The band was a bunch of old-timers who heard about me through my boss and asked me to sit in at a pub gig. The song list was fifties rock n roll, some r&b with some MOR crap. Not bad all in all. To practice, I found a few of the songs on CD, and the rest I dug up on the internet as MP3s. I ran a lead from my mac to the DTX and played the MP3s with Audion which worked pretty well. Not CD quality but good enough to learn the rhythm and the changes. I prepared three kits, a jazzy one, a pop rock one, and a bluesy one. The band's singer assured me ahead of time that the bar had a really good PA and speakers used by bands all the time, and that I could plug my kit straight in. The pub was larger than I expected, more of a bar or roadhouse. I thought the band members might sneer at my non-traditional set-up but it was quite the opposite. They thought "robo kit" as they called it, was totally cool. Unfortunately, the house-guy who was supposed to know how to run the sound system proved pretty inept, and I was not satisfied with the sound check at all. Finally I just said forget it, and got my own amp and speakers out of the van. Luckily I'd been uncharacteristically smart enough to bring them (even though they're old and tired), in case the house PA didn't pan out. Good lesson. It was a lot of fun after that. The guys proved to be very experienced, and very talented. The kit performed well, although my crash symbol stopped dual zoning towards the end, even after rebooting. It's fine now, mysteriously. My overall playing volume was lower than my acoustic kit would have produced un-miked, meaning that the guitar players and keyboard guy didn't have to crank their amps. At one point the singer asked me to turn down a bit for a slow number, and I happily obliged (try that with acoustics). I played along using the brushes-on-snare sound effect and the guys were just blown away. On the down-side, my kit just reeked of smoke and booze when I got it home, and someone spilled a full Killkenny on my carpet (okay, it was me). I learned that my kit doesn't sound as good through my old speakers as it does through headphones, so I'm going to audition some new bins. Especially since I'll be taking them with me from now on. The other thing I learned is that I'm going to have to bone-up on sound systems. As a drummer I used to let someone else worry about it. But now I think it's my responsibility to know how to tinker with the mixer. In hindsight, I think the bar speakers may have been powered units, and the guy was just too dumb to turn them on. Anyway, the old-timers want me to gig again next month, so I guess the Yammy passed the test. ========================================================================= pete Hot Java, Cool Tunes: Visit Caf\ufffd Pierre www.geocities.com/SoHo/Cafe/4024/ > From: pdk <pdk@...> > Reply-To: DTXpress@onelist.com > Date: Tue, 29 Feb 2000 12:49:48 -0500 > To: <DTXpress@onelist.com> > Subject: [DTXpress] Played live...want to hear about it? > > From: pdk <pdk@...> > > Played my first bar gig with the digi-kit on Saturday. Anyone interested in > my observations? > > > ========================================================================= > > pete > > Hot Java, Cool Tunes: Visit Caf\ufffd Pierre www.geocities.com/SoHo/Cafe/4024/ > > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------ > Free Long Distance, Free CD, Free Headset! > http://click.egroups.com/1/1993/5/_/643449/_/951846402/ > ------------------------------------------------------------------------ > > Community email addresses: > Post message: DTXpress@onelist.com > Subscribe: DTXpress-subscribe@onelist.com > Unsubscribe: DTXpress-unsubscribe@onelist.com > List owner: DTXpress-owner@onelist.com > > Shortcut URL to this page: > http://www.onelist.com/community/DTXpress > >
Message
Re: Played live...want to hear about it?
2000-02-29 by pdk