How do I know if I am any good?

Does anyone else ever wonder whether you're any good at what you do? Whether people are telling you your work is good just to humour you and that actually you are awful.

If this were the case, I would rather someone came to
me and said, "actually, mate, you could have done better/this was what I was expecting you to be able to do/next time would you be able to...?" This then gives me the opportunity to ask what it was that I lacked, what I need to start doing and where I can work to improve. This feedback may also give some explanation as to why you aren't being offered any work, you’re being offered less work or you may be being replaced. It can feel a bit rubbish if this is happening and you don't know why.

So when it comes to telling someone about how they are performing, honesty is always a good idea. This can be a minefield though. If someone is performing well, then it is not hard to be honest. "Keep up the good work Bob." But if a performance leaves something to be desired, particularly when it comes to the arts, it is hard to be honest. You don't want to hurt feelings and you don't want to put people's noses up either. It's hard to say "You’re not really cut out for this Bob."

This is where the recipient’s attitude can be dissuasive of honesty. Perhaps due to vanity, pride or a negative attitude to work, a person may not appear willing to accept an honestly negative opinion of what they are doing. If this is the case, people won't give negative opinion for fear of getting an unpleasant reaction. It is always the case that not everyone likes everything. So I you seem to be getting all good reviews then someone is lying.

Even if a person doesn't seem to have an overly negative attitude to criticism, it can still be hard for someone to come out with it.

So if you do want to hear criticism, you need to invite it.

But then if you don't want to hear criticism, perhaps you need to hear it!

Even after you ask someone their honest opinion and by some miracle they give it, attitude and humility are still important. If you ask for some criticism, you expect it in some areas, for certain things you feel maybe aren't up to scratch. But then a critique of something you thought was fine, or even good, arrives it can knock you sideways and leave sour feelings. You invited it so you shouldn't blame them if you hear something you don't like. You need to consider that the blows may land where they're least expected, so be prepared to receive a blow that could land anywhere.

Prepare for the worst, hope for the best.

You then need to make sure you haven't reacted in such a way as to have discouraged future criticism. And listen to it too, make a note. That way you can refer back to it and see if you have improved on the point(s) given.

In answer to the question I set as the title to this post: ask. Fairly often too. The more feedback you get, the more accurate a picture you get of how you work and where your flaws are.

Power Praise Charity Concert

I did some floor work with the Ipswich Music School Orchestra and the Ipswich Community Gospel Choir, among other acapella, and acoustic acts.


The first to sound check was the choir, as they were on last. This involved a very large number of people on stage at once. The three chorus sections each had their own row, with two or three mic's covering each row, place just above head height, looking down on the vocalists.
A section of soloists at the front had each to have their own microphone, 13 in total. Each had to be wired into a multicore separate from the main, which was routed into a second mixer, the stereo output of which was connected to a pair of inputs on the main desk. The connecting process was fairly hard work, as 10m cables were being used for all except the closest few to the multicore, which was set to the right of the stage. Spending the time keeping the excess tidy really paid off when it came to derigging though, meaning we didn't have to deal with a knot of 13 XLR leads.

Alpow Hip-Hop Mix

MC Alpow, an artist I met through previous Radical Lounge events asked me to produce a performance mix.  


After traffic and getting a little lost, we got to work on putting together a mix of tracks, two covers and an original piece.  Alpow had a fairly good idea of what he wanted put together, so we chopped the tracks to the verses he wanted to perform and went about piecing them together. Advice given for this kind of mix was to do 1.5 minutes of cover material, and 2 minutes of original work to come to total 3.5 minute performance. It's very easy to go over that limit, and we had to trim right down intro sections and breaks between verses to get it to fit the window we had.  


The mix has been put together for Alpow's performance at a Live and Unsigned Regional Final. 

Radical Lounge, Kai SU Bar

Saturday night Radical Lounge made it's Kai debut.  Having had a number of events in previous venues (mainly the Goals center at Suffolk New College) the new venue provided a different environment for performances and to engineer and enjoy the Radical Lounge.  


The Kai student union bar, for University Campus Suffolk, is a fairly unique 'L' shape.  With the stage, made from three steel deck pieces, placed in the corner of the 'L' shape, with the mixer placed on the oposite side of the curve.  The audience backing up each side of the 'L' gave me an unobscured view of the stage, meaning I could keep track of what was happening on stage with ease.  


With the sound system I used being rented, I had to get to grips with the Tascam DM-24 digital desk that was provided pretty quick.  With a normally very handy function that can recall presets turned my sound check into a nightmare! Without me realising, a blank preset was selected, and me hitting the recall button wiped my check clean, along with all the routing settings.  With some panic and a call to the owner of the desk, the solution was to find a preset that had the routing needed and reset all the EQ and send levels manually.  I got my head around it, and redone the sound check.  


I need to thank the Radical Lounge House Band musicians and everyone else who turned up of the set up.  While I was fiddling around and getting to grips with the desk, these guys set up their equipment, then moved onto setting up the stage mic's, then wiring them into the multicore.  Without that help I don't think I could have managed to be ready in time we were.  Many thanks.

PS95 in Sussex

Easter Monday (25th April 2011) PS95, a local band based in mid Suffolk, travelled down to Cuckfield, Sussex.  Local Ipswich act Rayon Nelson also travelled down to perform.

Rayon finishing the night.

Two bands local to the venue also performed in the small church building.  All the acts performed really well over the 4 hour gig.  I was able to run the desk for three of four acts.

Tech!

The first three acts were full bands. PS95 short a member, leaving drums, bass, electric guitar and vocals.  The next couple of bands swapped during the sets between an arrangement of keys, acoustic guitar, electric guitars, as well as bass and drums.  Rayon finished the night on a quieter note, starting with a keyboard and vocal performance, followed by a number of acoustic guitar tracks.

The lights and tech know how was supplied by CEG Productions, where the PA was PS95's own equipment.

ND1 Band Recordings

Today I got involved in recording a full band of ND1 (National Diploma 1st year) musicians at college.  Two guitarists, bass, drums and vocals.

Drums had already been set up and mic'd up by Richie, one of the sound technicians at the college.  Vocals had also been set up.  In addition the patching into the desk had already been done. A few things we didn't need to do!

As well as then band, Luke was involved in a 'Producer' roll, overseeing; Katie operated the Pro Tools session whilst I took control of the desk.  All of us chipped in to set up microphones and what not...

We were running one headphone mix and made sure that everyone could hear everything they needed, pretty much just like a monitor mix on stage at a gig.  Then after a few practices and a poor take, we decided to throw a click track into the mix also.  So that took a few of us deliberating over what the tempo was, with tap tempo apps coming out, tapping along to the first recording.  About 145bpm, for those who want to know.  This is pretty much the first time I have worked with a click track when recording.  I think one of the reasons this is, is because it is quite difficult to play in time to a static click.  I think music does tend to flow more, at rehearsals and in live performances.  It is generally the drummer that has to keep with the click track, as the rest of the band keeps with the drummer.

The drummer had a few practices at playing along with the click, then we went for another take.  We had the drums and the bass guitar in the drum booth, a lead guitar in a vocal booth, and a rough vocal take being recorded in the control room.  Once we were happy with a take, we moved on to over dubbing, first a solo guitar part, followed by a second solo then a clean guitar part over the whole track.  Once the guitars were finished, we moved onto a final vocal part in the booth, where the mic's had already been set up, (the guitarists had had to work around the mic's shields and stands).  Single run through in the booth after a line swap and level check.

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BBC Introducing Suffolk Presentation

On 29/03/11, the guys from BBC Introducing Suffolk came into college to give a presentation to the musicians at the college.  They gave a speech on what Introducing is all about, gave some examples of what bands they had worked with, Underline the Sky for example.  The part that I picked up on the most is the BBC Introducing Uploader.  This is a great facility that lets you submit your tracks/demos to your local Introducing radio show.

The nearest local Introducing show is based on the post code you enter when you create your Uploader Profile (you'll need a BBC ID before you can create your profile), who automatically receives your tracks.  While uploading a track you also choose which national BBC radio station receives your track, examples are 1Xtra, 6 Music, Asian Network and Radio 3.  When someone listens to any of the tracks you upload, you are notified, which is handy, because if you'd sent a demo to a record label (for example) you often don't get any feedback as to whether anyone has listened to it, or just chucked it into the trash!  In addition, tracks that get played out on the local Introducing show, get recommended to the national Radio 1 Introducing show, giving your track the potential to be played to a huge national audience.

What's more, it's free.  What have you got too lose?  (Ok, maybe the 30 minutes it will take to create the profile and upload your track...)  But then, what have you got to gain from doing it?  The potential for local air play, moving onto national air play and the opportunity to record a set at the legendary Maida Vale Studios.  Bands have been asked to play the Introducing stage for festivals such as Latitude, Glastonbury and the Radio 1 Big Weekend, which are big gigs to get.

The link again for the Uploader...  Upload and get famous!