Tone
Played at the Nutty Brown Cafe with the UC guys last night. It was a really nice time; lots of friends and relatives showed up, a nice waitress brought me a big coffee dispenser right up on stage, and I was really pleased with my tone. A saxophone player who was near the stage went out of his way to compliment my tone, so I’m pretty sure I wasn’t just imagining the warm, creamy goodness of my rig.
The rest of the story, though, is that I was hearing from people that I wasn’t coming through very well in the mix. Even my dad said that I needed to be a little louder, and in all the years he’s had the opportunity to say that to me I think that’s the first time. I was, as is my habit, miking from off-center. That’s probably the first thing I’ll try changing; my sound was set on full-butter and maybe a little off-center was all that was needed to wash it out. Maybe I’m just looking for the wrong sound for such a large band -lots of sonic action in my tone-space up there.
Anyway, not subjecting others to the full barrage of atonal sputum I’m putting out may be the best thing that can happen. And I enjoyed the show…