Social Distance Jam/Recording 7/18/20

Hello everyone!

I have been sidelined by the pandemic for various reasons and cannot gig at bars in Maine where I live. So, I brought the band to me! We got together on a very hot and sunny Saturday in my yard. Mid-80's and humid!

Some interesting background that has nothing to with music - although I live in the sticks of Maine, the neighborhood I live in is off of a main highway that goes to New Hampshire and Vermont. There is a Grange Hall that was not in use that a couple bought to renovate into an event center. The problem is they had no place for people to park. The Grange sits on half an acre, and they needed parking for up to 100 people for events. There is an old elementary school turned child care center now owned by our Water District that could accommodate the parking. The couple presented their plan to the town Planning Board, and the Board notified us by mail. The couple never talked with us, assuming that the Board would send along their plan. That went badly for them, as we showed up virtually to the Board meeting and complained loudly. Had the couple talked with us, the outcome for them would have been different. Instead, their plan was shot down, and they have no parking available for their venture. Oops.

The point of that story is that I needed to make sure I did not repeat that person's mistake. So I printed up 50 letters and hand-delivered them to my neighbors. It worked well! People responded and were very kind and enthusiastic. A few even listened to us play!

Next up was to get the logistics sorted. I decided to record some original tunes for audio and video, which was a chore. I had to buy some mic splitters, make sure I had enough power, mic stands, and ways to do the video. I finally got use the 8 channel snake I had bought plus every single one of my mic cables, all of my SM-57's, and my drum mics (I did a 4 mic set up for the drums)

I had everyone stationed six feet or so apart, had everyone mixed or through a DI, and we had a great jam. I had six of us to start (keyboards, three guitar players - one was acoustic, me, and drums). We did a 30-40 minute set to start, low-key Americana, blues, and jam band stuff, took a break while the acoustic player left for his gig, and then we recorded the three songs from my new EP My Garage (www.kevormusic.com/store or iTunes!). That took about a half an hour. Then we ended with about another 30 minute set.

It went well - we had five iPads, iPhones, and a Kodak Zi8 setup to video record everyone personally, each one on a mic stand or speaker stand or chair, and I recorded everyone into my Reaper set up. Ironically, I screwed up my track inputs and did not record my bass track. Luckily, it was a DI, so I rerecorded it a few days later. You can't really tell on the first song, but you can on the second song. I haven't finished editing the third song, but there is a solo on it that I forgot what I did, so I will have to edit that part out somehow. It has taken me a week to learn how to edit video using Adobe Premiere Elements, but I have figured out how to line up and edit up to five videos! I feel my video editing skills have surpassed that of the middle schoolers I used to counsel!

We may do something similar at the keyboardist's house next week! Minus al of the video and audio recording.

Thanks for listening!

Kevorargh

The first video is availble here:

 

Oops, here’s the bass rig. Brought out the new 5 string for a few songs as well.

 

Here are the two other videos I recorded - you can tell where I screwed up the overdubs on It's For Real (This Time) and some of the edits on Broken Septic Tanks are done for the same reason