I performed these songs at the last Community Open Mic, but I wasn’t totally happy with my sound. I also wanted to experiment with the streaming/recording setup, making use of the ASIO driver for OBS that @Majik shared with us here.
Confession time … I discovered why my voice continued to reverberate and echo throughout the OM. I had intended to turn off the effects dialed in on my Play Acoustic after my performance. But in the heat of the moment what I thought turned off the effects didn’t. So I was practicing that today … lesson learned.
I was also playing with using my phone as the camera for the performance, with the ability to switch back to the PC webcam after my performance to be able to get to the keyboard to participate in the chat throughout the event.
This recording was a first, single take, press record, and share the result warts and all. So it has the usual number of clamettes.
Hope you enjoy it and feel free to let me know what you think of either the performance of the video.
Super stuff David and so much better without the reverb issue.
I was impressed by your quality A shaped barre chords in Bad MR and the strum technique in Proud Mary.
I know it’s practise but I still find the A shape barre chords hard to get clean on the acoustic. Fine on electric.
Well done. Another great performance to add to your catalogue.
Now that’s better ! So just like my condenser that I definitely turned off, you definitely turn the reverb off ? Lessons learnt, measure twice cut one !
Nice performance, David! The audio and video sounded good, and you played with steady rhythm and confidence. I believe I saw another post from you where you mentioned working through a vocal course. I think it’s paying off; your vocals are sounding smoother and stronger.
Guys, thanks for the look, listen, and reply; always appreciated.
@sairfingers no doubt, the trick with the fx is to have just enough, enough so that it sounds better but without the sound being “drenched” as @Richard_close2u once described it (drenched playing on the use of the recording lingo ‘wet’ ie with fx and ‘dry’ without)
@Majik now I hope I can reproduce that at the next OM
@TheMadman I thought I hit the button and turned it off, all I actually did was click the button which would activate additional effects that were not permanently dialed in. I needed to hold the button to switch into talk mode that switches all fx off As you say, a lesson learned.
@J.W.C Yup, I spent about the first 10 months of 2021 working at Chris Liepe’s Discover Your Voice course, which made a huge difference to my singing voice, and I think my ability to play and sing. Ran out of steam just as I reached the final module. I’ll be getting back into it to complete the course and can then go back and work through all the bits he calls “Going Deeper”, so lots more to mine there.
Very nice, David, and I definitely agree with Gordon on sounding better without the reverb issue! CCR is a great band to have in your repertoire for all those campfire type evenings that pop up
Well done, DP! Good stuff from the room of playfulness. Tone, playing and vocals were all well done. Very nice set along with my morning cup of joe.
I’ve kind of gone sour on the whole zoom audio/video experience to be honest. As a listener and performer. The YT live plugin method (the one we used on the Justin emceed edition) seemed to be a better and easier setup. I know that beggars can’t be choosers, and you take what you can get.
Thanks for taking a look and listen, and the encouraging replies; means a lot to me.
@SandyMusic The button is on my TC Helicon Play Acoustic unit. I have some effects added to my vocal (reverb, delay) which make the spoken voice sound a little odd. I’m using the button to switch in and out of a mode where all the effects are turned off.
@mari They are such great songs. I think the time spent tinkering before I recorded this has paid off and I may now be close enough to the sweet spot.
@CT Glad to join you for a morning cuppa! I hear you that Zoom is perhaps not the best solution for our Virtual OM but at least it is working. I think the benefits we get from the event are worth putting up with any Zoom downsides.
To my ears I thought the reverb and delay on your vocal was maybe just a little over done. But no one else seems to have mentioned it so it’s probably just me.
@batwoman Me and ‘groove’ in the same sentence. It’s been a long time coming and just a start, but will celebrate the progress
@RodC I hear you on the reverb and delay. At a point it becomes personal taste and if you’d heard it at the OM when the fx was definitely over done, you might view this as others have done.
In my experience a little reverb and delay produces a more natural sound than just the dry recording, Stefan. When singing straight into the dynamic mic you lose all the natural ‘sound’ of the room, adding the fx adds that hence making it sound more natural. Of course over-doing it then lets to a vocal that will sound processed. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, think Cher for example with her auto-tuned sound used for creative effect, but not what I am looking for.
David, very enjoyable. The percussive hits on Proud Mary were really well done. I am just starting to use more palm muting in my playing and it isn’t as easy as it looks!
As you say, a lesson learned.
