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Silent stages - a soul-less gigging experience? (And...why don't musos provide their own kit?!)


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3 minutes ago, warwickhunt said:

I think it is difficult for drummers to embrace the SS idea because trad acoustic kits have a different feel to electronic or 'flats' kits and if you maintain a full acoustic kit with no backline I think (or experienced) that it is fraught with problems.  :/

 

We use a regular kit, no backline and everybody on IEMs, never had an issue with it. Our drummer doesn't want to use an electric kit which I fully understand that as the rest of us just get to use our normal instruments and ditch our amps.

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45 minutes ago, lemmywinks said:

 

We use a regular kit, no backline and everybody on IEMs, never had an issue with it. Our drummer doesn't want to use an electric kit which I fully understand that as the rest of us just get to use our normal instruments and ditch our amps.

 

I might have been having an off day with the early IEM experiments but I was finding that I needed to have the volumes up more than I felt comfortable with to offset the drums.  Oddly when playing with backline and regular attenuated plugs in, I found it filtered everything uniformly and attenuated the drums better.  

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14 minutes ago, warwickhunt said:

 

I might have been having an off day with the early IEM experiments but I was finding that I needed to have the volumes up more than I felt comfortable with to offset the drums.  Oddly when playing with backline and regular attenuated plugs in, I found it filtered everything uniformly and attenuated the drums better.  

Might be the fit. 

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26 minutes ago, warwickhunt said:

 

I might have been having an off day with the early IEM experiments but I was finding that I needed to have the volumes up more than I felt comfortable with to offset the drums.  Oddly when playing with backline and regular attenuated plugs in, I found it filtered everything uniformly and attenuated the drums better.  

This has been my experience too on certain stages and yes, it’s almost certainly down to using universal fit IEM’s, whereas my ear plugs are custom moulds

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When I first got my ZS10 the supplied large tips were really good, don't know if they've softened over time but they do tend to be a lot more difficult to get properly seated and sealed. The cheap Spinfit tips I got yesterday (mentioned in the main IEM thread) seem much better. Seal straight away and stay put.

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It could be the fit or equally the tone of that particular IE that needs sensitive EQing but I've found work-arounds now and I can find ways to get what I need using multiple options; so all good.  :)

 

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14 hours ago, EBS_freak said:

You see, I have made that mistake...

 

Ask a musician to put themselves into the PA, and they will buy the cheapest XLRs which will cut in and out with ends which get stuck in the desk sockets, the crappest DI boxes - and then look at you when nothing works. And that's assuming they actually remember to bring the gear to actually put themselves through the PA.

 

Thinking of stuff to save a gig...

 

I play through a Kemper because I know if the guitarists rig turns to 5h17, I can give my rig to them and I can go direct.

I carry round spare adapters for all sorts of things... and a soldering iron. I have been known to run an electric kit from a pedal board power supply because the drummer seemed to forget an important element of their electric kit.

I carry around spare strings for instruments I dont even play.

I carry around spare IEMs.

I carry a pair of drumsticks - which I have had to use, only for the drummer to then complain they were the wrong weight.

The amount of times the band would have been left high and dry without my ability to improvise and think my way out of issues is beyond a joke.

That's just the surface.

 

Basically, I own enough equipment and spares to be a band by myself... because people are inept. But whats worse, because they know I've got their back in all situations, they are even more complacent! 

 

The more "pro" a musician is, the more of a liability they are.

 

As has been mentioned a lot in this thread, different strokes for different folks. But I've got say man, that sounds a little mental to me. If they're not willing to think this through then I don't have the time to be babysitting them. Of course, I'll help out in a pinch if something has seriously gone unavoidably wrong, but if the guitarist has broken a string and they don't have either another guitar or another string then they're playing without. Happy to cancel the gig, I'll even go an tell the bar manager, party organiser, bride, whomever that the drummer says we need to go home because he's broken his only stick.

 

I have in the past purposefully drawn up plans to share gear to save carrying. When I had a full fat rack Helix the two guitarists in that band knew they didn't need to bring a shared amp because I had a stereo facility that I wasn't using. In my current band I've got an unused channel on the desk set up with a Sansamp emulator in case one of the guitar or bass processors goes down. Nobody needs to bring a spare mic because the backing vocals that the other 3 of us do aren't really that important, so one of us would just not sing if ours went, or the main singer would borrow one of our mics if his went. The two guitarists in my current band alternate which one of them brings 'the' spare guitar, etc. That's not a problem, because that's planning, but don't just shrug your shoulders and hope I'm bailing you out.

 

Every few weeks there's a 'do you bring a spare bass?' thread on here, and it's those people that we're dealing with here! :D

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I think a lot of this is just lack of experience, and others need to be shown what’s what. 
It’s bending the point  a little, but if i was to go and play with a band that has a PA, or to a gig that has a PA, i wouldn’t take an XLR cable with me unless asked. My thinking is if you have a PA you must surely have all the cables needed to use it so why would i need to bring any. Obviously with my own band the i told them all to get some, which they did, but a lot of people will naturally assume a PA comes with leads. 
It’s about communicating with those involved and sorting it out. Not everyone is a clued up as we are here, so we need to educate. 

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Because of the nature of my bands we don't need a PA because we don't play anywhere where there isn't an in-house system. However we make sure that we that apart from drum and guitar amp mics their associated leads and stands (for the band that has a drummer and guitar amps) we have everything required to connect our equipment to the PA stage box. That means DI boxes for everything that requires it and XLRs. On several occasions I have found that replacing the PA XLR lead with one of mine has mysteriously resolved a problem that was supposedly down to the our gear.

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Posted (edited)
1 hour ago, dave_bass5 said:

I think a lot of this is just lack of experience, and others need to be shown what’s what. 
It’s bending the point  a little, but if i was to go and play with a band that has a PA, or to a gig that has a PA, i wouldn’t take an XLR cable with me unless asked. My thinking is if you have a PA you must surely have all the cables needed to use it so why would i need to bring any. Obviously with my own band the i told them all to get some, which they did, but a lot of people will naturally assume a PA comes with leads. 
It’s about communicating with those involved and sorting it out. Not everyone is a clued up as we are here, so we need to educate. 

 

I think that's very fair. Basschat, or perhaps more accurately "Bass-gear chat" would be closer to the mark, has a massive focus on kit rather than actually playing bass / improving technique. Let's be honest, 95% of BC'ers (me included) are gear nerds! That's not true of the majority of musos, so I guess it's a case of playing to our strengths and interests?

 

Edited by Al Krow
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33 minutes ago, Jack said:

 

 

 

Every few weeks there's a 'do you bring a spare bass?' thread on here, and it's those people that we're dealing with here! :D

 

I don't understand that mentality of not having a spare, everybody knows it's just a thinly veiled ruse to buy another bass.

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On 29/05/2024 at 17:33, Chienmortbb said:

I wonder why this is. The audience never get a real stereo experience but maybe the volume makes it more immersive?

 

The stereo image for the audience is created when they move their heads. The source may be 'mono', but the band are in front of you and reverb from the walls adds to the stereo image. 

 

If you wear headphones/IEMs and turn your head, the band 'moves' but the sound doesn't, and there's no natural reverb. You are literally separated from the surroundings.

 

Even when using backline,  the amps are in different locations on the stage. 

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On 04/06/2024 at 14:12, TimR said:

The stereo image for the audience is created when they move their heads.

There is only one spot that is the sweet spot for the stereo image and if you are off to one side or back behind the sweet spot.

 

On 04/06/2024 at 14:12, TimR said:

 

Even when using backline,  the amps are in different locations on the stage. 

Once you get away from the stage that also reduces.

 

 

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38 minutes ago, Chienmortbb said:

There is only one spot that is the sweet spot for the stereo image and if you are off to one side or back behind the sweet spot.

 

 

There's no stereo image to create a 'sweet spot'. If everything is backline and only vocals are PA, you'll get different effect wherever you stand. There won't be a stereo effect anywhere created from the PA. 

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