Music Gear

Action room, screen printing, darkroom, Bristo Hall, Cave, AV equipment
Post Reply
HGiles
Posts: 1292
Joined: Sat Apr 10, 2010 3:21 pm

Music Gear

Post by HGiles » Mon May 09, 2011 5:30 pm

Dear World of Forest,

DO NOT MOVE EQUIPMENT FROM THE CAVE
and other stories

Daniella, Steve and I spent a couple of hours today auditing the music gear in Forest. We now know what is in the building, and what we need to get everything running again.

There are four music-making spaces in Forest: the hall, the café, the Cave, and Cave 2. Each of these should have a full PA, a full drum kit, two guitar amps, a bass amp, and two vocal mics with stands.

Currently, the Cave and Cave 2 have all this equipment. It is really important that it stays there: DO NOT MOVE EQuIPMENT FROM THE CAVE. Partly because people pay for those rooms, and so shouldn't have to spend time hunting for equipment; partly because it's too much work for me to check the Caves every day to restock them (which is what I have had to be doing); partly because some of the equipment is borrowed and is harder to look after if it's spread throughout the building; and partly because if the Caves get a bad reputation we won't make money from them, and it's money we sorely need.

Currently, the hall and the café are missing some equipment, which we don't currently have:
- The café needs a snare and a hi tom
- Both spaces need a crash cymbal
- The café needs a guitar amp and a bass amp
- The hall needs a guitar amp
- Ideally, both spaces should have a working DI box

Also, the snare in the hall needs mending, as does the bass drum in the Cave. Steve and Daniella are on this.

Until we get that missing equipment, you should warn people booking events to check the state of the equipment and bring extras they need. You SHOULD NOT TAKE EQUIPMENT FROM THE CAVES to supplement the hall and café. We're just going to be a bit under-stocked there for a week or so.

YOU CAN HELP, TOO!
- Do you have any of the spare equipment we need, and are you willing to donate/lend it to Forest?
- Are you good at repairing/maintaining drum kits? They all need looking after, and a day of maintenance would be much appreciated. We would reward you with food.
- Are you good at testing amps? At the moment we divided amps a bit by instinct. It would be good to ensure that we divided up the decent amps evenly, and labelled them accordingly.

Thanks, Forest. You rock.

Alasdair K
Posts: 54
Joined: Sun Jan 31, 2010 9:05 pm
Location: Marchmont, Edinburgh

Re: Music Gear

Post by Alasdair K » Mon May 09, 2011 6:08 pm

Currently the bass amp in Cave 1 needs to be plugged in through the mixer to work properly (ie bass signal goes through PA, not the bass combo speaker). I'll be in later, and if there are no objections, I'll leave a note on the combo to this effect.

Alasdair
Where's the drumkit gone?

Alasdair K
Posts: 54
Joined: Sun Jan 31, 2010 9:05 pm
Location: Marchmont, Edinburgh

Re: Music Gear

Post by Alasdair K » Mon May 09, 2011 6:25 pm

I will also be bringing along (hopefully sometime later this week, perhaps saturday) a 1x15 combo bass amp of happiness. It's old but fairly good and still does everything you tell it too, bar a "pop" noise when you switch it on. This is for donation to forest, though I would prefer to be kept in the loop regarding its usage/status when conveinent.
Where's the drumkit gone?

HGiles
Posts: 1292
Joined: Sat Apr 10, 2010 3:21 pm

Re: Music Gear

Post by HGiles » Mon May 09, 2011 6:55 pm

That's really amazingly helpful! Stick a note on it :-)

Alasdair K
Posts: 54
Joined: Sun Jan 31, 2010 9:05 pm
Location: Marchmont, Edinburgh

Re: Music Gear

Post by Alasdair K » Mon May 09, 2011 11:17 pm

Note stuck.

Furthermore, the 50 watt generic combo amp has been moved out of Cave 2 (who by?), with a very small (unacceptable for band practice) crate amp left in its place. Any objections if I find that combo and put it back in cave 2?
Where's the drumkit gone?

HGiles
Posts: 1292
Joined: Sat Apr 10, 2010 3:21 pm

Re: Music Gear

Post by HGiles » Tue May 10, 2011 7:46 am

This was either me making a mistake about which amps should be where, or someone else moving things the very day I sorted everything out, posted big signs and emailed all Cave users. I hope it's the first, I really do.

Aye, if you were able to check that both Caves have their quota of acceptable amps and move it back, that would be really helpful!

Alasdair K
Posts: 54
Joined: Sun Jan 31, 2010 9:05 pm
Location: Marchmont, Edinburgh

Re: Music Gear

Post by Alasdair K » Tue May 10, 2011 3:10 pm

Will do. It may be the case that I ended up making some "adjustments to your adjustments", but these were strictly in the interests of getting decent size combos in both caves (which work).
Where's the drumkit gone?

Martin Beer
Posts: 3
Joined: Tue May 10, 2011 8:19 pm

Re: Music Gear

Post by Martin Beer » Tue May 10, 2011 8:29 pm

Hello! I've just joined the BB - I use the cave and do general musiciany things around the forest.
Does anyone know if it is the speaker or the power amp which is buggered in the Cave 1 Ashdown bass amp? I have a 15" driver lying around which would get it going again if it's the speaker that's blown. I'd be happy to donate it if it makes the cave a bit more usable. It's a 16 ohm driver, so the amp would deliver slightly fewer watts than it did originally, but it should still be plenty loud enough for rehearsal purposes. I can pop up with it one afternoon if that's useful, and even stick it in the cab.

Alasdair K
Posts: 54
Joined: Sun Jan 31, 2010 9:05 pm
Location: Marchmont, Edinburgh

Re: Music Gear

Post by Alasdair K » Wed May 11, 2011 12:47 am

Hi Martin!

I'm not entirely sure whether its the speaker or the power amp, but from my experience I'll make an educated guess at speaker. That's very generous of you to offer a new one, and I believe we'll have a co-ordinated repair day fairly soon. I'll let you know when I know, but if you want to drop into forest and ask about that wouldn't hurt either :-)

Alasdair
Where's the drumkit gone?

Alasdair K
Posts: 54
Joined: Sun Jan 31, 2010 9:05 pm
Location: Marchmont, Edinburgh

Re: Music Gear

Post by Alasdair K » Wed May 11, 2011 11:45 am

Okay, that's notes left on all the amplifiers living in the Caves (with regards to correct use and getting good sounds). I should be popping in later today to write similar things for the other amps around the building, and might even do the same for the mixers and other bits of electronic gear if I get the chance.
Where's the drumkit gone?

HGiles
Posts: 1292
Joined: Sat Apr 10, 2010 3:21 pm

Re: Music Gear

Post by HGiles » Wed May 11, 2011 1:52 pm

A lovely, lovely volunteer came in yesterday and did maintenance on all the drumkits.
- We bought new felts and washers to replace the missing, so all cymbal and hi-hats now have these
- We bought a new snare stand
- The broken snare and bass skins have been replaced
- All drums have been tuned and generally cleaned up

That means the Cave kits are in good nick, the hall lacks only a crash, and the café lacks only a crash and a snare!

Also, I just labeled every piece of equipment with the room it should be in.

Rock, rock on.

User avatar
Margarida
Posts: 649
Joined: Thu Mar 03, 2011 2:36 pm

Re: Music Gear

Post by Margarida » Tue May 17, 2011 2:51 pm

oh dear, oh dear... well, last night the cave 2 users cutted the ribbon of the new forms for stuff missing from the caves. cave 2 was the problem, apparently.
can't tell by memory what was missing but she wrote down a very nice list, it's at least 4 or 5 things... can someone take a look at that, please? :|
only when the clock stops does time come to life

HGiles
Posts: 1292
Joined: Sat Apr 10, 2010 3:21 pm

Re: Music Gear

Post by HGiles » Tue May 17, 2011 5:11 pm

I'm on it, thanks!

User avatar
Keni
Posts: 1115
Joined: Sun Aug 01, 2010 5:30 pm

Re: Music Gear

Post by Keni » Tue May 17, 2011 6:48 pm

HGiles wrote:Also, I just labeled every piece of equipment with the room it should be in.


That whole post was good news but that last point was a topper. Well done bud.
Nowadays most people die of a sort of creeping common sense and discover when it is too late that the only things one never regrets are one's mistakes. (Oscar Wilde)

Cut the crap & make it happen.

Stephen
Posts: 909
Joined: Mon Mar 23, 2009 4:00 pm

Re: Music Gear

Post by Stephen » Wed May 18, 2011 12:07 am

it seems that if have a busy night, as of saturday, there is simply not enough equipment in the building for all rooms to be used as advertised. Ed needs a back line of two guitar amps and preferably a working base amp. Also the cafe was in use that night. I know roof raiser has not long to go and in the festival we won't be running the caves but we are a wee bit stretched for equipment. Also the sub in the hall relly needs fixed. Also Miguel said he would do a soldering day/skill share thing but he needs to locate solder and a soldering iron, we do have some somewhere, nix maybe knows where. I made a bundell in the cafe in a wire basket that need fixed. see you later

Post Reply