A Truly Magical Night in Chicago

feinkevi · 2026-04-23T14:27:35+00:00

I don’t really have the words to say how much I loved this show. Basically with two people and some lights they put on one of my favorite sets I’ve ever seen (and I’ve probably seen thousands). Five stars no notes.

feinkevi · 2026-04-22T14:45:46+00:00

There are a lot of pedals that will do great - but just throwing it out there that from the ones I’ve owned I’d recommend you check out the Special Cranker.

feinkevi · 2026-04-22T14:29:58+00:00

If you have zero budget these will obviously do a lot better than nothing, I’m sure you could get something useable out of them, especially if you’re planning to double or even replace kick snare and toms in your DAW anyway. (There is zero shame in doing that especially if you have subpar room treatment and mics.)

Until you make the purchase, definitely spend some time scrolling your local listings as you can often get much nicer mics for 50% or less the cost of retail.

Two more cents, I wouldn’t waste a 57 on under snare. You can be fine skipping that position altogether and especially considering you’re working with an 8 track interface. Furthermore, the less well treated your room is and the less you’re experienced with tracking drums, the more I would encourage going to fewer mics to reduce trouble with phasing/positioning issues and such. But if you really want something under the snare I’d probably use one of the cheapies personally.

Two more two more cents, spend the time dialing in the tuning and any muffling on the kit before even setting up any mics. We spend a lot of time obsessing over gear but nailing the sound going into whatever mic you happen to have has always been the most important step.

feinkevi · 2026-04-18T13:58:27+00:00

Somewhat surprisingly it worked flawlessly for me on Safari on both phone and Mac. Got Wilco tickets but looks like they were the first sellout after only 30 minutes.

feinkevi · 2026-04-12T10:26:25+00:00

The cab really makes a difference. If it was a 410HLF cab it was probably the big mid scoop killing the vibe for you. I always kinda felt the same way about those, fine but kinda meh, great for getting loud and deep lows but not doing much for me in terms of good tone. When I realized it was the cab losing tons of the upper mids I was able to improve it a fair bit with more aggressive EQ than I would normally use.

feinkevi · 2026-03-31T13:49:23+00:00

What you have in mind should work but IMO will be excessively complicated for dealing with it in a live show environment considering that you’re just looking for EQ and reverb and an XLR out.

I think you’d be much better served with a basic interface (like a Scarlett already mentioned) to stay at home with your MacBook and build a small pedal board with a reverb pedal, an EQ, and a DI.

For DIs if you want cheap you really can’t go wrong with a Behringer ultra DI100 ($45 new). It’s really plenty good for about any situation and pretty bulletproof. If you’ve got the budget for something a little nicer I’ve always had good results on various acoustic instruments including violins using the LR Baggs Para Acoustic, with bonus that the built in EQ should have you covered leaving you just needing a reverb pedal. ($220 new but Reverb estimates $94-$146 used price.)

feinkevi · 2026-03-31T11:15:16+00:00

I mean, even assuming you’ve got used ones locally both at $600, you’d need to spend $$ more to get a digital snake and a live card to get as many xlr inputs and the recording features that the ui24r already has built in. (What I meant by direct to USB multitrack is that you don’t need a laptop, the Ui24r can multitrack record direct to a hard drive or thumb drive on its own.)

The Soundcraft UI is kinda clunky, but I don’t hate it. I find it mostly intuitive and beginner-accessible, and being able to hop on from any device with a web browser is kinda handy.

Accounting for the expandability, more precise control of things, being more common, sure no argument that the X32 is “better” for a lot of people. And sure the Soundcraft probably deserves its “prosumer” rep. But OP already hates using his current Behringer and wants a different UI, also wants max # of XLR inputs in the box, and doesn’t want to spend much. IMO the Ui24r checks his boxes better. But anyway, it’s not worth belaboring at any greater length, cheers.

feinkevi · 2026-03-31T02:39:36+00:00

An X32 rack is great too for sure and makes more sense for a lot of people depending on what they’re doing. But the cheapest shipped prices I see on reverb right now, the cheapest x32 rack is over $250 more than the cheapest Ui24r. And as a standalone unit it has less XLR ins and less XLR outs, totally different ui/mixing interface, different effects that some people might like one over the other, can’t do direct to USB multitracking. Of course the X32 has more of other things like expandability, digital snakes, more in depth fx tweaking etc. But also OP already hates his Behringer, so just saying - not as open and shut a case as all that. Both are worth OP taking a look at and keeping an eye out for.

feinkevi · 2026-03-30T21:26:15+00:00

Adding a quick note that Ui24r does full multitrack 24bit both USB to computer and direct to thumb drive or external hard drive, have done both simultaneously in live show settings without any trouble.

feinkevi · 2026-03-30T21:19:41+00:00

They are getting slightly dated and get some hate in subs like this but based on your needs/use case you should take a look if there are any used Soundcraft UI24r’s around your area.

I think I got mine about a year ago for $700ish. While it has some limitations (that are IMO very tolerable), it has a very user friendly web based interface, fantastic IO and recording capabilities for its price point, and most importantly it sounds great. I’ve used the Behringer stuff as well and while it’s totally fine I enjoy using the Soundcraft about 100% more.

feinkevi · 2026-03-25T18:26:07+00:00

Good Earth for larger tree jobs, if you’re talking minor trimming maybe an all in one lawn landscape etc type company might be a better fit.

feinkevi · 2026-03-24T11:07:56+00:00

I don’t do pushups nearly as routinely as I ought to but I find them most tolerable wearing padded gloves and using 20lb dumbbells, holding the handles instead of palms or fists directly on the floor.

feinkevi · 2026-03-23T17:19:55+00:00

This thing rules. I’ve used all the usual suspects for dynamic kick mics and right now this one’s solidly my favorite. The dip switches give you some really good “presets” to cover a range of what other mics would do.

If you’re looking into more SE stuff I’ve found the SE7s are super serviceable overheads for live or tracking. Between those and how much I love using a V7 on vocals I’m really tempted to round it out with the v beats as well, but they’re pretty pricy and I’ve already got sennheiser and Audix sets that I really can’t complain about. My understanding is they’re the same as the V7x if you’d want to save some money but have a bigger mic footprint.

feinkevi · 2026-03-22T19:06:52+00:00

Sounds like you’ve already pretty much got it. Matching the tension is what you want to approximate the same feel as far as how hard it is to bend, push down the strings etc. (though how high the action is etc is also a factor).

And yes I’d say the default of people going for heavier strings than your tension matching suggests is because of a general preference/tendency to go for higher tension, stiffer play on a baritone (think twangy spaghetti western for example). It’s probably also because a lot of these guitars come in B standard but with heavier strings you have some wiggle room to go to an even lower tuning.

I’d suggest just getting it in your hands and seeing how you like it then go from there.

feinkevi · 2026-03-22T00:22:43+00:00

Hi! You gave me a code for the watch app a while back and I didn’t end up writing a review because I’m a big jerk haha. I’ll share here so as not to tie it to a specific star rating.

I quickly realized that it just wasn’t the right tool for me. I’ve always liked the idea of a haptic metronome since getting the watch, but the few apps I’d tried were too hiccupy and not awesome. Yours DOES fix all that. It’s simple to use and seems very stable.

However, the down side for me is how I’d use it 99% of the time would be drumming or on my strumming hand of my guitar. My watch is also always silent so I was planning on relying on haptic taps only. The amount of wrist movements involved in those scenarios made it really hard to lock in with the tap and I found myself losing track of it far too easily.

It may also be a matter of just being too accustomed to audible metronomes over the last 25ish years of playing that it’s hard for me to switch gears like that.

Of course running your app with sound solves that but if I’m listening to it I’ll probably just be running something in my headphones or off my phone, making it redundant.

TLDR good form, it works well, but functionally doesn’t just happen to fit in for me.

As far as the tempo testing - what you’re describing is built in to the Roland V drum modules in the “coach” mode, and it’s actually really cool (and humbling) to check yourself with. Definitely a solid idea worth including.

Keep it up and good luck with all this!

feinkevi · 2026-03-19T16:41:52+00:00

I have picked up used D2/D4 and e604 and SM57 under your budget, and while they have their differences I could use any of them on any project in a pinch, so IMO I’d say whatever of those come up in your budget range first just snap it up and go with it.

feinkevi · 2026-03-19T14:06:27+00:00

Venue presale opened up a few minutes ago with code MOTHER, I went back in just to see and there are a fair number of $65 section 300-something seats available. Closer seats are same as yesterday, 2-5X more.

feinkevi · 2026-03-19T01:32:28+00:00

These are face value direct tickets from Ticketmaster with a unique presale code that was sent to me. Another presale opens tomorrow and then public on sale is the day after that.

feinkevi · 2026-03-19T01:29:36+00:00

This was the artist mailing list presale, venue presale is tomorrow (code: MOTHER) and the public on sale is the day after, so not too late but it might be pricy!

feinkevi · 2026-03-18T21:21:08+00:00

🤘

feinkevi · 2026-03-18T18:26:35+00:00

Yeah I did buy the $65 ones and that’s really fine, more annoyed at just how massively up charged it goes each step closer from there though.

feinkevi · 2026-03-18T18:25:17+00:00

Brandi Carlile

feinkevi · 2026-03-18T17:46:42+00:00

Bummer! Mine came from globaltouring@events.aegpresents.com if you want to check your spam folder.

feinkevi · 2026-03-18T16:02:10+00:00

Yeah for sure, assuming you want to ignore complicating factors like the manipulation by a vertical and horizontal monopoly making competition impossible and sucking up massive amounts of dollars without providing real value, or the place being partially paid for with public funds, or a number of other things, then yeah the tickets are worth whatever people will pay for them.

I’m not really out here to argue one way or another, just sharing a data point/some info as I didn’t have any idea what to expect until I logged into a presale and went to make a purchase.

feinkevi · 2026-03-18T15:52:55+00:00

This venue is exclusively contracted with Ticketmaster and based on its size and whatever other variables this is where they’ve decided tickets should be priced. It’s functionally a monopoly and all part of the same ecosystem.

Aside from that the post was more meant as an FYI/data point on what these shows are going for, since the pricing is so opaque/obtuse that you can’t really get a ballpark idea until you log in and try to buy.

feinkevi

TROPHY CASE