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A Happy Accident

Hey guys. :)

So, Friday night, me and Link Removed had an absolutely killer set. Made a few mistakes, but nothing too horrid - the killer part was the vibe, the energy in the house. I felt like a rock GOD up there, I could hear the cheers and see the headbanging and such through the strobes and smoke.... but that's not the point of the post.

Before we started our set, I handed my digital audio recorder to a vague acquaintance in the crowd, and had him record the whole set (mic facing away from the speakers) as an experiment to see if I could get a decent recording of the live music since it's going to be a month till we get the video of the show.

Well, as you may have expected, the audio of the show itself came out sounding like garbage. Buuuuuut, it got EVERY WORD said by the audience. So after the show, I got to hear everything they said about our stuff during and between songs - and it completely restored my faith in my efforts and my drive to remain a musician hearing everything they said about us. Didn't hear anything too bad, a couple minor criticisms, but most of everything they said was quote worthy in a press kit. :bassist::bassist::bassist::bassist::bassist:


In the future, I intend to have my recorder out during every show to better gauge how our performances are affecting our audiences.

Any thoughts? :)
 
It sounds like you should get yourself a mini-recorder, so you don't have to choose between recording the crowd or recording the band. Some models -- like the Zoom H2 & H4, for example -- let you record 4-channel (stereo front and rear built-in mics), so you can record the band *and* the audience.
 
Small compared to a concert hall or stadium, large compared to what usually shows at this venue, it was a festival with a bunch of bands playing all day.

This particular venue, I am starting to refer to as our 'home field,' we seem to put on our best performances there. This time, we even got called for an encore, it was friggin awesome. :D