Ok, now I'm back in the saddle. ben, this really is a great gig experience
I can filter out the camera mic affect, & the FOH sound is really good. Just a couple of mix issues for me = Amy's vocals way too low, & your snare a bit low too. Were the bass drums triggered? Great vocalist, great everything actually. Lots of power & taste in your drumming that suits the act perfectly. Would love to have been at this gig. Congratulations on everything.
Note to cameraman, more close up shots of Amy
& face time for Ben next time out please!
I think the sound was better in the venue, this camera mic really isn't up to much other than withstanding very high SPLs. Vocals were a bit of an issue but it might have just been a headroom thing, and Amy's voice doesn't cut through that much anyway.
I think the snare probably sounded better at the time, but it's hard to tell. I'm pretty sure the bass drum wasn't triggered (the stage left one is just there for show, shameful!), but it sounded pretty good, I could certainly hear when other drummers' feet weren't quite in time.
The camera doesn't actually zoom in and out whilst recording if memory serves me, it's just a little digital stills camera. Spare a thought for guitarist Paul, who is out of shot for almost the entirety of the set!
Great stuff Ben! I think your band are utterly ridiculous but in the best possible way. Congratulations on the gig - your playing has really come along! Really superb, I'm very impressed.
Are those the new cymbals? I can't make them out too well but they sound excellent from what I can hear.
Thanks Duncan! These are indeed the new cymbals, yes.
Overall impressive!
Ben, there are parts here and there which I'd have done differently but I have zero influence on your songwriting ;-) E.g. I'd vary up some melodic endings of the vocalist, mainly in the verse sections. Often times the rhythmic structure of the verses seems too static to my ears. Or that intro to the opening tune. Basically great, but it created momentum towards the end and then there was a log gap to follow, making the energy disappear. I'd put the "real" song beginning directly after the intro, with no gap in-between.
Overall your band falls into those 5-10 % of metal which I can relate to. For the remaining 90-95 % I don't really care. Considering that I'm a picky guy this is quite an achievement!!
Well, I'm glad that you can relate to us at all, even if you would make some changes yourself! That's an interesting point about the intro, but in the context of the whole evening I think it worked well...everybody's intro music builds into a crescendo (including Alestorm's on this tour, which I actually put together for them myself), and since the song starts so suddenly, we felt it was more interesting to have it explode in unexpectedly like that. Also, we're the first support band, and almost completely unknown to that audience, so the mysterious quality of the intro lent itself rather well. Horses for courses, as we say.
It may be worthwhile my mentioning that this is only the second gig this lineup of the band has ever done, so I think under the circumstances it went extremely well indeed. We were certainly pleased with the outcome, I think we won quite a few fans with this gig.