Few Questions From an Amateur

[Elamshin]

Hello Guys,
After a 3 pages thread i finally set me up a setup. Not an ideal one but satisfied for now. I have few questions that i want to ask.
I currently do vocals and play keyboard in a band . We have 2 vocals. My keyboard setup is Korg Triton Taktile 49 + PC + M-Audio USB sound card,iM1 and some sound banks.
1- I have no problem hearing myself when doing vocals.Because i am used to it. But when i switch to keyboard i have trouble hearing what i play because we have 2 guitars and a turkish clarinet after bass and drums. Interesting combo My poor Keyboard just goes lost into eternity when they all play. I connect to system via USB sound card's headphone out. How can i add a headphone to this system to only hear keyboard to one of my ears? I tried my Laptop's headphone out . It is disabled when i connect USB sound card.
2- How can i practice Singing and playing at the same time ? This is a dumb question but any tricks?
3- How to decide which sound patch to go? Some songs have special sound patches that i can't really get close. Any tricks? For now i just add strings some pads and piano in few songs.Mostly use 5-6 only in hundreds of different patches.
4- What is ideal Keyboard contribution to band ? Should i try fill every blank with strings and pad chords and brass solos ?I feel like i need to do that somehow but not very succesfull because i am also vocal.
Sorry for Long Post. Hope i managed to explain myselef.

 

[happyrat1]

Add a Behringer 502 Mixer to your output. It has separate line outs and headphones out simultaneously.

https://www.amazon.com/Behringer-502-Premium-5-Input-British/dp/B000J5UEGQ/

Or get the Behringer Q502USB and get rid of the M-Audio interface.

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Gary

 

[happyrat1]

Picking patches? Most pros only use a handful of patches on stage anyway.

Keyboard contribution? Less is more. Try not to compete with the other band members. Save the sweeteners and leads for the moments that count in the tune. Or add a bassline if the tune calls for it.

Gary

 

[tjw]

There are no "tricks" to singing and playing simultaneously, and no "tricks" to practicing it. Practicing is the only way to make it easier and the only way it will get better. Devote the time, get the results.

There's really no "trick", but recording yourself while practicing it can be very enlightening and expose things you never realized came off that way.....

The ideal contribution of every band member is to add embellishments at places in the music which are known to everyone in the band that this "hole" belongs to the keyboard player (or, guitar player, or drummer, etc.) These embellishments then do not conflict and do not add clinkers to the piece.

Some "holes" can be assigned to two (or more) players to play a lick in harmony, counterpoint, fugue, etc, but this makes each player render the lick the same way every time. If the addition is "worth it", go for it.....

 

[CowboyNQ]

Add a Behringer 502 Mixer to your output.

This is exactly what I do for rehearsal with my pub band, or small gigs where I can't be bothered lugging my rack mixer around. Doesn't need to specifically be this mixer, but this one is small, cheap and effective.

You can use the AUX send to phones or a powered speaker.

Very early on in my gigging career a pro player who I respect immensely told me "always have full control of your own monitoring". He was right!

 

[Elamshin]

Thanks for awesome replies guys. Helps me a lot.
I will check Behringer502 mixer which will solve my problem it seems. How do i add this to my setup? in between M-Audio interface and Main system ?

 

[CowboyNQ]

I would recommend going [sound source]->[personal mixer]->[DI Box]->[band pa]

What is a DI box and why use it? Refer below.

Q. Is there any point in DI-ing keyboards?

I've always stuck keyboards straight into my interface, desk or whatever: plenty of level, minimal noise (if any), and no...

www.soundonsound.com

 

[Elamshin]

I am about to buy behringer. Also i saw sound modules. Like motif x sound module or integra 7 sound module. What are they about? Are they like hardware versions of virtual vst sound banks? Worth buying a 2nd hand if i get bored of carying laptop around?

 

[happyrat1]

Motif X Rack and Integra 7 Rack are MIDI sound modules.

These are like owning high end keyboards without the keyboard.

Definitely a good investment if you can pick one up for not too much money.

Gary

 

[Elamshin]

Thank you. I see those fancy things. I feel like i need them. Then i think to myself i am not good enough to fully use them. So i give up haha. i just checked prices they are more expensive than most new keyboards in my country.

 

[Elamshin]

Hey Guys. I am here with another weird question.
We are planning to make a videoclip in nature playing a traditional song. We have few mountain locations. Me and my bandmates are also offroad and camping lovers. I need to power my gear in nature. I am thinking of an inverter to power laptop and speakers. How much watts do i need? And how much energy do they consume? After a few hours trying i dont want my cars battery to hit bottom. Should we bring external sound recorder? Or dsl camera mic is more then enough? We have few records with camera mic only. They are good enough but could be better. Any opinions?

 

[happyrat1]

One or two of these should handle all your power needs for a recording session.

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Gary

 

[Biggles]

Sounds like a great excuse to buy some great gear.

There are some great keyboards that run on AA sized batteries.

A Mixer like my Behringer 1002B runs on AA batteries and has phantom power for mikes.

Your laptop should run for hours on its internal battery.

Tascam and similar audio recorders are battery powered if you do not want to use the laptop to record.

Plus a couple of the power units that Gary quotes.

Have you made a music video before?

If you think that just putting a single DSLR on a tripod for a static video will look good, it will not necessarily do so, you will need two or three DSLRs so that they are all recording at the same time and they are in motion to give shit variety. Trying to do it with one camera and syncing in edit will be problematic. Watch any pro video of a band playing and see how long each clip is shown and also note the variety of video clips used.

 

[Elamshin]

I have a Psr series keyboard that i dont use much which can run on AA batteries and also has speakers on it. It doesnt have quality sounds but should do the trick. Or i have to buy something like that power source or a 300-500 w inverter to convert car 12v to 220v. I mainly use midi setup. Do you know if inverters or power sources are bad for electronics? Like voltage waves and stuff? I dont want to burn my laptop. Or 3rd option is powering my triton taktile with powerbank and using its own sounds but then i will need battery powered speakers. Rest of my mates are gonna be acoustic. I want to keep it budget friendly for first few tries. If things go as we expect than i will buy what is needed. Also we will run 2 dslrs to give diversity feeling. If we manage to do this. I will share video
with you guys.

I have something like thse in my mind. Ofc not as professional as theirs .

 

[Biggles]

The power units should provide a good clean output voltage, but as an extra safeguard feed the output into a unit like this

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If you watch those music videos again the first one is using one DSLR in a continuous shot but the shots themselves and the movement does become repetitive, the second one is better with a wider diversity of shots but watch where the shot moves off after a static capture into a pan, there is a slight movement in the opposite direction first, which detracts.

Mikes, have you given any thought to them?

To keep them out of shot you will either need to mike up everything or use a good quality shotgun mike fitted inside a blimp and then covered with a dead wombat, that is not quite as it seems, the blimp is a plastic mesh unit inside which the shotgun mike fits on suspension arms, the dead wombat it the furry looking windshield you can see when they are used on outside recording.

 

[Elamshin]

Capturing the sound is where things go crazy. To be honest i didnt think i would need those camera equipments. Shotgun mics are not good for my budget. Also if there is a little wind , wombat is needed right? What if we record with Zoom recorder ? Is it hard to synch sound with video ? Or channel record and just combine two ? That way i need a little mixer and few condenser mics powered by batteries or inverter?
The best is gonna be do some demo sessions and see what has the most performance. We are working on covering the song and planning to start demos in 3 weeks hopefully. And they left me with those gear and tech research , capturing editing.

 

[happyrat1]

If budget is a concern, you might want to consider doing what the pros do.

Rent the equipment you need for a day's shoot.

The results will be way more professional.

Gary

 

[CowboyNQ]

I'm wondering if it wouldn't be better to record the video and the audio separately?

 

[Biggles]

I'm wondering if it wouldn't be better to record the video and the audio separately?

Yes that is a good way, but there is a but.

Syncing the video in edit can be very problematic, say there is a keyboard run that you want to include all it takes is a slight bit off with the timing v the recorded sound and even in a 3 to 4 second clip it will show at the end, same with a guitar solo but that can be even more obvious.

Quite a lot of newish DSLR camera record at 50p or 60p and at that speed the editor can have a fighting chance of getting the edit right.

A dummy run taking as many permutation of video shots is the key, the editor cannot include what has not bee shot in the edited video

 

[Elamshin]

Hey guys. Couldnt reply for a while. This Sunday hopefully , we are planning a demo session. First try is gonna be ancient way. We are just gonna put two dslrs on diffrent angles with no extra equipment and see what we need to fix. i'll share details with you.
I also has zero knowledge about video editing. I also need to practice a bit.