bitflipper

Update: I've turned into such a pessimist in my old age. There wasn't any snow, we had a full house and a full tip jar, and were immediately booked back for August. All in all, a most pleasant gig. Could it be that the secret to happiness always expecting the worst so that you can be pleasantly surprised?

Well, here in Seattle we almost made it through the entire winter without any snow. Not a flake. Of course, the day it finally snows, melts, refreezes and snows again is the day my 2-wheel-drive van is loaded up with every expensive thing I own. Plus we'll likely get to play for empty chairs tonight. This is what we like to call "paying your dues". But sheesh, I'm 73. When will my dues be considered paid?

That's the first time I've heard of an employer forbidding backing tracks. Is that common in your area? Seems like an unnecessary reduction of the local talent pool. Then again, I remember back in the 70's it was not uncommon for some clubs to require a female vocalist. I remember that because we hired two of them to gain entry into those venues. It was a horrible experience, a soap opera. The two gals were close friends, had choreographed dance moves, and were decent vocalists. Then one of them decided it would be a good idea to do the horizontal bop with the other's boyfriend and that was the end of that band. Never again, said me - who's been performing with a female vocalist for the past 10 years. She's married to the drummer. They're currently getting a divorce. If it comes down to them not being able to be in the same room together, I've already decided to keep the drummer.

Plus the denominations in the tip jar are larger. Sure, they may remember when 25 cents was a reasonable tip, but something about a hundred makes them feel particularly philanthropic. I have a buddy who mostly does nursing homes. You'd think that would be depressing, but he actually connects with the residents (more so the older he gets). Plus gigs are 1 hour and he gets $300-400 for each. He's a solo act who books himself, so that's 100% take-home pay. Sometimes, he does as many as 4 of those in a day. His rig has been trimmed down to just an acoustic 12-string and an amp that also serves as his PA. Several of those places are near me, so he'll often call up and say he's got a couple hours to kill before his next gig and wants to come over and shoot the breeze or grab an espresso. The next logical step, I suppose, is playing funerals. I read an interview with a pianist who was asked to play at a friend's funeral. She didn't know what to play so just quietly improvised some slow tunes. Afterward, guests congratulated her on the performance and asked if she had a CD for sale. She didn't, but wisely set about making one and began actively seeking out funeral gigs. Today she is the queen of funerary music, making more money from selling CDs to funeral homes than actually performing at them. She had inadvertently created a new genre. And yes, today it has become a recognized genre. Not sure if they have a Top Ten.

Thanks for that positive note, Bob. It's kinda refreshing to play for an older audience. Nobody's told them it's not cool to get up and participate. Not that they'd give a sh...hoot anyway.

No. Then again, we never drink before or during a performance. I actually played a place once that charged me $4 for coffee! Not from an espresso machine or anything, just poured from a pot of drip Folger's. Most of the gigs we play that have a house PA are comparably equipped. Last night, it was Mackie. It's gotten to the point where I'm tempted to just tell them we'll use our own mains, no matter how proud they are of their jury-rigged pile of garage sale speakers. Unfortunately, there isn't always physical space to do that. I do, however, always tell them that we mix ourselves. I try to present it as a positive for the FoH guy, telling him he'll have an easy night. But some of those guys are incredibly arrogant, saying nobody mixes themselves, that's crazy. Truth is I couldn't possibly do a worse job than 99% of those posers. At least I'm listening to the band.

We had a strong suspicion that last night's venue might be disappointing, but we went anyway. Unfortunately, our intuition was right. Righter than we could have imagined. It was a new venue for us, and we're always on the hunt for new places to play. The previous week we'd been to a new (to us) place and it turned out great - full house, appreciative audience, very cool owner, wants us on regular rotation. So we were hoping for a repeat of that experience last night. We knew we'd be playing for the door, which is always a risk, but were willing to play for gas money if it opened up a new opportunity. What we didn't expect was a house policy of waiving the cover charge for anyone claiming poverty. Very noble, but the consequence of that was only 7 people actually paid to get in. How those broke folks were able to subsequently drink beer and eat pizza is a mystery. Of the $70 they took in for the night, 20% went to the sound guy and half the remainder went to the opening act. Our take was $16. Sure, the sound guy made out worse, but only later did we discover that he was the bar's owner! Turns out, this is actually the bar's business plan: sucker bands into playing for free. Granted, we don't do any of this for the money but nobody likes to get scammed. The evening started at 5:30 PM, when we showed up to load in. Sound check was scheduled for 7:00, and we need at least a solid hour to set up. The opening band started at 7:45 and proceeded to play for 2.5 hours. They were dreadfully bad. Imagine 2.5 hours of an acoustic singer-songwriter duo singing original three-chord songs about heartbreak. They were actually nice folks who got scammed same as us, but they also drove out half the audience. I am proud to say we delivered the same level of professionalism that we'd have given at an actual paying gig. The audience was enthusiastic. I'm sure they left feeling they'd gotten their money's worth, lol. As did the owner, who immediately asked when we could return. I guess once a grifter has found his mark, the grifter's code dictates that he squeeze them for all he can. Needless to say, we declined his offer and gave him an earful about his shady practices. But the adventure continues. Next week, we're playing at a shopping mall. For actual money.

That is creepy. Even if it turns out to just be a prank by friends, it's still creepy. Too bad there isn't a reverse-lookup feature for airtags. Or maybe there is...you could mail it to somebody in Europe and then wait for somebody to ask her about her vacation.

I came here to suggest that one as well - you beat me to it. That one's written by a guy who has a unique perspective, in that he was a music producer for many years before abandoning that career to become a psychologist. I have just downloaded Nina Kraus' book after reading a short sample on Amazon, so thanks for that suggestion. I've long been fascinated by sound perception as a hack for mixing. Like what a "wide and deep" mix really means, or how masking works, or why some note / timbre combinations are pleasing while others are not. These, I believe, can all be explained in mechanical terms. There is a contributor to this forum that I greatly respect for his mixing chops, but who once perplexed me by stating that "Science to me in the audio field is a waste of time". I had a moment of cognitive dissonance, wondering how he could be so good at something he'd never attempted to understand objectively. Right brain left brain something something.

Billy Hume, my newest favorite music educator / commentator, talks about why someone might not be able to sing on pitch no matter how hard they try. My bassist really works hard on his vocals, and does fine on leads but often beats his head against the wall trying to find his harmony part, and is often flat when he does find it. He's asked me how I do it, and I honestly don't know what to tell him. I said I just "see" harmonies in my mind, similar to Melodyne blobs on the computer screen. This might suggest that this may be an innate skill, meaning something you can't train for. Or at least a skill you have to pick up early in life, like learning a second language.

I recently tried to pull up Netflix on two of my TVs, only to be informed that "Netflix no longer supports this device". One is a smart TV with network features such as a built-in Netflix client, the other is an older "dumb" TV that gets Netflix via a DVD player that has the client built-in. I'm guessing they found some weaknesses in their access control / user validation and have forced manufacturers to put additional security features into their firmware-based Netflix clients to circumvent password sharing. I am not inclined to buy new TVs, as I just don't watch enough television to justify the expense. But I don't subscribe to cable TV, so those sets are now just video monitors for watching DVDs. Consequently, I am looking into Firestick-type devices so I can get Netflix back on those receivers. Thanks to Shane's comment, it has just now occurred to me that it would be nice to get YouTube on them as well. But I haven't actually looked into how (or how well) Firestick works. Does it require a monthly subscription or any other additional costs beyond the initial purchase? Or is it essentially just a little computer with HDMI outputs?

€19, about what you'd pay for a Diva / Zebra / Massive / Omnisphere 3rd-party patch library. So a fair price, assuming you're into Kontakt synth libs.

Thanks to mastering guru Ian Shepard for bringing this to our attention. It's called "Stable Volume", and it applies a primitive leveling compressor to YouTube audio. It's supposed to turn itself off when it detects music, but let's recall that YT doesn't have a good track record with such things. What happens when you watch a video that's mostly talking about audio, but with audio examples? Think of your favorite YT educators such as Dave Rat, Audio University, or Dan Worrall. Much of their content would become pointless if you couldn't hear small differences in audio. To make sure this feature is turned off, click on the gear icon for YT options and make sure Stable Volume is disabled. You cannot disable it globally.

The Flakiness Index falls off the further north and west you go, but increases exponentially to the east and south. To the east, you come to Sultan/Gold Bar, tweaker capitol of the northwest. To the south, the murder/carjacking/drive-by nexus of White Center / Federal Way. And it generally gets worse the further south you go. The longtime northwesterner knows better than to cross the Columbia River, as Thar Be Dragons.

Here just north of Seattle we are on almost the exact latitude as Montreal, but unlike Montreal we get little snow. So far this winter, not a single flake. I'm good with that.

Translation, courtesy of Google Translate: I gatherJoel has created his own autotune plugin. Cool!

Yes, I think it is a great deal. It, or something like it, is essential if you're mastering for streaming or just want consistency between projects. I use this on every project. I did not pay $199 for it, though, and probably wouldn't have ever discovered its value had it not come bundled with Ozone Advanced.

So did the blonde singer, at least back in Roger's pretty-boy days.

That's why doing your own thing requires a certain level of courage. Assuming, of course, that you're self-aware enough to recognize the concept of cause-and-effect, aka "FAFO".

I've never liked punk and always thought Johnny Rotten was a total fraud, something he himself later admitted. But I do get the underlying attitude and applaud the desire to do your own thing regardless of what's popular or respectable.

I am always encouraged to see young people adopting classic rock, and these folks have done an exemplary job of interpreting one of the greatest classics of all time. Note the refreshing absence of over-the-top post-production, auto-tune and reverb washes. Just a legit live performance from some extraordinarily talented and dedicated musicians. The principle lead vocalist even manages to project in the original keys, showing great technique. And of course there's the YouTube-famous drummer grinning all the way through, just like Keith used to do. I literally shed a tear during I Can See for Miles (22:20), it was that good.

I stand corrected. I guess I just assumed it was a new product because I hadn't seen it before. Then again, I didn't even own a pair of decent headphones until c. 2004-2005.

I didn't so much jump off the train as simply sit back and watch it leave the station without me. That was about three years ago, when I realized that Black Friday had come and gone and I hadn't bought anything. Since then I've picked up a few too-cheap-to-ignore sample libraries and that's about it. Although I have to admit to one relapse, having jumped back on very briefly to buy ProQ-4 on release day. But I don't regret it, and it'll likely be the only purchase I make over the coming year.

I didn't know those were so cheap! The only time I've heard them was at the Sony booth at NAMM, c. 2008. They sounded wonderful. At the time they were a new product, and when I asked the rep what they retailed for, he said $500. I set them back on the rack and moved on.

It's a generally-accepted principle that whatever your speakers are weak at is what your mixes will overcompensate for. Usually, they're talking about deep bass. If your monitors can't reproduce very low frequencies, then gauging your mix's bass levels can only ever be a shot in the dark and likely to come out too hot. Conversely, speakers with hyped bass will encourage bass-light mixes. Consequently, the "you can make anything work" concept assumes that your budget speakers/headphones meet at least bare-minimum requirements. Laptop speakers and stock Apple earbuds will only ever translate by accident. A good example is Audio Technica's ATH-M50, a longtime favorite for cheap-ish (~$150) but good-enough headphones that will do the job pretty well. They are far from flat (no headphones are), with hyped bass and uneven highs. But spend enough time with them and you can create well-balanced mixes. Personally, I'm a speaker guy. For me, headphones are either a secondary reference or for fine editing. But then I don't mix in hotel rooms or on the beach. I'm always in the same space, seated in the sweet spot and surrounded by absorption. Consistency is the key, regardless of what you're listening on. That's because the HS-80s are rear-ported speakers, which can cause bass buildup between the ports and the rear wall. I've seen the benefit of moving them away from the wall first-hand, and it was a dramatic improvement. They didn't get stronger bass (they're still relatively small enclosures) but the bass response was smoother and flatter. The studio's owner later reported that the quality of his mixes had noticeably improved and he spent far less time fiddling with bass. One potential solution for you would to add a sub and cross it over at a relatively high frequency, e.g. 100 Hz. You could then move the sub around the room until you find the ideal location - it doesn't have to be in front of you or equidistant between the main speakers. One neat trick I learned back when I had a sub was to set it on the chair in the mix position and then crawl around the floor until it sounds good, then move the sub there.