I just did the Woodsongs Old Time Radio Hour. Has anyone else done this show? It's in Lexington. It is a tough day to say the least. I uploaded a great picture of their "mains" but the upload turned the photo 90 degrees.
Woodsongs
- Thread starter Jason Raboin
- Start date
Re: Woodsongs
Wow! Hard to believe that's still happening. I was there about 6 years ago. I imagine the Mackie Onyx is still the bees knees.
The lack of respect for visiting talent really floored me. Sort of a "here is our cookie cutter, try to squeeze in".
Seemed more about the egos of the producer / host and his masturbation of the local house band.
Funny, I do remember a really nice hotel in Lexington. Actually the most comfortable bed I've ever slept in. My talent was at some B&B down the road from the venue, but this hotel bed ROCKED.
Missing you back here Jason. I've got a lot of work I'd love to be throwing you right now.
Let me know when you are back. Any word on that Gala? Got to get you on the river before we need drysuits.
Talk soon,
David
Wow! Hard to believe that's still happening. I was there about 6 years ago. I imagine the Mackie Onyx is still the bees knees.
The lack of respect for visiting talent really floored me. Sort of a "here is our cookie cutter, try to squeeze in".
Seemed more about the egos of the producer / host and his masturbation of the local house band.
Funny, I do remember a really nice hotel in Lexington. Actually the most comfortable bed I've ever slept in. My talent was at some B&B down the road from the venue, but this hotel bed ROCKED.
Missing you back here Jason. I've got a lot of work I'd love to be throwing you right now.
Let me know when you are back. Any word on that Gala? Got to get you on the river before we need drysuits.
Talk soon,
David
Re: Woodsongs
Yeah it was the lack of respect that really floored me. I've done Mountain Stage and E-town many times. They are interested in making the artist comfortable. They just have to navigate their limited resources and the wants of multiple acts. At Woodsongs, it's like they first ask you to play standing on one leg, and then a little while later ask you to also play with one arm behind your back.
Never ever would I ask an artist to compromise their comfort on stage to get less bleed in my recording mix, or to get a better camera angle. Nothing translates to a great performance better than a comfortable artist, who can hear what they need in the monitors and is presenting the music the way they want to.
Think about all the jaw dropping performances we've heard that were recorded in less than ideal situations. Woodstock?
The thing that really made me lose it was while I was trying to dial in monitors the engineer started to lecture me about the pickup pattern and frequency response of the Heil PR35. Yes, I am familiar, and if you hadn't shown up at 5:30 for a 5:00 sound check, you would have been in on the conversation about my beta testing them.
At least we got some decent bourbon. One of the crew members has a briefcase foamed to fit a bottle and 6 glasses.
Oh, and that hotel isn't the hotel any more. It's the Sleep Inn an exit up on the highway, across from the Taco Bell.
Yeah it was the lack of respect that really floored me. I've done Mountain Stage and E-town many times. They are interested in making the artist comfortable. They just have to navigate their limited resources and the wants of multiple acts. At Woodsongs, it's like they first ask you to play standing on one leg, and then a little while later ask you to also play with one arm behind your back.
Never ever would I ask an artist to compromise their comfort on stage to get less bleed in my recording mix, or to get a better camera angle. Nothing translates to a great performance better than a comfortable artist, who can hear what they need in the monitors and is presenting the music the way they want to.
Think about all the jaw dropping performances we've heard that were recorded in less than ideal situations. Woodstock?
The thing that really made me lose it was while I was trying to dial in monitors the engineer started to lecture me about the pickup pattern and frequency response of the Heil PR35. Yes, I am familiar, and if you hadn't shown up at 5:30 for a 5:00 sound check, you would have been in on the conversation about my beta testing them.
At least we got some decent bourbon. One of the crew members has a briefcase foamed to fit a bottle and 6 glasses.
Oh, and that hotel isn't the hotel any more. It's the Sleep Inn an exit up on the highway, across from the Taco Bell.
Re: Woodsongs
I had to quit watching their TV show, I couldn't stand listening to the pompous host go on and on when the band could have instead...... Seemed like a really big ego stuck in a pretty small little pond.
I had to quit watching their TV show, I couldn't stand listening to the pompous host go on and on when the band could have instead...... Seemed like a really big ego stuck in a pretty small little pond.
Re: Woodsongs
When the music and performance thereof is what one 'sells' why piss off the artists?
I find it interesting that all the technical labor shown on the Woodsongs photo page are listed as volunteers.
Our company provides services for festivals and events of an acoustic nature and proudly employs technicians represented by the IATSE. It might be a coincidence, but the festivals and events that hire us have a great reputation for being performer-centric and our crews diligently work to uphold that reputation in all interactions with artists.
That's what we do, right? Enable a performer to share his/her/their magic with hundreds or thousands of folks who genuinely appreciate the talent on stage...
Have fun, good luck, happy mixing.
Tim Mc
When the music and performance thereof is what one 'sells' why piss off the artists?
I find it interesting that all the technical labor shown on the Woodsongs photo page are listed as volunteers.
Our company provides services for festivals and events of an acoustic nature and proudly employs technicians represented by the IATSE. It might be a coincidence, but the festivals and events that hire us have a great reputation for being performer-centric and our crews diligently work to uphold that reputation in all interactions with artists.
That's what we do, right? Enable a performer to share his/her/their magic with hundreds or thousands of folks who genuinely appreciate the talent on stage...
Have fun, good luck, happy mixing.
Tim Mc
Re: Woodsongs
+1 It's not about us, the Promoter, or the Show Producer ...it's about the Music.
Cheers,
Hammer
+1 It's not about us, the Promoter, or the Show Producer ...it's about the Music.
Cheers,
Hammer
Re: Woodsongs
I was interested to see on the Woodsongs website that they will help "train" promoters todo similar events.
On Saturday, I had a show in one of these "Woodsongs Coffeehouses".
The venue is a reconditioned train freight depot set alongside still active tracks. The building, in the historic downtown area, is now owned by the city and used as a visitor center, and can be used for meetings (shows) etc seating about 150 people.
The show was a four band bill with us as the headliners. As it happened the band before us on the bill is a band I love, work for on occasion, but not as often as I would like. The other two bands are local performers. So I am going into the show with the attitude that I am going to "do my show" for my main band, and anything I can for the other support act. This was a charity event, a cd release party, and we were there for a flat fee (reduced) and hospitality. The system was bare bones, low end SOS (Eons for FOH, a mix of Yamaha Club and PV112 for monitors) with a single Yamaha sub but was adequate for the size of the room, number of people, and genre. The system was obviously pieced together over time. Some parts were nice (crest xrm for monitors), other parts were less than nice (eurodesk for FOH), and other parts were perfectly usuable even if they wouldn't have been my first choice for purchase (ACP88's). Everything was in working order, which put it one step up than the usual on the bluegrass circuit. I would have prefered to have had some sort of eq on the 4 monitor channels (which I actually wasn't using for my main act as we carry our own), but this wasn't the first show I was limited to channel eq.
Best I can say is that I was jealous, because this was the size/scale of a show I really prefer, and I would love to be able to set up a similar listening room (with some better equipment) closer to home.
What really made it stand out was the quality of the hospitality. From loadin through to our overnight stay in the hotels everything was great. The people, including the promoter and the local crew made us feel that they were really happy that we were able to be there and take part in their event. This event was also being recorded to be broadcast on an internet radio show, but the radio host actually lent a nice flow to the transitions between the bands and the speakers and other events.
So other than the regular visit of the trains (train wheels have an overtone that sounds just like feedback), and a system overtone during the speaking parts I did not like (I am starting to suspect a sonic maximizer I did not see), it was a low stress and comfortable show. One funny thing did happen. I didn't pay attention to the patching of the recording for the radio show. They had a main and a backup (thank heavens for a backup) but no separate mix just a board dump. I didn't notice that the recording output on the Eurodesk is part of the cue circuit until about half way through our set, when the house guy said something I had done had starting clipping the recording. Well he noticed it as I was PFL ing a new instrument while it was being tuned before bringing it up in the mains. after that all I was thinking is that he has 30 minutes of me listening channel by channel and then trying to straighten out the gain structure of the verb recorded.
I was interested to see on the Woodsongs website that they will help "train" promoters todo similar events.
On Saturday, I had a show in one of these "Woodsongs Coffeehouses".
The venue is a reconditioned train freight depot set alongside still active tracks. The building, in the historic downtown area, is now owned by the city and used as a visitor center, and can be used for meetings (shows) etc seating about 150 people.
The show was a four band bill with us as the headliners. As it happened the band before us on the bill is a band I love, work for on occasion, but not as often as I would like. The other two bands are local performers. So I am going into the show with the attitude that I am going to "do my show" for my main band, and anything I can for the other support act. This was a charity event, a cd release party, and we were there for a flat fee (reduced) and hospitality. The system was bare bones, low end SOS (Eons for FOH, a mix of Yamaha Club and PV112 for monitors) with a single Yamaha sub but was adequate for the size of the room, number of people, and genre. The system was obviously pieced together over time. Some parts were nice (crest xrm for monitors), other parts were less than nice (eurodesk for FOH), and other parts were perfectly usuable even if they wouldn't have been my first choice for purchase (ACP88's). Everything was in working order, which put it one step up than the usual on the bluegrass circuit. I would have prefered to have had some sort of eq on the 4 monitor channels (which I actually wasn't using for my main act as we carry our own), but this wasn't the first show I was limited to channel eq.
Best I can say is that I was jealous, because this was the size/scale of a show I really prefer, and I would love to be able to set up a similar listening room (with some better equipment) closer to home.
What really made it stand out was the quality of the hospitality. From loadin through to our overnight stay in the hotels everything was great. The people, including the promoter and the local crew made us feel that they were really happy that we were able to be there and take part in their event. This event was also being recorded to be broadcast on an internet radio show, but the radio host actually lent a nice flow to the transitions between the bands and the speakers and other events.
So other than the regular visit of the trains (train wheels have an overtone that sounds just like feedback), and a system overtone during the speaking parts I did not like (I am starting to suspect a sonic maximizer I did not see), it was a low stress and comfortable show. One funny thing did happen. I didn't pay attention to the patching of the recording for the radio show. They had a main and a backup (thank heavens for a backup) but no separate mix just a board dump. I didn't notice that the recording output on the Eurodesk is part of the cue circuit until about half way through our set, when the house guy said something I had done had starting clipping the recording. Well he noticed it as I was PFL ing a new instrument while it was being tuned before bringing it up in the mains. after that all I was thinking is that he has 30 minutes of me listening channel by channel and then trying to straighten out the gain structure of the verb recorded.
Re: Woodsongs
Substitute "radio" for "TV" and it pretty much sums up my experience.
DR
ex-PHC
Substitute "radio" for "TV" and it pretty much sums up my experience.
DR
ex-PHC
Re: Woodsongs
Hey Jay,
Sounds like a treat. Where / what was this other place?
Best,
David
Hey Jay,
Sounds like a treat. Where / what was this other place?
Best,
David
Re: Woodsongs
Dalton GA,
As of right now, they do a couple of small/med acoustic oriented festivals and the coffeehouses, but they have a vote coming up for the town to establish a performing arts center. So hopefully they can end up with a nice place for the region. The people (including the promoter and volunteers) get "IT".
Dalton GA,
As of right now, they do a couple of small/med acoustic oriented festivals and the coffeehouses, but they have a vote coming up for the town to establish a performing arts center. So hopefully they can end up with a nice place for the region. The people (including the promoter and volunteers) get "IT".