How was Your rehearsal last morning or night ?

[mr4stringz]

A rather cathartic rehearsal for my noisy two-piece (bass and drums) last night. Our first since the drummist (also my best mate of some 25 years) found out his Mom is terminally ill. Even well into our forties, just bashing the holy hell out of your chosen instrument still really has a place.

[Jackroadkill]

Had a great one on Tuesday night; my stepfather has been seriously ill in hospital (at one point we were told he was very likely to die on the operating table but being a contrary old sod he's pulled through nicely, just to annoy the medics) and that's been a hard ride.  There have also been some unusual band politics via the band's WhatsApp group which had proved to be uncomfortable in the week between rehearsals.  It was great, therefore, to arrive, set up, play a couple of old favourites and then work on three new songs (No-one Knows, Rebel Yell and For Whom The Bell Tolls) which went very well, followed by a chat and a brew with my bandmates before heading back in and playing various songs from the set.

 

Just what I needed.

[Franticsmurf]

47 minutes ago, Jackroadkill said:

Just what I needed.

Music really can be therapy. I hope your dad is on the mend.

 

I went through a couple of low points last year (nothing in your league, but low enough) and band mates offering help and support and returning to rehearsals really lifted me. 😃

[MacDaddy]

15 hours ago, mr4stringz said:

A rather cathartic rehearsal for my noisy two-piece (bass and drums) last night. Our first since the drummist (also my best mate of some 25 years) found out his Mom is terminally ill. Even well into our forties, just bashing the holy hell out of your chosen instrument still really has a place.

 

 

 

[asingardenof]

1 hour ago, Jackroadkill said:

Had a great one on Tuesday night; my stepfather has been seriously ill in hospital (at one point we were told he was very likely to die on the operating table but being a contrary old sod he's pulled through nicely, just to annoy the medics) and that's been a hard ride.  There have also been some unusual band politics via the band's WhatsApp group which had proved to be uncomfortable in the week between rehearsals.  It was great, therefore, to arrive, set up, play a couple of old favourites and then work on three new songs (No-one Knows, Rebel Yell and For Whom The Bell Tolls) which went very well, followed by a chat and a brew with my bandmates before heading back in and playing various songs from the set.

 

Just what I needed.

Excellent stuff, and three great songs to play as well

[Jackroadkill]

10 hours ago, Franticsmurf said:

Music really can be therapy. I hope your dad is on the mend.

 

I went through a couple of low points last year (nothing in your league, but low enough) and band mates offering help and support and returning to rehearsals really lifted me. 😃

 

10 hours ago, asingardenof said:

Excellent stuff, and three great songs to play as well

 

 

Thanks chaps, much appreciated.  It's very nice indeed to be part of such a friendly and supportive community.

[MichaelDean]

Really good practice last night despite being a man down. Got the first gig lined up and it's a competition! We're going to be playing Metal 2 the Masses, where the winner will get to play at Bloodstock. We've got to have a 25 minute set. We ran through what we proposed over Whatsapp a few times and it was always within 25 minutes, so that was perfect!

 

I also got to have a go on the guitarists Les Paul. Yep, I want a LP style guitar for knocking around on at home. Might trade some pedals in at PMT and get one of their Antiquity ones. I played one a few months back and it was really decent. Just needed the polishing compound wiping off and a bit of oil on the fretboard.

[Franticsmurf]

Rehearsal with the Hulla band last night was the usual mix of chaos and good fun. Three new songs (Smells Like Teen Spirit, Love Story and 17 Going Under), one we had a go at last week (Town Like Malice) and a few oldies from the set list vaults (Let's Stick Together, Heroes, Getting Away With It, Sweet Child of Mine) just to keep us on our toes.

 

I'm finally getting a decent mix from my In Ears through the P16 monitor mixer and it's making a big difference, mainly to my backing vocals. Not only can I hear myself, but I have a good mix of the other BVs to help me pitch.

[WalMan]

Proggy rehearsal tonight. Better than a couple of weeks back when I was too tired and had been working all the hours so also under rehearsed 🙁

 

Spent some time last night brushing up on parts and tonight it was sounding good where I was stood rehearsing for the first gig in a long while (getting everyone together is like herding cats)

 

Keyboard players gear is unfortunately very old so the hope for a slick set and quick changes is out of the window as certain changes require much stabbing at buttons and scrolling of menus to setup patches. No laptop and preprogrammed setlist and scenes for us unfortunately.

 

Took everything tonight, bass, bass pedals and acoustic on a stand. I rather think for the gig I shall forego the bass pedals as one thing too many to worry about. Shame but I can get by without.

 

Tonight’s studio madness, left to right as you look at it:

- iPad running Moog Mariana bass soft synth driven by McMillen 12Step pedals

- volume pedal for the acoustic on a stand

- Status S2 into Boss CE20, SkarBassOne, MicroThumpinator, TwoNotes Bass Revolt and into the FX return on the studio’s Laney

- Faith acoustic on stand

 

I like the 12Step but my big feet and the wrong shoes didn’t help hitting the right notes 🤦‍♂️

[AndyTravis]

@WalMan what stand are you using for the acoustic?

 

I was debating having my ABG on one for the 2 songs I’ll use it for.

[Gasman]

Getting near the end of my bands two month holiday, no gigs or rehearsals since December, so I’ve been very glad to have recorded our live sets last year (Zoom H6) and also downloaded proposed new numbers from YT, both for silent play along practice at home on headphones while Mrs G watches Pointless and Richard Osman in peace and quiet!

 

I’m using a Vox mini bass preamp into the audio feed on my Mackie PC speakers, which are driven via Audacity DAW so looping, tempo and pitch changes are all possible. Sitting down with the HB shorty makes for easy and relaxing sessions whenever the urge strikes...

 

Alas, sax practice can’t be anything but noisy, so that has to wait until she’s out and our cat has hidden with paws over ears under the bed. Band in a Box is my friend for that... great app.

 

 

Edited February 19 by Gasman
A quest for complete honesty

[Franticsmurf]

9 hours ago, WalMan said:

I like the 12Step but my big feet and the wrong shoes didn’t help hitting the right notes

I have small feet and still find hitting the right notes hard! It takes a lot of practice but the results are worth it.

[Franticsmurf]

The Hulla band rehearsed for a gig I can't make last night. The dep bassist (from within the band) took on the bass role so I stepped behind the mixing desk. We use an X32 and our regular sound man (on holiday at the moment) has set it up using the scene option so that all I had to do was press the correct button. And yes, I did successfully press the correct button! 😃 It was good to hear the band from a different perspective. I've taken to using IEM simply because in such a large band (13 assorted instruments) the monitor speakers are competing with the live instruments. From the front I could see how everything worked and how much work our sound man has done to get everything mixed nicely.

 

Rather worryingly, the dep bassist (a gifted multi-instrumentalist at only 16 years old) was good. She may have to go.... 😂

[WalMan]

9 hours ago, AndyTravis said:

@WalMan what stand are you using for the acoustic?

 

I was debating having my ABG on one for the 2 songs I’ll use it for.

I can’t quite remember now, had it a while but I’ll try and find the details. It’s a solid stand and a better solution than the one I used before that fixed to the top of a mic stand and just strapped to guitar to it. Cost about £150 IIRC

 

 

[WalMan]

@AndyTravis pretty sure it was one of these

 

https://www.k-m.de/en/products/stands-and-accessories-for-instruments/fretted-instruments/14761-guitar-performer-stand-black?c=156

[Nothingman]

We practice an acoustically most Fridays so last night was good to get back in a live room with our drummer, prepping for recording our album. 

[Rubbersoul]

Had a great session on Thursday night. Started writing 3 new songs about 6/7 weeks ago for a split 7 inch with our label mates. Recording them this coming Thursday so I’m well chuffed.

[MichaelDean]

Really good rehearsal tonight. We've got our first gig on Wednesday, so we just kept it short and sweet. Played our 25 minute set 3 times to make sure we're all happy, and then called it a night. Don't want to overdo it.

 

Also had a photoshoot beforehand over in Chew Magna. We wanted to take some photos in a forest, but it was a bit damp for that. Not sure how metal it is to be photo'd in my wellies either, so we went with a local church, got kicked out after a bit. The weather got a bit better, so we hung out in the graveyard 😅 We'll need to wait and see what the finished pics come out like 

[AndyTravis]

Was good - in my preferred room (we use 2 places to rehearse) 

 

Worked on a new idea of mine - which will be a very lovely Elbow-esque tune.

 

We’re now at 10 original tunes.

 

I’d say 7 are gig/record ready.

 

A couple are proving harder to get across the finish line.

 

But now the 7 are set - the other 3 should fall into place.

 

Used the rooms Ashdown - missed my Hartke rig, but the 410xl up 3 flights of narrow stairs is a killer.

 

Myself and the singer want this to be our permanent space…he has an interest in the room, I’d prefer to leave my rig set up.

 

Guitarist and Keys player are more stand off ish about it.

 

We’ll see: I prefer it as a space.

 

Ripper was perfect.

 

El Chupa Cabré bastard bandito bass was a bit troublesome - I’ve cleaned the pots out and will get a separate eq pedal in the signal path…I guess 40 year old piezo tech hasn’t aged well.

[JazzyJ]

Good progress this morning. Got a message yesterday that the keys player had called it a day but a replacement had been located. Excellent ability and a great guy who just fits in. Result 👏.

I took along the SR2600 today which sounded immense. Had a SR500 14yrs ago, had forgotten how good Ibbys feel.

So, we can start moving forward again and hopefully soon be able to put out some '80s vibes in North Yorkshire. Happy days 😃

 

[Franticsmurf]

The Hulla band organises and plays a festival for charity every year. Last year I put together a scratch band to play a support slot and it went down well. Unfortunately, that scratch band didn't make it through the year so this year I've grabbed a few unsuspecting Hulla band members to play a short support set. I've got the drummer, the guitarist and an extremely talented young girl who is my bass dep for the Hulla gigs I can't make. She sings and plays guitar, bass, keys, a bit of drum and ukelele but her main instrument is trombone. When we ask if there's anything she can't play her response is "I don't do reeds".

 

Last night was our first rehearsal as a four piece and it went really well. There's a lot of potential there and, importantly, a lot of enthusiasm and motivation. We are fortunate in that the drummer has his own rehearsal/recording studio and while there's room for 4 people, I decided to take my Ibanez EHB 1000S to minimise the chances of clouting the other band members in the head with a bulky headstock. It's definitely a work in progress but we have 4 months to get things sorted. Our multi-instrumentalist has exams in May so the aim is to get things to the point that all we need to do in May and June is polish the final set and have a couple of full band rehearsals with the Hulla sound man present to do a sort of pre-gig sound check. As we use a Behringer X32 desk for the Hulla he will be able to set up a rough mix and save it into the desk as a base for minor tweaks on the day. 

[TRBboy]

I know no-one's posted for a while, but I thought it better to revive this than start another thread.

 

Third practice last night with the new rhythm guitarist and drummer, and it's going fantastically well! It still feels a bit strange playing the same material with different people, after having played with the same guys for the past 13 years, but it's going really well! It's not better or worse particularly, just different. The pace and feel of some songs is different, and I guess some of the 'pushes' and such from the drummer.

 

The new guys are coming to our last gig with the old lineup in two weeks, to get a feel for how we usually do things. I'm not expecting them to be exactly the same, but we need to try to have a similar feel about us at least as we're keeping the name and have existing bookings through the year. They're really looking forward to it!

 

I also gave the B1 Four a run out last night. @SamIAm has kindly loaned me this, as I was curious about them. There's some great sounds in there, but I need to tinker around with it a bit more to see if I can get what I want out of it. I'm not sure if it's just my perception, but I don't feel like the effects are quite as 'good sounding' as my old B3 at the moment, but maybe one I play around a bit more I'll get there. Not sure what the difference is in effect quality between the two units. I am struggling to get used to navigating patches, I'm so used to just having my B3 set up as 3 stompboxes, which I can just turn on or off as the mood takes me. 

 

 

And last but not least, my relationship with 'Pinky' is blossoming! Such a great playing and sounding instrument, even if I do say so myself! There's still a bit of fettling I need to do with it, but I'm really enjoying it!

 

 

So, a great practice overall! 😊👍

[Paul S]

Tuesday just gone.  A very productive rehearsal.  Drummer got a mate of his over, who is a very busy soundman/rehearsal/recording studio owner to come along.  First hour was spent tuning the drums then micing them up/eqing etc to get the best from them.  Wow.  What a difference having someone who knows what he is doing.  We fired up when he was done and played something, just to see how the drums sat - awesome was the verdict.  Really fat and tight.  

 

We then asked him if he thought our sound could be improved in other ways and he said, purely from a flexibilty/dispersal point of view, having the guitar through the pa would be a bonus.  This is something I have been suggesting for ages but guitarist seemed reluctant, saying he couldn't get 'his' tone if it went through the pa.  But coming from this guy he seemed more open to the idea and we have finally got it sorted.  Massive result.

 

Neck pickup in my SG had been feeding back - it was a bit microphonic.  I had taken it over to my usual chap to be potted but when he had a look the pickup was quite loose inside the cover.  A new bit of harder foam should sort it out, said my chap.  And it has.  Another result!

 

Plus we nailed 2 new songs, which is always good.

 

And there was no traffic there or back!

 

Marvellous.  

[bassbloke]

3rd rehearsal with new vocalist.  All original material (heavy metal) and we're tweaking the songs and tuning to best fit his voice and range.

 

We've gone from Eb with our original vocalist (Bruce Dickinson esque tenor) to C# with current vocalist who is a baritone into lower tenor territory.

 

We detuned mid rehearsal as an experiment.  I have a pretty light touch anyway, but can't remember the last time I played that softly.  I turned my amp up and let it do the hard work.  The opening 15 minutes of the Gary Willis instruction video came flooding back.

 

I have to re-work quite a few bass parts to make them less busy.  Low tunings require space to stop them sounding mushy.

[Franticsmurf]

I rehearse with the Hulla band most Sundays. For most of them, it's the only time they play and the night is as much a social gathering as a practice. Beer flows (they're all within walking distance of the hall we use) and for me and the drummer (30 minutes drive away) there's tea! If a birthday has been celebrated that week, there's always cake and we've had 'Pie 'n' Mash' nights, wine tasting etc as well. 

 

Last night was a regular rehearsal (our next gig is at the end of April so we're working on new stuff rather than working up a set) but for some reason it clicked and it was one of the best sessions playing as a band I've had with them. The sound was good (it usually is but last night was better), the song mix was all up tempo and mostly the rockier stuff we do and we sailed through the new songs with little or no pauses for clarification.

 

Edit: We played Whole of the Moon and Come Up and See Me as a little tribute to Karl Wallinger and Steve Harley. Both songs are regulars in the set anyway but it seemed a nice thing to do.

 

I used my Sire Marcus Miller V5, which has been resting for a few months, through the Zoom B6 directly into the desk with a mix out to my in-ears. I tend to use two main patches on the B6 at the moment, both tweaked to my liking. One is based on a clean SVT4 andf I have the option to bring in chorus, flange and overdrive. The other is based on a clean Trace Elliot and that has the option to add chorus, flange and echo. Last night I tried out a fretless patch (nice but didn't add to the song) and an untouched patch ('Progressive') which gave me a nice clanky Ricky sound that will be staying on the board.

 

Edited March 18 by Franticsmurf