AFurth
01-28-2007, 03:32 PM
Last night, I had a gig on campus. This time, i showed up to the venue 2 hours in advance with my own PA, equipment, etc. - i did it right.
IT SOUNDED AMAZING.
Before, I personally thought that I had a good, full unique acoustic tone when I was playing in my room, in the backyard, for friends... but I had a lot of trouble recreating that sound through my pickup, through a PA, etc. I didn't know how to sing into a microphone (learning how to back away because I use a lot of vocal dynamics), I had trouble because I "attacked" my strings a little too hard, all that stuff.
But last night was different. I played my acoustic (fishman natural II) through my Fender acoustisonic amp and output that directly into the PA. My lead player played through his nice vintage fender amp (not sure what model) and we used a Shure sm-57 to mic the amp - put that through the PA. I bought a Shure Beta 58a and used it for vocals for the first time through the PA (by the way, best mic ever i highly recommend it... SOOOO worth the extra cash). We didn't use an external mixer, but the amp for my roomates SoundTech PA has simple levels (it was all we needed for our acoustic/vocals, electric lead duo).
It just sounded awesome. It sounded like it does when I play for my friends, etc. I was so much more comfortable knowing the sound was dead on and was what I really sound like. I've played over 40 gigs, but I'm only 20 and I'm still learning about all this stuff.
Last night's gig was different.
And it showed in CD sales, crowd reaction, and interest after the show. I sold 15 CDs (to a crowd of 50 people, not too bad), and some people wanted them autographed haha, my website has had 100 hits since last night and my new band got two gigs (we haven't even rehearsed with our drummer bassist yet - we just found them in the last week). The new material is two weeks old, but it got the best reaction of all (because it was written with my really good lead player in mind).
Sorry for the long post, but i'm still like high from this gig last night and I wanted to share!
IT SOUNDED AMAZING.
Before, I personally thought that I had a good, full unique acoustic tone when I was playing in my room, in the backyard, for friends... but I had a lot of trouble recreating that sound through my pickup, through a PA, etc. I didn't know how to sing into a microphone (learning how to back away because I use a lot of vocal dynamics), I had trouble because I "attacked" my strings a little too hard, all that stuff.
But last night was different. I played my acoustic (fishman natural II) through my Fender acoustisonic amp and output that directly into the PA. My lead player played through his nice vintage fender amp (not sure what model) and we used a Shure sm-57 to mic the amp - put that through the PA. I bought a Shure Beta 58a and used it for vocals for the first time through the PA (by the way, best mic ever i highly recommend it... SOOOO worth the extra cash). We didn't use an external mixer, but the amp for my roomates SoundTech PA has simple levels (it was all we needed for our acoustic/vocals, electric lead duo).
It just sounded awesome. It sounded like it does when I play for my friends, etc. I was so much more comfortable knowing the sound was dead on and was what I really sound like. I've played over 40 gigs, but I'm only 20 and I'm still learning about all this stuff.
Last night's gig was different.
And it showed in CD sales, crowd reaction, and interest after the show. I sold 15 CDs (to a crowd of 50 people, not too bad), and some people wanted them autographed haha, my website has had 100 hits since last night and my new band got two gigs (we haven't even rehearsed with our drummer bassist yet - we just found them in the last week). The new material is two weeks old, but it got the best reaction of all (because it was written with my really good lead player in mind).
Sorry for the long post, but i'm still like high from this gig last night and I wanted to share!