Went to a great house party over the weekend. There must have been 60 people there and at least half of them were musicians. There was non-stop live music from 8:00 and it was still going strong when I left 6 hours later.

I played two sets (early and then very late). Both times I did original material and I was fortunate to have some really good players join me.

Piano, Bass, Electric Violin, Guitar, Drums

This was a thrilling, killer experience. If I ever wanted to put together a show where I was fronting a band doing originals, I would be lucky to work with these people.


The house system was a couple of big speakers on sticks and a mixer. There were a couple of fellows doing a great job of keeping the music going and sounding good.

I brought a T1® and the Compact. The guys who were managing the sound were floored at how much better the Compact sounded. There was a guy trying to EQ the board with an iPhone app. He seemed to be working very hard. One thing he knew for sure (and as he told me a couple of times) was that my sound didn't need any help.

I lost track of how many times I answered the question - "Was all of your sound coming from that?"

Back to the originals - I have been performing my originals solo and in small ensembles with people who were familiar with my material. On this occasion, the people joining me were playing by ear. I think that it is a great testament to those musicians that they could play along with me. And it is a great example of what people can do when they CAN hear. I know that the clarity of the Compact was a significant factor in the success of the music.


I had a ball.

Cool! Were your vocals going through the Compact?

Hi Tom,

Thanks for asking.

Vocals, Guitar (through a Roland VG-88 virtual guitar system on a '77 Gibson ES Artist), PorchBoard... all through the T1® and from there, into the Compact. This was my sound.

And that explains why people kept asking

"Was all of your sound coming from that?"

as they pointed to the Compact.

I was there as a performer and reveller in the fun. I wasn't there to do sound so I didn't get involved with the house system at all. I've got to tell you: That was a real joy. You know that I do sound for house concerts and it was really nice not to be the sound guy that night.


PS - I had the VG-88 setup to let me play Bass through on the bottom two strings of the guitar. I do that on several of my songs and I did it that night to give the Bassist an idea of where I was going as I played through the changes as I started each song. I did that so everybody could hear the tune. Then when he (Bassist) got the feel for it, I turned that off. Same thing with the PorchBoard. I used it to help me communicate the rhythm, and then I backed off it to give that to the Drummer.

Hi ST,

Is there any place (other than a gig in Canada) where we might hear some of your original material?

O..

quote:

Is there any place (other than a gig in Canada) where we might hear some of your original material?

Oldghm,
I might ask you a similar question "Is there any place other than a Bose L1 Conference that we might hear some of your original material"

Seriously, I would LOVE to have recordings of both of you if it were possible to get them!

Congratulations ST on what sounds like a really fun and rewarding evening for you.

Best Wishes,
Jeff

I would love to hear some ST music...and would also really dig to hear Oldghm's music from his Bose concert....any bose-at folks willing to post some recordings from that concert ?

Hey there Oldghm,

I'm all about the live show.

Anything I've recorded has been about testing a concept or a piece of gear. Not much pleasing for the ear.

quote:

Originally posted by Oldghm:
Hi ST,

Is there any place (other than a gig in Canada) where we might hear some of your original material?

O..

Volume:

I forgot to mention that the house rule at the party was to protect everyone from hearing damage. I don't know what the upper threshold was supposed to be, but the fellows running the sound told me that they were happy with the reading of 91 dB they got at about 3 feet from the Compact.

I was pretty comfortable with that. And I was completely confident that I was being heard well and standing out in the mix when that was appropriate. I could see that in the faces of the people listening.

quote:

Originally posted by ST:
Volume:
... they were happy with the reading of 91 dB they got at about 3 feet from the Compact...

As an aside: lest anyone think that this was "pushing" near the limit of a Compact, see measurements taken at this block party.