Played an Interesting Live Stream Gig Last Night

[toomanycats]

https://www.facebook.com/pg/HiddeniteAr ... ter/posts/


Last night I played a live stream gig with a group of ladies who go by the name The Ya Yas. The video is on the facebook page in the link above. I've collaborated with Donna before in a side project called LAMCHOPZ, and it was she who hired me to sit in with the group. This performance was recorded at and was a fundraiser for the Hiddinite Arts and Heritage Center, in Hiddinite North Carolina. I think the world of these three ladies, Michele, Kim, and Donna. They're so talented and sing like angels together. The bass players name was Todd. He regularly plays upright but played a P-bass for this performance.

I only had one practice with the group the night before the show, during which I made notes on song keys, chord changes, and best scales to utilize for soloing. The truth is, when it came to the actual performance I mostly winged it and let myself be guided by the feel of the tunes.

I'm playing my Gibson Les Paul 1960 VOS, as well as a guitar called the "Elliott Tonemaster," which is built by a luthier named Andy Elliott who lives in Hiddinite. The amp was my 65 Amps London. For pedals I used a BOSS tuner, a Bogner Ecstasy Blue, and a MXR Phase 90 Script Reissue. I may have only kicked in the phase pedal once, though I used the amps built in tremolo quite a few times. I'm generally very light on the use of pedals, mostly relying on the guitars volume and tone knobs to get the various voices I prefer.

I really enjoyed the "throwing myself into the deep end" aspect of accepting this job. Country, blue grass, and gospel are not entirely outside the purview of my influences. In saying that I don't mean that I regularly listen to those genres. What I do mean is that many of the bands I am very familiar with do have those influences. Off the top of my head, bands like The Allman Brothers, 70s Clapton, Crosby, Stills, Nash (& Young), The Flying Burrito Brothers/Gram Parsons, The Grateful Dead, The Band, Tesla, and Led Zeppelin (see LED ZEP III) all have that musical dna in their makeup, albeit combined with the blues and rock and roll. It is my familiarity with 60s/70s rock music that is infused with these elements of country, blue grass, and gospel that allows me to fake my way through this type of material.

[Milkman]

Wow! Really cool TMC. I only had time for the first two songs, but I’ll get back to it later. The sound came out very well, too. You were definitely in the zone here!

[toomanycats]

Wow! Really cool TMC. I only had time for the first two songs, but I’ll get back to it later. The sound came out very well, too. You were definitely in the zone here!

Thanks man, much appreciated. Watching the video I do think I was a little low in the mix . . . but then again I am a lead guitar player, so I may be biased. It can be confusing, because while performing onstage I had the impression that I was maybe too loud. I always like to err on the side of never overpowering the vocals. A few songs into the set you can see me stand up and reach behind my amp. The guy running sound was looking at me, pointing his finger in the air, and mouthing the words, "Turn up." I have a built in attenuator type thing that's controlled from the back panel of the amp head. Once I turned that up a little my levels became more audible.

In case anyone is interested, this video was recorded with a newer iPhone on a tripod. Everyone was going into a live mixing board (I had a Sennheiser e609 in front of my cab), and the audio feed out of the board was fed directly into the phone. We decided to record the audio like this because the room was very large and box shaped, almost like a school gymnasium. There was tremendous amount of natural reverb. The sound actually wasn't bad inside the room, though we were't sure how it would translate when captured through either the phone's internal mic or a room condenser mic. We figured we'd play it safe with a direct feed from the board.

[Milkman]

You were a little low in the mix, but the recording is relatively clear, and there’s pretty good separation too... it’s easy for the guitar to get washed away with all those powerful female vocals going on.

[Chocol8]

Cool gig for sure! You are definitely too low in the mix, but that isn’t the worst thing for this kind of music.

[nomadh]

Wow! Really cool TMC. I only had time for the first two songs, but I’ll get back to it later. The sound came out very well, too. You were definitely in the zone here!

Thanks man, much appreciated. Watching the video I do think I was a little low in the mix . . . but then again I am a lead guitar player, so I may be biased. It can be confusing, because while performing onstage I had the impression that I was maybe too loud. I always like to err on the side of never overpowering the vocals. A few songs into the set you can see me stand up and reach behind my amp. The guy running sound was looking at me, pointing his finger in the air, and mouthing the words, "Turn up." I have a built in attenuator type thing that's controlled from the back panel of the amp head. Once I turned that up a little my levels became more audible.

In case anyone is interested, this video was recorded with a newer iPhone on a tripod. Everyone was going into a live mixing board (I had a Sennheiser e609 in front of my cab), and the audio feed out of the board was fed directly into the phone. We decided to record the audio like this because the room was very large and box shaped, almost like a school gymnasium, and there as tremendous amount of natural reverb. The sound actually wasn't bad inside the room, though we were't sure how it would translate when captured through either the phone's internal mic or a room condenser mic. We figured we'd play it safe with a direct feed from the board.

I didnt want to say anything but yes low in the mix and better later but maybe still a bit low even then. But even then well within reason and very audible and overall the mix was in the good range.
I'm shooting to push my way into a freebie for a motorcycle rally support the cops type of party gig. My guys are all supportive and a new band so we're willing to donate our time if they cover the sound guy. Who happens to be my old bass player. Be fun to get out there again.

I just realized I jumped threads. My comments were for that last blues band gig you posted. I just now saw this gig recording. Yes you were way to low in the mix when all 3 girls were hitting it hard. But still great playing. Gave it a nice harder edge background type of interest. I too am hoping to have a chance to sit in with a country band I've been talking to where I barely know the songs and see how well I can wing it on my major scale stuff.
You were definitely a great addition to the band there.