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Improving Live sound (Video included)

How would you rate us as a Pub rock covers band overall?

  • Poor

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Average

    Votes: 3 37.5%

  • Above avaerage

    Votes: 4 50.0%

  • Spectacular

    Votes: 1 12.5%
  • Total voters
    8
zombie1965

zombie1965

Jan 10, 2015
324
192
Herefordshire. UK
#1
Hi all, what I am looking for is hints and tips on improving our live sound and constructive criticism on techniques and performance.
Each video contains 2 tracks so once finished with one skip about half way through for the second track.

Some tracks do flow together.

Coral and Foos


White Collection


Queens and JK


Arctic and Muse


Thanks for your time!
 
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#4
The band is tight and sounds good. The only suggestion I can make based only on those clips is also the hardest to implement, especially on a small stage: I'd like to see some more movement from the band. How much people wanna get up and dance-and they did!-is many times tied to how much they perceive the band to be into what they're doing. Like I said, that's exponentially harder to do on a small stage; there's only so much production you put on in a pub. I think you guys have the rest down. I'd go see ya.
 
#6
Haji said:
The band is tight and sounds good. The only suggestion I can make based only on those clips is also the hardest to implement, especially on a small stage: I'd like to see some more movement from the band. How much people wanna get up and dance-and they did!-is many times tied to how much they perceive the band to be into what they're doing. Like I said, that's exponentially harder to do on a small stage; there's only so much production you put on in a pub. I think you guys have the rest down. I'd go see ya.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the review, and advice, It all helps us hone the performance . and yes we do. We have shirts available in small to 5xl hoodies m to 4xl and also vest tops for the lady's S,m,l and XL
 
#8
zombie1965 said:
Bump, could do with a few more opinions. Positive so far.
Click to expand...
From what I heard, I'd say the the guitar was too light in the mix when he was chording. During solos, it stood out leading me to think maybe he had a boost pedal or something. Drums in the small room seemed a bit heavy. VocaIs should be up a smidge. Singer is good. I do believe there are a couple of incorrect chords going on in Run To You. Instead of B G A E (maybe B G A B only listèned once), try B G D E. Much better, and correct!
 
#9
i would agree that the musicianship is tight enough...(cool aggressive tone in steady as shoe goes)...but the drums are a little loud and..."abrasive"...it's probably just the recording quality but the drums are kind of harsh.
 
#10
I agree with the showmanship advice. A little more animation would be nice.

The timing is good. You sound very well rehearsed.

The harmonies need some work but they also need to be brought up in the mix. In some songs, I could barely hear them.

The drums aren't even mic'd, it appears, so everything else needs to be brought up to even things out. On some songs the bass is good, on others it's a little quiet. Most songs, the guitar could use more volume. The lead is almost there, but definitely, the rhythm parts are a little quiet.

All of these perceptions are quite possibly unfairly influenced by the mic placement for the recording. How many did you use and where were they placed? Your sound might just be great but it was unjustly represented in the recording. If that's the case, then all these assessments are invalid.
 
#11
I can't tell if it's just on the recording or if it was there in the room, but the vocals are a little distorted.
I love backup vocals and they sounded like they were spot on, but I'd make them louder.
"no one knows" , "steady as she goes" , "learn to fly" were all played too fast. the muse tune was spot on tempo wise and it really makes the song groove!
for recording purposes you could try mixing one room mic with a PA main mix feed -- I've done this before and you get really nice clarity on the vocals that way.
 
#12
Cheers for all the replies, much appreciated. I know its hard to judge live sound off recordings like this. to clarify I agree with most of what was stated above so I guess were all on the same page. We have in recent gigs worked on getting a better balance with our levels as per advice above and slowing things down just a touch and it seems a bit better. The recordings above were all taken using a camcorder with a stereo mic plugged in directly to it. It was placed dead center of the back of the room about a foot from the wall and about 30 ft from the PA speakers. from what I have noticed the cam records audio with the mic quite well but tends to compress highs quite harshly. on the recordings the only mic on the drums were on the kick, our drummer is loud and excitable and difficult to tame. This is how we tend to set up in gigs of this size, and we do lots of em, thats why im keen on improving our sound with this set-up
.
 
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#13
My daughter recorded some songs for my band with her video camera and while it was pretty good overall, the level-limiting aspect of the mic tended to quiet the background noise while it accentuated a vocal or our harmonica player. The result was some of us sounded too quiet and overshadowed by others. Not a true representation of the actual sound.

I was thinking you used multiple mics around the room because there were multiple camera angles. I thought the audio recording was separate from the video.
 
#14
GuiTuber said:
My daughter recorded some songs for my band with her video camera and while it was pretty good overall, the level-limiting aspect of the mic tended to quiet the background noise while it accentuated a vocal or our harmonica player. The result was some of us sounded too quiet and overshadowed by others. Not a true representation of the actual sound.

I was thinking you used multiple mics around the room because there were multiple camera angles. I thought the audio recording was separate from the video.
Click to expand...
yup, your right, we had multiple cameras. But I think all the audio source was taken from only the rear center camera. that camera had a stereo mic like this
61DLGTPfKIL._SX425_.jpg
 
#15
Even so, it's still a matter of the chain only being as strong as the weakest link. I would venture to guess that the camera is the weakest link.

If you could hook a mic like that to a USB audio interface and record directly in to a PC/laptop, you'd have much better sound with which to judge by.

I would suspect the camera of trying to fixate on the loudest frequencies and then quiet down the others. Like videotaping someone at a noisy party. As they speak directly at the camera, their voice gets amplified while the crowd noise is toned down.
 
#16
Good band...
I hear the vocals distorting a bit as the installments go on, I assume your clipping at the input gain. Drums probably too loud.
Could use some lighting on the singer. Guitar player looks 'out of uniform'. You guys playing your own material?

One last thing... IMHO your poll should only have two options...

1. Killer Band
2. Not good enough yet.
 
#17
Difficult to tell from the camera mic, so I can;t comment on the sound. I would agree with everyone who talks about animation, though. Everyone looks bored stiff - the bass and guitarist spend a lot of the time looking at their hands, or with their heads down, and none look like they really want to be there.

Clothes wise - black works on well lit stages, but very often, the camera can't really see anything at all. The guitarist stands out because of his shirt - the trouble is it doesn't look that good. I don't subscribe to the need to dress up, or be posh, or even uniform - but what you wear needs to be thought about. The people who pay to watch you play deserve a little effort, Did you 'choose' the clothes? Or were they what you arrived at the gig in? Even grungy, apparently couldn't care less bands on the pro circuit have stage grungy clothes. Lead singers need to be easy to watch - so clothes are the easy way. Maybe smiling like idiots isn't appropriate, but looking interested/serious/angry etc is important - this bad all look a bit bored? I'm sure you weren't, but you didn't seem to be having a good time?
 
#18
You guys are pretty good overall. The biggest thing that will improve your current sound (and this goes for most bands) doing this type of stuff is for the drummer to switch to rods. He won't want to do it, but it's the only way (or at least much lighter sticks). Granted I'm listening on laptop speakers (which I can mentall compensate for), but all I hear is drums and vocals mostly, and I know from experience anyway, that heavy hitting on the cymbals just kills the entire sound in settings like this. MOST drummers use cymbals that are too big and too heavy (you're not Lars, brah, lay off the 24" heavy dark ride and 18" crash, k?), and sticks that are too heavy. It's like the equivalent of a guitarist bringing a full marshall stack, and we all laugh at those guys like "dude... what are you doing?" When you take everything from 1k to 15k and just pour a dump truck of cymbals into it, there is literally no room for anything else, and everything tends to sound distorted and harsh. Especially if you're not using subs and pretty stout mains. You guys aren't the worst I've heard for this, but I also know it was probably worse in the room than will be translated by the recording.
 

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