Studio Quality Live Streaming

I don't perform on the streets. Roadkill is a problem for me. I'm allergic to tire tracks.

I started playing in local rock bands while still in high school, and we were fortunate enough to get a manager who kept us booked a LOT! There was plenty of gig opportunity then because society needed something for all those baby boomers to do, and live music seemed to work. Every church, pub, fire hall, festival, YMCA, Restaurant, Elk / Lions/ Rotary etc club had regular live music, and not just on weekends. We got our share.

It was the perfect time for young musicians to get experience in front of many audiences, plus enough time playing together as a band to get really tight and learn how to work a crowd. We were treated like rock stars in the 70s. (in retrospect, I think no young person should ever get that treatment... it messes with your head)

These days, if you can get a live gig at all, you're more likely to get treated as kitchen staff

ha! Like I'm going to tell THAT story? No way!

But I will say that in the context of SJ, I am most likely to be embarrassed when streaming live and things start to go wrong. Usually because something that I'm expecting to happen automatically fails to happen. I rely heavily on MIDI automation because I don't think fast... but my inability to think fast makes it harder to recover when things go wrong and I have to troubleshoot in real time with an audience watching.

Also, MIDI automation is very glitchy. It might work 20 times in a row, then suddenly during the show, it might drop a byte and turn on a completely different parameter, thereby changing my planned settings. If the MIDI was supposed to turn on a virtual capo (but it doesn't happen) that means I'll start playing in the wrong key!

But the good news is that if my worst problem is a performance glitch... that means my life is going pretty well. There are lots worse problems to deal with than performance glitches!

1) All of my gear is rack mounted and MIDI controllable

2) Band in a Box is used to create and edit the trax I don't buy

3) I use a laptop to deliver my backing tracks, specifically so I can embed MIDI commands in each song to automatically set volumes, effects, increase the gain for guitar solos, turn harmonies on and off, pick the right amp simulator for each song, apply a virtual capo etc. This MIDI automation helps to make everything happen seamlessly at the right time. Settings for each song are totally different

4) Rack modules:
-- Line 6 Helix amp sim/guitar FX
-- TC Helicon Voice Live for vocal harmonies and FX
-- Behringer Eurorack Mixer
-- Focusrite 18 i 20 audio interface

5) Electric guitars: Variax JTV69, Fender Strat, Godin LGXT, Status graphite, Fender P-bass

6) Acoustic Instruments: Yamaha AC5R guitar, The Loar Mandolin, Morgan Monroe banjo & a Johnson resonator (dobro)