spellchecker

i don't understand what all the big fuss is about. as far as i can see, the only people that should really care about a scene existing are - venue owners and promoters - piss club members a local scene is pretty important for promoters so that they can fill venues for touring bands, so it seems. to whom else should 'a scene' matter? i should mention that i differentiate between a scene and any band's fanbase. why should anyone care about a local scene? people should do what interests them, and shouldn't feel obligated to 'join in', 'be part of it', etc. etc. as soon as a scene needs looking after, it is already dead. just my opinion, but when i think of the word 'scene', i think of something new, something exciting, something fresh, something a bit underground. so what exactly is the scene? is the scene a bunch of venues that put on local bands to attract audiences for touring bands? is the scene this website? is the scene the alt-punk-rock crowd that drinks in the same pubs and goes to the same clubs? i'm genuinely asking, what are other people's opinions on what aberdeen's music scene actually is? a lot of people tend to look back at some point in time where the scene was in a better state than it is now. the way i see it, that is people actually being nostalgic about the first time they became aware of this music scene, and began to embrace it. in a way, this messageboard can mimic the music scene, by the way new members' behaviour changes over the first few months of them joining: 1. new member joins "wow this is amazing! chat! chat! chat! i've seen you at gigs! cool! say hi to me in the pub! 2. more socialising, backpatting, and name dropping "i'm still meeting new people, this is cool" 3. saturation "this website isn't as good as it used to be, nobody talks about music anymore" 4. asks for username to be removed "this is my last post, you can all go rot in hell you backstabbing bastards" i suppose it depends on what you are after, really. the music scene holds so many different bands that have so many different aspirations and are of such different quality. i think this makes it difficult to comment on the music scene without being overly generic. for example, there are bands like MMW, AKA The Fox, Girl Said No, Eddison, etc. that seems to make clear that they have aspirations to have mainstream success (e.g. picked up by a label, begin touring, etc.) and would like that to happen immediately. then there are a lot of other bands that just seem to like playing locally and enjoy the sustainance of this music scene, whether it's this website, the alt-punk-rock crowd feelgood hangout sensation. then there are also bands that are just shit, really shit. one of the things that annoys me about myself is that i've become almost conditioned to local bands, in that i compensate for their local-ness, compared to a touring band. as soon as i start thinking, "comparitively, that's quite good", then i know there is something wrong with local bands. of course, every band has to start somewhere, every band has to learn the ropes, every band has to make a tit of themselves now and again, but for fuck's sake, don't do it in front of me. ross said something in his original post about how bands should act more professional and concentrate on putting on a good show, which is a sentiment i whole-heartedly agree with. however, i think putting on a good show is more than just jumping about loads - first things first - have some well written songs! maybe i just listen to things in 'radio edit' mode these days; a lot of time i listen to bands and think, "you're losing me, you're losing m....zzzzzzzzzzzz". a lot of local bands have some great songs, and even if i don't always like the style of music, i can appreciate a good song. i suppose the way i think is, that there is no reason why local bands can't sound as good as touring bands when they play on the same stage - yet they very, very rarely do in my experience. and it can't just be equipment either, cos i've seen peeps in aberdeen with triple-rectumed mesa boogies and really expensive kits and stuff, yet they just don't beat the right sound out of them / make them sound like what they cost. if people want to use the music scene as a launching pad for some sort of commercial success with their band, then... don't bother. instead: 1. write an album's worth of what you consider, and what someone else can objectively tell you, are good songs 2. save up money to get at least some of those songs recorded well 3. save up some money to make cds and some badges/t-shirts/stickers/fluffy bookmarks/whatever 4. speak to some fanzines/rock magazines and get hold of someone personally, and talk up your band and ask them if they'll take a demo of yours, pester if necessary 5. save up some more money and take all of what you have done so far on tour - phoning back any magazines / fanzines that took your demo to come see you if they liked your stuff and you're playing near them. You don't really need a local scene to help YOU, but you do need it in other towns. so who does aberdeen's music scene really benefit? is it us? for me personally, it isn't benefiting me tremendously at the moment, though i do appreciate promoters working to create interesting gigs i have seen, namely things like chris-tt/jimbob/thomas truax, mountain men anonymous, 3 colours red, therapy? etc. i'd just like to re-iterate that in my opinion, there is a difference between a local scene, and the venues and promoters that cater for the local scene, just before i get myself shot in the face. i'm not about to tell promoters or venues how to do their job, because i have no experience in these things and would most likely be shit at it - however, i think it'd be great if there was a higher standard local bands should reach before supporting touring bands. a higher standard would mean more (healthier) competition i think - instead of having 100 really quite average locally playing bands with perhaps 4-5 high quality local bands, it'd be great to have just 20 really, really great bands, with loads and loads of bands waiting at the sidelines, practising, writing and practising some more, so that they could join the ranks of the really really good bands. that sounds quite elitist in retrospect and would almost definitely never work in reality, however, hopefully it illustrates the point i am trying to make. two things you can say about My Mind's Weapon, irrespecive of whether you like their music or them as people, is that 1. they play and seem to act professionally 2. they pull great numbers to gigs at which they play i hope that lasts for them. it's easy to compare them to Alyssa's Wish, and i can imagine that they could suffer a similar 'scene' fate. yet MMW seem to write more new tunes more quickly, which i think is an important difference. my point is, it would be great if there were 10 local bands that acted as MMW are acting these days, and pull the number of people they pull to gigs.

My Downfall: performance wise, i thought the drummer was pretty average, the drums didn't really have the pow that the music seemed to demand. a lot of trademark beats and nothing too out of the ordinary. girl drummers should be more agressive or angry than that. thought the singing was pretty poor, most of the time. suffered from being badly projected (as if you were mumbling to yourself, as opposed to belting the songs out as clearly and as loudly for the mic). maybe it'll change when your voice breaks, you may find it easier to project your voice then. thought the songs were ok, though nothing new. surprised when you made the comment about songs from your old EP, which you wouldn't be playing for much longer - presumably because you don't think too much of them anymore - and then followed to play what i thought was your most original and catchy tune of the night. can't quite remember which one it was, but it may have been something like "save yourself". didn't really like things like the cheesy between song banter (even if it was good that you were trying to engage the crowd), and complaining about your drummer's foot pedal not sticking to the kick drum repeatedly got annoying too. not sure if you got a soundcheck, but that's when things like this should be ironed out. i don't understand why (a) your drummer didn't fix the pedal herself and (b) you didn't try to fix the problem (e.g. the pedal was too loose, get a wedge/piece of cardboard, etc..) instead of fixing the symptoms. i'm sure you'll learn all these things as you play more. ariel x: i liked this band, very professional and had a very polished stage show. i liked most of the songs, some interesting off-kilter beats and interesting changing of dynamics. music wasn't hugely original, but the vocals were good i thought, and some interesting guitar stuff. i sometimes wonder about the sound in kef, i wonder how good the sound system really is - and then you see a band like ariel x that just shows you what a good sound it can crank out. sometimes when a band really knows their set, and also their equipment setup very well, kef can be an amazing place to see a band. the most interesting thing for me was really how much of a difference there was between my downfall and the touring band. the bands play through the same same house system, yet their sound as a whole was completely different in terms of sound quality, levels/dynamics. although it is as much to do with equipment used as anything else, i couldn't help thinking of the old SISO adage. i pitied the band that had to follow ariel x, because they put on such a good show. panama: ugh. a band that did some metal covers and then some of their own songs. to be honest, i think i preferred their own songs, because they totally trashed the cover versions. i think they started with chop suey by system of a down, and boy was it murdered. when they started, the music was not bad, i thought, maybe they've really worked this out... and then they started singing. dear god, if you are going to do a song like chop suey, then just go for it, scream your heart out and try for every note, instead of half heartedly demolishing the climax of the song. i really was despairing. i'm not a fan of people that do that many covers, sorry. it has to be said, i was impressed that fans for panama/my downfall stuck around for ariel x/panama and didn't bugger off early.

black dove, tori amos

arf arf, remember the video of them skating down the lecht road, when pigsy jumped, that looked SORE!! 40mph!!!

i saw them at lava about 18 months ago, i would welcome them back with open arms, because they were good.

i don't think bioses usually boot without one of each of the following 1. cpu 2. ram 3. memory card not in my experience anyway. and i can testify to the "don't mix ram speeds" theory. it depends on the motherboard you stick em in. i had two differently rated sticks in an old intel BX motherboard, and they played fine together. but, when i chucked them into a VIA epia 5000 board, the system booted, but crashed with intensive cpu/ram use. took me ages to work out what the problem was!

i agree with the home recording route... it's very easy to make things that sound as good as or better than recordings at the mill, and just as organic. saying that, some times you just have to do live drums, and i have to agree partially with some people in saying that i don't rate any of the studios in aberdeen for getting a decent drum sound/mix. i haven't heard the new MMW cd yet, so i'm half reserving judgement until then, but none of the studios seem to get a a kit sounding good, and then a kit sounding good IN the mix. that of course depends on what drum sound you are going for, but if the music you are recording is to have a big "phat" sound, then having a big "phat" drum sound is crucial. how much is the mill per day? or does it depend on the band?

could be a good investment for a shop, to charge maybe 20-30 a pop for someone to record their own vinyl from a CD or something. would pay for itself before too long i'm sure.

what you don't ask, you don't get... i can imagine a large number of people in aberdeen going to see a combination of fantomas/isis, considering both are on ipecac... now if they could only convince the young gods to join them (also ipecac), then i'd follow them wherever they went....

first band: listen to more music, stop trying to sound like people second band: i was told you would be shit, you weren't all that bad, i don't like the music but i was prepared for that, and that you sounded good all the same. third band: it's point of origin isn't it? i know the members have changed but the style really hasn't. i was expecting a big change and lost out in the process. fourth band: well improved. perhaps what stapled it was the drummer matching styles with the bass player, a very tight rhythm section. in fact, the whole band as a unit was good... at this point people have little to question but where next... i hope you grow as a band, you definitely play well together as a unit, but i hope you write diferent stuff. dan's harmonies were great, and ben's vocals in a different league from last time i saw MMW which was at moshulu.

heh, downloaded a couple of the tracks, not exactly what i was expecting, both tracks are totally different. i can see you going down well in drummonds.

get a sample pad, like one of roland's spd-.... ranges they are aimed at live use, but you can easily use them for recording too... alternatively you could hook up a midi input device to a traditional sequencer. there's loads of options, and loads of people exploring this technology locally, just ask around

i'm with the general, here... what use is 24 bit when your destination medium is CD or 64kbit download? the important thing for people i know, is to be able to plug in an XLR mic into= cheap affordable desk - i.e. pre-amps for vocals. anyone who has visions of recording drums and making it sound good will realise the necessity pretty quickly of a good set of drum mics ("wow! i didn't realise kef's kick mic was so good!"). if you are not in a decent studio, you will realise pretty quickly that your drums sound like shit (it depends on what sound you are going for, but when you A/B your track with a song you respect, you must notice the difference between well recorded drums and those not.... do you still hear your kick over the bass guitar... do you still hear your snare drum above the guitar?). if you want a home recording setup, then get a good amp simulator and a drum machine that works for you (software or hardware), and a bass guitar. only personal experience, but as far as i'm concerned, hardware solutions simply provide a physical bounds for the creativity that most people can express. software lets people express music in the manner they intended, which is why i embrace digital technology. anyone can cut and paste, and make music by proxy, but people will always be the judge of the music you make - creativity comes from personal experience, and as long as one man's shit is another man's poison, the objectivity of personal preference to music will be safeguard the originality of future music to come.

Are you decided against using a PC/Mac for recording? If i were you i'd buy a decent soundcard and a small desk with some mic preamps on it. i'm assuming that the item in the picture is a hardware based mixing/recording/editing solution.

that's weird, i did the same sort of thing flying back into aberdeen last friday. my camera is pretty simple 3 megapixel thing from amazon, but it has a really cool virtual asa sort of setting which can have amazing effects when you turn off the flash too. my photos are in the gallery if anyone wants to see them.

guitars / amps Gibson Les Paul Studio Bass Collection 5 string (sb330 i think) Yamaha APX4A Electro Acoustic Dirty old Tatra classical Marshall VBA400 head and cab racks / effects nord rack 2x virtual analog synth line 6 pod pro rack mount zoom 1201 rack effects boss rcl-10 compressor/expander/gate big muff pi (american) electro harmonix clone theory chorus/flange ibanez FL9 flanger computers / mixers PC based mixing setup, running gentoo linux delta 66 with 4in/4out breakout box pioneer stereo soundcraft spirit folio notepad mixer microphones and other stuff shure sm58 dynamic mic neumann tlm103 condenser mic evolution midi keyboard challen upright piano would love to start using active monitors, but don't really know that much about them, or what would be a good choice. my hifi has no realistic bass response, which is shit. if possible, would like to use the spdif connectors on the delta 66 as outputs, as they are currently unused. next purchase will probably be some active monitors when i work out what i need and i have some money again, or a new PC. want to get dual opterons!

ahah but ask for 2 pint pitchers without the pitchers and they may be cheaper. i get into aberdeen around 9:40pm on the 21st, i hope aereogramme are on sometime after 10... it's gonna be a mad dash from the airport..

Dear John (used to be lifeshade, etc. etc.) are squeezing onto the stage at dr drakes tonight, probably sometime around 11ish, bringing our happy go lucky dark alternative punk trio industrial rock to the masses of glasses behind the bar. expect samples, odd synths, loud guitars and mis timed foot triggered samples from me behind the bass. also playing is a band from fife called elysium, their website is at http://www.elysium-music.com/ - not sure what to expect, but it could be loud and rocky by the sounds of it. and an acoustickler is playing too, which will be nice i'm sure. please come along if you fancy it, we'd appreciate it, i'm sure that lovely band from fife would too. and the acoustickler too. thanks

Doors probably around 8:30pm - Entry is 3.50

cool! so what laptop did you finally go for?

if you are trying to exclude the vocals, then you can sometimes do it by switching the polarity of one side of the stereo waveform. it works only if the vocals are dead center, by the signals cutting each other out completely. I've never tried it but you can read a lot about it on the web. in my multi-tracking app, you can import a stereo wav file as two separate waveforms, one for left and one for right. you can then put them in two separate mono tracks, panning the left to the left, and the right to the right, obviously. then just flick the polarity switch on one of the tracks, and theoretically it should cancel any centered vocals out. i've heard a couple of plugins try to do this, i assume they use the above method to do it. it obviously isn't done very well, because it mixes everything to a mono signal by the sounds of it. it works differently for different artists - for example, i tried using it with scarling, and it hardly worked at all. i also tried using it with led zeppelin (albeit the remastered stuff) and it worked quite well - there were still the presence of reverbs and delays in the mix though. the weirdest effects occurred when used with nine inch nails. on the fragile's "we're in this together", it made it sound like a big piece of shit, being played through an AM radio with a bad reception. yet, on the downward spiral's "piggy", it does exactly what it says on the tin, a little too well - the only thing left in the mix is the drums! it's truly bizarre! your milage may vary, and it depends very much on the way the source music was mixed down.