AGF OPEN MIC FACEBOOK THREAD

[srick]

Well I was absent, but I was there. So thanks everyone for tonight’s performances! I mistakenly posted to my home page. I put on a great set of two songs too!

So, I’ll take a rain check for the next one.

Best,

Rick

PS - I know I could have shared it, but for several reasons, did not want the performance on my homepage

[MaurysMusic]

Originally Posted by JackB1

Great job everyone that participated tonight! I thought it went very smooth. Everyone was ready to go and folks quickly filled the room each time we switched. Very enjoyable! Thanks Scott for hosting!

Some things I learned tonight

1- It's harder than I thought playing along with a drum machine. My instinct is to rush a bit, so I have to really work at staying on the beat. Need more practice.

2- Its harder than I thought working the Beat Buddy along with the Harmony pedal. Trying to cue the different parts and the harmonies is a bit of a juggling act. Again....need more practice at it.

It's a good attitude to want to hone your craft and always be improving- but you sounded great and recovered VERY nicely. So many guitarists would have simply stopped in their tracks. You showed beat buddy who's boss.

[Methos1979]

Another great show, everyone! I'm pleased to say that it went VERY well. A couple of minor glitches but people picked up the slack and it was a very impressive display of players and songs across the board. The one thing missing from tonight and last week's performances is our WOMEN AGF members. Sure, my wife is there singing her heart out but I want to see some of the AGF gals up there showing off their chops!

I was planning on doing a Saturday AGF OM next week but we just found out we finally get our grandkids for an overnight after 45 days of no physical contact so it looks like another Sunday night unless someone else wants to host a Saturday! We'll see how it plays out.

[kaos]

I found that Windows chrome takes control of the mic gain leading to some horrible sound issues. Been doing fb live on Firefox since then and have had no issues.

[JackB1]

haha...learned a long time ago WORST thing to do is just stop.

I think the Beat Buddy is great for supplementing a solo act but it takes some practice to learn to play exactly on beat.

Originally Posted by MaurysMusic

It's a good attitude to want to hone your craft and always be improving- but you sounded great and recovered VERY nicely. So many guitarists would have simply stopped in their tracks. You showed beat buddy who's boss.

[JackB1]

I will try and get a compilation video up soon.

[Methos1979]

We're on a roll! The second AGF Open Mic this past Sunday went very well with 10 performers and many more watchers. We're currently up to nearly 90 members. We'll run two open mics this weekend - a later one on Saturday at 8 PM EST to help with the west coast and also some friends in Australia and then a second one again on Sunday at the usual time of 5 PM EST. Sign up over on the AGF OMG page. Link is down in my sig line.

[Methos1979]

Originally Posted by Chriscom

No need to apologize for that! And wow that music is great, well done both of you!

Chriscom had one of the best tones at last Sunday's AGF Open Mic! It seemed to be just you singing and playing acoustically and recording through a single (and I assume) quality large diaphragm mic? I'd love for you to post your signal path and recording platform for you live stream. It was excellent!

Two more open mics coming this weekend - one Saturday and one Sunday!

[JackB1]

Compilation video coming today!

[Chriscom]

Originally Posted by Methos1979

Chriscom had one of the best tones at last Sunday's AGF Open Mic! It seemed to be just you singing and playing acoustically and recording through a single (and I assume) quality large diaphragm mic? I'd love for you to post your signal path and recording platform for you live stream. It was excellent!

Very kind. I meant to mention my signal chain during the event but forgot of course.

Rode NT1-A > Boss VE-8 > iRig2 > Samsung Galaxy S10e > FB.

Worth mentioning the Samsung was communicating over WiFi into my decent Xfinity broadband. Weak internet will limit anyone no matter how good the rest of the chain. In that context I helped myself even more by having chosen a 5Ghz channel over the typically much more crowded 2.4Ghz.

While not cheap, that Rode must be one of the best value-per-dollar condenser mics out there. Yep, both for voice and guitar, took a little positioning to get the balance reasonably right, though I think my voice dominated too much at times. I'd also like to emphasize that the quality coming out of the VE-8* was, unsurprisingly, much better than what we hear on FB--especially what sounds to me like a somewhat jangly guitar when strumming on open strings. There has to be a fidelity reduction at the last two steps: iRig2 and FB. Overall I ain't complaining though (talk about bang-per-buck on the $39 iRig2!).

Want to comment a bit more about others' setups but got to run now.

*Edit: That's how I was using my headphones, monitoring the signal out of the VE-8 to make sure that section was working and to check voice/guitar balance. It's a nice Sennheiser unit. There is a headphone-out on the iRig2, but I haven't been able to get that to work with the Sennheisers.

[JackB1]

compilation video

[Akousticplyr]

Originally Posted by Chriscom

Very kind. I meant to mention my signal chain during the event but forgot of course.

Rode NT1-A > Boss VE-8 > iRig2 > Samsung Galaxy S10e > FB.

Worth mentioning the Samsung was communicating over WiFi into my decent Xfinity broadband. Weak internet will limit anyone no matter how good the rest of the chain. In that context I helped myself even more by having chosen a 5Ghz channel over the typically much more crowded 2.4Ghz.

While not cheap, that Rode must be one of the best value-per-dollar condenser mics out there. Yep, both for voice and guitar, took a little positioning to get the balance reasonably right, though I think my voice dominated too much at times. I'd also like to emphasize that the quality coming out of the VE-8* was, unsurprisingly, much better than what we hear on FB--especially what sounds to me like a somewhat jangly guitar when strumming on open strings. There has to be a fidelity reduction at the last two steps: iRig2 and FB. Overall I ain't complaining though (talk about bang-per-buck on the $39 iRig2!).

Want to comment a bit more about others' setups but got to run now.

*Edit: That's how I was using my headphones, monitoring the signal out of the VE-8 to make sure that section was working and to check voice/guitar balance. It's a nice Sennheiser unit. There is a headphone-out on the iRig2, but I haven't been able to get that to work with the Sennheisers.

Internet speed isn’t that much of a limiter. FB limits uploaded vids to 720p regardless of sources.

Therefore the average upload speed a user needs is only between 5-7 MBps.

[Methos1979]

Originally Posted by Chriscom

Very kind. I meant to mention my signal chain during the event but forgot of course.

Rode NT1-A > Boss VE-8 > iRig2 > Samsung Galaxy S10e > FB.

Worth mentioning the Samsung was communicating over WiFi into my decent Xfinity broadband. Weak internet will limit anyone no matter how good the rest of the chain. In that context I helped myself even more by having chosen a 5Ghz channel over the typically much more crowded 2.4Ghz.

While not cheap, that Rode must be one of the best value-per-dollar condenser mics out there. Yep, both for voice and guitar, took a little positioning to get the balance reasonably right, though I think my voice dominated too much at times. I'd also like to emphasize that the quality coming out of the VE-8* was, unsurprisingly, much better than what we hear on FB--especially what sounds to me like a somewhat jangly guitar when strumming on open strings. There has to be a fidelity reduction at the last two steps: iRig2 and FB. Overall I ain't complaining though (talk about bang-per-buck on the $39 iRig2!).

Want to comment a bit more about others' setups but got to run now.

*Edit: That's how I was using my headphones, monitoring the signal out of the VE-8 to make sure that section was working and to check voice/guitar balance. It's a nice Sennheiser unit. There is a headphone-out on the iRig2, but I haven't been able to get that to work with the Sennheisers.

Great info! A couple of surprises in there for me. Well, not surprises so much as similarities. We used to use the Boss VE8 and found it go be overall a great little unit. We traded it in for the EAE StompMix X6 mostly because we needed the third input for the second mic and we found the harmonies to be hit or miss. While I've never been good enough to use a looper live, it was a very useful soundcheck tool! I'd record a brief chord progression and then go out and listen in the venue to help set levels.

We're using the iRig Pro into my Macbook Air but I also have the iRig2 for use with my Android phone. I agree, for $39 it's an inexpensive tool to keep around. I've been considering investing in a nice high-end large diaphragm mic for playing and streaming totally acoustic but my wife really likes the sound of her voice with some reverb. But talk about simplicity and a raw performance.

I was looking at the Ear Trumpet Labs offerings. I love how a group like The Milk Carton Kids gets incredible tone from two guitars and two voices with one mic! Now that I'm comfortable with the iRig Pro and Macbook set up I still might pull the trigger on something. But you're right, they don't give them away!

Thanks for sharing. Yes, I meant to give a brief rig rundown before we played but when that camera goes live most everything leaves my brain!

[lkingston]

I love the one mic approach, but I think that that works better for bright, loud bluegrass style flatpicking than it does for my soft no-nails jazzy fingerstyle playing.

What I've started doing is to have an acoustic amp in the background and turn it up to balance out the lower volume and otherwise lacking low frequency content of the guitar. I've been pretty happy with the results of this approach.

[Methos1979]

Originally Posted by lkingston

I love the one mic approach, but I think that that works better for bright, loud bluegrass style flatpicking than it does for my soft no-nails jazzy fingerstyle playing.

What I've started doing is to have an acoustic amp in the background and turn it up to balance out the lower volume and otherwise lacking low frequency content of the guitar. I've been pretty happy with the results of this approach.

I have to completely agree with this sentiment. If I was strumming my big 'ole Martin 12-fret dread with a pick, a mic would be great but when I'm playing my more delicate fingerstyle (with no nails) pieces the ability to bump the gain and trebles and dial back the mids and lows with the on-board Cole Clark is a necessity for me.