Re: [Harp-L] SPAH 2009

[Richard Hunter <turtlehill@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Regarding my criticisms of SPAH 2009, please keep in mind the first and last things in my first post on this subject, to the effect that with all its opportunities for improvement, SPAH is a wonderful experience.  The substantial time and money I spent there were very well spent.  That doesn't mean I don't want it to be even better, or that it couldn't be. 

fjm, I think, commented that the Digitech devices I used for the seminar on effects had a lot of high-end zing in them.  For this session I used an amp that was unfamiliar to me, and the amp put out a lot of energy in the high frequencies.  We didn't get the EQ dialed in for the session until near the end, by which time fjm might already have left. 

I think my youtube vids, whose audio is recorded live to my Zoom H4, give a better idea of what the Digitech sounds like through my normal keyboard amp setup, and anyone who wants to hear those is welcome to check out the URL below.   In any case, I'll be posting the audio recording from the SPAH session to my site soon, and you'll be able to hear for yourselves what it sounded like in the room.  In particular, the sounds gets a lot less crispy on the last number, the one with Brendan, Chris, and me all playing, by which time I had reduced the amp's treble EQ.  

One additional comment: the Bassman RI amp that Chris Michalek brought to the session was way powerful for that tiny room, and despite Chris's and my best efforts to get the volume down to the size of the room, it was a VERY loud rig in there.  (You know you're in trouble when the amp is barely audible at volume 1.5 and way loud at 2.  Not much room for adjustment there.)  It's a psychoacoustic fact that, all other things being equal, most people think that a louder sound is a better sound.  My perception was that this session was a demonstration, not a shootout, but if I had thought it was in fact a shootout, I would have insisted that we do a real level check beforehand to ensure that the systems were all putting out equal volume in the room.   That said, I do like the sound of that HOG (harmonica octave generator, as opposed to a pig) Chris hauls around with him.  I have to play around more with the double octave generator in the Digitech RP350.

Regards, Richard Hunter

 

author, "Jazz Harp"
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