Squonk wrote
Can I ask a question, seeing that Guitar Rig has been mentioned!
Riaan, would you take two laptops to the Gig in case the HD blew or the motherboard or the charger?
But even in the case of using effects in one single unit, do you have a backup unit?
I remember long years ago that Little Sister cancelled a gig because the hard drive crashed! And me being in IT wondered why they didn't ghost the drive and have a spare! This all seems a bit scarey.
Its a calculated risk thing, really. I have doubles for everything, including another laptop with all the same software and settings. Although I don't use Guitar Rig at the moment, I play my midi backtracks on a laptop.
I don't take the extra laptop with me to every gig. I will,
every time, if its a high stakes thing: a wedding, a corporate event or if its far from home (we play a restaurant in Simon's Town, which is probably a 100kms or so return commute). If its a pub in the area, I'll take the gamble (knowing I could pop back home and pick it up if necessary). By the way, I also take a spare guitar to the big gigs, whereas I don't to the latter. But certain things are non-negotiable - spare microphone, leads, etc to ALL gigs. My guitar strap broke at a recent gig - an expensive Planet Waves leather job a few months old!! Five minute break, out came the spare and on with the show!
I must confess I've never had a major laptop issue yet. Once it wouldn't boot,and nothing I could do would fix it. Buddy around the corner from the venue brought one around (same set-up etc). Once I had a power supply issue. Two hicups in about six years of playing with a laptop.
Its inconceivable that a band with that kind of profile didn't have a B-set or a Plan B. Unforgiveable ...
