Earbrass

That's the key quality I always look for in a band.

Peavey Milestone. These have been available in J & P configurations at various times. Basic, but solid, lightweight, comfy, nice players, good tone, reliable (might have to tweak or replace the jack socket at some point) and readily available s/h for under £100.

I'm not sure whether this one is eligible or not...here's the story. One of the music production channels on Youtube that I subscribe to is that of Rachel K. Collier. Late last year she posted a video about her favourite plug-ins under $100, in which she gave a link to a vocal stem from her track "No Deeper Escape", and permission for her viewers to sample this stem and make whatever use of it they wished. Never having tried my hand at this sort of thing before, I decided I'd have a go. I ended up using large sections of the vocal lines more or less intact, albeit at a different tempo, and messed with in other ways, but the structure and underlying chord sequence is quite different from the original (in fact I deliberately didn't listen to the original until I was fairly well advanced with my track). So, maybe not really a "cover" as such, and if the Powers That Be decide that it is not suitable for the comp, I certainly won't argue. It was, though, all recorded this year. The original can be heard on spotify here: open.spotify.com/track/7aoKxAksi7RZUvFAi7mGrO Here is my track D-Per Escapade: The nyckelharpa and guitars are real. All the other drum and instrument sounds came from a Digitakt and a Microkorg, except the very first sound heard, which I found in my Kawai stage piano. The video was made in Reaper.

Love Andrew Huang's channel. His music is not really to my taste, but his videos are always worth a look

Has the OP considered looking for a "drum machine / groovebox / sampler person" instead of a drummer? Modern machines often have a lot of real-time tweakability / playability, so if you replace the drummer with someone playing one or more of these machines you have a lot of scope for changing things on the fly, extending or shortening sections, warping the sounds in all manner of ways, improvising and so on; you're not restricted to having the exact same performance every time. Obviously not suitable for all genres, but can be made to work to produce interesting and dynamic performances.

From someone just interested in the sound obtained, rather than in trying to sell their "tonewood" products

Two spring to mind. First is the 'Pernod' saga from The Velvet Underground Live at Max's Kansas City. For those who don't know, this was an "official bootleg" record, in that it was recorded by a fan / friend of the band from their place in the audience. Consequently, some chat from audience members can be heard between the songs. At one point, a voice can be heard to ask "Can you get me a double Pernod?". Later, we hear the same voice asking "Did you get the Pernod?...<inaudible reply>...oh you, have to go to the downstairs". I think there's also some comment on one song "Yeah, I've heard it, but it's pretty new". Finally, we here the same voice saying "oh no, I gotta hide....look who's over there". That's it really. Not remarkable in the great scheme of things, but has always amused me. Not sure the other one counts, as the stuff between the songs is clearly largely scripted / pre-arranged and is an integral part of the show. I refer to Frank Zappa and the Mothers live at the Filmore East. First heard when I was a teenager, and full of the kind of crude smut guaranteed to appeal to the teenage boy in all of us.

Silly video, but nice track ("In the arms of Mary" - Grai)

It means that if the member leaves, they have to be replaced with an RSJ.

Here's something I've been working on since last December (moving house rather got in the way of steady progress!)

Well, I'll take your word for it - dance music is not my thing, and I wouldn't be using those sounds anyway - I use the Digitakt for drums because of its sequencer and sound manipulation abilities. The appeal of the MC-101 for me was its wide range of keyboard and synth sounds in such a portable package. EDITED TO ADD Here are some examples (there is also a lot of scope for editing sounds) - I have no idea how authentic they are, but you can judge for yourselves:

Worth noting that the Roland MC-101 groovebox has over 3000 sounds onboard, including 606, 808 and 909 drums and many other Roland classics. I picked one up for £300 s/h a while ago just to use as a sound module, though it has way more to offer than that.

I've been using New Moon to insure my nyckelharpa for the past few years. Very reasonable rates and easy to deal with, but I suppose one doesn't really know how good they are until one has to make a claim, which, touch wood, I haven't so far.

Oh dear, I do seem to have touched a nerve, don't I. 😂 Not my intention, I assure you. You, of course, know the personalities and situation, and I do not. Nor is it any of my business. I was merely pointing out that the facts as stated in your original post did not square with the "making rules for others to follow" remark in your subsequent post. I'm not sure where you get the idea that I'm "offended", vicariously or otherwise. If asserting your right not to take a free and harmless test is more important to you than having a band rehearsal, that is, of course, a matter for you and your bandmates. And you got to come on basschat and crow about your successful assertion of such rights, so, well done you!

He wasn't though, was he, if your account is correct? He was just saying that he wouldn't be attending if you didn't have a test, not telling you that you must have one. Seems perfectly reasonable and sensible to me.

I'm by no means an expert, and for this very reason I have spent a lot of time watching YouTube videos about how to do home recording. The conventional wisdom seems to be that one problem with using headphones exclusively for mixing is that it screws up your perception of the stereo field because there is no "crossover" between the two channels - all and only the left channel goes into your left ear and the same for your right. When played through speakers, the two channels interact in ways that you don't get through headphones. Having said that, there is also a lot of warnings about bad monitor placement (eg don't have them with their backs to a wall, have them at ear level, etc etc) and poor room acoustics also screwing up your perception of frequency balance, which use of headphones can avoid, so there's no simple answer unless you can design, arrange and treat your studio room for optimal results. One good tip is to always check your mix on your car stereo (assuming you have a half-way decent one) - the reason being that cars do not suffer from the internal reflection of bass frequencies that can plague acoustically poor rooms; all the bass leaks straight out through the car body, as is all too often painfully obvious if you live near a busy road.

Can't comment on their double basses, but I have a couple of nyckelharpa bows made by them, and they are very good considering their very reasonable price.

Hi Nerian, PM'd

Things to consider: - are you happy with minikeys or do you want full-sized ones? - how many octaves do you need? - will you only be using it to play / control vst synths in the computer, in which case a USB output is all you need, or will you want to control other hardware via MIDI or gate/cv? - is it just the keys you want, or would you prefer to have other assignable MIDI controls (knobs, sliders, buttons etc) which can be used to control vst (or hardware) synth parameters? - how important is the feel of the keyboard or you? - how important is portability - will it be permanently located on a desk or other stand, or do you want to be able to use it with a laptop wherever you want? Answering these questions will help narrow down your options.

Hard to know which of the two is worse. The busker is breaking the local laws and causing a noise nuisance. They deserve each other.

The first one in the morning is hard to beat.....oh wait, I think I may have misunderstood the question...

The bass is featherweight. Actually very comfortable and well-balanced, so not at all like a Reliant in that respect, to be fair. Similar amount of posing power, though.

Bruford/Wetton period King Crimson, Sabbath, Hawkwind, etc...or does that stuff not count as "heavy" any more? 👴