My band has called it a day. Sadly, our bandleader is pretty ill and the prognosis is not good. I've been working hard on material we recorded over the past few years and I've managed to find enough tracks for 6 complete songs, which I'm going to put up on the usual platforms just so we remember the good times we all have. We've decided that we just don't want to do it any more and carrying on would just not work. It's been challenging because he can't re-record his keys or vocals any longer, so what we have is it. I've got the tracks from three shows where we started to use a click - the idea was to record while he could sing and play, with the intention that at some stage, we'd have been able to play in the parts he couldn't play, and maybe even his vocals. The click meant all three shows had common tempo, so I managed to make up error free versions of just 6 songs from the 2 x 60 minute sets. I have a few where the vocals are fine but the keys I'd have to play in myself, but I can't play the same as him, so I suspect that these 6 tracks are pretty much it. I figured I'd share one here so you could have a listen. I wasn't in the band in the 80s and 90s, but it's been a great experience for the years since 2004 and we've been to some great places - but now the box is closed!
Comments
It's compiled out of three…
It's compiled out of three separate shows at different places - we used Behringher then a Midas M32, so it was easy to just record the desk inputs on a MacBook - with the click it meant the keys track - which all comes out of an ancient Korg M1 could be fixed. where he played a bum note, chances are that bit was OK on the show from a few weeks before, and they were DI'd - he has up and down pedals and has used the same tweaked sounds for ever. Even has a spare M1 with the same memory contents. If you listen carefully you can work out what we do with the four vocals - each one gets panned left and right and delayed differently - sort of thickens it up when added back to the centre signal. Drums exactly as played, they spill pretty badly. The drummer does lots of the high parts, so his vocal mic has lots of drum spill in it too. We used a couple of the tracks for a video, I've linked to it here - may make more sense with the visual.
We ran a mixer front of house then used a rack mount Behringher which ran the IEMs and fed the cymatic playback gizmo into the PA. It worked flawlessly. Running from a USB connected small hard drive.
Thanks for the nice comments…
Thanks for the nice comments - I've put links to the 6 tracks below, if anyone is bored and fancies a few 60s songs.
- https://www.eastang…
- https://www.eastang…
- https://www.eastang…
- https://www.eastang…
- https://www.eastang…
- https://www.eastang…
Excellent recording and mix…
Excellent recording and mix. Sorry to hear about your friend. He's very talented. You all are! 👍🏼
Great harmonies, drumming... very tight... very impressive version and overall track.
I'm a bit confused. So this version we are hearing (thank you for sharing) is a live versions of your band? Its sounds very polished.
In my 80's band, we used sequencers so it was always easy to sync up or add to a mix or program but it was challenging to some musicians (especially old school musicians) as they tended to drift, speed and complain in general if they have to stick to a sync track. I used to say... we would sync to a clock in the studio so why not live.
You guys are excellent. I feel your loss indeed.