Donovan Banks

That's the question I hear all 65 of you ask about the recording of my last gig.

Not so great, is the answer.

There was a lot wrong with the way the whole event was executed to begin with and there are some things we can all learn from here.

Planning
There were 13 bands, each playing 2 songs with no sound check in between. The stage was nicely laid out with enough gear and we as the band knew what was expected of us. We were prepared. So we thought.
I got on stage and made use of a Laney Cub amp. I chose that over the other 2 Fender amps because I knew it had good tone and figured since it was mic'ed up, I could have the mix in the monitors and not hear it too much from the source. Unfortunately when I should have told the sound engineer which amp I was using I didn't because I was rushing to set up. I will NEVER forsake quality of sound for time. The result of this was that when I broke into my solo, and it was a great one, it was inaudible. You could hear nothing at all. I tried in between sections to crank the amp but it was at 10 and still nothing.

Execution
I just carried on playing and by the second song I was definitely hearing guitar. My moment had passed. Nobody heard me. I checked with the engineer recording the audio and he had recorded the stereo mix and not each instrument on separate tracks. Recording stereo can work out awesome when the live sound is up to the right standard. Unfortunately, now there is a recording with absolutely no guitar, not even a track that can be compressed and amplified to rescue it. I can probably try dubbing some guitar over it after the fact but I am not sure how usable that track, or the recording will be.

We played our two songs with gusto and pizazz. The audience enjoyed us and we had fun. Hopefully the end product is usable, or at least YouTubable (c) so you can see it. Maybe I can also get my hands on the audio and add what guitar I can but we will see.

Frankly I can't blame anyone for the shortcomings but myself. We knew what we were getting into and we prepared for it. I just disregarded lessons and experience that I have had from this same venue. I knew something was going to fail and didn't look hard enough at what could go wrong.

I still had an awesome jam though....

We're playing a 2 song set along with some other great bands. The event is being recorded to be released on DVD with the Zack's compilation album. Stay tuned for more details.

Last night I played a short acoustic set with the singer of Stereo in Flight, Bevan Lynch at Zack's in Windermere rd. It was a simple affair, hosted by Steve Fataar and was very laid back. It is a lovely, intimate environment to play, especially if you want to interact closely with your audience.

Before I get into our little set, I must mention that there was a duo that played before us. They go by the name(s) Matt and Mike, or was it Mike and Matt? Thats aside, they were very good. I enjoyed their set and was very surprised to see talent like this floating around. Great voice, great guitar playing, excellent songs and a very personable interaction with the audience. I am hoping to see them a lot more often.

Our set was planned to be only two songs. Bevan played his Yamaha steel string, I don't know the model number, I played my Aria Nylon String. We played well and executed the songs well enough, but in the video that our drummer, Brett Robertson kindly took I noticed something about my guitar, well, the guitars in general.
There was a major lack of bass presence in the out going sound. Which resulted in us sounding very thin and like half an ensemble. Sure, we were only half the band but plenty people play unplugged with no bass and get a good, balanced sound.

I can only guess what the problem was out of a number of possibilities.

1. My Battery is a little flat. Any adjustments I make to the preamp above or below zero suck so much power out of the already dead batter rendering the guitar a lot quieter. I think it's time to invest in rechargeable's. We'll see how that turns out...
2. My guitar isn't the greatest sounding instrument. I have played guitars with a much better bass response. One of them being Brett's Ibanez that I pinched borrowed, another being a Martin that  I played in store. Maybe, just maybe, it's time to start  looking at a higher end Nylon String. For now I think I'm going to try the stolen  borrowed Ibanez and see what comes of it.
3. We didn't do any sort of sound check. There was no EQ'ing done before we started. We merely tuned and played. It may have been a contributor to the lack of bass response as I don't recall any other performer's sounding very bassy either. 
4. There were only 2 small speakers for the PA. I'm sure my guitar doesn't get down to the frequencies that require bass bins but it could have also contributed with the other, above-mentioned points. 

When playing small gigs one encounters a variety of very strange people. It’s not always drunk people either. I will try list those I have come across and how to handle them professionally.

I played on Saturday evening with Swell band at a birthday party. Lately with Swell we have been focusing on getting the on stage sound right. This weekend we seem to have nailed it.

The truth be told though, it seems we solved the problem by throwing money at it. Each of us had our own monitor, and we were mixing on a fairly advanced desk.
I had my trusty Vox rather close to me but thanks to the variable wattage I turned the amp down to about 30W and miked it for the Front of House sound.

I had to adjust the gain settings on my favourite lead patch on the Boss GT8 to prevent feedback and then the angels were singing.
Sometimes this is necessary. Much like EQ and reverb gain needs to be set for the venue. Too much will cause headaches and too little will sound weaker than you want it to. The tone you get in the rehearsal room is tough to mimic elsewhere.

I also decided that I was going to hold back a bit on my playing. Too often I try and be too flashy or fast and end up losing the plot. I played simple lines and kept with what I was 100% sure of. As a result my confidence was high and I left feeling like a king.

Following my last blog about amp placement I feel it necessary to speak more about stage preparation. 

I used to always have my amp standing on the floor when I played. I battled to get my sound right for ages.
What was happening was that the majority of the sound was hanging out on the floor, and what was coming to my ears was only certain frequencies, mainly higher tones.
So I got an amp stand and now I aim the amp at me, much like a monitor.

Playing with Swell band has taught me a lot about music performance. I have learned about bad gigs, good gigs, playing outdoors, dealing with some very strange people, being ignored, being harassed, and playing on some tiny stages as well as some big ones.

What stood out for me this weekend was that, when playing covers, you have to believe in the song to really communicate it well. There are some songs we do that the whole band believes in and we really pump those out. We have a lot like that and it is such an amazing feeling to play.

But there are the songs that I battle to get behind. Blue Eyes, by Elton John is one of them. Every time I play that song I feel like I die a little inside. We play it EVERY TIME. I don't believe in it, so I can't follow it, and I have to bury my nose in sheet music to guess what is going on and my performance suffers for it.

So how do I get around this? I dunno. I don't think I can force myself to like certain songs. I guess I must try keep to songs I believe in. Unfortunately in this case the band likes this song. I may be dead by 2015 if I carry on playing it.

That is why it is so much easier to play your own songs, because you automatically believe in them. If you didn't, you wouldn't have written them, or you would have made them somethign you can work with.

Thats just the way the world works. but if you figure out how to pay music you hate, let me know how..

Zerothirtyone recently went into Andiamo studio to record ourselves a demo.

We asked Neil Snyman to do it for us as most of us had worked with him before and he is one of the best around. (Plus he's a mate and a genius)

Our aim was to spend as little time and money as possible but to get the best quality recording for our bucks. We chose to do it live, seeing as we had 5 songs to do it should have been quick, and it was. Some of the songs we did in one take, with vocals being done over afterwards.

I wasn't entirely happy with my guitar parts but they will do for a demo. I'm sure with an endless budget we could spend weeks in there doing take after take in small patches. Kudos to the band, what a tight bunch to have done so much in such a short time, especially with Gareth having to use an electric kit. It must be a drastic change moving from an acoustic kit to an electric kit in such a short time with no practice on it.

I'm looking forward to hearing the final mixed product and then we'll take over the world from there...


Brendan and William


Steff doing his ting


Me in my Corner


Annien "Onion"


Gareth Rocking it up

What an absolute jol. I could do that all day every day....

This weekend we tried to break the world record for the most guitarists playing together. The record is held by a group in Germany with 1802 guitarists playing at once. I think in Durban we had over 1600 registered but only just over 1000 pitched.

It is stipulated to play Smoke on the Water which I guess most people weren't happy with but it was loads of fun.
There were some of Durban's best muso's out and about including Tree63's John Ellis, Steve Fataar and local guitar hero Barry Thompson. One of my Swell Bad Mates John Skuy was playing bass in the stage band and the guys from Zero thirty one were there as well.

It was good fun, if it happens in your area I suggest doing it. Even just to see some of the interesting guitars that pop up. I was astounded by the variety of people playing there.

enjoy the pics..


Zaine Higgins (right) and I


Richard Davies and his prize JEM guitar


Part of the crowd


More of the crowd


John Skuy on stage


The Helicopter that took our picture to count everyone


A group of youngsters at the "gig" I wanted this photo because it shows how diverse the crowd was.

Last night I played at the Blues Train with Swell Band at Zack's on Wilson's Wharf in Durban. I've been going on and off to watch some of the finest older musicians around play for a while. They are very good and it's a little intimidating to play in their company and I felt a little like I didn't belong there. That turned out to be one of my downfalls.

We were unprepared as a band and had no idea what to play or how we were going to. So we just hacked through some numbers we thought were bluesy enough.

I used someone else's amp which is never good for me. I found my tone wasn't the way I wanted and the GT8 responded differently to this amp. Although that was the least of my worries, I forgot all the chords. I had a shocker of an evening. Thankfully it was short.

My learning points were;
a) don't be intimidated by your surroundings. You deserve to be there.
b) Practice at least once, if not have some sort of discussion before or a plan in place.
c) Check the gear. I tell myself this all the time and I don't practice it. I like my amp and I know my amp so I should use my amp.

All in all, I had a rough one. I got a few compliments which means it was worse by my standards than others. But we are booked there again in September so I can implement my learning's.

The one thing I know above all is that Swell Band is good. We had an off night, so what. We all had our moments and I had a good, blazing solo in "Holding Back the Years." Most importantly, we live and we learn. Rock on!

This weekend I played at the Awakening as part of Nelisa Kala's band. We've been working for a few weeks to put together this show (hence the quiet blog).

We have a good band with very talented musicians, Keith Naidoo on guitar, Lazarus Pillay on Keys and Ross Viljoen on Drums.

We had some issues that we could learn from this weekend.

Friday: We arrived to do a sound check to discover they had a 6 channel sound desk with 2 monitor sends, they had no monitors and their equipment was shocking. One would normally expect a theatre to have top level sound systems and be well equipped for anything. We took it for granted that the venue provided what they said they would. As a result we had to fix it by borrowing equipment and using a separate feed as monitors and to try boost the quality of the house sound.

Saturday: The gig went very well. Keith played outstanding solo's and people loved it. Nelisa did something amazing in that she forgot the words to one of her poems but she covered it so well and nobody was the wiser. Being a professional is not about never making mistakes, it's about being able to handle them. The crowd LOVED the way she did so that night. She was brilliant and it showed in the audience reaction.

Sunday: we had a substantially smaller crowd. We were comfortable with the venue and sound by now so we were set to have a smooth gig. Keith had issues with his pedal which was buzzing badly every time he tried to change effects. This, of course, happened mid song. There are a few learning points here that we can look at.

1. check your gear before you play. If there are any problems that can't be fixed, and if there is a chance it would happen in the set, remove it and make do. A clean guitar solo can be just as effective as an over driven one. It is also impressive at times to see just raw guitaring. While effects can add to the ambiance, as long as your guitar works you are able to play.
2. Nelisa had walked over to the opposite side of the stage to give Keith focus at his solo time. That's when his gear failed so he could do nothing. She could have turned her focus to either the keys or even the bass to fill in the solo gap. Take the focus off the problem and get the audience looking somewhere else so the problem can be sorted out on the side.
3. When a lead guitarists gear fails on him, there is obviously a big gap. Other guitarists in the band should be able to cover the empty space. Again, get the focus off the problem so it can be handled quickly. If not another guitarist, the keys, bass or even drums can sort it out. You should generate a good enough feel for each other so you know who will step in if something goes wrong.

These are all things you learn from experience. I hope you can learn from my experience so you avoid embarrassing situations in front of your fans or potential clients.

Keep an eye out for Nelisa Kala and the Awakening. We'll be doing the rounds soon enough and it is something definitely worth watching.

Hey,
I play in a cover band called Swell. In fact its more of a corporate band as we are not specific to any genre. I will get into the band more as this blog develops but for now you only need to know that we are developing as a band and we regard ourselves as professionals and hold our trade in high esteem.

We played at HighField House in Hillary, Durban on Friday night (22 May 2009) it was a quiet evening and we were ready to do our usual 3 sets. Bearing in mind this isn't exactly a music venue we had to improvise on our placement (read squeeze into a corner) but our sound was once again very good thanks to Niel Snyman.
Highfield house is a small conference/wedding centre with a lovely garden and a great atmosphere. They set up braais for everyone to cook on and it felt like a family gathering. There were children and dogs running around, it just felt like home. ( I also had what I rate as the BEST roasted potatoes ever!)

I had a few problems at this gig I want to mention so others can learn from it;

Steve Fataar was there. He's a very nice guy but as far as my playing goes I've always felt like a hack. In other words I can cut it when there are no muso's around but as soon as someone I consider to be a real guitarist is around I get more nervous and worry that I will be uncovered and pointed out as a novice. I'm not sure why this worries me, I think it is my lack of formal training but I must learn to get over it. He was very nice though and he gave me a piece of advice which I think is very valuable to any and every guitarist.
A sound engineer will mix your levels to how HE sees fit. So if you are playing with your guitar (especially an acoustic guitar) at max volume on your preamp that is as loud as it will go. So do a sound check with your volume slightly lower, that way when you play and you need to break into a solo, you can crank it up slightly so you can be heard.

Not all sound engineers will mix the same as well, if your engineer is a drummer for example, he will favour the drums in the mix, as a pianist will favour piano, a singer vocals and a guitarist the guitars. You need to know who you are working with. Thankfully Niel is very good and his mix comes out beautifully, but he isn't at the desk to turn me up when I need to solo so I need to make provisions for that in the future.

I had a technical problem which you also need to be aware of. I was playing a nylon string semi acoustic guitar. The pre-amp runs on a battery like most of these instruments. I did two things wrong here, I bought a cheap battery and never carried a spare. what happened was that the battery died mid song. The result was that I started out hearing myself clearly then halfway through the song I couldn't hear myself at all. Batteries are funny objects, when a battery is running low, the chemicals inside are still reacting and once it has generated enough voltage again it send out the current, once again draining all energy from it. This resulted in me having surges of volume in the song. The guitar would be soft one second and loud the next. It's not an easy thing to control.

The last issue I had is a bit of a gripe... I have a pick holder that is on the mic stand and I have a few picks stuck in there in case I drop one. During one of our breaks someone pinched 2 of my picks. Now I'm not sure what to think, did someone think I was that good and wanted a memento? Or is someone that cheap that they have to steal a pick from a mic stand when nobody is looking. I'll take the first option though, so thanks to whoever took them, I feel like a rock star...

Until next time, rock on and if you're in the Durban area pull in to Highfield House for next time we play.