I would agree with this on some level.

Absolutely! I listen to recordings of most gigs I'm involved with, & every so often, I'll gather the band together for a good listen & rip apart. I certainly pick up on where I'm lacking, but I'm taking in the whole vibe too. I can't think of a more real world constructive tool.

Forget board mixes, get a little Zoom camera out front. That way you'll get a good idea of your mix from an audience perspective, as well as the visual vibe & your individual / band performance. A Zoom (or other sound biased camera) will give you good enough sound quality to be objective. Smart phones & general cameras are usually poor in this respect. You can pick up an early Zoom Q3 for almost nothing, & the HD version for not much more. Video isn't great, but the sound quality is very good.
 
keep it simple said:
Forget board mixes, get a little Zoom camera out front. That way you'll get a good idea of your mix from an audience perspective, as well as the visual vibe & your individual / band performance. A Zoom (or other sound biased camera) will give you good enough sound quality to be objective. Smart phones & general cameras are usually poor in this respect. You can pick up an early Zoom Q3 for almost nothing, & the HD version for not much more. Video isn't great, but the sound quality is very good.
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My instructor is doing this with a GoPro. On occasion, he will overlay a board mix overtop the GoPro audio later on. While the music isn't my cup of tea, the results are simply awesome. For me, all of my work is in the basement, and my webcam and iPhone do a great job of showing me how much, and the manner in which, I suck. While the end-of-day recording is always better than the beginning-of-day recording, I'm still in that place where I am perpetually dissatisfied with my performance.

Question for you: What is it like to practice on a Guru? When you're doing hand patterns over foot patterns, or working on a tricky fill over and over, etc. We've all heard what a Guru sounds like when someone knows what they're doing. I'd be curious to hear what they sound like when they don't.
 
KamaK said:
Question for you: What is it like to practice on a Guru? When you're doing hand patterns over foot patterns, or working on a tricky fill over and over, etc. We've all heard what a Guru sounds like when someone knows what they're doing. I'd be curious to hear what they sound like when they don't.
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1st up, you're assuming I actually practice. Regrettably, through both time constraint & outright laziness, I rarely do. 2nd, find any recording of me playing a Guru, & you have your reference :)
 
KamaK said:
While the end-of-day recording is always better than the beginning-of-day recording, I'm still in that place where I am perpetually dissatisfied with my performance.
Click to expand...

keep it simple said:
Absolutely! I listen to recordings of most gigs I'm involved with, & every so often, I'll gather the band together for a good listen & rip apart. I certainly pick up on where I'm lacking, but I'm taking in the whole vibe too. I can't think of a more real world constructive tool.

Forget board mixes, get a little Zoom camera out front. That way you'll get a good idea of your mix from an audience perspective, as well as the visual vibe & your individual / band performance. A Zoom (or other sound biased camera) will give you good enough sound quality to be objective. Smart phones & general cameras are usually poor in this respect. You can pick up an early Zoom Q3 for almost nothing, & the HD version for not much more. Video isn't great, but the sound quality is very good.
Click to expand...


Pretty sure its a common thread we all share. I sound terrible, everybody's snare drum sounds better than mine, its all about being too critical when listening back to yourself. One of the components is you know what you wanted to do, how you wanted to sound and if the playback is not in line with what's in your memory it seems off.

That little clam sticks out cuz you know you did it, but to others it may sound cool if it was covered well. Keep in mind you put a psychic stamp/imprint on every note you play, some ppl in the audience are more aware of it than others, tho keep in mind all can decode it. That great drummer that has chops for days, but just sounds like they're playing what they practiced at home by themselves.

You have to enjoy what your playing, even the mistakes/clams, you have to concentrate on the positive stuff/sounds on the kit, can't let an uncooperative piece of gear get you down, just look at it as that piece of gear is sick that night, its limited, but still part of the group, but its performance doesn't take control of your good time.


I agree board mixes aren't what you should be listening to, only bc they more represent what you might sound like on a recording, not what you actually sounded like to the crowd. Placing a recorder out in left field behind stuff/ppl (no direct line of audio sight) will isolate your fundamental, as the low(er) freqs will be highlighted.
 
I certainly agree with 1, 5, 6 and 7.

I disagree with 4 though.

Many times I've been watching a band and think "they're pretty good, but there is just something missing..." and then the headlining band comes out, and is so much tighter, more solid, and have that extra little something that makes you go "yeah".
 
Often the playback is cringe worthy for me, but every now and then I see/hear something that makes me happy. The hard part for me is dissecting what I hear and identifying what's behind it.
 
I have heard all of these a hundred times and the bottom line is that the only one that really matters is #3, but not for the reason the author suggests.

#1. Janes Addiction were told they suck, in exactly those words, by a promoter at the Whiskey. Sucking is subjective, every great band were told they suck by somebody, its a matter of finding the fans who like crappy music. They are out there.

#2. Pantera, Van Halen, Guns N' Roses all had residencys at local bars that sold out every week. On a personal note Deftones played somewhere around Sacramento every single week and we were all at every show because...

#3. This! Popularity breeds popularity. If your shows are full every week, more people will come because your shows are the place to be. People want to see and be seen. The music is secondary. So when a band figures out how to make their show an event, they hold the keys to the kingdom. GWAR is terrible, but their shows sell out because its an event.

#4. Really? Really? Its about coercing people to come to the show? NO! If its a show people want to be at, they will come and throw money at you. Sounds like somebody who is a fan of the pay to play model.

#5. The venue should promote. Isnt it in their best interest to do so? Nothing worse than an apathetic promoter. Why should my band play your club over the others in town? Would it kill you to hang a flyer? Have a semi-professional website, or at least a facebook page and let people know who is playing there. Have some drink specials, maybe a bartender who doesn't look like the love child of Chewbacca and the swamp creature. And could you clean the bathroom, I mean seriously.

#6 & #7 are one in the same. Get off facebook and go out and meet people. It shouldnt have to be said. Of course if your playing a sold out show every week, kind of tough to go check out the other gigs in town.

So the ultimate question is, how do you make your shows an event? I wish I had the answer, I would be on a beach in tahiti and not sitting here typing this post.
 
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