As is customary in these parts, once the Open Mic video hits the streets, many of us post a recording of our final rehearsals or Dry Runs as they are also known. Or maybe re-record after the event whichever floats your boat. For those who stayed on after the show will know, I’m pretty much “talked out” and hence no Madman video d’waffle for this one, I did enough of that last night into the wee small hours.
So this was my last recording and level check, made Friday evening. Level wise there does not seem to be a noticeable difference between this and the show recording. Happy with both but I think the adrenaline was forcing the vocals a little at the OM, that or the fact I had switched to IEDs. And no guitar flubs on this one, when there were a couple of OM stutters. I am sure most people will not have noticed but as usual such incidents seem massive in our minds at the time. When we look back its just a momentary glitch lost in the moment that changes every nanosecond.
I’ll be stepping back for OM X, as I have performed at everyone so far and had an absolute blast. Time to move over and let others step into the spotlight.
Keep an eye out for OM X Call For Interest, which I’ll be posting some time tomorrow.
Feel free to offer comments but this is just another dog eared page of the book. Mark and move on.
Hi Toby!
I listened to your cheerful song with pleasure. You’re right, it was played without mistakes.
And as for vocals - here I remember your recent post about how you took vocal lessons. And you’ve really made a lot of progress on vocals - everything is just great! You sing easily and freely, with a large range.
Hope that after you rest on OM 10, you will break all the usual patterns on OM 11!
Keep on rocking,
Leo
Thank you for listening Leo. It shows how a live event, even online, can effect performance. Yes I will bounce back for OM X1 and hopefully the performance will match the rehearsal. Hey gives me longer to work on something. There’s a thread discussing the subject of nerves, after the Open Mic this weekend. Practice practice practice. Simples
You never know, be careful what you ask for ! Not this one though, as it screws up the intro !!
Thanks for the listen, have a good evening, I’ll be chilling with a brew as it was 37C in the shade but also to celebrate the boiler being fixed. Like I need central heating now !!
Hi Toby,
Man your vox is rangy and well done. Guitar seems spot on. You really have improved mate! Now on your guitar tone, I think you need to knock heads with DavidP. Maybe it is just this song as it looks like it is played on the higher strings mostly? To my ears it sounds a bit “tinny”. On the other hand your vox came across pretty good.
That was an awesome performance there Toby. As others have said it’s got a terrific energy in both the guitar and singing. That’s a spot on key for your vocals, bravo!
PS - yeah great timing on getting central heating back
Thanks for the comment on the vox. With concentrating on licks and Blues, I have not done as much singing (practice wise) as I did last year going through the DYV course. So I am glad its holding together.
As to the guitar part, yes a lot of it is played around D albeit capoed. The intro is a mix of E7 and E6 variants and most of the verse centre on E (D shape). I am following David’s OBS experiments closely, as I agree it was a little treble biased in places. It was the first time I have recorded the new Takamine and maybe it just me but I wasn’t not over impressed with the on board pre-amp. Anything over 50% gain and it started clipping. I tried boosting the bass and mids, more clipping but was worried if I backed the gain off further I’d get a very low gtr. So left it flat. In hindsight I could have boosted the AI channel level to compensate.
Also it was the first recording using the TC Helicon PlayAcosutic as its designed. Vox n Gtr.
I don’t think the Gtr FX and settings were optimum, so work needed there to improve for the future.
Following David journey into, I would have liked to expand on the ASIO/VST configuration, to fatten the guitar and nearly added ReaEQ but decided to leave as it was, as I was right in top of the OM.
I still need to do back to back comparisons with this and the following days OM recording, as I am still convinced that Zoom messes with the audio quality somehow.
But hey each one of these projects, be it OM prep or another AOVYP, is a learning opportunity. Acoustic through the Line6 Pod might be interesting for next time.
Thanks Mark appreciate the listen I find these dry runs useful, to see actually how much the nerve effect a live performance. As we said in that other post, at the time they seem massive but looking back its frequently just a glitch. Then you watch your rehearsal and see it was not as error free as you thought and also had its glitches. All subjective of course as the listener is normally oblivious. Might be something you could consider for future OM, just take a snap shot of your preparation in the days before the show.
