The Macworld All-Star Band Speaks!
Last night, Chuck Joiner delivered something that has never* previously been accomplished other than gigs and rehearsals: He assembled the entire (existing) Macworld All-Star Band into one (virtual) room, leaned heavily on the Skype button, and recorded the entire conversation.
And we let him release it. Crazy, huh?
Well, it’s out there, and it’s alive. You can check it out as it appears as MacVoices #8144.
I know I say it all the time, but I’ll say it again: I am *so* honored to be a part of this band and the friendships we have developed together. Definitely a highlight of Macworld Expo each year and a highlight of my experience in the Mac community and beyond
*Technically, we did get the band into an AIM-style “private, band-only” chat room in the very beginning to “chat out” the setlist prior to rehearsal. For all of the following gigs we found that having a (benevolent?) dictator assigned to manage the list was far more productive. Or at least it was easier, and we’re all for that.
December 18th, 2008 at 10:39 am
Can’t wait to hear it Dave. Last year (my first year at Macworld) I heard you guys and it brought me back to the days I played gigs like that every night. Don’t miss hauling around equipment and “dick” club owners, but do miss playing. Props to Chuck Joiner for doing this.
December 18th, 2008 at 3:39 pm
Can’t wait to hear it Dave. Last year (my first year at Macworld) I heard you guys and it brought me back to the days I played gigs like that every night. Don’t miss hauling around equipment and “dick” club owners, but do miss playing. Props to Chuck Joiner for doing this.
April 22nd, 2010 at 10:42 am
I saw a video of the band playing, and I found it interesting that your cymbals are loud as heck- especially in the 6K neighborhood- bleeding through all of the hot vocal mics on stage. It’s not the overhead mic that’s doing it, its the “pro” musicians who know so much about audio engineering, they have every cardioid vocal mic aimed right at the drum kit. I’d almost bet money that the overhead is turned off because he can’t get the cymbals to stop being too loud in the mix. It’d be a lot easier to leave the faders alone if you didn’t point all those vocal mics right at the drums. The “pro” band is making it harder for the engineer in this case (in a lot of cases).
On a different note, if the monitor system is set up properly using pre-fader aux mixes, you shouldn’t be able to tell if the engineer is riding the FOH faders anyway- your monitor levels wouldn’t change even if you were turned off in the house.
I’d be pissed off at my engineer if he DIDN’T actively mix the show. There’s no need to be turning down mics between notes, but any dude who uses “set it and forget it” won’t be behind the console for my band for long- songs change, performances change, all of this requires engineering to keep the flow. There’s not a song on any album ever that didn’t require riding levels, so no matter how awesome you think you are your live show still needs it too.
The real solution is that any band that is so pro that “they know more than their engineer” should travel with their own engineer so they don’t have to worry about it. Your guy makes you sound like you want. Why don’t you have your own engineer to do your bidding? That would solve this whole discussion.
April 22nd, 2010 at 3:42 pm
I saw a video of the band playing, and I found it interesting that your cymbals are loud as heck- especially in the 6K neighborhood- bleeding through all of the hot vocal mics on stage. It’s not the overhead mic that’s doing it, its the “pro” musicians who know so much about audio engineering, they have every cardioid vocal mic aimed right at the drum kit. I’d almost bet money that the overhead is turned off because he can’t get the cymbals to stop being too loud in the mix. It’d be a lot easier to leave the faders alone if you didn’t point all those vocal mics right at the drums. The “pro” band is making it harder for the engineer in this case (in a lot of cases).On a different note, if the monitor system is set up properly using pre-fader aux mixes, you shouldn’t be able to tell if the engineer is riding the FOH faders anyway- your monitor levels wouldn’t change even if you were turned off in the house.
I’d be pissed off at my engineer if he DIDN’T actively mix the show. There’s no need to be turning down mics between notes, but any dude who uses “set it and forget it” won’t be behind the console for my band for long- songs change, performances change, all of this requires engineering to keep the flow. There’s not a song on any album ever that didn’t require riding levels, so no matter how awesome you think you are your live show still needs it too.
The real solution is that any band that is so pro that “they know more than their engineer” should travel with their own engineer so they don’t have to worry about it. Your guy makes you sound like you want. Why don’t you have your own engineer to do your bidding? That would solve this whole discussion.
April 22nd, 2010 at 10:44 am
I sure am sorry I posted that under the wrong thread. feel free to delete.
April 22nd, 2010 at 3:44 pm
I sure am sorry I posted that under the wrong thread. feel free to delete.