Any gigging musos on Hexus?

A somewhat random question with a bit of an ulterior motive, to be honest - I've been putting together a PA rig recently to try to add a little diversity and interest to my money-earning options since my main job went part time earlier this year, and I keep looking for people to bounce ideas off!

My usual first stop for that kind of thing is Hexus, but we don't really have a "live music" forum, and although I'm pretty sure we must have some musicians on Hexus it's not a subject that gets discussed here frequently. So I figured I'd try to find out.

But of course there's a community aspect here too - if we do having gigging musicians on Hexus then it'd be nice to know who they are, what kind of music they play, and when they have gigs - I for one would definitely go and see Hexite's bands if they were playing in / around Manchester.

So, who is musical and gigging, what styles do you play, where are you based, and if you're in Manchester do you need a sound tech with his own small (i.e. pub gig) PA? ;)

And to get us started:

I'm a singer songwriter (and starting sound tech), my stuffs mostly folk-indie-rock-ish, and I'm not gigging at the minute but I do plan to get out to some Manchester acoustic nights in the near future :)

Used to, for many years playing Bass in local punk bands in the 80's and later switched to blues harmonica in the 90's. Not gigged for quite a few years tho.

I teach live sound engineering :lol: :) Got access to all kinds of rigs, though currently loving my installed d&b Audiotechnik E series rig (2x E12, 2x E8 and 2x B4-Subs) all controlled by 3x D6 amps. Mixing is taken care of by an Allen and Heath iLive T-80/iDR-32. It's bloody awesome :)

http://i300.photobucket.com/albums/n...k/e76a0cf3.jpg

Even more bonkers is being able to control it wirelessly via an iPad. Setting up monitors now is a breeze, you just stand next to the muso and sort it with them! :D

Ooooooooh, about to explode with sound geek jealousy :p ;)

Do you teach independantly or through a college? I was looking at courses in Manchester but they're all a bit pricey for me really - although if I manage to make any money at all I'll definitely be looking to get some kind of qualification. And of course at least now I've got a nice little rig if I decide to go out and do more gigging ;)

Played guitar for about seven years, bass for five. Gigged pretty heavily until the last couple of years really, mostly rock and metal but I've fallen out of the band I was in because we lack a drummer :(

Currently working on my own home recording set up.

I do however live no-where near manchester so none of that is any help what so ever ;)

Shame, I was about to offer to fill in on drums while your band searches for a full-timer: been a while since I played drums in something that deserved giving them a good whack :D

Home recording studio is next on my list of stuff to sort out, now I've got some half-decent mixing kit and mics. Probably with audacity - to start with at least - unless anyone else knows any better ;)

guy at work does sound tech - he suggested Audacity or QBase to me when I asked him about doing some home recording. My problem though is getting rid of the background noise from the 3 lane traffic joy outside my windows. It's favoured by boy racers and the emergency services - so unless I'm trying to record the Starsky & Hutch theme tune the recording sounds pretty odd.

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Originally Posted by ik9000

... My problem though is getting rid of the background noise from the 3 lane traffic joy outside my windows. ...

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Ah, the perenial problem of sound leakage. I take it you don't have a room you can conveniently soundproof by sticking lots of packing materials over the walls and window then? ;) I have the luxury of living in a small quiet cul-de-sac: we do get the police helicopter coming over fairly regularly, but I'll probably set up in the basement which will help with that :D

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Originally Posted by scaryjim

Shame, I was about to offer to fill in on drums while your band searches for a full-timer: been a while since I played drums in something that deserved giving them a good whack :D

Home recording studio is next on my list of stuff to sort out, now I've got some half-decent mixing kit and mics. Probably with audacity - to start with at least - unless anyone else knows any better ;)

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Most "professional" sound packages tend to have trial downloads as well don't forget. :)

Have a look at Cockos Reaper, it's got a trial version available and is a lot cheaper than Cubase/Sonar etc.

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Originally Posted by d032sh

Have a look at ... Reaper, ...

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Hmmm, looks alright, I'll definitely have a play with the trial version.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by scaryjim

Ooooooooh, about to explode with sound geek jealousy :p ;)

Do you teach independantly or through a college? I was looking at courses in Manchester but they're all a bit pricey for me really - although if I manage to make any money at all I'll definitely be looking to get some kind of qualification. And of course at least now I've got a nice little rig if I decide to go out and do more gigging ;)

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I work for Wolves Uni, primarily as a Technician but I also lecture part time on some modules. The University recently put £18 million into a new building that I had the privilege of help design and spec for, hence why all the kit is frankly bonkers. :)

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Originally Posted by scaryjim

Home recording studio is next on my list of stuff to sort out, now I've got some half-decent mixing kit and mics.

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I do studio work too. Here's one I worked on earlier ;)

http://www.solidstatelogic.com/news/...on_3_large.jpg

http://www.solidstatelogic.com/news/...on_2_large.jpg

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Originally Posted by Lowe

Even more bonkers is being able to control it wirelessly via an iPad. Setting up monitors now is a breeze, you just stand next to the muso and sort it with them! :D

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I could do my own stage mix set up???? I wants one. I wants one

Only classical gigs here I'm afraid (chamber music, choral stuff etc.) so no electronics (unless we're recording I guess) - we rely on wave synchronisation and harmonics to do the amplification ;)

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Originally Posted by ik9000

I could do my own stage mix set up???? I wants one. I wants one

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Yup, that's the beauty of it. :) Start saving ;)