My second sound gig since the pandemic

[Bill L]

As some of you guys know, I do sound as we as play in a bunch of bands. This was my second sound gig since the shut down. I knew a couple of guys in the band from doing sound for an Allman's tribute they play in. They live streamed it on Facebook. I know most of us (including me) don't like the Dead but I have to say I was pretty proud of my mix. Skip ahead about 25 mins (basically when Shakedown Street starts) and from then on it's pretty stable and balanced. Thankfully the band could hear everything they needed on stage so the stage volume never changed much. It's a Facebook link so I'm not sure it'll even work for you guys but I thought I'd try.

https://www.facebook.com/mysticterrapin ... 407856670/

[Lt. Bob]

sounds pretty good and that looks like a cool setting to play in.
Mix is quite good ...... singer's a bit so-so but he's probably not getting to sing a lot right now.
I have the same issues .... gotta sing a lot to keep your vocal chops up.

I also don't go for the "don't like the (insert band here )" thing regardless of band .... music's music ..... it's all the same.

[Bill L]

sounds pretty good and that looks like a cool setting to play in.

I also don't go for the "don't like the (insert band here )" thing .... music's music ..... it's all the same.

I certainly gained a whole new respect for the Dead as a result of this gig. A buddy of mine fills in for this band quite a bit (he's really good and can cover either Jerry or Bob parts and can sing both as well). Good dudes that play well together. And I think they'll be using me for sound as they were all pleased with how the day went.

And the venue is on 50 acres in Mystic, CT. The owner created a zip line run. He also loves music so he excavated and leveled the area. Those stone slabs used to be solid rock. This place is almost like a drive in or a tail gate party kind of place with the stage raised so you can see from where you've parked. Really cool place.

[Greg_L]

As some of you guys know, I do sound as we as play in a bunch of bands. This was my second sound gig since the shut down. I knew a couple of guys in the band from doing sound for an Allman's tribute they play in. They live streamed it on Facebook. I know most of us (including me) don't like the Dead but I have to say I was pretty proud of my mix. Skip ahead about 25 mins (basically when Shakedown Street starts) and from then on it's pretty stable and balanced. Thankfully the band could hear everything they needed on stage so the stage volume never changed much. It's a Facebook link so I'm not sure it'll even work for you guys but I thought I'd try.

https://www.facebook.com/mysticterrapin ... 407856670/

Two drummers!

Sounds good man.

[vomitHatSteve]

I certainly gained a whole new respect for the Dead as a result of this gig. A buddy of mine fills in for this band quite a bit (he's really good and can cover either Jerry or Bob parts and can sing both as well). Good dudes that play well together. And I think they'll be using me for sound as they were all pleased with how the day went.

Amazing the effort that band went through to play terrible music incredibly well!

And the venue is on 50 acres in Mystic, CT. The owner created a zip line run. He also loves music so he excavated and leveled the area. Those stone slabs used to be solid rock. This place is almost like a drive in or a tail gate party kind of place with the stage raised so you can see from where you've parked. Really cool place.

That's super cool!

[Lt. Bob]

Two drummers!

Sounds good man.

ya' know, I didn't even notice that ..... I listened to it but I don't really watch videos .... saw it was a cool stage but didn't look much closer.
That's way cool ....... I've been in a band with two drummers before ....... if they know how to work together it's awesome.

[Bill L]

As some of you guys know, I do sound as we as play in a bunch of bands. This was my second sound gig since the shut down. I knew a couple of guys in the band from doing sound for an Allman's tribute they play in. They live streamed it on Facebook. I know most of us (including me) don't like the Dead but I have to say I was pretty proud of my mix. Skip ahead about 25 mins (basically when Shakedown Street starts) and from then on it's pretty stable and balanced. Thankfully the band could hear everything they needed on stage so the stage volume never changed much. It's a Facebook link so I'm not sure it'll even work for you guys but I thought I'd try.

https://www.facebook.com/mysticterrapin ... 407856670/

Two drummers!

Sounds good man.

I used a kick and 1 overhead mic on each kit. I'll add a snare mic each for the next gig. I was running out of space on my snakes because I left one at home by mistake so I opted out of micing the snares for this gig.

I certainly gained a whole new respect for the Dead as a result of this gig. A buddy of mine fills in for this band quite a bit (he's really good and can cover either Jerry or Bob parts and can sing both as well). Good dudes that play well together. And I think they'll be using me for sound as they were all pleased with how the day went.

Amazing the effort that band went through to play terrible music incredibly well!

And the venue is on 50 acres in Mystic, CT. The owner created a zip line run. He also loves music so he excavated and leveled the area. Those stone slabs used to be solid rock. This place is almost like a drive in or a tail gate party kind of place with the stage raised so you can see from where you've parked. Really cool place.

That's super cool!

I've never been a fan of the Dead. Mostly because I knew too many fans of the band . I mean, I love bands that know how to jam but I just never got into them. But there are a lot of other bands working a lot harder to play worse covers.

[vomitHatSteve]

Honestly, the Dead do have some decent songs, but the "jam" aspect really turns me off. Watching a band go off script and noodle around for minutes at a time has always been very tedious to me.

[Greg_L]

Watching a band go off script and noodle around for minutes at a time has always been very tedious to me.

That's pretty much the worst thing a band can do as far as I'm concerned.

[Lt. Bob]

and I hate bands that can only follow a script ..... total lack of creativity .... if all you can do is play a song the exact same way every night then what's the point?

I compare it to being a typist writing down the dictation of an author.
They might write a zillion words a minute but so what?
Every other typist can type the words too ..... means almost nothing.

different strokes for different folks ..... everyone has their own priorities ...... but for me one of the most important things is an ability to improvise and I tend to judge musicians on that more than anything else.

I suppose because I have a strong jazz background in my influences list.

[Greg_L]

It depends on why someone likes music. I talk about this with my shredder buddies all the time. They like anything that has advanced guitar playing in it. Nothing else matters - just guitar. They narrow-focus listen to guitar playing. It can be a fucking Nigerian waltz with the rest of the band playing on pots and pans, as long as there is flashy guitar playing in it, they're all-in. Same with drummers. I'm not gonna listen to Dave Matthews just because it has really good drumming in it.

Fuck that garbage. I don't operate like that. I couldn't care less how good someone plays if they can't do it within a song that doesn't fucking suck. EVH, great guitar players, but he sucks because he plays shit songs. Talent wasted!

[Lt. Bob]

It depends on why someone likes music. I talk about this with my shredder buddies all the time. They like anything that has advanced guitar playing in it. Nothing else matters - just guitar. They narrow-focus listen to guitar playing. It can be a fucking Nigerian waltz with the rest of the band playing on pots and pans, as long as there is flashy guitar playing in it, they're all-in. Same with drummers. I'm not gonna listen to Dave Matthews just because it has really good drumming in it.

Fuck that garbage. I don't operate like that. I couldn't care less how good someone plays if they can't do it within a song that doesn't fucking suck. EVH, great guitar players, but he sucks because he plays shit songs. Talent wasted!

I agree IF the playing doesn't fit with the song.
For example flashy super-fast playing over a ballad sucks.
But that still leaves plenty of room to improvise a beautiful melody.

I like improvisation but it has to be good improvisation and that includes it being something appropriate to the song.

[Greg_L]

I like improvisation but it has to be good improvisation and that includes it being something appropriate to the song.

Yeah! I like it when a band does something a little different within the confines of the existing song. I don't like it when they just noodle around for 5 extra minutes. Or worse....when they break down to talk to the crowd. I hate that the most. It happens at festivals a lot. They'll spend 20 of their 45 minutes to get the crowd to repeat dumb things, squat down, jump up, let me hear the left side say "oh yeah!", okay now the right side, "oh yeah", oh no I think the left side was louder!

Ugh, I'll just walk away during that shit.

[Lt. Bob]

I like improvisation but it has to be good improvisation and that includes it being something appropriate to the song.

Yeah! I like it when a band does something a little different within the confines of the existing song. I don't like it when they just noodle around for 5 extra minutes. Or worse....when they break down to talk to the crowd. I hate that the most. It happens at festivals a lot. They'll spend 20 of their 45 minutes to get the crowd to repeat dumb things, squat down, jump up, let me hear the left side say "oh yeah!", okay now the right side, "oh yeah", oh no I think the left side was louder!

Ugh, I'll just walk away during that shit.

yeah .... that has nothing to do with music.

[vomitHatSteve]

I like it when a band does something a little different within the confines of the existing song. I don't like it when they just noodle around for 5 extra minutes.

Exactly this!

I don't hate all improvisation. I just don't like it as the focus of the piece. I really hearing completed songs with hooks, arrangement, etc. largely planned out. Very few musicians can improvise good hooks consistently, and improvised arrangement never sounds like the best, most concise one to me.

For me, improvisation is best left to a verse-length solo or a fill or vamps on the intro/outro*

* Ironically, I have one vocalist friend who cannot improvise vamps. If she's doing a cover, she's doing the exact vamps from the recording or nothing at all.

[JD01]

Yeah. I agree with you guys. Improvisation is good... If it's good improvisation!

I remember seeing Toni Iommi aimlessly noodling away on a minor pentatonic during a breakdown for about 5 minutes... fuck me that's boring.

Pearl Jam do good improv. I've seen them live loads of times. The don't just improv solos though, they improv whole arrangements... I'm sure a lot if these ideas come out of jamming in rehearsal but you do get the impression that they don't really know how it's gonna turn out.

[Bill L]

Some of the first bands I got into, (Deep Purple, Cream, Jimi Hendrix, Allman Brothers, Mountain, Traffic) all jammed and extended songs. Some of those songs I hardly listen to now, like Mountain Jam or live Nantucket Sleigh Ride, and others I still listen to like Made In Japan. Having said that, there's some stuff I just can't/won't listen to. Like the Dead, Phish and many of the other jam bands. All great musicians but I just don't really like it and it's boring. But when it's done right, it can sound wonderful. Like Made In Japan, they have codas that let the band know "I'm done soloing let's get to the next section of the song". And they sound super tight because of it.

When I first started playing guitar, my buddy and I would jam for hours over simple chord changes. Doing that forced me to learn a lot of things that otherwise would have been more difficult to learn. The result was in highschool, I was one of the better players. I run 2 open mics, though 1 is currently postponed. It's very obvious to me that some people don't listen and can't follow. And there are others that don't care what you're playing because they listen and can find a place in any song without stepping all over the song or the other players.

[vomitHatSteve]

Oh yeah, jamming is definitely a valuable tool for getting better at your craft!

That said, so is running scales or doing finger exercises, and I don't wanna watch you doing that either!

[musicturtle]

Oh yeah, jamming is definitely a valuable tool for getting better at your craft!

That said, so is running scales or doing finger exercises, and I don't wanna watch you doing that either!

This is the difference here. Good improvising is not just jamming.

It's not just playing notes in a key because that is the key the song is in.

It is playing over the chord changes correctly and being inventive.

You can improvise in a song and not have to extend it for 10 minutes.

[musicturtle]

[mention]Bill L[/mention]

The sound is great man, can hear everything. Just a great love mix.