NWB - Community Blog

Earplugs.... to drown out you lot...;0)

No tricks...just Chris Edgar on the mixing desk. The words silk purse and sows ear spring to mind. ha ha

Tuning. Accurate tuning can make all the difference to a band. If you're out of tune you sound like ass.

I find my instrument responds to good old fashioned lesbian porn. Hamster X all the way baby!!! Perfect rythm and great tone.

Hi Asa mate, I use the moon gel pads as well. I only mic the bass and snare with a little reverb on the snare, Terry does the sound for me and vox mics going through the P A and TWO MINS LATER, we're ready to go. We have had alot of complements about our mix in the past,

Rick.

Rick.

I find that I keep a well balanced sound by simply not turning my amp up incessantly during a gig.

To not be afraid to change the tone controls on your amp,listen and experiment

as a guitar player midrange us your best friend ,give it some attention as it can really help you cut thru/of stop your amp sounding too in your face

get a great sound first then add effects,and sparingly,effects are there to enhance a sound not be the sound

practice practice practice

set yourself goals for learning new stuff,keep pushing yourself

keep an open mind about equipment try loads of different guitars and amps,experiment with different picks and strings

it's easy to use to use too much distortion,save the saturation for those screaming solos,often not needed on rhythm

@Hulkamania - bloody laughed my ass of at that!

We have a sound guy called Steve that takes care of our overall sound.

As for me - i'm never happy with how I sound. I should spend more time on it I know, but hey-ho

Agree with Mr Redfern about the distortion - with 2 guitarists, it's easy or them to get lost if they each have serious crunch going together! Trouble is, Fletch is a proper metal-head and loves his distortion!

Mick

A great Marshall valve amp with a boss sd1 for solos,now that is a great tip,served me for many years and still do :-) seemed to be the favourite for mr Wylde and mr vai for many years too

actually another great tip,boss pedals wherever possible,awesome,and for rack guitar effects rocktron all the way

simplicity.
i like to get a good boost for solos (guitar btw) but to go slightly cleaner for clarity, use your pickup switch. the neck loves high register stuff, lower down the bridge for harmonics. i have Bare knuckle pickups, and reccomend them highly

agree with Rob.. FX, use sparingly just the odd bit of delay here and there to widen things, not too many repeats ( i usually go for one.) and a tap tempo is useful.

i have a TC Nova system. and love it, best fx i have used

I use my own PA system just for the drums, have dedicated desk to tune all my individual mics all over the kit.

Those plastic sound gates 'o rings' for drums are the single most useful thing we've got - undampened drums sound bloody awful!

Never liked those tension dial thingies though - can usually tune a kit fine by ear.

I find that experimentation is my best friend when trying out new sounds, along with tuned instruments and hours of practice! :)

Cos Ive been in Telecoms for a loooong time i know how to wind up all the cables nice and neat while most of you lot wrap them around your hand to elbow thats how they get knotted,ok it takes a bit longer but you dont have to stand there untangling them at you next gig so maybe it is faster after all haha

Darren

Got my new trace elliot 3/4 weeks ago with a split effects loops - now just applying effects to the high end of my bass...the low end remains unaltered ... Therefore nice punchy low end and the ability to add in chorus/distortion/octave up and delay on just the high end ... This simple action has resulted in me acheiving the best sound Ive ever had in nearly 30 years of playing especially when the guitarist takes a solo... Well Chuffed!!

Bassists - get rid of that horrible V shaped EQ profile on your amp. Start with flat EQ, then if you need to slightly bump up your lower mids (for a warm, round, sound) or upper mids (for a brighter sound that cuts through).

Jon

If you can... use vintage gear.

I never realised the V shape was rubbish! Doh! The one thing I would say as a bassist is change your at least every six months, especially if you are gigging regularly.

I can't really think of any tips to share as a synth programmer as they're all super-geeky. What I can say is if you're thinking about getting a synth in your band, here are "Film One's top 5 synth bargains":

Dave Smith Instruments Mopho Keyboard - (2010) brand new monosynth. Loads of features, amazing sound and mega cheap for what it does. Can be upgraded to 5-note polyphony by plugging the DSI Tetra into it.

Roland JX3P - (1983) classic Roland sound for not much money. Has a great hardware sequencer and even basic MIDI. Easy to programme even without the expensive PG-200 programming module.

Jen SX1000 - (1978) much under-rated Italian monosynth. Great for early Human League/Sheffield bass sounds. Rock solid tuning too!

Novation Xiosynth - (2008) best (and cheapest) analogue modelling synth there is. Blows the Nords and Korgs out of the water. And it's British too!

Roland JX10 - (1986) big, multilayered synth from Roland. The last analogue synth they made. Awesome string sounds and filter sweeps. Gets a bad rep due to poor MIDI implementation and fiddly programming but capable of some awesome sounds for the money. And it has a massive, velocity sensitive keyboard.

Roland Juno 6 - No patch memory, no MIDI but some of the best analogue synth sounds you can get and it costs next to nowt second hand.

Uber-geeky advice over!

Get the best PA you can afford.
Spend time on your sound.
Listen to what other informed people have to say and if appropriate change your sound.
Constantly strive to improve

Works for us

I agree with Dean here, quality older second hand gear more bang for your bucks and often better build quality. The soldering and pots used in modern marshalls is very poor quality. Use quality leads. Even better learn to make your own its cheaper and learn to bypass all the fx if something goes down. Most importantly learn to tune your instrument without a tuner. Scottish plumbers proverb “the more you tank up the plumbing the easier it it to stove up the drain”

I agree with Dean here, quality older second hand gear more bang for your bucks and often better build quality. The soldering and pots used in modern marshalls is very poor quality. Use quality leads. Even better learn to make your own its cheaper and learn to bypass all the fx if something goes down. Most importantly learn to tune your instrument without a tuner. Scottish plumbers proverb “the more you tank up the plumbing the easier it it to stove up the drain”

I agree with Dean here, quality older second hand gear more bang for your bucks and often better build quality. The soldering and pots used in modern marshalls is very poor quality. Use quality leads. Even better learn to make your own its cheaper and learn to bypass all the fx if something goes down. Most importantly learn to tune your instrument without a tuner. Scottish plumbers proverb “the more you tank up the plumbing the easier it it to stove up the drain”

I'm a huge fan of older gear. Irony of ironies is it's often easier to fix older stuff as it tends to use off the shelf parts too, instead of being all surface mounted electronics and custom chips.

I'd also say keep the amount of Behringer equipment you use to a minimum!

Don't have your back line to loud and let your P.A. do the work. so many bands just don't do this.

I always find that a great sound is achieved by keeping a close eye on the guitarist for when he closes his eyes, spreads his legs, sticks his tongue sideways out of his mouth and places his fingers on the fret ready for a 'Solo'.......then unplug his amp.....I'd be even happier if we could give them Asbos as a deterrent.

Hahahahaha

Another geeky one I've noticed is that stomp boxes seem to sound better if you run them off batteries, with a lot less noise. If you get decent rechargables, the Nickel Metal-Hydride ones (NiMH) they last miles longer than the leading brand of alkaline non-rechargables on a charge, you can recharge them to your heart's content and only cost a couple of quid more.

Good grief, I am a geek!