Tough one, this time. I had this great new scheme for the amplifier setup that turned out to be a disaster. We've been using the stores' amps, 'cuz they have a Monitor output jack that I'd been connecting to the computer to record, but we'd decided to try recording through a microphone put up near one of the speakers, to (hopefully) get a more balanced and "live" sound on the recording.
Well and good, but it means that we'd have my amp (with its internal speaker) in the middle, and the store's two speakers on the left and right. Lots of speakers should be good, but, anticipating possible feedback problems, I prepared my amp with a "speaker cutoff" mechanism, which the Carvin people neglected to include. Unfortunately, I didn't do the proper testing, and we found out that cutting the internal speaker also cut the External Speaker jack! So I had to leave my amp's speakers enabled, which (as I eventually realized), since it was pointed backwards at the wall behind, was feeding us a very boomy, bad, bad, sound.
We tinkered with the controls between songs, over and over, until I finally figured out that it was the StageMate's sound that was screwing everything up. We replaced my amp with the store's "brain" (no built-in speaker), and, Wow!, much better.
So, basically the whole first half was a loss, 'cuz when the sound's bad and I can't hear myself or anything except how terrible it is, I just can't perform. The sound "to the room" wasn't as bad as what we were hearing (according to the recording), but I was completely distracted by it and blew words and chords, left and right.
But, once we swapped the amp, it was all uphill from there, and we did pretty good. I thought "Love Has No Pride" went particularly well, and I've posted it as the Song of the Week on the webpage. Warren liked "You Were On My Mind", so maybe I'll remember to post that one as next week's Song, since we're not playing anywhere next weekend.
We did get a bit of appreciation at the end -- some nice ladies that were there chatting quietly the whole night thanked us, and apparently took home some CDs. We usually don't move any CDs at all at that store (nor get much in the way of tips), but in my "Thanks for coming" speech, I mentioned the CDs "if anybody wants one on the way out", and all 5 K&W discs disappeared, and a "Bears" one as well. And, oddly enough, money appeared in the jar, too. I'll have to do that again...
And, for the first time ever, someone went to the web address on the CD, found the "Send us a message" link, and did! The entire text:
I really enjoyed your performance tonight! I have your CD of children's music. I am currently in the teaching credential program, and as soon as I am a teacher I plan to use your music in my classroom. Great music!
Thanks,
Devin
Amazing! Especially after how terrible we were at the beginning...
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