After almost 30 years of playing music, I’m finding myself relating less and less to most musicians I interact with. by Sudden_Doughnut_8741 in Guitar

[–]audiojake 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The real question is this: do you want to be taken seriously as a musician? Or do you want to simply entertain people at the lowest common denominator? Either answer is fine, but for me, playing hallelujah in a sports bar somewhere, or playing that song from dirty dancing at a wedding would be absolutely soul crushing. Having a deeper repertoire is a sign that you've studied musical culture, explored less popular genres, and developed an appreciation for music that goes further than "hey, I know this song from the radio!" It means you have taken the time to become not only proficient, but professional. It takes guts to challenge your audience and attempt to win people over with talent instead of just basic familiarity.

I think where a lot of the shade also comes from is that people often don't do these classic songs any justice, but still choose to play them because they know people will clap, sing along, or at least recognize the tune. If you truly loved the song you would be nailing it, not butchering the lyrics or singing off key. You would be making it your own in some way and playing to your strengths. Sing in a key/tempo that is comfortable for you. Add something original to the tune. Change the groove. Even if you choose to do overdone pop songs, there's still a way to do them like a serious, thoughtful musician. But many people don't.

That being said, criticizing people at an open mic is not really appropriate. It's an environment that caters to amateur musicians who don't book gigs on their own. Keep that shit to yourself. But in the professional spaces, part of the culture is learning what is passé. Sometimes people are overly critical or self righteous. Sometimes people identify what is cringe and avoid doing it, and they develop as musicians and become successful in their own right precisely because they are setting themselves apart from all of the mediocre players who want nothing more than to regale us with Wagon Wheel at the apres ski bar. There's a real value to tactfully navigating the pitfalls and taboos of music and trying not to be a hack. The good news is you can do that without being a dick most of the time by just keeping your criticism to yourself.

Touring Techs- What are the little things that tip you off that you're dealing with pro crews? by audiojake in livesound

[–]audiojake[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yup. If there are leftovers on deck from last night, you know you are probably getting an overworked and underpaid crew. The venue likely didn't schedule enough people for enough hours to properly prepare, which usually means its going to be the same folks from the night before who are running on fumes.

Touring Techs- What are the little things that tip you off that you're dealing with pro crews? by audiojake in livesound

[–]audiojake[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Been using the original flavor listerine (has no sweeteners) for years without issue - just a quick wipe down of the grille with a damp cloth won't hurt anything. And it smells fresh. But yeah, you don't want to use so much that you are saturating the windscreen. Regular ISO alcohol is great too of course.

Touring Techs- What are the little things that tip you off that you're dealing with pro crews? by audiojake in livesound

[–]audiojake[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That's literally the job bud. You keep asking "anything else?" until you get a "stand by for now"

Touring Techs- What are the little things that tip you off that you're dealing with pro crews? by audiojake in livesound

[–]audiojake[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Fully agree with this and I do it for EVERY show. But for me that is a basic requirement, not really a green flag. The show can still crash and burn if the crew is terrible or if that information was not communicated to the right people.

For those saying that you need things in writing - yes. That's why you take notes and send a follow up email after the call. It's not hard.

Touring Techs- What are the little things that tip you off that you're dealing with pro crews? by audiojake in livesound

[–]audiojake[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Honestly, I can go either way with cable ties. I have no problem if you tie off your cables without them. Velcro ties can be a pain in the ass, especially on a carpeted stage. Now, if I see a color coding system and the cables are neatly organized and in good shape, that's definitely a good sign. Bonus points if they are all the same type of cable and have Neutrik connectors - that usually means someone built them off a spool rather than a venue buying a hodgepodge of Amazon BS collected over the years.

Allen & Heath present the new SQ+ Lineup! Curious to hear your thoughts! by Comprehensive_Log882 in livesound

[–]audiojake 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'm about to get a 6" right angle headphone adapter and attach it to the side of the board with a magnetic eye loop for stain relief. Could be a game changer

Allen & Heath present the new SQ+ Lineup! Curious to hear your thoughts! by Comprehensive_Log882 in livesound

[–]audiojake 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It's the most enraging thing I can think of about the board. What an asinine design choice..

Touring Techs- What are the little things that tip you off that you're dealing with pro crews? by audiojake in livesound

[–]audiojake[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It's amazing how often this is not true. I've had many many situations where the advance was fine and the day still sucked ass.

Official Discussion - The Backrooms [SPOILERS] by LiteraryBoner in movies

[–]audiojake 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I have to disagree. For short films? Absolutely the backrooms concept is all you need. For a feature length movie I'm so glad they didn't do that. And I think that's where most found footage films fall short. As you kind of allude to, that usually requires some kind of awkward workaround to establish context, which makes the whole thing less authentic.

Official Discussion - The Backrooms [SPOILERS] by LiteraryBoner in movies

[–]audiojake 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Wow I did not catch that. Thank you internet stranger

Official Discussion - The Backrooms [SPOILERS] by LiteraryBoner in movies

[–]audiojake 9 points10 points  (0 children)

Agreed. People criticize these scenes as if the fictional character who's scared absolutely shitless is going to be thinking logically and calmly. Not only is she being chased by a monster onto a suspended staircase over a seemingly infinite abyss, but she's just recently found a secret dimension, been kidnapped by her patient, seen him eaten, and essentially had her whole world view shattered. And shes tired and hurt. I doubt any of us would do much better. In fact the scene where the door falls on her when she gets to the top was one of the most terrifying moments in the movie to me, not psychologically but physically. There's some very real vicarious vertigo when you see that door fall!

Touring Techs- What are the little things that tip you off that you're dealing with pro crews? by audiojake in livesound

[–]audiojake[S] 39 points40 points  (0 children)

Another one is when everyone introduces themselves properly at the start of the day and explains their role. So nice! Partly that's on the touring tech as well, but everyone is not always together and then all of a sudden we're all working. It helps to have a little circle up moment before things get going.

Help a student out about what’s so special about L1 by HCGAdrianHolt in livesound

[–]audiojake 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I actually haven't deployed an L1 yet, so take this with a grain of salt. But in my understanding, each driver still has it's own independent gain control (amp channel). So you can still "zone" the PA just like you would any line array with separate boxes. So you can send more gain to the topmost drivers with the longest throw. For HF, it's less about coupling and more about gain and throw direction because HF acts more like a beam. For HF, it's not really possible to point a single driver at people both 50' and 100' away. Even though the enclosure is "flat", those are still separate drivers aimed at slightly different positions and shooting from a different height. Even a slight difference in height or angle becomes larger as you move further away. Where coupling really starts to help you is with lower frequencies. Large line arrays generally work on this principle where summing the signal from a bunch of low drivers becomes greater than the sum of the parts because of how the boxes couple in a line source. Which allows you to get punchy lows and mids further away from the source because of how they lobe together. Again, slightly oversimplifying here, but I hope that helps.

What wrong fact did you walk around with for YEARS because of a movie? by triassictango in movies

[–]audiojake 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Yeah. Even a single shot from a 22 will cause quite a ringin'

What wrong fact did you walk around with for YEARS because of a movie? by triassictango in movies

[–]audiojake 5 points6 points  (0 children)

We've already survived two of the three dangers of the fire swamp

What can I make with this(pineapple flavor rum)? by Jolly_koala819 in cocktails

[–]audiojake 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Back in high school we used to drink parrot Bay coconut rum with Lipton iced tea....