David

A lot will depends on how big the band is and how often they are gigging and recording and so on. For a lot of local bands they aren't doing too much, so can easily enough work it out themselves, whether one member does most of the booking or whatever. A friend of mine plays in a wedding/function type band, and they have an agent who books gigs and so on for them, which takes a lot of work off them, when they will be gigging virtually every week, often a few times in a week. So that takes a lot of work off their shoulders It also depends on how serious you are, it kinda echos what i said above, but if you are just having fun playing in a band with a few mates, and gigging purely for enjoyment every so often, then a manager is overkill, if on the other hand you are taking it seriously and fully intend putting a lot fo time, effot and money into it, then someone who knows what they are doing can be a great help - look at someone like starfall, working hard to get themselves playing out and not just sticking to playing Aberdeen every second week, Dave has done a lot of work organising tours and so on, I guess that could be done by a band member, but having someone else do it lets the band concentrate on everything esle that needs done and spreads the load about. If you want a manager though, definately go for someone who actually knows what they are doing and will put the time in, whether that is an external agency (for a percentage of your earnings or so on) or a friend who knows what they are doing, giving the job to a mate who wants to help but cant play an instrument is a bit pointless David

Would anyone have a copy of 'let's get going... you're fracturing me' by the Youthmovie Soundtrack Strategies they would be willing to sell me? David

couldn't you find a mate with an ipod you could borrow the lead off of if you dont need it the rest of the time for charging? David

out of those three videos (wooten, hamm and sheehan) stu hamm easily gets my vote for being the most entertaining Billy Sheehan is undoubtably incredibly talented, the problem is, that it is just tuneless wanking, Hamm and Wooten at least played recognisable tunes (note the word tune) I think the same about guitar though, often all the 'shred' playing just ends up being glorified wanking you watch to say 'he can play' and thats about it and really, the one question i got from al three videos is why? I play bass and love doing it, but its not really a lead instrument, amazing in a band context, and can have some lead elements (think muse or less than jake) but purely for lead, why bother when a guitar can do it much better... now i am off to play a walking bassline and possibly the theme music from reservoir dogs, proper music David

semi realistically (ie stuff i could buy for an alright amount of cash if i had the funds/space/no parents) i would probably get... Fender Lite ash tele (the korean one) Fender CIJ Tele (one of the 52 reissues or similar) Fender CIJ Jerry Donahue Tele (to sit next to the one i have, just unmodified, and in red not blue) one of those would do guitarwise, and give me pretty much all the sounds i would need (alongside my current guitars) I would love a little fender combo, most likely a diy kit for a fender champ - the little vintage 5 watt one, excellent for home use also an AC30 reissue, but the marshall does me fine normally first comes some upgrades for my amp though, new valves and speaker to be more specific i still want to get my hands on a marshall shredmaster too, oh and a delay (a BYOC kit) those would be awesome, which i intend buying in the future when i can oh, and a bass amp, depending on whether i end up playing bass or guitar in a band i am getting together atm David

What options are there for cheap analouge synths out there? A synth has been something i have been wanting for a while to get to play with, mainly for synthy noises (ie obviously synth, not strings or the like). Analouge because synths do tend to have a lot of options to play with, and having an array of knobs i can toy with is much, much preferrable to menu's and so on, I do understand the basics of synthesis, but have never gotten my hand on one to play with. so are there any options out there I would like and have fun with? David

i love in the commentary part, where they point out all the obscure references they hid around the show i may have to visit hmv and buy those, damn you for pointint out yet more cheap dvds i want... David

over 100 is an excellent score for me the student nights at the beach are good, cheap bowling is always fun, and the competition is cool (mostly because i won one week) - you had to bowl and try and get the score they had chosen for that week, then everyone that won got a share of £200, i won it one week and got £50, nae bad for going out to have some fun going bowling. i think they have changed it now that you have to get within limits, then have to spin a wheel or something David

thats fairly impressive you found it at all... a friend dropped a phone in a lecture, realised as he was walking to the next one, went straight back and it had gone already... it would be cool if you had a camera phone, and have a nice picture diary of its whereabouts David

no idea if this is the proper way, but print out a photo, then compare the print to what you see on screen, so you can set the screen to the colours of the photo - ie what you will be printing David

i could go down stupidly early to get in, spend hours waiting around to see a couple of bands i dont really want to see, then spend hours trying to get through a hige crowd of drunks and get home or i could stay at home in my nice warm house, free from annoying drunks and not stuck an hours walk away in town with no taxi's in sight (or massivly overpriced if you can find one) David

try cash converters and by xchange on george street, they usually have some old games in stock David

6x4 is the 'normal' size, 7x5 and 9x6 being common enlargements 10x8 will crop the image a bit, 10x7 is better in that regard really, you want to do them 10x15 sizes in inches (otherwise your photos would be tiny in real life) David

i want to get my hands on one i was wandering how well they work on bass guitar, i know the ebow has grooves for the guitar strings, but with a bit of practise you could get around that, i wasnt sur if the output would be enough for a bass though David

aye, one on the first page... compared to the usual drivel we get here i dont mind a few semi interesting posts... David

crunchy definately David

all pretty obvious really the one i find most amusing is the 'better' power cords one (number 8: the power conditoner lie) if purely for the fact your houses wiring isnt going to be super audiophile grade cabling, so what difference will a couple of feet between the plug and unit make? any degredation (and improvement from replacing with decent stuff) is going to happen a long time before it hits the plug, and better cabling there cant bring back any losses thats ignoring the fact that the power supply in the unit will completely change the supply from the mains supply (a 240v 50hz sine wave) to a dc supply of the required size vacuum tubes, i will agree on for audio, a transistor should be equal or better at least compared to a valve for clean, full range amplification. where they do rock is in instrument amplifiers, where we actually want them distorting, where the way they distort does sound better than a transistor most of the higher end audiophile market seems a bit pointless to me, i bought myself a decent stereo (just under 500 worth) and it makes a hell of an improvement over my old 80 jobbie, but i cant really see too much point in spending too much more than that, if anything else, do you listen in an acoustically perfect room? i doubt it, in most rooms there are furniture and square walls and many other factors which will influence the sound a lot more than a 1500 over a 800 hifi, and really when you get to a decent enough level, is there even that much difference that can be made between the 'better' units and one thing to add that i saw in a hifi magazine a while ago, audiophile level cabling for connecting up an ipod to a hifi, surely if you are going to notice the difference in cabling between bog standard and 100 level, you will find the compression of the ipods audio unlistenable through your posh hifi compared to 'perfect' cd's or vinyl for the best audio, i remember one of the guys in holburn hifi telling me that he thought records werent the best available, since every time you listen to it and move the record from sleeve to turntable it will deteriorate slightly and more background noise and pops and clicks will appear, so he buys as vinyl (the best available new) then records the first play to tape to capture the best quality he can, then stores the records for later and uses the tape of it note, this is proper reel to reel tape (of which i cant remember the size) not little cassette tapes, which arent that great a semi decent hifi and a few cds will do me nicely i think David

fuck yes, i missed them last time they played (only really got into them shortly after) so have been waiting for them to come back David

does it not occur to anyone the volume limit is imposed for a reason? ie to stop you getting the volume loud enough to damage your ears (which it will over time listening at full blast) is it just me that wants to have my ears left intact by the time i am 30? David

i have been using a sony for the last year and a bit and love it, the kicker over the ipod being the battery life, at that point the sony was quite a bit more expensive too, but i preferred it i will give apple props for the click wheel though, very quick and easy to use as for sonicstage, i have been using it and have no problems with it at all... i did start from scratch though, so i wasnt importing huge libraries of mp3's or anything, recording everything from cd to atrac3+, but really, i cant see what all the fuss is about over it, it does the job perfectly well for me... David

dont think it was knights, aberdeen visual maybe? David

the gallery is awesome Bill Bailey and Marvin being two of my favourates David