Roscoe (#4694) on video...

JBFLA · #1 08-16-2009, 08:43 PM

Recently spent some time time at Full Sail Uni's sound stage recording two demo videos. We rarely play in a public forum and a DVD was paramount to booking our band. Reality was, we lost out on over 25K$ of jobs this past year because we didn't have a video to hand out or one available on our website. We've more than made up for it since these vids came out. S.FLA is very competitive as far as this genre is concerned.

Anyway - here's the link, and I'll post tech notes in a subsequent link for those who are curious...

http://solidgoldmusic.com/music_clips.html

Let me know what you think. My playing and the music choices notwithstanding (i.e. - nothing to write home about), I think that the Roscoe's tone is exactly what was spoken about in the thread re: "Type of music, versatility".

Jim

JBFLA · #2 08-16-2009, 09:23 PM

Full Sail University offers any band with 50 minutes or more material the opportunity to come in and record (audio and video) their material for free. Granted, you are guinea pigs for the students, but... the price is right, and the Instructors are right there in the process. That "price" includes full access to the audio mix as well the video feed.
The audio mix consists of the raw feed as well as the FOH mix and a Remote mix that was sent to a completely separate room on campus. The raw feed was sent side stage for a monitor mix, and subsequently sent FOH and Remote. Video feeds consisted of 3 motorized/gyro stabilized mounted cameras and two shoulder held cameras. Their feeds were sent to a video director's monitoring desk at the FOH position.

All said, we were not completely sold with either off stage mix (it didn't sound like 'us')... so we took the raw audio feed and our sound man set the levels where he felt they were appropriate. Had he the option, he would have reset EQ and compression levels, but that was not the case.

Once we had audio feeds to our liking (or, as close as we could get them) we sent the audio and video feeds to a studio in New York, who did the editing and special effects.

For what it's worth - there was no 'punch in / punch out' editing on the audio. In actuality - we didn't even record full versions of the songs. We needed 10 - 20 seconds of "good footage" of each song and rarely recorded more than a verse / chorus / bridge of each song. In total, we recorded 47 'songs' in little more than 140 minutes of 'Tape Time'. All songs were one take. Considering we'd just come off a stint of 6 months, 3 nights a week at a club, we were pretty tight.

My set up was a direct line out of my Demeter Pre, and a mic on my ACME (located between one of the tens and the 5" mid). On some songs I used a MicroPog pedal where the original was a synth bass line. Not ideal, but effective, to some degree. Personally, I think my tone is brighter than recorded (more mic feed than DI, and a bit more compression than I care for) but, overall I'm quite satisified with the presense of the bass in the mix...

...of course, I had nothing to do with that...

...it was the Roscoe LG3000.

**Freddels** · #3 08-16-2009, 10:19 PM

It looks very well done. The Roscoe sounds great. Can we hire just the girls? lol

VroomVroom · #4 08-17-2009, 09:28 AM

Jim, great stuff. Easily half of my gigs involve playing identical/similar music with ensembles just like yours. It's so cool to hear how different players interpret bass lines that are all too familiar. Your playing is spot-on, and the bass sound is terrific.

CactusmanDoug · #5 08-17-2009, 10:18 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by VroomVroom

Your playing is spot-on, and the bass sound is terrific.

+1

Darkstrike · #6 08-17-2009, 10:24 AM

Very cool. Very cool indeed.

JBFLA · #7 08-17-2009, 10:59 AM

Thanks for the kind words, folks!

This was so different than going into the studio to record a jingle or original tune. The plan was to keep it (the music) simple and sell the visual. Our drummer always says that the majority of people at these corporate/private party events 'listen with their eyes'.

Jerry - re: how different players interpret familiar tunes... It's not even just different players' interpretations. I can go back a year or two and listen to a tape and hear how much the song has evolved/morphed as band members have changed and the song takes on a new shape. Better yet, go back to the original and hear all the stuff that has been dropped out or forgotten.

When was the last time you heard a band play "Boogie Oogie Oogie" with the full intro?

Gard · #8 08-17-2009, 12:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JBFLA

Thanks for the kind words, folks!

This was so different than going into the studio to record a jingle or original tune. The plan was to keep it (the music) simple and sell the visual. Our drummer always says that the majority of people at these corporate/private party events 'listen with their eyes'.

Jerry - re: how different players interpret familiar tunes... It's not even just different players' interpretations. I can go back a year or two and listen to a tape and hear how much the song has evolved/morphed as band members have changed and the song takes on a new shape. Better yet, go back to the original and hear all the stuff that has been dropped out or forgotten.

When was the last time you heard a band play "Boogie Oogie Oogie" with the full intro?

I'm amazed you got something useful from that experience. I lived in O'do for 20+ years and NEVER did I have a positive experience at Fail Sale....nor did anyone I ever spoke with. We did better demos at our rehearsal studio or just taking a gig tape. Good for you that it worked out so well!

As for the Boogie Oogie Oogie intro, I used to insist on playing it with the last band I was with, heck, it was the whole reason I agreed to play it in the first place!

Good stuff man!

JOME77 · #9 08-17-2009, 06:15 PM

Nice tone and great playing! The Roscoe looks great in the video too! Sounds like they gave you guys a great deal! It doesn't get any cheaper than free!

JBFLA · #10 08-17-2009, 08:21 PM

I figured you might have some history with Full Sail, Gard. I hadn't heard much good about them beforehand either. We weren't thrilled with the audio mixes, but the video was well done and the lighting was very good.

Thanks Joe. That typical Roscoe Bart/ Bart pre tone works so well when you have to cover a lot of musical "territory".

The initial recording was free, but the video editing was expensive. Fortunately, we've already made up the difference with future bookings. A DVD or video on the website is absolutely mandatory down here - too many good bands all vying for those corporate / private party $$$.