I've been shopping again . . I bought a Jackson Dinky just before Christmas. It was, not to put too fine a point on it, rubbish. Really poorly made and sounded absolutely rank.

So I sent it back, sold a classic 90s drum machine and bought a Schecter Banshee in trans black. Arrived yesterday - absolutely lovely until about 10:30 this morning when the strap on my bass caught its stand as I lifted it off and twisted it sideways, just overbalancing the stand with the Schecter on it: Schecter went sideways onto the concrete floor of my basement . . .

Luckily nothing serious broke, but the lower wing of the body has a centimetre long wound where the varnish has been broken off of the binding and part of the top gloss is missing too.

Bugger!

I'm running 1803 at the moment. I'll turn of auto update until you give me the all clear

I'll see what I can do about some reviews Mick. Might have to wait a bit . . .

OK, I know it's rude to brag, but I have just completed my new, and
probably last ever bass rig.I bought two 4x10 Kustom cabs and a second hand Ampeg Portaflex 500. Oh my, but it sounds good! Just waiting for Santa to bring me a new Boss multi effects pedal to replace my old Digitech (which is still mostly running well, with the occasional glitch). Then roll on Worfstock 2019.

I had a bass delivered by DHL from Portugal - inside two cardboard boxes (heavy duty ones) and  packed with bubble wrap and loads of brown paper. It was so well sealed it took me more than half an hour to get the package open. But inside the guitar was perfect. So I would suggest filling the hard case with bubble wrap and then putting the hard case inside a strong cardboard box, also with all the voids packed with bubble wrap, and the whole thing covered in parcel tape. Any courier will chuck it about, but if it is seriously well packaged it'll be fine.

Don't forget to insure it!

Good luck.

Thanks Joom.

Long time until July indeed, but gives us time to learn some new stuff - although Dakota will definitely be in next year's set

Glad you liked it.

We're getting together again next July for another bash. The band members live all over the place - me in France, guitarist Isle of Man, drummer Spain and singer London. So it can be a bit tricky to get everything organised. At least it's all Europe

Finally found the time to finish Dakota. Alas the high def cameras had packed up for this song, so I added a few arguably over the top effects to make it visually less dull. I am very happy with the mix though: Cubase Pro 9.5 and Wavelab Elements 9.5. Video done with Power Director 16

It's a lot of data Mick - with my 8mbps connection it's taking a while to download the sound library 

Got me with Philharmonik 2. Just downloading it now - also used some 'jam points' to reduce the cost further. 

Had it changed ? Well, only incrementally. But we were amazed by the huge variety of food in the supermarkets and by how how cheap it is. Also everyone seems to have a Jaguar or a Tesla. Made our knackered old Mondeo look rather out of place! In a nutshell the UK appears to be booming, unlike France.

Maybe Brexit is not the bad idea everyone is making out? I got into a conversation with a flower importer who told me he had cancelled his contracts with the Dutch and was buying instead from Kenya - he now doesn't have to worry about what will happen next year one way or the other, and he says the Kenyans are cheaper too. I wonder how many other continental firms will suffer because of Brexit as clearly this chap's Dutch supplier is already doing?

Hot here too, can't really do any work outside after 10 am or inside after lunch. Difference is we have a swimming pool to cool off in 

Hi Mick,

Just back from a road trip around the UK.

The miked recording was done with the mike powered by my Saffire Pro 14 and through the microphone amplifier therein, straight into Cubase Artist 9.5.

Hope you are not melting too badly this week

Much as like Amplitube, and I do, you really can't beat miking up an amplifier, even a modelling one like my Mustang 3 V2. Used a Superlux E205 - a dirt cheap condenser microphone and the Prophesy to add a guitar part to a track I am enhancing. The downside of course is that there is not much I can do with the recorded sound afterwards - but I like the sound of a Bassman overdriven and the Fender models of their own amps are very good.

I know exactly what the issue is - it's because I keep my VST dlls outside of drive C: It's not the first time I have had trouble with apps only looking for dlls in default locations. As such I really can't see any point in reporting it - I doubt it will have affected anyone else. So I've put the Amplitube VST on my C drive and everything is fine.

Later - downloaded the latest iteration and installed to my default locations - this time it worked OK, so whatever they did between versions has fixed it.

Don't know Mick. Haven't had time to look at the forums - lawns to mow, pool to maintain and swim in