The Jam Room Blog Thread.

[RAGER]

Synth Freakout Weekend still going as I took today off too.  Packing bowls and cooking and emanating weird sounds from my basement for 3 days straight.  Fuck the neighbors.

[RAGER]

View from my seat right now.

[jibberish]

rager, are you playing those synths through your guitar stacks?  I refused to play my synth through my son's stack  after about about 30 seconds because it sounds horribly distorted and bandpass style freq range (big peavey XXX through a hartke cab, not even close to maxxed and all 4 speakers are good).

this is where foxxen and I cross swords: where do you need sound CREATION and where do yuou need sound REPRODUCTION

you need an accurate reproducer to imitate audio content exactly. example: listen to some fine vinyl through your stacks. it will sound like ass. your stacks are for CREATING new sound in combo with guitar (or synth if you are going for that sound). If you really want to hear your synths in all their glory only run them through PA/your recording nearfields/stereo system or something else built for accurate reproduction.

I am currently moving a pile of stereo to my son's music room so he can run my synth or later we run vocals,or backing tracks to jam at volume on drums for him through a PA.  next up. a pair of 300w/ch crown power amps and more mics for the drum set.    I have 2 awesome cerwin vega 12" 3-ways that are built for 300w/ch and a hybrid  bi=amped system which is built to take about 600w/side but I will use a 100w/ch on the hi's and 300w/ch on the subs.

THIS is what will make the synths sound godly again in all their full freq range, freq balance, and most importantly clarity and detail from the synth itself.
700w/ch through a righteous STEREO/PA type system.   you wont even know what bass is until you can do 30hz reasonably flat at mucho db's

Now that my son has seen the light that USB is a toy not for serious recording , but my multitrack deck is,and we now can record a fully mic'd drum set.  going to get that 4 mic kit from shure for the drums (3-57's and a kick mic +stands and cables for $400)[only have 2 57's and a large diaph condenser and an akg 57 clone between the 2 of us]

one more bone to throw you rager: master MIDI timeclock.  can also be master clocked via digital and word clock etc. MIDI drifts badly and is a slow comms convention.
"one master to run them all" the rest is highly gear and desired routing/result you specifically want as to the best sync method.


oh btw, wait till y'all see my prototype gear that doesn't exist. it is for additional control of multiple synths. aimed at 1-man show stuff(me) or the noiz boiz and their piles of synths, that's the hint. working out the mechanical shit. always the mechanical crap sucks, especially when you don't have a fully loaded machine shop at work anymore

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BACKING TRACKS.   my new love heh.    how lazy can i be to put on pink floyd or santana, lean back, a way back and jam , jam , jam

i even bookmarked this audio heroin:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FgSX11I2uRE

and there are tons. many flavors and keys.  fuckin a.

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and sunno, dont even start with your horseshit regarding my OPINIONS on what makes a synth sound good. it's my opinion. it is not on the table for your judgement.  in fact, please dont ever post or respond to anything i ever post. that would be awesome. pretend i dont exist. you start more shitstorms in here than anyone else. ironic.  so let's try that.

[showdown]

Album recording rig, I ended up using the Lionheart head through the 4x12". Used a Pharaoh and a black Muff boosted with a Dano Cool Cat drive.

[JemDooM]

Nice!

[Chovie D]

running that synth thru your guitar speakers is an excellent way to blow them. im not kidding.
too much bass for those speakers to handle. I went to a pawn shop and bought a peavey keyboard amp for $50.
Bonus: it has four channels and doubles as my practice space PA. not the best but it works and was only $50, we used the money from one of my old bands first shows to pay for it.

[RAGER]

Everyone seems to make the immediate assumption that since there are guitar amps and cabs in the picture along with a synth that I'm using those for the synth.  The synths go through the PA which is not in the picture but does actually exist.

[Jake]

How dare everyone do that! Those fuckin fucks need to stop trying to be helpful and fuck right the fuck off.

Fuck.

[Mr. Foxen]

Synths through decent valves amps is cool. If you use guitar speakers for the colour, just have to be aware of your frequency output, if you have decent control in the synth, should be able to high pass, and a high pass isn't hard to rig anyway. ANTA and Pigshackle are synth heavy and use Burman valve rigs.

[RacerX]

Three, maybe even four opportunities right now to get into bands/projects.

From famine to feast & all that...

[Chovie D]

the picture invited the helpful warnings.
sidenote: my micro-korg thrashed a practice PA in someone elses space too. that sub bass patch is a speaker flubber.
whatevs tho, let em rip 

[Danny G]

Early next week will be trying out a bassist for Ocean of Stars.

Not very familiar with this individual as a player, but has the right energy as a person and digs the music. See what happens...


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[JemDooM]

We played a show last night and I have no idea how we sounded, I'm finding bigger venues tough because the sound seems to go flying off, we were mic'd up through the PA but being behind the speakers and not out front with the crowd you can't hear how it really sounds, my stack mostly just sounded like massive noise in my ears and I've still never played a show where I was 100% happy with the tone of my leads, I'm really still getting on my feet with playing live and I hope I'll grow into it more. I kept putting it off thinking I didn't want to until I was fully ready but as John said, the only way to become fully ready is to start doing it. Will I get better or am I just not destined to do it, I don't know, all I know is that I have to keep going for those guys, it's what they love most, I prefer the writing side of things and hiding away at home making things just right for myself but live is more unpredictable, I hate it when I'm not 100% happy with my tone but some venues or different cabs can really throw a spanner in the works, is that normal? Don't get me wrong I enjoyed the hell out of it but there was an undercurrent of uncertainty that I wish I could shake off!

[the diddler]

Were there no monitors? Sounds like you were a victim of a shitty soundguy and/or PA set-up.

[johnny problem]

I've owned my BAT Black Forest for a year now.  It's still my favourite pedal in the chain.  When I turn it on, it turns me on.  Mark, thank you.

[moose23]

We played a show last night and I have no idea how we sounded, I'm finding bigger venues tough because the sound seems to go flying off, we were mic'd up through the PA but being behind the speakers and not out front with the crowd you can't hear how it really sounds, my stack mostly just sounded like massive noise in my ears and I've still never played a show where I was 100% happy with the tone of my leads, I'm really still getting on my feet with playing live and I hope I'll grow into it more. I kept putting it off thinking I didn't want to until I was fully ready but as John said, the only way to become fully ready is to start doing it. Will I get better or am I just not destined to do it, I don't know, all I know is that I have to keep going for those guys, it's what they love most, I prefer the writing side of things and hiding away at home making things just right for myself but live is more unpredictable, I hate it when I'm not 100% happy with my tone but some venues or different cabs can really throw a spanner in the works, is that normal? Don't get me wrong I enjoyed the hell out of it but there was an undercurrent of uncertainty that I wish I could shake off!

You will get better and the only way to get better at playing live is to play live.

[AgentofOblivion]

I might be projecting, but some people just don't enjoy playing live and I'm one of them.  I don't hate it, just don't find it very fun.  I'm not that nervous (after doing it for awhile).   People claim to live for being on stage but it just doesn't do anything for me.  Maybe it would be different in front of 1000+ people, but I don't see that ever happening.

If it's just a tone thing then that is easy enough to solve.  You just need to take time at practice and really focus on getting an even sounding BAND (not just guitar) and be willing to turn knobs to places you don't normally turn them.  Just experiment.  My goal is to have our sound so good that it makes the soundman's job as easy as possible.  Slap some mic's on the drums and cabs, adjust volume, go.  Unless they do wacky things with the EQ or reverb they can't really fuck up our sound too bad.  We've gotten comments from more than one soundman about how good our tone is and I think the key to that is two things:  1)  Much lower gain than most bands (which may not work with your music, but might surprise you too) and 2)  Do not scoop the mids out of the guitars.  It may not work for everyone and I'm sure you can do both of those things and still pull off a good tone, but it's an easy rule of thumb that works for us.

[RAGER]

If there were monitors then it was probably a bigger room I'm guessing?  How was the attendance?  If it was low then you match big amps through mains and monitors without a lot of bodies to soak up some freqs and shit just bounces everywhere.

Good input from above too.^^

[mortlock]

jem..remember this..you will never be completely happy with your live sound because in venues where you are going through a house pa and theres a sound guy, you are not in control. plain and simple.
I love the unpredictability of the live show. I look to embrace it maybe even tame it to a degree but you cannot control it. there are way too many variables that come into play. you have to be able to react to anything. bad sound, shitty monitor mix, weird venues, people throwing things at you..actually you probably dont get that but I have in the past..haha. expect the unexpected and have FUN with it. its all about the experience and you cant expect people watching you to have fun if youre not..

[dogfood]

Dental Fucking Surgery.   

I was communicating with a college friend of mine who lives in LA and it struck me that I want to live near him so we can make music together.  He was like many of us, rock guitarist, and then he got hooked on bluegrass.  Now he plays upright bass and jams/gigs with folk/bluegrass/roots dudes.  And, his musicianship is getting there.  He left me in the dust.  I'd like to be recording his playing and helping him get his shit out there.  One day soon he will be a working musician.  And he will be able to stop cleaning Woody Harrelson's brothers pool. 

[Danny G]

Busy as hell tonight and tomorrow.

Filling in on bass for my previous full time project Eric Tessmer Band. Now looks like we're pulling a double, back to back 3+ hour sets in neighboring venues.

Then have to be at an 11:30am rehearsal with another project next morning 30 or so miles away, playing guitar. Will get out of that and haul ass back into town for a 4:30 short set on bass with another band.

My body will be hurting, but my bank account will be telling it to stop being such a pussy.


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[RAGER]

Synth freakout again tonight and tomorrow.

[Mr. Foxen]

Tried out a drummer today. Kind of metal and busy, but competant, and there was plenty of space to fill due to guitarist failing to show up. Bonus fail points for guitarist due to the fact he lives with me, yet still failed to show for the drive over to the practice space.

[RAGER]

Give him THE SHAPE!

[dogfood]

Bonus Fail Points!