sound....

Sound....

Today I was having a lot of difficulties with it. And made playing music, less enjoyable.

The first gig was with the upright and my new shadow pick up in an upmarket cafe called La Moda. I just couldn’t seem to find a decent setting for it. Pretty sure I tried every combination too.

It was boomy, muddy, and had kinda like an underwater presence to it. I got more mids and treble when I put the pre shape knob down. But then the bass started feeding back.

Could it be that it was installed on the wrong side? (G string side) I’m going back to the luthier next week to get him to cut the other side so I can hear the difference.

Could it be that I wasn’t using the other fingerboard pickup with the bridge pickup? Maybe having the other half of the rockabilly pickup will balance it out? Anyway, like I wrote yesterday, i still want to experiment more with where to place it.

Or was it my amp. The volume control is broken after all….. You need to find a spot where it’s stable and doesn’t surge in volume. Then you hope no one touches it or bumps the cable to put it back into chaos.

But most likely the reason was it was just bothering me, and I let it continue. What you want something to change, and you think of all the possible ways to stop it. Well, it interferes with your playing. The mind was reacting strongly to it.

After listening back, i think it was definitely all in the mind. I thought it sounded ok, and this camera is cheap as they come!

Come to think of it, this happens a lot. Senses are much more heightened when you’re performing. The little mistakes that go unnoticed by the audience stain your memory and sometimes carry on and influence the rest of the night.

It’s happened on many occasions, after listening to some friends playing, you might pick up on some obvious mistakes that are made. But if you aren’t playing, those mistakes are very quickly forgotten, and it’s all a pleasant and feeling good.

On another note though, I do find it amusing watching some famous musicians being so anal about the sound. I remember seeing this video about Keith Jarrett, saying that he spends hours moving the piano around in the concert hall, trying to find the optimal position.

But theses guys are allowed to do that.

I need to get more comfortable with whatever situation I’ve been given.

Which brings me to the next gig tonight.

The picture doesn’t show, but the bass amp just isn’t powerful enough. The guitar amp was fine. I think its because of its range, just cuts right through.

This was our first night here at Lynn. They’ve decided to do live music a few nights a week. The details are still up in the air, but it has some potential to be a good gig. Just need a bigger bass amp pretty much.

But really…. I felt it was the same thing again. The bass sounded terrible on stage tonight, just a weird sound, not enough volume and very ‘wooshy’ (if I may make up a word for it). And once again after listening back from the recording I made (the camera can’t handle anything loud, it just distorts), it doesn’t sound too bad. Guitar probably sounded the best tonight, and that's probably cause Mike brought his own amp!

Ok so the lesson to be learned is to try to get the best sound that you can. And if it doesn’t get any better, be happy with what you got, forget it and just enjoy the music.

Easier said than done…. But I’m going to keep this in mind cause I have the same 2 gigs happening again tomorrow.