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So, what's up?


StratGuy22

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Crazy how dead this place has become.

 

 

 

my band is slow this winter with no gigs on the books until April. Rest of the year looks to be pretty solid though. The plan is to use the downtime to get promo updated and solidify relationships with agents and learn new material.

 

 

 

planning to get an X32 rack or two, but no rush on that it seems. Since our regular sound guys use their own, it's easy to put off the purchase. By which time the new latest and greatest thing will probably be on the market.

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Yeah, no kidding. I've posted in sub forums and threads I don't usually hang out in, trying to jump start the place. We are just now starting to get the calls and emails from our usual bookings which accounts for ten to fifteen bookings a year. Trying to scare up some new bookings since our keyboard player/booking guy basically disappeared last year. Since the majority of our shows last year were show were the audience was there to us specifically, we are going to put together two sets of music, a mix of stuff we know and stuff that fits us that is new to us, and run that show through out the season. We can supplement any weddings and other gigs requiring more music with the usual stuff and DJ'ing. I too was thinking about going digital (Soundcraft Expression 32) this year, yet again. But the slow down we've experienced the last couple of years doesn't really pencil out again this year either. Nobody is going to pay us more for the improvement and if I were to actually admit it, which I won't, we could probably get away with a lot less production than I like to bring. Now I'm all sad and stuff! Back to Kitten Bowl II.

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One nice thing about digital is being able to save the scenes. We have scenes for all the different places we play. We played a new hall, do we picked a scene for a similar hall, and it was pretty close. Set the gains and then it's just a bit of tweaking. We use Some Kind of Wonderful as our sound check song. I remember at a new hall, our bass players wife was with us and de was surprised at how quick we dialed everything in. By the time the solo hit, I was up on stage with the rest of the band and we were good to go.

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Since we don't repeat rooms that often, having set scenes for that reason isn't quite as valuable for us.

 

They are good, though, for making it easier for different sound engineers to dial in the mix.

 

Mostly I like the digital mixers because we can eliminate our on-stage monitor mixer and have switched to everyone controlling their own monitor mix from iPad.

 

 

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Still trying to gain traction.

 

We lost guitar two back in November. He wasn't enthusiastic about playing pop music. That's fine. We're pushing on as a four piece, still trying to determine which of our old setlist can be played with a single guitar. Looks like most of them.

 

We have had limited success with some new EASY tunes: Billie Jean, Jolene, Mr. Jones, and the Joan Jett/Humble Pie/Joan Jett medley. There's always a lot of excitement when something comes together very quickly. Jolene, for instance. But we can never capitalize on it. It feels like a 1/2 step forward, 3/8 step back.

 

I've got GAS again. It's that Behringer XR18 X-Air, plus an undecided active E-V sub.

 

Personally, I am loving life. My wife and I are in month six of hosting a 17 year old Norwegian exchange student. It's been amazing in every regard. She is a smart and tremendously driven young woman. It's a bit scary sometimes watching her plan for her future back in Norway, plus devote so many hours to homework.

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Kinda dead for me, too, right now. No gigs on the books until April. Kind of by design, really. Got a little burned out last year. Gigged regularly with my dance/party band and spent a lot of time getting my new country band up and running. Although, once April hits it's going to be non-stop until October. I have 16 dates on the books so far for the country band and the dance band calendar is pretty much full given the amount of gigs we want to do.

 

Also having to deal with a couple of personnel issues in both bands, but that seems to be getting resolved.

 

Still looking to buy a new digital mixer. Definitely going to happen before April. We were set to buy the A&H QU16, but are now considering one of the new tablet only rack mount mixers. I'm still a little skeptical of those. Seems if you somehow lose your wifi connection, you're screwed. Plus, I still mix from the stage at most gigs. Call me old fashioned, but I still like the idea of just having reach over and push a mechanical fader or twist a knob. Either way, we will have something new within the month.

 

I'm also considering leaving the dance band and focusing on the country band. The country band is my baby and I'm really enjoying playing new music. This is a totally new venture for me. I had never played a lick of country until 2 years ago and now I can't get enough. I've been doing a little soul searching lately. I have come to the realization that I turn 55 in a week and not sure how much longer I want to keep gigging at the pace I have for the past 10 years. I really can't stand most of the music that the dance band plays. Katy Perry, Lady Gaga, All About The Bass, etc. aren't the only songs people want to listen or dance to, especially where I live. I figure if I only have a couple of years left of gigging, I want to go out playing music that I enjoy. We'll see.

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I really like my new Presonus RM32AI. I know what you mean about grabbing a fader. I'll see how it goes. I'm keeping my StudioLive 24.4.2 it's paid for, and might end up working better for the band. Time will tell.

 

 

 

Just locked in our NYE gig for this year this weekend. We got 50% for the deposit, and that's good. We had 2 other groups looking to book us. This is the bigger hall that expressed an interest first, so it's good to lock in with him. The Legion where we just played was interested but that was after the first group.

 

 

 

I'm thinking of pitching Halloween to the legion, though I know there's someone else interested so I'll give them first crack. I'll also let them know that the first deposit locks the date and the gig. We have a StPattys day gig and a few weddings on the books. Nothing too crazy.

 

 

 

I'd like to get back into the local music festival again. We gave them a deal last year, and decided as a band we will only do it for our full price. It's just too much work do go any cheaper.

 

edit: WOW edit works and paragraph breaks works!! Good work on getting that going people!

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Had a short rehearsal tonight. Worked on Working for the Weekend, Somebody to Love (Airplane), and Santeria.

 

Found out things numbering two:

 

1) Guitar wants two or three what he calls "difficult" tunes per set. The Bomber, Baba O'Riley, etc. The rest can be simple strumming tunes or whatever. Just not solo heavy. Now to find these simple songs.

2) He's willing to buy either the active sub or new digital mixer that we need. That's huge. Mainly because I won't have to buy both!

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I just heard from an old timer privately that was here back in 2001 like I was. He said he got sick of people arguing about the same things all the time. Someone said that Facebook kind of took over from where the forums left all. I don't know if I believe all that but anyway I still like to come here.

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Any ideas what you will get him to buy? If you buy the sub, then you are self sufficient. But if you buy the mixer than you can get more comfortable with it at home.

 

 

 

Good videos! You guys should try to interact a bit more up there. Have some fun :)

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Any ideas what you will get him to buy? If you buy the sub, then you are self sufficient. But if you buy the mixer than you can get more comfortable with it at home.

 

 

 

Good videos! You guys should try to interact a bit more up there. Have some fun :)

 

You're correct about him buying the sub instead of mixer. I'm sure he'll be fine with that. I spent a couple days working on X32 Edit, so I'm more comfortable than I was.

 

Thanks. We've talked about our stage presence, or lack there of. Unfortunately, we're still mostly at a point where we're trying to not make mistakes in songs and so anything else is lost. We're trying to do better!

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The singer has some good moves. Even on Kiss Me Deadly you guys loosen up a bit at the end. Not saying we are the greatest by any means. I go for a bit of eye contact, a laugh between us, pointing out someone in the crowd etc.

 

 

 

Something like hitting an open A chord, you know where it is, kinda do something with it maybe. Lift the guitar up, point it down or something. I dunno. You guys sound good, I like it :)

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My new country band gradually got phased out of our house gig and disbanded, so now I am freelancing. I occasionally play for my old southern rock/country band and have also done several jazz combo-type gigs with a well-connected local jazz musician who enlists players for high-profile events. On those the musicians follow his cue to play the "head" or main riff to 60's (or whatever) songs while speakers and people accepting awards make their way to the podium and back. So it's a different kind of gig for sure, sometimes stressful but always fun.The last time around we, in a short rehearsal beforehand, learned the Saturday Night Live themes (slow and fast) as well as a Frankie Valli medley and others to play for the event. But the music is rarely demanding, no Giant Steps or anything like that. FUN!

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Moved to Orlando end of November. Started gigging first week of December. Been expanding, now doing some corporate/Private stuff finally. Filling in on Bass and guitar with 2 of my buddy's (who owns a corporate entertainment company) bands and we're putting together a new acoustic based unplugged trio to fill a price point niche. My partner Mark and I are putting the last stretch of work in on our tracks stuff that's the bedrock of everything we want to do in the future. We've played a few duo gigs here at a bar. We hope to have our variety band, duo, a commercial country band and a tribute at least, up and running by summer.

 

Also, I'm starting a Friday/Saturday regular sound gig, 8-11 at a hotel that my friend with the production company has a contract for 4 of his bands to rotate in and out of. Brand new installation, X32, monitoring etc. We should be heading in there after next week to put the system through it's paces, dial it in, soundcheck the bands etc. So...this move was really a good thing for me. Don't miss Nashville at all! Never even think about it to be honest...Other than as a Dark time!!!

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We just did a gig last weekend at a regular spot. Probably the best night we've ever had there, and kept the place packed all the way to 2AM. Missed the window to book (see my next new topic), so nothing on the radar until august with the bars. Private parties are sure to come our way, but those typically get booked a month out and that's late spring and summertime.

 

Side project going very slow, but is so fun I don't care. It's so damn experimental and I just love improv.

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