Before you spend a fortune on things that will expose and highlight deficiencies in your technique and approach, work on identifying deficiencies in your technique and approach. That is, put the horse in front of the cart.
Hi Supercreep and All! I'm certainly not one to take my comments all that seriously as I am an unknown wannabe in the masses.
I like too what gecko zzed said; "One of the confounding factors is that it is your brain and imagination that tells you what you are hearing, not your ears . . . something sounds good because you want it to, not because it is." I debate over the gap between the way I experience my music and interpreting the way others do and if my music is "worth it". How do I get an objective view? It's true where objectivity also comes from within.
Then Supercreep said; "
I guess what I'm driving at is that there needs to be a certain level of honesty in self-examination. The good news is that, on a certain level, you know when you're fooling yourself. In addition, if you honestly can't find anything wrong with your own work, you're not listening.
Cut out the BS and it's really about capturing a performance without letting gear and process (and ego, as Gecko rightly noted) getting in the way."
I'm trying to get around my ego and great advice. I'm a wannabe, but the paradox is I never performed guitar and singing in public until recent times and I'm 69 yrs young. To my big surprise the people at open mics were loving my music, even got a standing ovation once, and six different times people commenting I'm like Nick Drake, and one musician had me for their big Thanksgiving and Christmas celebrations to entertain his people. I got way to nervous. I wasn't paid so they didn't lose anything but bowed out gracefully. I had never heard of Nick Drake and looked him up and no way am I that good! I can't exactly say it was totally ego as to why I started a YouTube channel of my original music and a few covers. It takes courage for me to try my music out on the general public, so I chose YouTube. It could be my ego too as mentioned here, but I also want to try my songs out and maybe others might go this route too.
Why a YouTube channel? People liked my solo piano and I sold out my two albums (CD's) in 2007 at 3,500 copies and sold about 500 since by making them on my computer. I did so without a lot of public performing, two "concerts" ha! I raised money for Hurricane Katrina back then. I also played as background music at seven Judy Garland festivals. i wasn't on the list of attractions, just played and sold a very few of my CD's, but my CD's in the gift shop outsold the Judy Garland albums which surprised me. Two ladies with an entertainment company invited me to play, no pay but hotel and food and a free table to sell my music at the world's largest Wizard of Oz festival in Indiana. They also wanted my music in their 25th anniversary DVD which was an honor. I played to about 300 at the opening dinner the organizers and vendors attended and they wanted me back the next year, so a good sign.
I also have a lot of nice cards and letters I pinned to my apartment walls as positive affirmations, but really the affirmations must come from within. A person has to believe in themself in order to make the big leap to performing or recording, but where is the line between that and one's inflated ego as so wisely mentioned here. So I'm at the point of fulfilling my Bucket List to see if my music is worth it with my YouTube channel. I guess my ego is getting in the way as Supercreep and gecko zzed so wisely advised here. I only have 80 subscribers after 1 1/2 yrs on YouTube. I didn't advertise but still I should have many more than that by now. I also feel that the open mic crowd is supportive, friends and relatives of the performers, and sympathetic musicians, so open mics are not really the general public, although some of the general public will drop in and one open mic host said on the side several times to me that he saw random people stop then decide to sit down while I was playing, so I took that as a sign too. But what about ego, and the underlying factor if one really does know whether or not they are worth it -- as long as they set their ego aside. I like my own music very much but I'm finding it takes courage to go public. To a degree that's ego, but what constitutes "ego" and the difference between believing in oneself?
The help of a sympathetic one from this website has so generously remastered my videos who I think doesn't want me to name as others might think he is giving away his talents as a sound engineer. I am very fortunate in that regard and remastering you can get around things like Supercreep and some here mention about signal path and room characteristics. Well I should say you can't get around signal path but that's only my amateur view. I was amazed at an example a sound engineer gave where a musician called and played for him over the phone. He saved that recording for comparison to his engineering. It was phenomenal what he did with it! I learned about signal path with my solo piano recordings, but on a low budget, and that was when I had more money, I found out how important XLR cables are and to have good mics and a good digitizer. I got by with M-Box by Digidesign, Studio Projects B3 large diaphragm condenser mics, XLR cables, and a computer with Windows XP of the times, and ProTools recording software.
It took a lot of courage to spend that money and also in a package deal I got ProTools. I barely learned then when I was much younger how to do the bare minimum with it. This time, around 19 years later, I just had to avoid the complexity of that software and instead with my stimulus money got a Zoom Q8 camera where I wouldn't have to learn ProTools all over again and the generous one from here remastering, truly a godsend. I also still 19 years later have my same mics and cables and it has worked very well, at least technically ha!
Maybe for some who don't want to do the complexities of things maybe they can glean something from this. I have more original songs to post I've been holding back on letting good old diffidence creep in on myself. I'll post those too, and they are the songs those at the open mics liked too. I played first time in public at a coffeehouse that had me back 4 times in about a 9 month period. I did get handshakes and happy listeners but mainly playing to those visiting, playing different games, on their smartphones and laptops etc... I was background music. That was the general public, but only once the host said to me "We have a full house now." Now the series that coffeehouse had where they paid $20 and a free meal for 50 minutes of original only music to musicians the host chose has told my ego enough, yet I'm still keeping on ha!
I'm still hanging in there but not playing in public and haven't touched my guitar in 3 weeks, really bad, as diffidence especially crept in after a coffeehouse/restaurant had me play. It wasn't for any pay so I didn't risk things that way for the owner. I played for two hours at what the owner said would be peak time and during that time one couple sat for about 10 minutes, finnished their coffee, looked bored, and left. Another two, a mother and teen daughter, sat for 10 minutes, finished their coffee and pasteries and kind of grinned like they were trying to keep from laughing as they left. Maybe I'm of the "old hippie" syndrome to them and laughable... yet 4 people in two hours ha! the owner said I could come back on their Saturday open air stage as they have tables outdoors and musicians come for that, but for me nothing any time soon. I know, that those positive affirmations must come from within yet one must find some kind of balance between that and that objectivity about themself, and their signal path and room characteristics etc as so greatly advised here. Thanks for the great advice here. I hope I helped at least some. Kindest Regards, Winfred PS I see a paragraph underlined with a wavy red line and don't know what caused that and can't reverse it...
