Last Night's Gig

[bitflipper]

It was either the worst gig in recent memory, or the best. I've decided to classify it as the latter.

Now, every band likes to have an audience and hates to play for an empty room. But last night was ridiculous. Packed wall-to-wall. They couldn't have squeezed one more person in there. The fire department would have declared it a safety hazard. I wasn't worried, as the emergency exit was 10 feet from me, so I probably would have survived a stampede. No air conditioning, so sweating buckets. 

To add to the stress, last night we debuted the new PA system. The drummer couldn't get enough volume out of his monitor, a mystery I didn't solve all night (still learning the new mixer). The drummer complained he wasn't loud enough. The guitarist complained he wasn't loud enough. The singer complained she wasn't loud enough. But by any objective measure, we were exceedingly LOUD across the board, louder than we've ever been. But the crowd was exceedingly loud as well.

The PA performed well, though. No distortion with everything except bass (still waiting on a SansAmp DI) going through it. I have become a huge fan of RCF products. I like to buy American-made stuff when I can, but RCF (which is Italian) just puts QSC  and JBL to shame. 

I was horrified at the end of the night to find that people had been using my subs for end tables. My brand-new subs that cost more than my first car, wet with beer. Fortunately, they have a hard finish that's apparently waterproof. Still pissed me off, though.

Hit the pillow at 2:00 AM, immediately zonked out and woke up this morning still wearing my glasses. Now I'm off to a 3-hour whale-watching tour. Yes, a 3-hour tour. If you never hear from me again it's because I'm trying to make a radio out of a coconut.

[JnTuneTech]

4 hours ago, bitflipper said:

If you never hear from me again it's because I'm trying to make a radio out of a coconut.

Well, as long as the Skipper doesn't start out calling you "little buddy" right off the start, you should probably be alright. At least in those waters. 😬

P.S. - My subs have plenty of "condensation rings" on the top... After a while it just becomes normal.  I even caused several of them myself!

Edited August 13, 2023 by JnTuneTech
added color

[Bapu]

@bitflipper Side up with Mary Ann, Ginger is a tart.

[craigb]

Over 100 F here today, so yesterday was much better!

I'd suggest making some "decorative" tops for your subs that just happen to make it impossible to put anything on!  Perhaps something make from foam that you can cut (and paint?) that looks intentional, but without any remaining flat surface. 🙂

[mettelus]

Or could just put something like Tru-Oil on them. The beauty of that stuff is when it gets worn, dinged, or scratched, you can just clean and rough it and apply another coat. I slathered two coats with my hand (very thick coats) on a piece of red oak that was the top step to the basement 12 years ago and never needed another coat. A lot of heavy traffic has used that step (heaviest thing was a new furnace), and I doubt anyone will be walking/dancing on your subs, but you never know! Most surfaces are only a few mils thick, so you definitely do not want the original finish taking the abuse.

[kennywtelejazz]

Wow your gig sounds like a cross between a music filled sauna and people packed in there like sardines having fun .

I remember playing clubs like that .  I wish I had a time machine because every so often I honestly miss playing those type of places .

8 hours ago, bitflipper said:

 

Now I'm off to a 3-hour whale-watching tour. Yes, a 3-hour tour. If you never hear from me again it's because I'm trying to make a radio out of a coconut.

🤣

Wow I can't believe you are finally coming down from The North to visit me and Craig ! It takes more that 3 hours to to take in the sights of our local females .  If you ever want The Coffee House to hear from you again don't forget to bring along a hat and a wig for the coconut . This way if you want to make a quick escape out of here , you can always tell the Whales you brought along a cute friend for them to meet as you slip out the back door in plain sight .  There are times when having a shaved  head has it advantages .

Kenny

Edited August 14, 2023 by kennywtelejazz

[bitflipper]

Well, I survived the three-hour tour. My daughter, who's far wealthier than me, had booked the boat for a private excursion so it actually went 4 hours. Our guide was knowledgeable and respectful of the whales, clearly an ecologically-sensitive preservationist in spite of his exploitive job.

I still have reservations about following whales around. Now I know how movie stars feel when they're just trying to have lunch with a pack of paparazzi lurking about. There were several other whale-watching boats out there (I tried shouting that they couldn't look at them because we'd booked a private tour and those were OUR whales, but they apparently couldn't hear me), all tipping off the other boats as to which pods were where. Still, I'd rather see them swimming free than performing tricks at Sea World. (If you've never seen it, I highly recommend the fantastic documentary "Blackfish". But be forewarned: it's one of those documentaries that will leave you fuming.)

We saw them play. We saw them fish. We did not get to see them mutilate any harbor seals, though. They seemed to be content with salmon. As would I.

I have to admit, those Orcas are truly majestic. Boats have to stay some distance from them, but the animals have no such restrictions and often came right up to us. We saw a total of 12 of them in 3 different pods, including babies as well as elder giants.

It was interesting enough to keep me from falling asleep, despite having only four hours' sleep the night before. I normally veg out on the Sunday after a late gig. I can't veg today, either, as today's chore is unloading the van and setting up for guitarist auditions tomorrow and Wednesday. On that front, we're hopeful because one of the candidates was enthusiastic enough to come to Saturday's gig. Now, if he'd only stuck around for the loadout and helped move gear, I'd have been inclined to offer him the job on the spot.

[bitflipper]

Last night we played one of our favorite venues, a winery in the Cascade foothills. The stage is right in the vineyard, surrounded by grapes. Even better, a stage you can drive right up to.

I got to use my fancy new crank-up speaker stands for the first time, as there was room to place the subs properly - in front, side-by-side. We left the covers on them. These covers let you do that, with a zippered flap in front that can be folded back and velcroed in place. Putting those covers on is a PIA, as you have to lower the subs into them, *****-end first. We gotta start making enough money to hire a roadie. I am still blown away by how good those RCFs sound. Better than a hack band like us deserves.

I set up my TASCAM DR-07 mini recorder on a mic stand out front. The idea is to record our arrangements for the new guitarist, when we find one. Unfortunately, our current guitarist happens to be pretty good. Good enough to set our expectations high, so the search goes on.

It was the first time I'd used the DR-07, which I'd bought just for this purpose. I didn't even know if it was working correctly. I set levels and let it run for the entire 2-hour show, hoping for the best. Ended up with a 1.4GB MP3. Never seen a 1.4GB MP3 file before. Turned out what I got was 2 hours of wind noise with some music under it. Enough for our future guitarist to learn the arrangements, though.

[craigb]

2 hours ago, bitflipper said:

Dang Dave!  Without hair you look just like a bird!!! 😮

😜

[Bapu]

2 hours ago, bitflipper said:

Turned out what I got was 2 hours of wind noise with some music under it.

It's got my vote for the longest rendition of "The Wind Cries Mary" evah!

Edited August 19, 2023 by Bapu

[JnTuneTech]

5 hours ago, bitflipper said:

It was the first time I'd used the DR-07, which I'd bought just for this purpose. I didn't even know if it was working correctly. I set levels and let it run for the entire 2-hour show, hoping for the best. Ended up with a 1.4GB MP3. Never seen a 1.4GB MP3 file before. Turned out what I got was 2 hours of wind noise with some music under it.

I bought a different model DR recorder a while back, took it out field recording, and was dismayed by the lack of any wind noise mitigation options in the box at all.  -And I probably am just lame for not looking into after-purchase windscreen options, but it seems with the stated low frequency audio range of the built-in condenser mics, that would have to seemed in engineering terms like an absolute necessity, when using them anywhere else than a closed room with no motion going on whatsoever.  -I see also a lot of folks bypass the integrated mics and use the external inputs on my model with other mics (and probably wind covers).

-Rather on a tangent, but have you ever used a condenser mic with no pop-filter or screen, and amplified through a pair of those subs like you bought?  -I once created a very realistic earthquake simulation, in a small theater, by recording my breath in the proper faux-sequence, blowing across the condenser diaphragm of an SM-81, and mixing it in the audio track along with some earthquake footage on a big screen.  -2 powered subs, plus sustained ultra-low frequency wind flutter - wow!  -I didn't blow any speakers luckily, even with minimal limiting, because I recorded it manually in advance - carefully watching/listening that the subs were not being overdriven...  Fun!

- Anyway, be careful playing back that  2 hours of wind rumble.... you may find it numbs your prospective new guitarist's brain (or wrecks some headphones, etc.) without correct warnings and/or running a hi-pass on the entire file ahead of time!!

Edited August 19, 2023 by JnTuneTech
Sppp...pelling!

[bitflipper]

57 minutes ago, JnTuneTech said:

...have you ever used a condenser mic with no pop-filter or screen, and amplified through a pair of those subs like you bought?

Can't say it's ever even occurred to me. Sounds like microphone abuse 

Yeh, I'm definitely going to highpass the recording. My intention is to load the file into Sonar, split it into individual song files and trim the "silence" (and bad jokes) so that I can give the new guy a folder on a thumb drive that also has links to YouTube videos of the original recordings plus lyrics and chord charts.

That's a lot of work, but we have only 4 weeks to work in the new guitarist before we have to start cancelling gigs. I refuse to play the 20-minute version of Johnny B. Goode just because we don't have enough material for three 45-minute sets.

[mettelus]

6 hours ago, bitflipper said:

I set up my TASCAM DR-07 mini recorder on a mic stand out front.

Can't you pull monitor feeds from the PA system itself?  Having to deal with all the environmentals is a nuisance, especially those, "Oh crap, sorry I spilled my drink on you! The keyboardist's head flash blinded me there!"

[bitflipper]

1 hour ago, mettelus said:

Can't you pull monitor feeds from the PA system itself?

Once we complete the transition to everything through the PA, that will be trivial to do. Because the mixer is also a 16-channel USB interface, I'm looking forward to making band demos going straight from the mixer into Sonar. But we're not there yet. Bass and guitar were separately amplified yesterday. The previous week we'd had all but the bass in the PA, but the packed room was so frickin' loud that I suspect a mic in the audience would have been drowned out.

There was also a second purpose for making this recording. We have no FoH operator so I mix from the stage. That's challenging until you figure out where everything's subjectively supposed to be and can get the monitoring sorted.  For example, I learned from the recording that the keyboards were consistently too quiet, suggesting that my monitor volume is too high. It's a process.

I've tried to get the singer to give me some feedback, as she routinely wanders the room with a wireless mic and likes to dance with audience members. But she's pretty useless when it comes to anything remotely technical, being perfectly content as long as her vocals are on top of everything. So if you're ever in Seattle, mettelus, please come help. Beer and burgers will be on me.

[kennywtelejazz]

On 8/13/2023 at 2:25 PM, Bapu said:

@bitflipper Side up with Mary Ann, Ginger is a tart.

🤣

7 hours ago, Bapu said:

It's got my vote for the longest rendition of "The Wind Cries Mary" evah!

 Gilligan's Island and The Wind Cries Mary were both in play during the mid 60 's . I would imagine if Jimi got around a TV set in his travels he may have seen the show .

How do I know this ? I heard that one of Strummy's long lost  distant relatives heard Jimi's longer titled version of the song called the Wind Cries Mary Ann Not Ginger and he suggested to Jimi that he should just shorten the songs title to The Wind Cries Mary ....

 

Kenny

 

PS When ever I'm in the mood to tell a whopper , I have 2 rules I must follow ...

The Facts and the thread topic may have nothing to do with it . In addition to that point we all know Santa Clause , The Easter Bunny and Superman aren't real , I figure  I might as well marinate the untruth I'm attempting to convey in my story and go big 😉 

 

Edited August 20, 2023 by kennywtelejazz

[craigb]

4 hours ago, bitflipper said:

Can't say it's ever even occurred to me. Sounds like microphone abuse 

Which is Bapu's department! 😆