The Doom Room: ILF Edition

[ridingeternity]

improperly wired electrical, yikes!

That's what I figured...forgot to grab my plug tester on the way out...power strip said grounded, but yeah something was definitely up there...amp wasn't showing any signs of adverse effects, but luckily for you guys i'll still probably open it up this weekend to check the screen resistors and snap some pics.

[new05002]

likely there was a ground fault, and something was taking some serious current

[ridingeternity]

likely there was a ground fault, and something was taking some serious current

Here's hoping it was something other than the head...to be continued...

[kbit]

Also, my bassist has been trying to sell this for awhile...not sure of the actual worth or anything...but its a ported Sunn 2x15 beta for only $200, he's willing to ship if buyer pays...think it will probably be something like $350 shipped if so...he is down for trades however is covered in the dirt and delay quadrant:

http://slo.craigslist.org/msg/3716862025.html

Oh man I so wish I lived closer to you.

[louderthangod]

So I saw Aldebaran open for Graves at Sea the other night and I thought they were fine but could have used some more dynamics in their songs. I love the minimal yet layered, melodic funeral doom that incorporates atmospherics and post-rock elements. There were many people around me saying how boring it was but I've been reading How Music Works by David Byrne of the Talking Heads and he starts off talking about how music and the venues it's played in are interconnected both for atmosphere but more importantly for acoustics. You couldn't pull off prog/fusion in a cathedral because of the natural reverb would make it all just sound like a blur and singer-songwriter folk music unamplified works fine outdoors if you can sit without 5' of the person but much beyond that and they just disappear. With my last band, our singer wouldn't play the last half of my favorite song of ours because it had a quiet ending that might have worked for a crowd ready to see Low but not for most crowds looking to raise doom claws (not that we could even satisfy those folks anyways).

So two things....where would be the ideal setting (anything in the natural world at all) to see contemplative, at times delicate and minimal and at other times a wall of sound type doom bands? Two, how can venues (doesn't have to just be bars and clubs) add elements to improve the experience these bands. I'd hate see bands like this solely go the way of studio projects only but hearing 50% of a crowd of 200-300 talk about bullshit while a band is trying to play an interesting piece of delicate music to set the mood for the upcoming crushing riff is frustrating for the band and for the audience that is trying to buy into the mood. So matter what my music gear is like at home, it's never the same as seeming a band really lay into a heavy riff live. There's got to be ways to improve this. I figure our collective intelligence should be able to come up with something.

[The Wood Wizard]

Make the "quiet" parts really loud, and make the heavy parts EVEN LOUDER. Tis the DOOm way my friend.

[dazedbyday]

So I saw Aldebaran open for Graves at Sea the other night and I thought they were fine but could have used some more dynamics in their songs. I love the minimal yet layered, melodic funeral doom that incorporates atmospherics and post-rock elements. There were many people around me saying how boring it was but I've been reading How Music Works by David Byrne of the Talking Heads and he starts off talking about how music and the venues it's played in are interconnected both for atmosphere but more importantly for acoustics. You couldn't pull off prog/fusion in a cathedral because of the natural reverb would make it all just sound like a blur and singer-songwriter folk music unamplified works fine outdoors if you can sit without 5' of the person but much beyond that and they just disappear. With my last band, our singer wouldn't play the last half of my favorite song of ours because it had a quiet ending that might have worked for a crowd ready to see Low but not for most crowds looking to raise doom claws (not that we could even satisfy those folks anyways).

So two things....where would be the ideal setting (anything in the natural world at all) to see contemplative, at times delicate and minimal and at other times a wall of sound type doom bands? Two, how can venues (doesn't have to just be bars and clubs) add elements to improve the experience these bands. I'd hate see bands like this solely go the way of studio projects only but hearing 50% of a crowd of 200-300 talk about bullshit while a band is trying to play an interesting piece of delicate music to set the mood for the upcoming crushing riff is frustrating for the band and for the audience that is trying to buy into the mood. So matter what my music gear is like at home, it's never the same as seeming a band really lay into a heavy riff live. There's got to be ways to improve this. I figure our collective intelligence should be able to come up with something.

I think that there are two aspects to address with this. The venue and the people. The venue part is usually limited by money and location. Most venues that cater to that kind of music don't have a lot of money to throw around to fix up a place for an ideal environment. This also plays into what they can afford in the first place and that is why a lot of venues are kinda small and usually a cement box. This means that acoustics are not great and defiantly not set up to support delicate passages that allow people to hear the subtleties. This is also not helped by shitty PAs that are more for getting the vocals loud enough to be heard in some form, rather then mix nicely with the other instruments. There is probably a lot more to be said on this subject but I'll keep it brief.

The other aspect I mentioned was the people. There are a lot of things to be said about this too but to throw out a few ideas. There is the atmosphere that is created, a bar as opposed to a concert hall for example. A venue is usually attached to a bar as that is how they make their money. This carries with it the more social atmosphere where people talk with the band being there to draw people in so that they can buy drinks. A concert hall though is designed solely for the music and if you talk then you are ushered out because that is the atmosphere. Also people are just assholes and if the band playing isnt the one they specifically came to see then they don't give a shit.

[ridingeternity]

Make the "quiet" parts really loud, and make the heavy parts EVEN LOUDER. Tis the DOOm way my friend.

+1 my band does a lot of switching between cleaner atmosphere and crushing doom...it varies a lot from room to room but that's one of the stepping stones on the path of any performing musician, adjusting your rig to work well in different rooms.

The fault in the whole "prog wont work in a cathedral" example is that there are a multitude of bands that play more than just one genre of music so in theory the only room that would work for them would be a room that automatically changes its size depending on the tonal variations.

Someone asked a while back why a Master Vol head is different than one without and the benefits. This exact situation is one of them, keep your Gain knob set at the appropriate dist break up and attenuate the overall volume to match the room with the Master. Also usually if you are going to be playing a large venue that your half or full stack is not loud enough to project evenly into all corners of the room, this is usually where everything is miced into the house system(hopefully with an engineer that knows a thing or two bout a thing or two)

I was recently toying with the idea of possibly creating a rack EQ chain/device(if not already possible with devices that exist) that would do a pink noise test on the guitar amp(instead of PA) to EQ the individual rig to the room...don't know if that would work, make much of a difference, or be practical at all...but its a thought.

Graves at Sea fucking rule, ideal setting for doom i've found is something like a 24x36 room...just big enough to let then crushingness breath, just small enough to create some pressure and air flow in the room...but in all honesty...im not sure it was the room or the dynamics/structure of Graves at Sea that was throwing it off...I know it's hard for most doom fans to believe(myself included), but those people probably just weren't into it.

I think there might have been something mental about your vocalist, I do guitar/vox and take Sleep style super volume straight down to jazz club level outros and people seem to fucking love it...in fact when there is nothing else for someone to like within our music...they usually compliment how rad it is weaving from intense high volume super energy into low volume atsmospheric spellbinding.

[The Wood Wizard]

Listening to Bloodmoon now, pretty rad tunes. I see what you mean about the ups and downs of the music and how that can be hard to replicate live.

[AxAxSxS]

Make the "quiet" parts really loud, and make the heavy parts EVEN LOUDER. Tis the DOOm way my friend.

This, to an extent. We are designing our live rig setup (if we ever get there) so that we will not be dependant on room acoustics or pa. With tony running two amps and two cabs, and myself running 3 and 3, the plan is to have guitar and bass cabs on both sides of the stage. We both subscribe to the clean headroom with pedal dirt philosophy so we can retain control of our sound at whatever volume we want to be at. In theory we should be able to keep volume down for the atmospheric parts and still be projecting the feel of the sound due to how many speakers we are running and bringing volume and intensity up will be to easy.

[deathmonkey]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oK8EcOTWpmo[/youtube]
Just Played with Vestiges Saturday, dudes were intense live. Such a great show.

[new05002]

boy does it feel good when you fire up a new amp build and it has no snags!

[emptyparadigm]

alex showed me this, i am into it despite my usual dislike or black metal and or blast beats

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kKK3aBPTgH8[/youtube]

Band rules hard. Saw 'em with Mutilation Rites last night, they killed AND covered Neil Young!

sometimes i wish my internet connection was equipped with a breathalyzer.

Story of my life.

[fallen]

sometimes i wish my internet connection was equipped with a breathalyzer.

Truth...

Make the "quiet" parts really loud, and make the heavy parts EVEN LOUDER. Tis the DOOm way my friend.

I have a hate on for some venues. You almost have to craft an "all loud as fuck" set for some places due to the ignorance of some people.

Saw Om last year at a local spot and due to the design of the room, with a ton of booths along one side, so many people were talking during the show that Al actually stopped part way through a song to comment. Haven't been back to that place since. What a shithole.

[ridingeternity]

Listening to Bloodmoon now, pretty rad tunes.

Thanks man, some new stuff with an upgrade in recording quality are very close, stoked on how the demo EP turned out for how much we put into it and what we had available at the time...but im damn ready to record with someone who knows what they are doing with heavy stuff before I start to fuck around on my own again...self-sufficiency is the dream.