KevB

[quote name='SteveK' timestamp='1436093364' post='2814825'] It's particularly uncomfortable as the gentleman obviously can't handle stressful situations well, and possibly suffers from a degree of autism. [/quote] Pretty much my thoughts on first view, it doesn't look 'normal' does it? (whatever that is).

It's an odd and uncomfortable looking rant but for someone else to think it worth filming is equally weird. Is it for real?, all that arm waving on his way out looks a bit am-dram.

The venue last night is getting reestablished after being closed for a major refurb and change of ownership (and was a bit of a dump under previous owners apparently) and there was a big draw of BBQ/mini beer fest at their nearest competition pub.Also England playing their playoff game on TV (womens world cup) hence never likely to be packed. However some band members invited a few along and that swelled the locals a bit so we had a small but appreciative audience. This was only 3rd gig but it's getting much tighter already, we all agreed after that it was our best performance to date and at this stage that's all you can ask for, steady improvement. Plenty of folks who didn't know us coming up after gig and saying how much they'd enjoyed it, even got one bloke specifically complementing me on my backing vox which was a first for me. Other encouraging thing was that we seem to be getting the song choices off to a good start (there's stuff in there we'd like to replace though and will as we rehearse new material). One bloke said 'Cheers you've pretty much just played my CD collection back to me - brilliant night'. Always stuff to work on but encouraging we are heading in right direction. Owners very keen to have us back, unfortunately the first couple of dates they came up with in Sep we are already booked but we'll sort something.

Well Dylan was always an obvious target and Brian was never in a position get away quickly...

Well it is clearly titled 'The Glastonbury Festival of Performing Arts'. I wonder if there will come a time when there's a headliner that isn't a recognised music act at all? Please God not Michael Mcintyre though.

[quote name='TimR' timestamp='1435926838' post='2813682'] Yes, the top end is very important for the definition. The other thing I've found is that on big stages without multi-channel monitoring, you need to keep the backline tight. Having the bass amp miles away from the drums which are then miles away from the guitar amp is a recipie for incoherent sound. [/quote] Agree, I don't think I'll be troubled by any large stages in the near future with current band but from the limited times I've been on them in the past it really is a very different sound. It's easy to see why monitoring becomes a serious issue in these environments. Always found it a bit strange when people shy away from 15'' speakers - 'Oh no it'll be all muddy, all low end etc etc' but the one in my TE combo seems to deliver right up to fizzy top end without issue, not sure what it is though (Celestion maybe?) I don't think there's a separate horn in there.

They're frightened you'll rearrange all their classics into latino jazz versions. Actually some of them might work...

[quote name='tauzero' timestamp='1435876419' post='2813342'] I thought the thing about Dolly Parton miming (well, apart from the sax bit) had been adequately debunked by now. Have I missed something? [/quote] [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wzKZQkFUfHg"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wzKZQkFUfHg[/url] With headphones it does sound a bit iffy, unless whoever put the clip together actually deliberately and maliciously put the same sound file attributed to different performances. Even someone who had seen her for over 30 years and was an avid fan came out and said she'd been doing it for about the last 5 or 6 years prior to Glasto.

[quote name='TimR' timestamp='1435859429' post='2813164'] Having played a 15" combo for years I've now switched to 2x 2x10" stacked vertically. The top speaker is now near my ears and my 500w amp is plenty loud enough set on 4. The combo was 300w and loud enough for most venues but difficult to hear on stage due to the speaker being level with my calves. [/quote] I use a 1x15 combo of about that wattage and 2x10 ext cab but go against regular convention and stack the 1x15 on top. It's not head height by any means but it raises it up to a more useful height and I can then get at the knobs easier (though I don't fiddle much once set up). Fortunately the 15'' speaker seems to have a very good range so I can get plenty of mid/high freqs through it if needed. The combo is a trace, ext 2x10 is SWR though I used to run a TE 4x10 ext at one time until my back said enough was enough.

[quote name='mrtcat' timestamp='1435872411' post='2813311'] I never take the stage sound to be acceptable for the foh mix. Even in a pub with no engineer I'll use a wireless lead and stand out front to soundcheck and tweak accordingly. There's absolutely no way I can stand next to the drummers hi hat whilst the guitarists amp is over by his floor tom and the keyboardist has his monitor beyond the guitarist and say "yep that sounds good out front". [/quote] Thanks, you've put it more succinctly than I could.

[quote name='JTUK' timestamp='1435849995' post='2813043'] You are stuffed then.... but IME this happens so rarely if you have thought out the sound and mix. I don't really recognise most of these issues, tbh. [/quote] No we're not, I just know I'll need to concentrate a bit more on the things that are naturally going to be lower in the mix *to me* because of where I'm standing but sound fine to the audience. Considering we're just getting up and running with the new band we've had some very complimentary responses from the gigs to date. Does this make it any easier: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dS12p0Zqlt0

Yep I got a text from one of our guitarists after our first gig saying 'I think you need to work on song x,it doesn't sound quite right' to which my immediate reply was 'Too right, I made an utter dog's bollocks of it, working on it now' and then he got all apologetic 'cos he's such a nice bloke.

[quote name='JTUK' timestamp='1435848436' post='2813010'] why..? you can either hear everything or you can't? If you aren't running front of house, your onstage mix becomes THE mix. We use mons for vox only and if I can't hear an instrument onstage, I'm wondering why straight away. I'm playing WITH the guys so I want to hear everything. There can be no guesses otherwise you'll never get a tight band [/quote] Not really no. If I'm stood next to the snare and second gtr's combo but the lead gtr's combo is over the other side of the stage the relative amounts of what *I* hear bears no relation to what someone in the middle of the room is hearing. If I asked the lead gtr to turn up to a level so it was level in vol with other things *to me* I can put good money it will then be far too prominent in the FOH mix.

But you frequently get a 'distorted' mix of the relative proportions of various instruments as you're stood 'on stage' just depending where you are stood and what you're playing. This is not translated to the FOH overall sound that the audiences hears. This is where you have backline that doesn't go through any PA or monitors of course (common for weekend pub bands).

Although it can help develope constructive critisism to have some valid points of reference from your own experience rather than just saying 'I thought that sounded sh*te' I think deep down we all know when we've played a wrong 'un. The main thing is how you recover from it and what you do about trying not to repeat it in future.

That crossed my mind too. The problem that they will have live is the loss of that big presence on the right hand side of the stage and how audiences react to it long term. The current shows with Sherwood were booked with him being a fill-in and folks would no doubt go to shows with a view of 'Shame, but Chris will be back next time'. But now it's different. There are a decent number of players technically up to the challenge (bass-wise, think it might be a struggle to find someone with the vocal capability as well) but they are not necessarily big characters with the stage presence to match. And it will be important because the live work is where the money is now for them rather than album sales. To carry on as a viable business they need the numbers at the shows.

True for larger venues and for bands that have the luxury of an onboard sound engineer but for us weekend warriors in pubs the the soundcheck is mainly about making sure there is a good mix of the whole band going out to the punters, the 'onstage' sound though important takes a secondary priority. No good it sounding great to each other if that doesn't get translated to what joe public is hearing at the bar. Frequently this also means that most backline doesn't go through the PA which can make it something of a juggling act.

I wasn't sure what my guitarists use in my band (goes to show how much notice I take of these things) so I just checked online as they are quite distinctive to look at (tweed exterior), and they both use identical combos with identical multifx pedals. I believe they use Fender Hotrodeluxes which appear to be rated at 80W and are fairly compact valve 1x12's. When we did our first set up with our own PA & backline one afternoon in a working men's club function room (quite a decent sized space) to check it all worked before we started gigging they invited someone who had mixed bands and been in bands to come along and give us feedback on levels as we ran through a set. He mentioned at least 4 times that the guitars were 'too loud' which didn't surprise me as I'd thought that in rehearsal but was looking for a 2nd opinion before said anything. They seem to have actually listened and reigned it in for the 2 gigs to date we've done and we've had some positive feedback from punters about the overall sound so I think we are on track now.

Know what you mean 4-string-thing. It hasn't been much of a problem to me but an old mate of mine (gtr/vox) joined a classic rock combo a couple of yrs back and asked me to come check them out once they got gigging. Not sure what he uses, sensible sized gtr combo that was fine in the mix UNTIL his lead gtr/vox bandmate started up on some huge Eden valve amp through a 4x12 cab. It not only drowned out other instruments but reduced both of their vocals to near lip-reading levels. I did diplomatically mention it to him but then I saw them nearly a year later and little seemed to have changed, though the vox had been pumped up a bit there was no sign of problem guitar being turned down from the squeally harmonics drenched overdriven barrage of the previous time. I'm amazed he's still with them, I'd have walked by now.

Sometimes I'll lapse into 'picking things apart' but usually when it's something at my level (pub hack). When it's a full pro band I like in a decent venue I can still switch off into 'punter mode' fairly easily. I think that's why I still pay to go to gigs.

I'm going to dock him points as I don't like it when people have the Fender strap with the logo upside down from audience's view. There should be a smiley winky thingy after that but my browser seemes to have blocked access to the emoticons at the moment.

Looks like James Brown is a major influence to me. I thought most people picked up on these guys after Jools Holland? that was nearly 4 years ago.

[quote name='SteveK' timestamp='1435743349' post='2811937'] It's an attitude that seems, to me, to be uniquely British. Thankfully, in most other countries, if a band has a good live reputation, or releases a great album, then yer foreign punter, regardless of lineup or age, will be interested. Not so here! We prefer our bands in their "heyday", after that, they should go away and retire gracefully! [/quote] Actually what seems to happen in Britain from my experience is that people still turn up in numbers (though less than they once did) to see these bands even when they clearly can't quite live up to their live reputation any more and release less than great albums. I think on the whole they show remarkable loyalty. Yes and Deep Purple are two of my favourite bands and in no post have I suggested what they 'should' do, merely pointed out likely options. But I'm not blind nor deaf, time waits for no man.

[quote name='SubsonicSimpleton' timestamp='1435713973' post='2811797'] Isn't the whole point of prog to progress (even if some of the fans want you to remain in a timewarp and stick to what they feel was the bands best lineup & stylistic output)? [/quote] In its early days perhaps, now it's just a broad label which seems to cause consternation for some but rarely for those that actually listen to it.

The lack of the 'Andersonic touch' has been all too apparent in the last 2 Yes studio releases, though the most recent was slightly better you got the feeling that Davison was trying to ape Anderson in writing a bit which didn't quite work either.