THE GOOD, THE BAD, and THE UGLY (for bassists)

We've been playing the circuit heavily for quite some time now and I would just like to share this post that I put up in philmusic. The thread was about WHAT TO EXPECT IN BASS SETUP IN BARS. I think this would effectively describe the bass amp setups out there:

Pardon me if i cant be too specific with the amp models. this is as far as i remember:

THE GOOD:
Route 196 Katipunan- Ampeg SVT Head + Cabinet - need I say more?

Cafe Saguijo Makati - Ampeg (Combo) - again.

Calye Brown El Pueblo - Laney Combo - decent. ample juice for the acoustics of the venue.

THE BAD:
Dayo Bar Cubao - Laney Combo - i think the venue makes the amp sound bad. the acoustics are bad and the monitors are just for display.

Kampai Bar Katipunan - Behringer Stack - i am not very fond of behringer bass amps, though i think the BDi Preamp is decent, but here in Kampai, your only problem with the bass setup is if you can hear yourself play through the monitors. the trick in this venue is to lower down gain and master to 5 (12oclock), and let the techs do their job. same goes for guitars. last time we played here, we sounded really good through the house, although it sounded bad onstage. in the end, FOLLOW THE TECH's INSTRUCTIONS!

THE UGLY:
Freedom Bar Anonas - OLD Crate Combo - this setup is sooooo bad that if you're not buddies with the inhouse tech, you'd sound like cow dung. the only remedy is to have it PROPERLY lined out to house speakers and out from the monitors.

Mayrics Espana - OLD Marshall Stack - this baby is soooo old that it cannot withstand extreme lows (I USE A FIVE STRING IBBY AND I LIKE IT LOW.. LOW LOW LOW LOW LOW) ... the cones tend to pop and the best way to get around it is to lower down gain and master volume, and boost with a preamp hoping that you come out of the monitors.

Club Dredd Eastwood- Behringer Stack - its Behringer (biased), the input is broken, the monitors dont work, the mic stand swings ... what else do i have to say?

RJ Bar Jupiter - Crate? Combo - it has a generic Direct box attached to it where you plug in your bass, but you end up playing ONLY with the house speakers and the TECH will always tell you to lower down your volume to the point that you dont hear anything onstage. I think this is because most of the gigs here are televised through UHF tv and going really loud onstage would mess up their broadcast sound. nuff said.


i think i've said enough. i hope i was able to shed some light in this dark area. LOL. thanks for reading on. im very open to comments.

DISCLAIMER: I am in no way implementing any form of bad publicity for the bars mentioned in THE UGLY section. This is but a mere speculation of the things to expect for those musicians who actually read this blog. No offense meant, at least you know what your patronizers think of your equipment.
PEACE!

-AJ

AMS at Slam!

I almost forgot, CONGRATULATIONS to our friends,April Morning Skies, for playing the Pulp Summerslam today! Hope you guys kicked butt! I bet you had a shitload of fun! Sana kami din makaranas niyan in the future =) Again give it up for AMS! Hella awesome band!

-Darwin

Malagkit pa din!

(These are just MY thoughts)

Taena noh, dito sa Pinas ang mga struggling bands sobrang struggling talaga! Andami ko nakikita magagaling na banda na hindi nabibigyan ng chance para marinig ng mabuti ng tao. Magkaroon man sila ng gigs madalas sila pa nagbabayad. Madalas di pa sila papansinin ng mga tao dahil parang paningit lang sila sa gabi. Tapos makakapanuod ka na lang sa mtv,myx o kung saan mang channel dyan sa tv ng mga bandang ewan na bigla na lang lumitaw at ni minsan di mo nakita sa gigs at more or less alam mong dahil lang sa pera ang pagsikat. Bullshit talaga! Malagkit na malagkit! Anlakas pa naman din maka-influence ng tv sa kabataan ngayon. Kung anu makita nila madalas sa tv yun na ang alam nilang cool.

Hay, pinagdaanan na namin lahat ng pinagdadaanan ng mga batang banda ngayon. And until now nakakaranas pa din kami ng TAE ng TORO! Pero di kami titigil hangga't gusto pa namin gumawa ng mga kanta. Kahit gaano kabaho ang tae sa paligid malilinis natin yan pag nayanig na ng mga alingangaw mula sa gitara at amplifiers. At pag hinangin na ng hininga ng tinig mula sa mga microphone! At pag sinabayan pa ng mga totoong sumusuporta at talagang nakakaalam ng tunay na talento, mahuhugasan na din ang tae.

Be true to your craft not to your crap!

-Darwin

In Tagalog

Hay kay init at nakakayamot ang paglalagi dito sa aming bahay. Wala sanang problema kung may mapupuntahan, eh ang kaso wala din namang mapupuntahan na maayos at nakakaaliw dito sa samin. Kapos din naman ako sa datung kaya ayun kahit may mapuntahan man kailangan ko pang gumastos. bwiseeet! Gusto ko nang tumugtog! Shet na malagket!

-Darwin

FINALLY!

Yes I finally saw our video on MYX! So happy! =)

-Darwin

WTF meetings...

Greetings from Quezon City! Yes we are back in Manila for what was supposed to be two nights of gigs but we ended up playing only one (especially awesome one) last night at Kampai's katipunan together with REKLAMO,FREEFALL,PICTURE FILLED,NYCTYNASTY and the always impressive FASPITCH! It was one of the legs of Faspitch's WTF bar tour. Betong even jammed with Faspitch on their song "breathe" so basically awesome and sexy came together and it was just a horny number hahaha.

We also had a very personal band meeting that became a rollercoaster ride of a talk. But we got through it fine, we are civilized and intelligent people anyway. Can't wait to do it again =P

- Darwin

Oh so great luck!

So we got a video out on myx, the same single on NU107. Hooray! People are voting for them (I hope =P), we're so very fortunate yes we are! But I am one unlucky dude, I still haven't seen it on myx. People have been texting me telling me that they just saw it a minute ago or something like that, then when I have the time to tune into the channel, sometimes for a couple hours, I still can never catch it being played! WTF??? Im so friggin lucky! Hope you guys can help me actually catch our video on tv, just vote for it or request to view it on myx! Pleeease! I just wanna see it at least once in my life! booohoooo :(


- Darwin