Madman’s New Diary - OM XI Footnote

So JGC OM XI has been and gone and it won’t be long before OM XII appears on the horizon.

As per what now seems de rigueur, these are literally the last Dry Run recordings of the songs I performed, last night, made just over an hour before kick off !!

I had recorded Dry Runs earlier in the week but wasn’t completely happy and then inadvertently, caught some of the level sliders on my AI and nudged the volume knobs on both the POD Go and the JamMan looper. Suffice to say everything was out of kilter and still a mess about 4 hours before the show. It will teach me for tidying up and not leaving things out ready for the show !

Having got a reasonable vox n gtr set up for both songs, something was still not right with the backing tracks and that is when I noticed the volume on the JamMan looper had been nudged to between 10 and 11 o’clock when its normally sock on Noon. Adjustments made throughout the rest of the afternoon and these were recorded in the run up to the show.

The second song needed a BT volume boost and guess who forgot to do that in between songs, when on the “live stage”. Doh. This probably explains why I went into hyperdrive on the last verse of the second song, as I pretty much lost the BT at that stage.

Going to the wire again certainly upped the nerves but as much as I bluffed my way through, I mucked up lyrics and fluffed chord changes which stood out on the night. And yes I know that hopefully the audience were clueless but your own goofs feel huge at the time, even though you just keep going.

I am glad to say that I got these two in the bag, relatively error free and look forward to an OM when everything goes to plan. :rofl: Yeah in my dreams !!

Tech bits for those interested.

Backing tracks

  • Dead But Breathing - created by loading the original to vocalremover.org which worked really well

  • The Seeker - stems acquired from https://www.karaoke-version.co.uk/ and just used the bits I wanted. So literally junked the guitar and vocal tracks, then elevated the keys and piano so the solo cut through (which just about made it on the live gig!)

  • both BTs loaded on to my Digitech JamMan looper

Gtr via Line 6 POD Go
Vox via TC Helicon PlayAcoustic
Audio inputs via Xenyx AI Mixer into OBS
OBS set up with ASIO Input Capture source with Gain, Limit and Youlean Loudness Meter.
Videos recorded in OBS.
Smokey aka Gibson LP Studio.
Shure SM58 LC

Could not get on with my IEDs this time so junked them for my Shure SRH440 cans.

So here you go - both needed a capo, as they were stretching my vox no end !

Cheers

Toby
:sunglasses:

Dead But Breathing by Lesley Roy from the album Unbeautiful (capo on 1st)

The Seeker by The Who from the album Meaty Beaty Big and Bouncy (yes I said Beefy doh)
Capo on 3rd

The originals

Unbeautiful full album playlist - some good stuff going on here :+1:

3 Likes

Cracking performance Toby and thanks for sharing all the technicalities! I was hoping for those and how did you manage to avoid delay issue while playing BT, now makes sense going with external looper.

Never heard the first song before so thanks for sharing something new, it was a really great song! And your set was so far best I think quality wise, even if you forgot to put volume up between BTs it certainly was clear enough to hear and enjoy, thanks Toby!

1 Like

Thank you Adi most appreciated.

I used the JamMan for OM VIII with the Amazing BT and it worked well. With 12 possible inputs on the Xenyx I was able to use both outputs and thicken the tracks a little.

There are some really great tracks on her one album, it really is a shame she only did the one. And its quite a range of different style, hard rock, orchestral, rock ballads to almost punk with Physco Bitch. Something for everyone and I much prefer her vocals !

As for the set quality, much obliged but will see what happens at OM XII, if there is a slot for me !

Cheers

Toby
:sunglasses:

2 Likes

Hi Toby,
Great to listen to and watch :sunglasses: :clap: :bouquet: … (although Lesley is
better to look at as far as I’m concerned … :see_no_evil: :speak_no_evil:…) but that’s not your ’ fault’ :grin:…Thanks ,
Greetings…

1 Like

Thank you Roger and I would agree with you 100% and she has a wonderful voice.
:sunglasses:

1 Like