionist, so they were probably right B-BOM - aged about 17 - Played the usual array of underage local band nights, playing a handful of originals mixed in with Rage Against The Machine, Green Day, Nirvana, Foos covers and the like Amidst Speculation - 2002, a one night only, completely improvised metal gig with me, a guitarist, two drummers and two singers. Entirely as chaotic and ill-advised as the description suggests! Call To Order - 2002-2003, hit 18 years of age, was allowed in proper venues legitimately. First "proper" original project. Two members from previous band. Grungy, riffy, rock tunes with a political leaning. Mexican Alibi - 2003 - pre-existing bassless band that I joined on bass as an occasional live and studio member. Weird angular indie-rock with odd time signatures. Lots of fun sweaty local gigs. Seven - 2004, me and the drummer from Call To Order plus a couple of new mates. Moody, dark rock tunes with electronics and samples from films that we thought made us sound clever. Played a few half decent supports in the local Academy/Barfly venues The Idiot Rate - 2005-2007, three of us from Seven with a new singer/guitarist. Best effort at "taking it seriously", apparently one of the first unsigned bands to be booked on an Academy headline tour (in the smallest rooms, and nobody came to most of them). We were aiming for the early 2000s British post-hardcore thing (Hundred Reasons, Hell Is For Heroes, early Biffy Clyro) but everyone just called us emo 😄 did a lot of DIY touring and some decent headline shows and support slots at home (including Enter Shikari, Sikth, and a very early and raw Bring Me The Horizon, who we definitely didn't envisage becoming an arena filling rock behemoth at the time!) Connecting Flight - 2007/9 - mathy, noisy, At The Drive-In-esque stuff with the singer from Seven and a revolving cast of half the guitarists in Liverpool, which became.... In/Casino/Out - 2008/9 which was essentially the same band and revolving cast as above. Hotwire - possibly 2007ish - classic rock influenced with two mega guitarists and a singing drummer, joined temporarily for a few months to fill in The Buffalo Riot - 2008-2010 - a different direction, americana channeling Ryan Adams and CSNY with the singer from The Idiot Rate. A marked change after years of noisy riffs, and they're still going now! The Brave Kid - 2011 - my last solid effort at making original music. Big rock songs with singalong choruses, twisty riffs in strange time signatures and the best drummer I've ever had in a band. Imploded quickly due to rotating singer shenanigans. All my gigging as a muso since then has been in function/corporate world The Recollection 2012-2014 - function band, swapped the fat strings for the skinny ones and bought a Tele. My first dip in wedding world which led to a few years full-timing it Motown Gold 2014-2019 - pretending to be James Jamerson, who wouldn't love it? Hung up my gigging shoes in early 2019 because it was getting in the way of my other career/love as a tour manager and sound engineer, so I just make other people's bands loud now and only play bass at home or mucking about at soundchecks. It's brought up some nice memories racking my brains to think of it all though, and I'm sure I've missed a couple of bands along the way too, not to mention countless ones I've depped for that I didn't list!

I used this chap, who's highly recommended on a lot of the drummers groups on Facebook, for a printed skin ahead of a tour earlier this year. Reasonably priced, good comms, and managed to do a rush job for us and actually hand delivered it to the audio company where our truck was being loaded. https://m.facebook.com/100042380572187/

Ah, up the north end! You won't have a purple wheelie bin up there, which some will say means it's not technically Liverpool 🤣 I lived in Crosby briefly when I was about 13. I'm over in Wavertee in the south end these days. It's a lovely area, and you can add Harmonics Music to your guitar shop list. South Drive has regular live music in a few of the pubs/bars down there, done the odd pub gig and acoustic set over there back when I used to dabble in that. Again, nice places to eat/drink. The Plaza cinema is community owned and a decent place to catch a film. Crosby beach is lovely, and you've got the Anthony Gormley iron men on the beach for a nice bit of public art. We drive up to walk the dogs there every now and again. You've also got easy access further north to Formby - the pine woods are a National Trust site and the sand dunes and beach are great to explore with the kids.

Sounds great! Know which part of the city you're heading to yet?