Record Live at Just Bills                           

Chunksofmeat Productions will be providing Live Recordings at Just Bills and anywhere the Chunksofmeat PA plays to all bands for your entire set on a quality cd. The exact board mix live on the fly can be recorded in full and finalized too play on any cd player or cd rom. Every band likes to here what they sound like live and using live recordings for general purpose listening can be beneficial to any band. This service will be provided for $15 at the start of your set.

In 2004 Chunksofmeat upgraded to a modern technology sound system to provide bands with the best quality sound at every show. Chunksofmeat is adding this service of a board mix live recording play able on any cd player. Duplicates can be made upon request.

Recording and Live Tips to musicians:

Singers:

Learn not to cup your hand around the ball of the mic. Most common live microphones are omni directional and cupping your hand around the mic mutes the sound of your voice distorting your words and phrases. In live performances this can also cause feedback and an annoying over tone rings that can effect the entire sound of the band. In many cases sound engineers have to turn down the mic of a lead vocalist to prevent the overtone rings when cupping a mic. Hold the mic around the caseing.

Mic technique?

Like playing the guitar, you aren't going to learn in a day, but there are some simple rules.  The end without the cable goes by your mouth, pointing straight in and pretty close.  OK, so that's an over simplification.  Here are some hints and pointers.  

The microphone has a directional response.  Almost without exception, vocal mics have cardiod or similar response and so will sound great if you talk/sing at the end of it, and will get quieter as you move away from the on-axis position.  Therefore it is important to keep the angle of the mic roughly the same - it doesn't have to be rigid, but once you get past about 45 degrees off, the difference will start to be heard.

The distance the mic is from your mouth changes the sound a huge amount.  While the distance at which you hold it is important, it is variation in this distance that will cause the greater problem.  As you get closer to a mic, a thing called "proximity effect" will mean that the bass is boosted more the closer you get.  Therefore if you suddenly get closer to the mic, it will sound boomy; if you move back off it, it will seem thin.  Also the volume produced changes with this distance.  While good use of distance variation can create excellent dynamic effects and can be used to your advantage, do it badly and it will sound, well, awful.  Much better to change your vocal output controlling your voice than trying to use mic technique until you become confident of what you are doing.

As a starting point, you could do worse than put the mic at kissing distance, i.e. where you could just touch it by sticking out your lips Mick Jagger style.  This means you always stay about the right distance away.  If you have your own mic, or disregard the hygiene issue, put it just touching your mouth - again this makes it easy to keep the distance constant.  

Drummers:

Keep heads replaced as they wear. Use a head of choice across each drum to provide equal tonal quality. The drums should be tuned to the room if able early before a show. Do not over tighten drum heads. There is a specific tone for each sized drum that can be produced correctly if tuned. But drums can be tuned any way you want. The kick drum should be setup for good punch and depth to be felt through a PA. Keep the pitch deep and slightly dampen the inside with an Evans or similar damening drum pillow. In some cases a dead ringer on the batter head is sufficient. On the front head, a port hole to one side is needed. Keep this high enough for a bass drum mic to fit through, preferably 6” in diameter. More Tuning techniques can be found at http://drumnetwork.com/howto/tuning.htm

Guitar Players:

All guitar players should have a guitar tuner corrected through there amp setup to check tuning frequently throughtout the show and guitarist should check tuning siliently with a tuner before the show so each string instrument is in perfect key with each other. We all know there is nothing worse than a band that plays out of tune. http://www.guitarsite.com/tuning.htm .