SLMC

Silas Scarborough · Joined: 04 Sep 2007 Posts: 1185 Location: Rhode Island

Bubbs is onto something really cool so I'm thinking a New England version of it could be fun too.

I was talking to Suka Nishi from Cuddler's Cove and she doesn't live far from me so I told her I'd invite her to the studio except everyone on the Internet is a pedophile or an axe murderer. She doesn't sound like either of those but how do I know, right?

Then it occurred to me there's safety in numbers and Dann "The Man" Numbers lives an hour or less north of here. (Top that one with cheese!) Addy and Bill and Pam Havercamp are only twenty minutes or less south of here. Neil Morrison is around here somewhere too. Soooo....

I'm pretty sure I can re-arrange the studio to be feedback-safe. Right now, I can't use mikes with the main monitors as they're 250 watts each and directly face the perform area. However, what I'm thinking is to split the room in half and point the monitors away from the perform area so I should only have a problem with reflected sound. Since a couple of people with acoustic guitars and singing should be able to make plenty of sound to fill the place, the monitors would just be to verify the signal is clean for the computer and outbound to SL.

What this would give is an area in front of the perform area plus another one to the right of it in the video area. This all opens out onto a deck but don't look at the pool as I haven't done anything to it in several years and it's not likely I will. It's a fairly good-size house and there are other areas not adjacent to the perform area where people could gather and talk a little more easily.

I like the concept of a 'house concert' but the term is too poofy for me. I'd much rather just call it a party. It's not exactly clear what the metalhead is going to do with all these acoustic folk except to hang back and watch/listen. It's a monster bitch trying to do one of these power gigs when you've got a bunch of acts lined-up so it might be too aggressive for me to think of playing, at least not in the main body of the set. Maybe a metalhead closing set or some such.

What I'm thinking is jams. If people want to do their regular shows, that's fine but it'd be pretty cool if we got some mixing it up. If anyone wanted, maybe I could sit in a little bit as I don't use amplifiers for my guitars so it wouldn't be a problem to get the level good for playing with acoustic music.

For equipment availability, there are two condensor mikes, an SM-57 highly-directional, and I don't even know how many SM-58s. The live channels are currently set up like this:

1) Vocal - Condensor mike
2) Open
3) Lead guitar
4) Twelve-string electric
5) Keyboard controller for MIDI or to MIDI sound module for analog
6) Bass
7) Open
Cool

SM-57 dynamic mike

All of those channels can be live simultaneously so it could easily accomodate a couple of acoustic players and their vocals. That could be augmented as much or as little as felt good at the time. Effects, from subtle to extreme, can be applied independently to each channel.

What I'd like to do would be to put something on so it would coincide with my weekly gig at The Tropics so that would start at 5:00 SL time which is 8:00 Eastern. If people arrived at 6:00, there would be time to get some pizzas, screw around with levels, and just generally get comfortable with things before live jams at 8:00.

There's one problem and could be huge. My house is not air-conditioned. Relatively few in New England are. In high summer with a lot of people in the house, it could be a bit oppressive. The other option would be to set up the gear on the deck but that would put people around the pool and that's a bit less than a site-seeing tour.

I don't mean to exclude anyone. If you're in New England and I didn't list you, it's only because I don't know you're here. So, for those I've listed and any I've missed, what do you think of this idea?

Q. Do I make anything
A. Nope

Q. Do performers make anything
A. No problem with tips in RL and SL when you play. How you split when you're jammin', I have no idea.

Q. Is it kid-safe?
A. No, the pool, skanky as it is, would still be a nightmare for a parent with young kids. It's in-ground and would be easy to miss in the dark. I won't ask anyone to constrain language or content for older kids so call it "R" rated, I suppose.

Q. Who pays for chow?
A. Dunno. I'm saving for a trip to Amsterdam and that means buying a laptop. In other words, I dunno.

Q. What about booze, dope, and hookers?
A. I don't care what you drink or smoke so long as you can hold your stuff and not turn into a newbie. Please leave the hookers at home, tho.

Q. Oh, you mean will Silas be getting the hookers?
A. No.

Q. What if other people don't like me smoking?
A. They got rights too. Take it outside.

Q. Is this going to be some high-tech, computer-controlled, flashing-light nightmare?
A. Nope, the intention is to go as low-tech as possible. Some technology is required to mix multiple channels but this will be kept to an absolute minimum.

Q. Are you calling acoustic players a bunch of low-tech boobs?
A. Of course, you saw right through me.

So, if others in Clam World are interested, please hop into this thread and we'll see if we can put together a Low-Tech Boob Show. I'm in Pawtucket, RI, and it's pretty easily accessible from I-95, a few miles north of Providence.

Another Silas experiment is now Officially Underway. Even if you think the idea sucks, please say so but please say why if you don't think it would work.

One more thing: if this looks like it'll happen, the people who will play ought to go out to each other's gigs and listen for whether it might be good to sit in if the performer were in the same room with you. Think of people doing solo 15-minute sets for the first hour and then all together or whatever other combinations for the next hour. Or maybe if things go really well before opening the stream, to just go into it jammin' and let it flow from there.
_________________
Ever vigilant for da gooses overhead.

- Silas

My Web site is at myducksoup.com

Haroldthe Burrel · Posted: Sun Jun 08, 2008 4:13 pm Post subject:

Would really be cool if you could hold off until september. I plan on being in Philly then, and could probably swing a trip by your place.

HtB
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Silas Scarborough · Joined: 04 Sep 2007 Posts: 1185 Location: Rhode Island

Addison Nicholls · Joined: 08 May 2008 Posts: 8 Location: Rhode Island

Hey Silas- This could be fun, but I agree that the heat could be a factor. The fall is always better for this kind of thing unless we could find an air conditioned space. On a grander scale, I wonder if there's any interest in doing a New England show like the one going up August 3rd in England. That might be pretty cool too.....

Hugs, Addy
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Silas Scarborough · Joined: 04 Sep 2007 Posts: 1185 Location: Rhode Island

Hiya, Addy! After last night, I'm certain that heat would be a destroyer as the only thermometer in the room was pegged at ninety, its maximum. Who knows how hot it really was in there.

My ex- and I used to rent a hall but that was relatively easy back in Cincinnati. These days I don't have a P.A. but it would be easy to rent one. This would probably blow a grand easily and we haven't even bought any beer yet. Doing it in a club might work as it would probably have a PA already but the Internet linkage could be questionable.

I think what I'll do is focus on a more temperate time of year. That'll give time for people to plan for it and will avoid big heat and thunderstorms plus it'll give time to come up with some entirely different way to do it if that works for everyone.
_________________
Ever vigilant for da gooses overhead.

- Silas

My Web site is at myducksoup.com