Let's Read Your "Fuck Bands--I'm Flying Solo" Tales

[Eric!]

So I'm fed up with the circus that is a six-piece band. No one has any drive to go anywhere, they just wanna wank. Gonna get a drum machine, looper, and a nice mic and just do my own thing.

I can't be the only one that has gone through this sort of situation. So let's hear about your solo adventures! The good, the bad, all of it.

[neonblack]

I wanna do this because there are zero drummers in my area that aren't already in 2-3 bands.

Relevant thread.

[Bellyheart]

It was pointed out to me during an interview with my last band each band has become one member less than the other....my last band was a two piece and now I'm learning modular and looking for a drum machine.

I wouldn't say it's intentional but the brain is a powerful thing.

[Eric!]

Also looking for good drum machine/sampler recommendations.

[neonblack]

If you're going to use a drum machine and a looper at the same time you'll need something that can sync up. Could get expensive real quick.

[blakestree]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gs3DydT5pdY[/youtube]






p.s.
I'm still bummed about Navi.

[D.o.S.]

Nothing beats playing live with other people but it is so much easier to do solo stuff it's mindboggling. So now I do my solo thing for "serious" and jam with no pretensions towards anything more than drinking beer and being loud and it's great.

[Deltaphoenix]

I went solo for a couple of reasons:
Singer had a touch of megalomania
Schedules became hard to match
My musical interests changed
I had done the solo thing before and had fun

So, yeah, I already had drum machines, synths, modular, etc. I just went further down the modular path. This week I am playing out with my first modular set.
I will still play bass with people if I am interested in what music they want to play. I have turned down at least 2 offers to join a band because I only have time for one semi-serious project and I choose me.

Regarding drums/loopers, are you wanting a drum machine that can pull off acoustic drum sounds pretty well or one that is more electronic in sound?
There are some cheapie Zooms that sound good, have foot controller inputs so you can change parts (pattern up or down) and some are more acoustic and some are more drum machine sounding.. They have midi in for sync. Usually I would probably want the drum machine to send midi out but there are ways around this.

[Eric!]

I want live-sounding drums but also have capacity to have an input be assigned to a pad, so dunno. DELTZ SAVES THE DAY. AGAIN.

[ShaolinLambKiller]

I've released over 60 albums/eps under various band/project names when I pretty much was forced to go solo since hurricane katrina pretty much drove out a bunch of people I jammed with and a few years after that the rest I jammed with left. I was normally a drummer by trade but had started out on guitar and bass so it wasn't any difficulty since I was already getting all the equipment I needed to record my own bands. so all it was just sitting down for the very first ep and doing it. after that point I discovered how amazingly easy it was so I just kept recording and writing for a bunch of different styles.

now I do session work, mainly drums for other bands... have people come over to knock out eps of short stuff that we can write and record in a day or two, and do have one band that I do play live with and another that's been recording but we do want to move into a live setting at some point.

take live drum samples and use them to your assigned pad.

[blakestree]

I was normally a drummer by trade

I was wonderin'. Hommie got da chops.

[ShaolinLambKiller]

haha thanks. I was late to the game on everything. I started with guitar when I was 16 and bass shortly after. I didn't start drumming till I was 20 and at that time I pretty much started in multiple bands so I practiced with or without a band around 5-8 hours a day. At one point I was in 5 active bands. and I would scheduel band practices all at my place right after I got off work which would be 4PM and usually it was 2-3 bands a night and it worked out well. cause with the bands dudes would have could come early and had to leave early anyway and the other bands had guys that worked late so they could jam later. just worked out very well.

there was a severe lack of drummers down here, and out of the drummers around an even smaller number of any quality or skill to play metal or anything heavy.

[spacelordmother]

To each their own of course, but I think faking live drums sounds is lame as fuck. You don't have to be rocking 808 handclaps or anything, but being true to the tools you have and are using is cool, and since you're doing something new and cool and different it seems to make sense to do it in a new and cool and different way.

YMMV

[blakestree]

To each their own of course, but I think faking live drums sounds is lame as fuck.

Depending on the usage, you could not tell the difference between tracking live drums and samples.

[neonblack]

I think Austerity Program does the drum machine in a heavy band thing perfectly. The drums are super powerful and they don't try to replicate acoustic drum sounds perfectly. They just use Bass, snare, and cymbals and they program patterns that no human could play, but without being wanky about it. It still grooves.