MoJoKe

Personally I don't have sex problems! I think there are too many "unfortunate" domain names which are far worse than this conundrum for the search engines to have issues with. My opinion is that the "sex" thing is no biggy (see what I did there, phner phner... and AntLockyer said "bottom" in his last post! ) generally making people chuckle in a Viz magazine way; I can live with that. My preference all along was the www.sixtiesexplosion.co.uk version, which I think hides it best anyway. Also, it doesn't require a hyphen. Please don't get me started on that issue, I am having a teeshirt made which says "If I'm looking a bit serious it's because I'm busy correcting your Grammar in my head" I didn't design the old website, and the band name does NOT have, or need, a hyphen in it - anywhere.

So, the verdict and plan... www.sixtiesexplosion.co.uk wins hands down with over 75% of the votes, so this will be the main domain, and all the others will be forwarded to it. I am in the process of designing new graphics before the site goes live, and we will definitely have new video and audio content there... Thanks for all the valuable input!

[quote name='Grassie' timestamp='1409149106' post='2536838'] We're on the Isle of Wight - nowhere is more than 40 minutes away. Takes me 10-15 minutes door to door. [/quote] You're definitely under-selling yourselves then, the rest of us (and agents) have to factor in ferries and overnights to play on IoW!!

[quote name='barkin' timestamp='1409130929' post='2536552'] I'd rather have a hyphen than sex in the name, personally. [/quote] Personally I'd rather have sex than a hyphen in my name!! [size=4]The domain choices are as they are, I don't want to introduce any more options! Please vote even if you don't comment![/size]

[quote name='SubsonicSimpleton' timestamp='1409129339' post='2536526'] The only nitpick I had about your promo vid was the audio is a bit distorted... [/quote] Yes. the video was one recorded at a professional showcase over two days, with about 30 acts, with a professional crew, sound to camera from their Digital desk. On the second evening all the videos were perfect, but on the first, our night, all were distorted. The output from the desk to the camera must have been clipping but no-one spotted it until too late. We will be doing more recordings from gigs, now that we have an X32 desk and I have a new macbookpro/Logic. All we need is a couple of cameras, and we'll do some live video too.

[quote name='Grassie' timestamp='1409080628' post='2536173'] I think if more holidaymakers gave better feedback regarding the evening entertainment, holiday parks may be more inclined to take a risk and book "real" bands. [/quote] This! Most parks book through agents and provide the agent with a review for each booked performance, based on their own feelings and the audience reaction... it has had a major effect on the amount of work [i]we[/i] get... and, Grassie, don't under-sell yourselves - you're worth more!

Yup, you've mostly spotted the "sex" challenge, I knew that'd happen fairly quickly! Mornats, I have never been a big fan of hyphens in domain names, as I always think this tends to require more effort in "getting it right" for someone trying to find a site if not seeing it written somewhere? All the feedback is most welcome. Is the "the" useful in the first one? It is, afterall, the name of the band? (though it does nothing to hide the sex!) [size=4]I do have a favourite myself, but not going to reveal my thoughts for a while yet![/size]

Over the summer we have played almost exclusively at holiday parks, and I have played at them on and off for over 25 years. [size=4]Once there was a keenness for everyone to go out to the club on the park for the entertainment, and there genuinely was live music and bands on at least three nights a week, but so many guests now seem to spend their time in their van/chalet in the evening staring at a TV/PC/Phone/Tablet (the curse of the black mirror), or going off site.[/size] Many of the ones who [i]do[/i] come out spend the evening looking at their smartphone/tablet all evening. (We played at a park a few weeks ago where a family were at a table 10 yards from the stage and both mum and dad spent the evening staring at their phones, oblivious, while their children screamed about jumping off tables and chairs, then just before we went on, the stage, playing the drums. They carried on this behaviour throughout our performance, and were so loud I could hear them screeching in my in-ears). So sadly there just isn't the budget anymore for a band three nights a week, when the entertainment teams can get a good singer working with backing tapes for £150-200, or a duo for £250, so why spend more on a band when its still a live performer, isn't it? Well, no, its not. If you get married the decision is generally "band or a disco" usually based on budget, because a great band brings an energy and ready-made party atmosphere to the event which can never be achieved with a disco, and rarely achieved with someone singing to backing tracks (or professional Karaoke, as I prefer to call it!). We are a full-on, high energy, high quality three piece band, which puts a band in the room while keeping the budget lower for the venue. But, u[size=4]ntil parks do something to encourage their guests to detach themselves from their tech, the future of live music on holiday parks will be a diminishing one...[/size]

So, we have had our band together and relatively busy for over 18 months now, and need to sharpen our marketing and online image, may I ask for your help please? We have agreed the current site is not great and looks dated. I did another version which also doesn't quite hit the mark, so we are about to have another go. However, we have three versions of the domain name. The band is The 60's Explosion, but we have all the following domain names:- www.the60sexplosion.co.uk www.sixtiesexplosion.co.uk www.60sexplosion.co.uk Marketing and look is sooo important in this business, and I want to get it right, so [size=4]I would like your opinion which looks better and is more user friendly so I can use the "right" one on which to build the new site. It is somewhat academic, but the first of the three is our old site, the other two point at the one I was developing a while back.[/size] Please vote even if you don't comment! [size=4]Many thanks in advance!![/size]

All sound words, thanks guys, and yes, I think the Nady is probably no longer legal. I spent the morning yesterday with my nephew, Paddy, who has been using a Line6 G30 for a while both with basses and guitars with no problems, to try out, test and compare to the Nady. This morning I ordered one! The J-Retro was supplied with both gain trim pots turned to their lowest setting. I did tweak them to see what affect they had, and it made the already massive output even massiver! The gain with them both to minimum is definitely still higher than the preamp output of my 55-02!

OK, so I have a lovely new Lakland JO5, which I've fitted with a J-retro. A couple of days ago I installed and tested it plugged directly into my MarkBass CMD151p combo, and then spent several happy hours exploring its amazing tone capabilities (I've posted about this elsewhere!) Last night I had my first gig, and set up my standard stage rig, including my trusty old Nady 201 wireless, which has never given me an ounce of trouble with any bass I have ever owned. However, as soon as I plugged in my JO5 and turned on the transmitter the bass squealed at high frequency as though I was standing too close to the tweeter in the cabinet. Backing away didn't help, it was still squealing at over 50 paces.... not painfully loud like feedback, but disturbing! I have spoken to John East, who was very helpful and suggested the preamp may be picking up some RF and converting it to audio, but clearly he is not responsible for my very old wireless system, which is almost certainly the cause of the problem! Has anyone else had this issue? if not, which wireless system are you using, as maybe after 30 years it it time to replace the Nady!!!!

[quote name='Machines' timestamp='1407685172' post='2522985'] I'd like to do the same with mine but they're a little too pricey for me. [/quote] Agreed not cheap, but makes it a different beast. It's now like having a jazz plus all that extra tone. In danger of causing a riot here, it's quite similar in tone palette to my old (sadly long gone) Wal. My main bass until recently has been my 55-02, and though this one will take some getting used to, I think it'll be largely displacing it soon!

I have just finished fitting and testing a J-Retro to my new (to me) JO5..... Wow... Tone Monster or what... Just sayin' I have lost some of the passive control, but then I have rarely, if ever, touched the tone knob on a Jazz, so the J-Retro volume + a choice of two pickup options about covers my needs. When you want it to do its thing, flick it into active and stand well back!! This amazing and legendary preamp has been much discussed and reviewed before, so I won't go into detail here (unless asked!), but it has turned my lovely stock JO5 into something really special. Thank you John East!

Verdict? http://m.ebay.co.uk/itm/291159384763

[quote name='CamdenRob' timestamp='1396972143' post='2419297'] Oh I'll just ignore the air horns they don't apply to me.... [/quote] what air horns...?

[quote name='CamdenRob' timestamp='1396966674' post='2419210'] Excellent... that gives me almost a year to get my slap technique up to scratch so I can be one of the cool kids.... [/quote] Oh, please no... not you or anyone else...

Hi! For our fist couple of gigs I was a bit stressed about mixing, having for so long been able to see the position of everything in one view on the old analogue desk, Switching between layers and learning to accept that "what may not be working properly" will undoubtedly not be on the current layer has taken some getting used to! At the soundcheck for our fist gig I had everything sounding amazing... best ever mix, but couldn't mute or solo any channels until I realised after a good 10 minutes of stressing that one of the IEM busses was also routing to the main LR output! Gah! I managed to get a latching footswitch working to mute vocal effects on the main reverb bus, simply but using an insert to aux1 Out, through the switch and back in on aux 1 In, which did the job, but a bit clunky. I did some testing with midi using my old E-MU board25, which allowed quite a lot of parameters to be controlled, so I've borrowed a KMI SoftStep/Midi expander from my good friends at MSL. After 2 nights of p*ssing about and trying to get its totally rubbishy editor software working on my laptop (I discovered you have to click "download" at least twice for any program change if you want the pedal to actually [i][b]do [/b][/i]anything!!), I have succeeded in turning on muting on the bus; a much more grown up outcome. Now I just need to work out what else it would be useful to do with the 7-8 functions on the other 9 buttons, on 12 layers, on the softstep (I think in total you can theoretically control about 840 different actions!!). It would be great to be able to control the stage lighting as well as the desk, but this might just be being too adventurous! Since it would cost about £120 anyway to have a single function MIDI toggle switch (Tech21 Mouse, just to do the same job as an old fashioned analogue latching footswitch for £10), my thoughts are that it is probably worth the extra £80 for the massive potential of the SoftStep... And it looks pretty damned cool too!! What have you persuaded tonyf to buy now? [size=4] [/size][size=4]haha![/size]

That's why we bought it! I've not found anything particularly difficult to figure out on the desk at all, its very intuitive, the only problem is the effects switching challenge! I have just ordered a Softstep though... that ought to sort it!

[quote name='EBS_freak' timestamp='1394186849' post='2388808'] - I don't think these things are not necessarily designed to be unmanned. [/quote] This is the problem. They have been shrunk from the big brother, which was borne of the mighty Midas, and they didn't look at their range of "small format" analogue desks (of which probably 90% are sat at the side of the stage, like we do) before finalising the featureset to see what might be fundamentally missing! Stupidly the default setting provides a manual mute switch for the reverb in effects slot 1 on the 1st "Assign" button, but you apparently cannot even toggle this with MIDI yet, let alone kick a switch! From what I can see, your thought adds a 4th option as the others are: 1. Use Midi to swap between 2 scenes, one with reverb, one without, but this requires £70-80 minimum spent on a midi pedal [size=4]2. Use a tablet/phone (no more practical than running to the desk between songs![/size] [size=4]3. Apparently you can do some clever things with the "Ducking" function of the Gate, which, in theory would allow you to turn the Reverb off fully automatically, or at worst using a latching footswitch on a Y cable across an Aux in/out, but this seems to require a degree in X32 and audio science to achive![/size] [size=4]Anyone else got any ideas?[/size]

Update... 1. I am bloo*y loving my new desk.... It's amazing! 2. Last week's deal may have run out, but the new price for the Producer desk is still only £1119.14 and the [size=4]Compact is £1489.39 [/size][size=4]on their site, which is still stupidly cheap![/size] I had my reservations as they are not an "obvious" source for the desk, but they are agents for a Distribution company in St Helens (where it was shipped from) who [i]are [/i]a Behringer Dealer, so fully legitimate, though I still cannot see how they are selling them so cheap. [size=4]Now, if anyone knows how to make a simple footswitch work to mute the vocal effects between numbers I would be most grateful to know how![/size]