Al Krow
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Everything posted by Al Krow
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And given the main beneficiary is going to be to the kick drum, should this be something for the drummer to take ownership of / invest in? Obviously the whole band is going to benefit, but surely it's the same point re. any piece of kit - I wouldn't expect the rest of the band to fork out for a better keyboard for the keys player? I'm currently encouraging one of our dep singers to get herself her own mic and stand, lol! -
Also Woody - I think getting the EQ / preamp sorted on the IEM feed does make significant difference also to the gigging experience. Even with the ZARs I was getting a harsh treble with my B1-4 "presence" preamp settings which is great for cutting through the mix (has a treble boost at 1.6kHz and 3.6kHz). I've dialled the treble boost back to get something that cuts through a little less but is a better IEM experience. I suspect there may have been something similar going on with your ME90B? Maybe a digital desk (e.g. the A&H CQ series?) that doesn't break the bank will allow for a different IEM EQ to what I'm feeding to FoH, or I guess using an EQ pedal into the aux out from which I take the IEM feed is another option (although I definitely prefer not have one more thing to set up though, haha!). But part of me would like the FoH and IEM feeds to be as similar as possible and the compromise route if it gets you a decent FoH and a decent IEM gigging experience is not a bad one.
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Thanks Phil, I agree, she's fab and we're very lucky to have someone of her vocal (and keys playing!) ability being a founder member and fronting our band. Yes, indeed, a new mixer is definitely going to be the next major piece of kit. Btw - I did offer the backline option to the guitarist/band. The response from them was a nuanced and balanced one i.e. maybe to consider doing at some but not all venues we're playing at. It's something we'll be discussing further and keeping in view.
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That's an amazingly positive review, thanks! For around £55 from Ali Express for a set of KZ ZARs, definitely looking like one of this year's best value investments for both of us!
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@Woodinblack good to hear that, as I thought from your initial comment on May 1st the ZAR's hadn't been much of an upgrade over the ZS10s, but I may have been mis-reading your comment? As you'll have gathered from my own comments a few weeks back, I'm very much of the view that the ZARs are a noticeable step up in sound / listening experience over the ZS10s (and also over the Sennheiser 300 and Shure SE215 and 315 sets I previously had) and seems that there's a bit of a consensus starting to build on that from those of us who have tried them.
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Yes, our singer uses wireless in ears and spent a fair bit of time out front. She's also one of the "just one-in" in ear brigade, so has the other ear listening to ambient sound. It was actually the dep guitarist, who's a mate of mine, who relayed that he and she had both thought it "sounded better". Tbf she's since clarified that it was more to do with the balance of the sound, rather than the quality of the sound, and the PA being able to give her vocals sufficient prominence which she found easy to get right at sound check. Our regular comment from the audience historically has been to turn up her vocals (and, yes, she's got excellent mic technique and is a trained singer) in the mix, although I'm getting more proficient at sorting the desk settings out these days. Interestingly the guitarists I've been working with who have struggled most to get a sound they like when going through the PA without backline have all been using Helix Stomps. There's often a harshness to the tone which they have to work hard to address, or end up giving up trying and switch to another mulitfx eg Kemper in one case. The two guitarists I work with who are using the Boss GT 1000 / Core have found a sound they liked much more quickly out of the box. This may partly be down to the 2015 Helix chip set being relatively long in the tooth now?
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Good for him!! And besides it's not 24 hours is it, but a couple of months work? Then deduct production materials and costs, overheads and taxes, to arrive at a 10% to 20% net margin on each unit? I wish him and every other creator who has built a brand or reputation through hard work and talent, every success.
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I found the LS2 to be a little noisy / not completely silent. Does that chime with your experience?
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Finally got around to creating some bespoke preamp patches for each of my two gigging basses on my B1-4, instead of relying on a generic one size fits all set of preamp patches (clean, motown, presence), which suited one much more than the other. In addition, one of the basses has higher output pups and has benefited from having the Zoom noisegate (ZNR) sim at both the start and end of a patch signal chain. I guess using one of our band PA active speakers (RCF 912A), as my home rig, rather than having a separate practice rig has been a helpful nudge, as I'm getting to hear something a lot closer to my live bass tone but, even so, it's taken far too long for me to get around to making use of this obvious preset capability of a multifx!
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That's a very glowing review and great to hear about so many usable tones straight out the box! Just wondering whether the effects bank that you're loving @Woodinblackis based on that available in the Boss GT1000/Core, for those wanting additional flexibility those models offer? I'm guessing the answer must be yes? In which I might need to have another look at the GT 1000 Core, which our guitarist snaffled off me and is loving it, before I'd really got to grips with it. (Aside: and he's finding it much more of a breeze to dial in tones he likes than the two other guitarists I'm working with who are using the older tech Helix Stomps).
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£258 delivered for a Mk4 with all of the upgrades that have gone into it?! That's a really good deal! It's not a great deal more than used Mk3's were going for a couple of years back and so much else has had eye watering price increases since then. I really tried to love my Mk3s (several attempts!) but couldn't get passed the tracking / glitchiness issues I was getting and I wasn't prepared to change my playing style to suit one pedal! I understand from @Quatschmacher that has now been sorted with the Mk 4 - and at that price I've no real excuse not to give it a spin. If it's good enough for Mohini Dey... DV 247 are obviously feeling generous, they only charged me £257 😊
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Did that one become a regular venue for the band then? 😅
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I agree the that the CQ20, or more likely CQ18 for me, does look like a tasty piece of kit! The one thing that my cheaper Soundcraft MTK can do though, is multi-track recordings.
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Gigs can often be great fun and sometimes it's the unexpected that adds to it! We had a great time being the course rock band at the Hackney half marathon again this year: it was a beautiful sunny day with eager runners streaming past, but... Al Krow (@al_krow) • Instagram photos and videos If you've got any amusing tales or clips - please do share!
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Thanks Phil! Soundcraft MTK12. It's pretty decent and good value for money but not the ability the tailor that a good quality digital desk would provide and certainly no separate EQ for the monitor channels.
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The differential sound in IEMs vs FoH is a really interesting one, I very much relate to. I've a particular "presence" patch on my Zoom B1-4 which cuts through the FoH mix really well (boost at 1.6 kHz and 3.6 kHz) but sounds unpleasantly harsh through my IEMs, whereas a non-presence-boosted clean tone sounds really good through my IEMs but is less good a cutting through. I'm seeing if a half way house patch is going to cut the mustard in terms of FoH mix and IEMs - will be able to give it a road test tomorrow night.
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Well after last Friday's pub gig when @ratman did an excellent job depping for me, and both he and the guitarist used backline, our vocalist has decided that the vocals sound better through the RCF732A PA without bass and guitar competing and that it was pretty straightforward to get a decently balanced mix. So I'm going to let the main line-up have their wish and revert to using backline, without FoH support, which will undoubtedly be a more enjoyable gigging experience for us individually and if it turns out not to be, then I guess Alex will find himself doing more dep gigs 😂
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@Dood thanks for that video! Intrigued that the Zoom H2N doesn't distort even at loud volumes! Do you need to adjust the input levels manually to achieve this or does it do so automatically? I'm guessing the former otherwise you would get variable volume recording? I guess the fly in the ointment is that this set up isn't going to add too much if the band have gone for a silent stage approach and are putting as much as possible through the PA with no backline.
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If you can pick it up for a price that you're going to get back on it, seems like you've not much downside? Treat it as a free rental opp - who knows you may even like it 😅 I mean you're putting the PM2 to far better use than I ever managed! Polyphonic and very tight "tracking" makes it quite usable live IME.
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You finding it's sounding better than your B1-4?
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"You get a sound you like." Grab a coffee. Get on with your practice.
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Oh I feel your frustration here! Our journey hasn't been an overnight success - it's taken us nearly 18 months to get to a consistently balanced FoH sound with this current line up. And even that's a first with any of my bands over the years. Are you the band leader in your crew? Are you the only one who's bothered about the situation? Is getting louder impacting on how the band's being received - I mean it is a common trick to start at a lower volume and build up once audiences have got used to the volume, but obviously within reason! From what you've said there is a solution, but not one that's going to get a smile from the drummer: ask him to (i) not increase volume during a gig or (ii) use an electronic kit so his volume can be controlled via the desk. PS apologies to the OP for this side-track! Although tbf at least we've established that this isn't really a concern about IEMs - they can and should work really well when used properly!
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As a 19 y/o in college the only pedal I'd really come across was a dirt pedal 😅 It's very much a funk bassist's pedal eg Bootsy Collins, although also often used in combination with other pedals eg check out the bass line on Fratellis' cover of Bacarra's "Yes sir I can boogie", which I think is very cool, or on several Tool tracks. I'm sure the filter pedal users on this thread will be able to give plenty of examples of where it's been used tastefully and well. Obviously YMMV as to what's tasteful!
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Yeah - that's going to be tricky if you're standing at the back and your bandmates are turning themselves up during the gig and getting louder and louder during the gig causing things to become unbalanced, rather than them having the discipline to leave their sound levels where they were at sound check. Sounds like a band chat is needed to point out what's happening, and see if you can get them on board? You're pretty good at recording gigs so that should hopefully help in getting the message across? And maybe another option is for you to stand nearer the front? You were sounding pretty good and in balance on that clip you posted recently with your new DJI camera - was that at the start of a gig? Good luck!
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I've now got a set of Sonicfoam tips for my KZ ZARs based on your recommendation thanks Alex - they seem pretty good value (as are the ZARs). And I'm hoping your enthusiasm for IEMs rubs off on my crew when you're depping for us on Friday! 🙂
