And Yet MORE Missed Gigs...and So Much More

Fuck I have fallen all the way down on this blog. I know no one reads it, but it was my way to track my music shit and not I have failed.

Well, let's see.

1. The SVFD show on 11/5/2016 was our last. We broke up shortly after.
2. FW stopped rehearsing. We haven't officially broken up, but it has been almost a year since we got together.
3. DH (Breeders Trib) managed one rehearsal after our 2nd show. In theory we are still together, but inactive.
4. TD broke up after much drama, probably several years after it should have. JP is still harassing RS about it.
5. CJ is still together and rehearsing weekly. We just booked our first show since I think 4/4/2015
6. COL chugs along steadily, rehearses most weeks, released an album and two singles ("Oars in Hands" cover of Barristacide for Local Love Fest and "Butt Stuff" for cd presale backers) and has gigs in spurts for some reason.
7. RS, CT, Educational Davis and I formed a new band (tentatively named TN). We play RS's original songs. We've got about half a set so far.

12/2/2016: FW at, what the hell was that place called, Wine Down? (since closed)
2/4/2017: DH (Breeders Trib) at Crystal Corner Bar
2/19/2017: COL record Oars in Hands for Local Love Fest
2/25/2017: COL with Mono in Stereo
4/2/2017: TD at HNS
4/8/2017: COL with Mono in Stereo and High School Pizza in Rockford
5/5-7/2017: COL record our album Give to Get Got and the single Butt Stuff at Paradyme
5/12/2017: TD at Wisco (Justin had a drunken melt down)
6/10/2017: TD at Art In (our last show)
6/17/2017: COL at Mr Roberts
7/6/2017: COL at Frequency
10/21/2017: COL cd release at Frequency
12/7/2017: COL at HNS

COL and FW at Frequency 12/21/2015

Nearly forgot about this double-header with Nick and Jon's new bands. I'll have to dig the setlists out.

All went well. Attendance was average. I used lots of pedals. I think it was my best effort with COL to date. But might be last COL show forever. Who knows? Could be first (legit)/last FW show forever too.

FW Recording Project

I totally forgot to mention that two weekends ago one of my bands recorded an album at my house with me at the controls. It was a jerry-rigged kind of affair and I'm sure I did it all wrong...but here's what we did (making use of what was on hand and the little knowledge that I have):

Drums: I mic'ed the drum kit with 4 mics. Snare top, shared crash/hi hat, and shared ride/rack tom were all Shure SM48s. I had special drum mics available to me with tom mounts, but after testing that on some BreedArs recordings I decided that, since I didn't have enough inputs available to mic everything and I didn't want to use true condenser overheads (due to bleed) that the drum specific mics were just too focused. I needed to be able to share mics in a psuedo-overhead kind of way. The kick drum was mic'ed with a kick specific Sensenheiser dynamic mic. I ran all four mics into a little digital mixer that I have and then ran the stereo mix out of the mixer and into a second analog mixer that I have. Essentially this created a drum "bus" or "subgroup"

Bass: Ran through a DI box and into the analog mixer.

Guitar: Used a Sensenheiser guitar amp specific mic. Stashed the guitar amp in a nearby room with the door closed and volume relatively low (like 3 out of 10). Ran the mic directly into the analog mixer.

Vox: We had two vocals, one at the drum kit and one at the guitar station. Ran each as their own line into the analog mixer. There were no effects on the vocals. In an early planning stage I had planned to run the drums through the analog mixer and then everything else through the digital mixer (instead of vice-versa) and that would have allowed me to add effects to the vocals, but I ended up reversing it in an attempt to use the Aux sends (more on this below) on the analog mixer and then never switched it back. The natural sound of the room actually seemed fine and their voices sounded pretty good really. Not dry at all.

So all told, we had 8 inputs...which is all I had available to me. I had been worried about bleed between mics (especially into the vocal mic at the drum kit) but it didn't end up being a problem (maybe because I never needed to listen to each line as a separate track).

Note that I could have just mic'ed the room and called it a day, but I wanted the vocals to be clear and mic'ing things directly seemed like it would give me more control. And I think it did.

The output from the analog mixer went into my usb computer interface and then into Audacity. Originally I had hoped to run the vocals through aux sends to give each vocalist their own monitor mix and for me to monitor the mix from the recording interface...so they'd get what they needed and I'd get the final mix levels. But I couldn't get the aux sends to work with headphones. So I ran a headphone line out of the interface and split it 3 ways using a very ghetto assembly of extension lines and Y splitters. So we all had the final mix in our cans. This ended up working really well because then they could give me feedback on the final mix which probably saved disappointment after the fact.

It was hard to get the mix levels right. Even at low levels, the Audacity mix tended to clip easily...and even slight changes either made, say, the guitar too quiet or clipping. So we goofed with it and ended up getting an okay balance.  The bass guitar seems really quiet in the mix, but when you listened to the playback, it was in there plenty. So I'm not sure why that's the case. I've noticed that with the BreedArs project too, the bass line comes in quiet and distorted, but then sound fine on playback. Probably just a cheap interface that doesn't like low frequencies.

And then we played the songs live. No editing. We did a dry run on Tuesday night (about 2 hours) to get the levels and to get used to playing with the headphones. I spent an hour before rehearsal on Tuesday setting up from zero (I hadn't realized we were going to rehearse until last minute). Saturday and Sunday (about 4 hours Sat, about 2 hours Sun) we did the real recordings. We did 2-3 takes per song and that was plenty.

Now we are selecting the best takes. I plan to goof a bit with compression and noise reduction on the final selections and see if it makes them sound better, but I may also just leave them alone. I think the source file is good, the level is strong but without clipping for the most part. I think we did pretty well considering.

I'm gonna export everything as WAV and mp3 and upload the WAV to a bandcamp site and the mp3 to a reverbnation site. Then I'm gonna burn the WAV files to cd. We are gonna DIY a jewel case cover and use printable cds. We're only gonna make about 20 copies for close friends and family. Everyone else will either get a "bootleg" cd or download it off web.

Still have final edits to do, but so far I've been pleased with the results and I learned a bunch.

So the Pointless Recording Project Wasn't So Pointless Afterall (plus running live sound!)

Been recording Breeders covers since April and calling it pointless, but really it was learning for recording what I will consider a demo but the rest of the group will consider a major studio release for one my bands. I'm not sure we're ready to record, but people get excited about these things and I've at least talked them down to not spending money on the thing and instead just spending my time. We've narrowed the recording session to a targeted 8 hours over one weekend in September. Which weekend tbd. I started working on the details in earnest last night. I think I will use the analog mixer to create a "drum bus" of 4 mics on the drum kit. Run that into the digital mixer along with 2 vox, a guitar mic, and a bass DI xlr line. Then into the interface and on to ye olde shitty laptop. A bit of on-board reverb on both vox. Stick the guitar in a separate closed room. Hope for the best on bleed into and from the vocals. We'll see how it goes. If all else fails I'll throw a stereo pair on the bitch instead and call it done.

In other news, hanging out pretending like I'm gonna become sound person for a band with a Sunday night residency gig. Reading the Yamaha bible on "Sound Reinforcement." Watching videos online about running a digital board. Fairly certain that I could run the sound at this gig with absolutely no knowledge what-so-ever, but I'd like to learn proper-like all the same. Debating offering myself up to run sound at Showase 1&2 in 2015 as a "work toward goal" but haven't pulled the trigger yet. Probably I could have my shit reasonably together by then. Also thinking about pestering my buddy that I shadowed that one time to let me do it again. I kinda got overwhelmed on that deal and dropped the ball. But I think I've taken enough steps forward now to get back to it again.

FW 4/25; SVFD 4/26; CJ 4/26; SVFD 5/3

Holy crap I forgot to blog FOUR SHOWS!  I'll have to dig back to get set lists for these...

FW 4/25 at LRC
Went pretty well and I got it on tape.

SVFD 4/26 at LRC
A certain member had the wrong location and so showed up five minutes late to start and without her music. She still kicked ass, though the set had to be abbreviated. Sadly we were supposed to play 1-1:30pm and I was supposed to haul ass to Busking for Books and get there by 1:45pm...but I didn't get there until around 2pm due to the late start at LRC.

CJ 4/26 at Busking for Books
Busking for Books was 1-3pm and I was stuck at LRC, so I didn't arrive until around 2pm. But that was okay, they started without me. In the middle of Manta Ray a little girl jumped on "stage" and started dancing. Also, during Wave of Mutilation someone was carried out on a stretcher from State Street Brats...right when we said "You think you're dead..."

SVFD 5/3 at GRC board fundraiser at Brink
I played pretty well and remember very little else about this other than the guitar player broke a string and, of course, I was the one with a replacement.

FW 6/22/2013 and 6/24/2013

FW played two shows this "weekend"...one at a house party on Saturday and one at GRC on Monday.  Both were hot as hell. We are under-rehearsed, but I'm at least starting to retain the tunes a bit.  There was pleasant enjoyment by the audiences it seemed. Good enough.

Also, it turns out that total physical exhaustion prevents one from getting nervous for a show. Or even really caring what happens.

Upcoming Shows and Other Things

Posted in order to clear my head:

• Aug 11: SSW at Great Taste
• Aug 27: first ska rehearsal
• Aug 31: CJ at Mickey's
• Sept 15: FW at Nautigal
• Sept 20: SSE at High Noon
• Sept 22: TD at Frequency
• Sept 23: TD at Mirimar in Milwaukee
• Oct 27 (I think): CJ at Mickey's (as Love and Rockets)

Things to Come

Fishwife?

Fishwife.

Fishwife!

Sure, why not.