#band | MidiMike

Posts Tagged ‘#band’

Live Sound Reinforcement Series Chapter 20 – Stay Focused on # 1

Posted: December 17, 2015 in live Sound Reinforcement, Live Sound Reinforcement Series
Tags: #audio, #band, #mixingboard, #music, #musician, #sound, #Soundengineer, #soundman, #technology

Through the beginning to the end of the last chapter, we have concentrated on the hub or the central nervous system of a Live Sound Reinforcement assignment.  I have been focusing a bit on live performance in a typical band or musical event.  We now understand how most equipment for the House PA, the stage monitors, effects, and even lighting systems use the mixing board as the central hub.  The mixing board’s usefulness does not end there!  Once equipment is set up, connected, turned on and confirmed functional, most of the adjustments made for the rest of the evening will happen because of changes to the mixing board.  It also becomes the Master Device, and all other connected devices are ultimately controlled by the mixer.  The sound engineer is the ONLY person that should touch the mixing board.

The next logical step would be to describe the components of the House PA system and how much power (or how much money do I need to spend….).  After all, this is what most people hear, right?

Obviously, I set up as a trap question.  The answer seems obvious.

If I said, “I sound like a broken record”, most young readers will not know what that means! But I will repeat myself on certain themes and I feel one a’ comin’!  The next important thing is not the House PA and the number of speakers and amplifiers you need.  Most small venue mixing engineers go straight for the house and main systems, completely ignoring the most important ingredient guaranteeing a great performance.  We will avoid that trap now and focus on the stage and more importantly – the musicians on the stage.

When bands practice, they ultimately find a good use of space and volume so each member can achieve the two primary goals;

1) Hear myself (usually louder than any one else.  This is not ego and we will get into that later)

2) Hear the other performers (usually not as loud as the performer wants to hear him/her self!!)

Once they settle in and can accomplish the above – practice is comfortable and productive.  Each member can hear themselves and can also hear enough of the other members to blend with them.  If you saw a live symphony orchestra and all you could hear were the trombones, it would seem like an awful performance.  If you were a musician in the orchestra and all you could hear were the trombones……………

Now we can go back to the band members standing on a stage or venue they have never seen or played in……   and now understand that this is a very real challenge, and the smaller the venue… the smaller the budget.  Lack of Resources can be difficult challenge to overcome.

In larger venues it was quite normal to have a smaller mixing board off to the one side of the stage.  All the instruments and monitors would connect to this mixer, and it would ‘split’ all channels and send them equally to the House mixing board out in the audience area.  (it can also be used to send signals to a recording van parked outside).  The sound engineer on stage makes the band members happy by concentrating on the performers but does not affect the signal going to the House board.  That way the House Engineer has full control of the unaffected incoming channels from the stage board.

Good enough for now and in the next few sections I will focus on the stage sound and mix.

A Lack of Concern

Posted: November 23, 2015 in MUSIC, My Tunes, Uncategorized
Tags: #audio, #band, #guitar, #keyboard, #lyrics, #music, #musician, #personal, #recording, #singer, #song, #songwriter, #sound, #story, #studio

For another look into the times, Lack of Concern is a gem in a time capsule.  These were good times.  I was still working at the music store.  Playing with toys, buying a few here and there and energy I can only imagine looking back, LOL!   It was a period where a lot of music was written and performed. Lots of projects.  Learning as much as we could.  Showing it to others!  That was the fun part.

The words in a number of my songs are important to me.  In the same way I have been told that aromas and fragrances can help recall a specific event in the past, lyrics do for me.  They are a portal that allows a connection to create itself again. With that memory brought to the surface I can recall many of the events that inspired thoughts that somehow managed to become poems or lyrics. I surround myself mentally in the time.

“Tease me with the truth, baby, don’t tempt me with a lie” is one that puts me back at that time, in that mood.  This song contains a number of those portals.  This song asks the basic question; … ‘do you know what you are doing and still do it, or are you completely unaware of what you are doing?”. I just love the upbeat arrangement in this song. For this song I had the Yamaha DX7S, their updated model and a drum machine. My wife Ellen and I do the vocals. I play acoustic rhythm guitar parts and Shawn my buddy! comes over to play the lead and decorative guitar parts. I just let him run wild during the entire song and pick the gems to accent parts of the song. This may be the only time I have recorded this song. It is also one I rarely play out, but I think it is catchy in its own way.

Live Sound Reinforcement Series Chapter 20 – The Musicians on the Stage

Posted: November 10, 2015 in live Sound Reinforcement
Tags: # mixer, #audio, #band, #effects, #guitar, #microphone, #mixingboard, #monitors, #music, #musician, #sound, #Soundengineer, #speakers, #stage, #technology, #venue, #writing

The next logical step would be to describe the components of the House PA system and how much power (or how much money do I need to spend….).  After all, this is what most people hear, right?

Obviously, I set up as a trap question.  The answer seems obvious.

When bands practice, they ultimately find a good use of space and volume so each member can achieve the two primary goals;

1) Hear myself (usually louder than any one else.  This is not ego and we will get into that later)

2) Hear the other performers (usually not as loud as the performer wants to hear him/her self!!)

Good enough for now and in the next few sections I will focus on the stage sound and mix.

March of 1990 – Pushing Forward

Posted: November 5, 2015 in Uncategorized
Tags: # mixer, #atari, #audio, #band, #create, #digital, #keyboard, #music, #musician, #personal, #recording, #retro, #song, #songwriter, #sound, #studio, #synthesizer, #tech, #technology, #writer, #writing, #Yamaha

I guess I never really came up with a name for this tune. Sometimes I will write lyrics and give it a working title. I do the same thing with musical pieces I am working on before there are dedicated lyrics assigned to the tune. As I continue to work on a piece, the name often changes when chords are matched with a set of lyrics. On rare occasion it happens at the same time, and that process is a little different – and easier! This is one of those weird situations where I never got to either, and this has always been referred to by the date….. March of 1990.

March in this case also has a double meaning. It is the pull away from the Winter season where I live. The steady movement of new life. The pace of growth that cannot be stopped. The instrumental tries to match that drive and frantic pace of the season. Driving rhythms, collage of melodies, bouncing themes – and then to dynamics and a reflection of what is now past. Then back to driving growth. That is what I think about as I listen to this tune. Even now, heading to Winter, I feel that March pushing forward.

Back to the Atari 1040 ST, I am sequencing all parts for this tune. I believe I added a new tone module from EMU called the Proteus 1. This was an amazing machine and I have not found anything as good and simple to use as the Proteus series. It was really cool for two major reasons in my opinion. 1) the sounds were just awesome for the time and there were lots of sounds on board. 2) the operating software used was just made for MIDI geeks like me. It was very simple and allowed the Proteus 1 to create splits, layers and zones, but it easily allowed you to access all 16 MIDI channels at the same time. I could write a few articles on this alone, but for now it meant you could assign a different sound to any or all of the 16 channels independently. As described in the MIDI series, this was great because you could use channel 1 for piano, channel 2 for organ sounds, channel 3 for strings, channel 4 for brass or orchestra sounds, 5 for flutes, 6 for sound effects, 7 for guitar sounds, 8 for solo instruments, 9 for the bass guitar sound, 10 for the standard drum channel and still have channels left over. Playing out in bands and in the studio with this was just a dream.

MIDIMike

Mr. Charlie Told Me So

Posted: October 22, 2015 in My Tunes
Tags: #12string, #acoustic, #audio, #band, #cover, #creative, #creativity, #greatfuldead, #guitar, #music, #musician, #performance, #personal, #recording, #retro, #singer, #song, #songwriter, #sound, #story, #studio, #vocalist, #vocals, #writer, #writing

Thinking about a recent post where we shared our first concert experiences, I was reminded about my first concert to see The Grateful Dead. I was fairly young and the environment was overwhelming and exciting.

We used to play one of their songs called “Mr. Charlie”. The Grateful Dead are off beat by nature and this is one of their songs most people have not heard. I recorded this cover song a couple years ago and decided to pull it out of the ‘deep-freeze’ and post it for the fun of it.

When I was in cover bands, we were pretty much forced to play main stream or currently airing songs. I would suggest the unknown songs often but understood when we played only a few. This one never got the approval either, but the core group used to warm up on this one and I just like the flavor of the song.

Credits to The Grateful Dead. This is my Ovation 12 String guitar and I do a little harmony. Hope you have a little fun with this as well.

Naming the Mysterious 12

Posted: September 18, 2015 in Music Theory
Tags: #band, #guitar, #keyboard, #logical, #motivation, #music, #musician, #musictheory, #note, #notes, #piano, #recording, #songwriter, #sound, #theory, #tips

Up = (#/Sharp). Down = (b/Flat).

0	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11
C	C# Db	D	D# Eb	E	F	F# Gb	G	G# Ab	A	A# Bb	B

There are a number of discussions possible here. My point is the rose is a rose experience from my own limited understanding. Music theory is not my strong point. I know players that are very specific in the reference of notes or the progression used when naming them. It does make it easier to communicate – – – – – – To set up this conversation let it be understood that any note can be raised or lowered in increments of half-steps. Take your Root note and play the next highest note and you have ‘sharped’ the note. If you play the next lowest note you have ‘flatted’ that note. Up = Sharp. Down = Flat.

Any note. Any instrument. Any Western scale. Similar to the reference in Tuning; if pitch is too high it is Sharp, and if it is too low it is Flat.

We agree on common ground for the Titles of the Twelve. Looking at the piano as my standard example we need to notice the color of the keys not as a place on a musical staff or its place in a scale but as a compact representation of DISTANCE. The chart above uses the shading to mimic the keyboard and is not compressed or compact like the real piano is but if you play notes to the right they get higher by half-notes. Color means nothing to this reference. We rarely call the C note a B#, and we rarely call the F note an E# but this is a similar relationship.

Above you see the black notes have alternate names assigned to them. One way to help easy translation is to keep with one designator in the project. Give the notes names that are one system and not the other. Various way to think of it – a rose;

C, C#, D, D#, E, F, F#, G, G#, A, Bb, B, C is a rose:

C, C#, D, D#, E, F, F#, G, G#, A, A#, B, C

is a rose;

C, Db, D, Eb, E, F, Gb, G, Ab, A, Bb, B, C

Along those lines I want to copy a recent comment from a great friend of mine and frequent commenter on this blog:

The math is easier if you name the root “zero.” 0 2 4 5 7 9 11 (the major scale). You can add 12 and get the same notes, just an octave higher. Subtract 12 and get the original keys. There are only 12 tones on a piano: 0, 1, 2, …, 11 After that, it just repeats.

The Mysterious Twelve is represented this way in the chart above. Starting with zero would change the Safe Seven representation to look like this:

C D E F G A B C

0 2 4 5 7 9 11 12

This is true and practical to use when considering the relationships of notes especially when working with musical scores where you are talking multiple octaves and keeping the relationships common. For many musicians, songs can be described as patterns. For example, if you are beginning a Jam and following previous examples in the key of C, you could say ‘lets start out with C for a few measures, then go to F and then go to G and repeat. Ready, set go!’. The Safe Seven shows us this relationship as a number starting with the Root equaling 1.

The Jam could also be started by saying ‘key of C, let’s play a 1,4,5 progression. Ready, set, Go!’. In this relationship, 1 = the Root or C, the 4th = F, and the 5th of the scale = G. The next jam session might be in the key of Bb, but we can still state this as 1,4,5 and the musicians that know the Safe Seven in each key will easily translate. You would be surprised how many popular songs follow the 1 – 4 – 5 and similar patterns! Starting with 1 as the Root, allows this pattern to more easily translate to the Root, 3rd, 5th – as this matches the common chord progression associations.

The point being there are a number of names for our ‘rose’, depending on the need or project at hand. If we call C “C”, “B#”, “0” or “1”, we are still describing the relationship between the 12 notes. As with the sharps and flats naming structure, once we start with a system, use the system through the entire project to avoid confusion!

Caught My Ear

Posted: August 24, 2015 in Opinions and Observations
Tags: #audio, #band, #creative, #creativity, #dreams, #friendship, #genres, #influence, #inspiration, #inspire, #love, #lyrics, #music, #musician, #performance, #performer, #performers, #personal, #retro, #singer, #song, #Song review, #sound, #story, #video, #vocalist, #vocals, #writer

Thank you so much to everyone who participated so far in my “Who Do You Love” post. There were some very interesting lessons as I collected and listened to the recommended songs that have influenced us over the years. I say us intentionally. You are the best group of people I have never worked with!! LOL. I mean that in a kind way. It is easier for some people to develop good relationships with some one they work with or “serve” with. The bonds can last a life time. We do not have that work platform, but the friendships made here are also very strong.

I was equally surprised by two things: 1) I knew a lot of these songs and bands and 2) I didn’t know a lot of these bands and songs!! It took me a long time to go through them all. But there are some gems in here. Many are the best of their category – NOT necessarily the most popular or the one with the most airplay. I encourage you to look deeper into comments as I will not list them all here again, but I want to point out a number of them that caught my ear. A lot of your suggestions were passionate and you can tell there is a lot of history and emotional connections in the lists. Here are just a few – but again not a complete list of the gems you suggested. Please continue to post your musical influences. I have thoroughly enjoyed and benefited from your suggestions. I hope others get a kick out of these too! IN NO ORDER WHATSOEVER

Active Child – what a range the vocalist has. Unusual set of musical toys, and lyrical themes and vocal textures blend into a unique soundscape. They create a house and invite you in. Well worth the visit.

Switchfoot – “Hello Hurricane”, This is a clean sounding song. Well recorded and mixed. Driving beats and vocal power that can be smooth and open. Good blends in harmonies. Good energy and I like the ay the song builds at a slow pace.

Jon Foreman – The Wonderlands. Here is another great blending artist. Nice harmonies and the background music surprises with different arrangements and instrumentation. Very good dynamics. Addictive style that is pleasant and easy to relate to.

Bat for Lashes – Laura is a great example of this artist’s prowess. She quickly sets up the mood and the tone and then lays the lyrics on you with vocals that seem to have more control than humanly possible and enough emotion to cause global warming.

For raw power with a message it is hard to beat La Dispute. Combining a number of styles into a passionate assortment of lyric driven songs. A speaking style not trying to be rap that works very well for this group. Great driving music for a long trip.

I have to mention this because it was cool from an historical point:

https://ahigherrevelation.wordpress.com/2013/05/23/triple-js-20-years-of-hottest-100-countdown-what-did-i-vote-for/

I was really fascinated to check out Barclay James Harvest. These guys are right up my ancient alley and I have never heard of them. I know this might not be the most popular suggestion the community has suggested, but they cover all the progressive territory of other bands I am familiar with. Some of the video clips from around 1979 are out there and worth an evening or two.

I had heard Ed Sheeran before, but wasn’t that familiar with his works. Nice variety, works on a good image – that is a good guy image and it comes of very well for him. He tries to add variety and the songs are great. It was definitely worth my time digging more into his songs and videos. Great voice. Solid music and production.

Kate Nash – Nicest Thing. I can see why this is a favorite. The style is intentionally out there and it has the sneaky ability to pull you in instead. When you can make comfortable and eerie blend perfectly you have a great emotional landscape play in. She calls this her territory and of course the lyrics pull you right into the main theme. Good call.

City & Color – As Much As I Ever Could is another great example of a band that has it all. The vocals are outstanding and his control is impressive. Lyrics are fine and fit the ballad style of this song. Band dynamics are worked out by what seems to be magic. Harmonies kick in and punch it for added tension and for me the keyboards are a great touch.

Dave Koz’s tunes are cool jams and the performers are all top notch. You don’t have to be a genius to get into their grooves as well. Slick mix production. If it is time to sit back and enjoy, take in a few of these live performances and watch the players do some cool stuff.

Ian Carr’s Nucleus – Roots: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b-Cu5TJm0GI This is a great progressive jazz. Maybe an acquired taste for some but worth checking out for the chops and creative jamming.
Frankie Beverly’s Raw Soul – I Need You: https://youtu.be/U7uJ_zddoSs This is another great jam band with solid grooves and guys that know their axe. Percussion to die for and the organ player is pretty top notch. Great live musical fun.

The Hep Stars got by me completely somehow. You can hear a lot of influences that were dominant at the time. Good vocal blend and the recordings are actually pretty good. They captured the times and the look and ran with it. For a blast from the past this is a good history lesson.

The Raconteurs are a great groove band with a heavy guitar sound. The vocals and the harmonies are well worth the price of admission. For a lively rocking jam, this is a great place to start soaking up some new tunes. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vu9hj_kMm48

This video stands on its own, but the vocals have to be heard to be believed from The Temper Trap. Great name too. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yMuuc_pqx2s is a great song with a vision.

Lana Del Rey is one of those artists you have to sample more than one song to get a feel of the true talent. Maybe listening a few times would help, but once you cross over she has a powerful musical presence. Try https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o_1aF54DO60 for the unfamiliar.

Manic Street Preachers have a great Brit rock/POP sound. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nusymqINrSc is a fun video to start with. Good clean style, great vocals and they are not afraid of dynamics. They also love a song with a theme or message, so good for a fun musical cruise.

Acoustic Alchemy are worth noting for a band that has chops and a smooth modern jazz style. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EVtQHpwv9sE is a good example of their live performances. Fun jams and precision licks from a talented group and for a nice addition try a “Shelter Island Drive”.

Notables:

Ashestoangels

Sufjan Stevens https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=asCLMdrWuA0 for eye candy.

From The National, try https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A-Tod1_tZdU to set the tone for the evening. A vocal and visual treat.

Amaia Montero – Quiero Ser and I have no idea what she is singing, but I can understand why it was recommended’

Thank you again. I really enjoyed this project and thank all that participated and to all the thought put into it, even if you did not post your list!

Question of the Week

Posted: August 21, 2015 in Opinions and Observations, Question of the Week
Tags: #audience, #audio, #band, #concert, #event, #genres, #greatfuldead, #guitar, #music, #musician, #performance, #performer, #performers, #personal, #singer, #song, #sound, #stage, #story, #vocalist, #vocals, #writer

You may think this funny, but my first real concert was a Grateful Dead concert. I was seventeen or eighteen at the time. I had seen bands perform at parks or other small events, but this was my first concert. The thing I remember most to this day were the huge balloons that the audience and band members would smack back and forth the entire evening. I was not that familiar with their music but I had heard references (“It’s not for lack of bread, like the Grateful Dead; dying”, from the musical play Hair, which I also saw!) but had not really heard much of their music before.

The second thing that I noticed was how communal the audience was. It is unlike other concerts. Everyone was friendly and happy to be there. It was a different group of people. They enjoyed the music, enjoyed the event and everyone got along. I wish more of the concerts I have seen had audiences that resembled The Grateful Dead fans.

What was your first concert? What do you remember about it?

My Chance to Give Back to YOU

Posted: August 19, 2015 in Reviews
Tags: #audio, #band, #create, #creative, #creativity, #demo, #digital, #dreams, #genres, #inspiration, #inspire, #lyrics, #motivation, #music, #musician, #performance, #performer, #performers, #personal, #piano, #poetry, #singer, #song, #Song review, #songwriter, #sound, #story, #truth, #vocalist, #vocals, #writer

MIDIMike’s Reviews Are Coming Soon!

As a result of requests from fellow bloggers and ReverbNation members, we are just a few weeks away from launching the new MIDIMike’s Reviews Site. This site will be dedicated to reviewing original music and creative writing submissions every week. I assembled an amazing team of reviewers to work with me and they are also excited to help with this new project.

I have been writing and performing for decades, but recently I struggled to get my material professionally reviewed for my on-line presskit. I have seen a number of artists struggle to acquire this simple but necessary stepping stone. Several of you have asked me for opinions on your material and I want to make that advice available to everyone. I want to be able to give back to all of you for the support and encouragement you’ve given me over this last year.

MIDIMike’s Reviews will be free and honest. I will be posting the reviews on my http://www.midimike.com site (which has thousands of views per month) and on the upcoming review site. You are also welcome to use the review for your own website/blog/presskit when referencing MIDIMike’s Reviews as the source. The individual review posts are not guaranteed for all submissions, but every submission will receive feedback from us. I enjoy raw talent, but the submissions should be presented as professionally as possible. Your creative works will be handled with the utmost care and you retain full ownership. HOWEVER: You must guarantee you are the sole author and have full permissions to publish these works.

If you are interested in having your material reviewed, please e-mail: midimikesreviews@gmail.com

Music – You may submit a song or an album for review. Please send a link to the material in full and any additional presskit material or websites (if available).

Poetry – Please e-mail the poem or poems in full to the e-mail address with any websites/social media (if applicable).

All levels of experience accepted. (If you have any questions, you can also e-mail them to us at midimikesreviews@gmail.com)

Please keep in mind; I do what I can, but sometimes life gets in the way. Please be patient with us while we get this up and running. I tried to avoid as much legal jargon as possible but there are exceptions, exclusions and I have the final say on what reviews will be posted and for the content of the reviews.

On a more pleasant note, I get to hear a lot of great music from new bands and artists before they become wildly famous and read great poetry before it’s professionally published! Thank you for making the first half of 2015 a blast, and it is just getting started!

MIDIMike

Advice of the Day – Encouragement Goes A Long Way

Posted: August 10, 2015 in Opinions and Observations
Tags: #band, #community, #create, #creative, #creativity, #dreams, #encourage, #encouragement, #inspiration, #inspire, #love, #motivation, #music, #musician, #performer, #personal, #photographer, #photography, #poet, #poetry, #singer, #songwriter, #sound, #support, #tips, #writer

Encouragement – the action of giving someone support, confidence, or hope.

This also applies to writers, artists, poets, performers, photographers and so on… Let’s build each other up instead of competing with one another. Once you’ve reached the next level, reach down and lend a hand to everyone still striving to get where you are. Be thankful to each and every person who encourages you and GO OUT OF YOUR WAY to support and encourage others.

MidiMike

Available on iTunes and CD Baby

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MSK original Songs

Posts Tagged ‘#band’

Live Sound Reinforcement Series Chapter 20 – Stay Focused on # 1

A Lack of Concern

Live Sound Reinforcement Series Chapter 20 – The Musicians on the Stage

March of 1990 – Pushing Forward

Mr. Charlie Told Me So

Naming the Mysterious 12

Caught My Ear

Question of the Week

My Chance to Give Back to YOU

Advice of the Day – Encouragement Goes A Long Way

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Available on iTunes and CD Baby

Social Media

MSK original Songs

Posts Tagged ‘#band’

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