What can Fresh On The Net do to Help?
As countries across the globe struggle to curb the spread of Covid-19, we find ourselves in a rapidly-changing and increasingly restrictive world; social freedoms we took for granted, a matter of days and weeks ago, are either no longer available to us or heavily limited. Strict rules introduced to prohibit public gatherings have resulted in the cancellation of live music shows, from major festivals right down to pub gigs; in response to this, we are seeing an increasing number of you, independent artists, turn to live streaming.
The Fresh On The Net team wants to help support and promote your live streaming events. We do have a few ideas of our own (surprise, surprise), but we’d also like to hear your ideas. We invite all of you to share your thoughts in the below..
A couple of our own ideas (we can’t help ourselves) to get the ball rolling:
- A weekly post on our socials for Artists to share their upcoming live streaming events
- A dedicated space on the Fresh On The Net website to promote upcoming streaming events
- A list or websites / social pages & groups for Artists to share their live streaming events
- A list of useful resources, “how to” guides to help Artists start live streaming
- A time-travelling hovercraft called “The Fresh Net Mobile”
Performing live has long been the lifeblood of independent music makers; in its absence, we at Fresh On The Net believe it is vital that we do our utmost to support and promote live streaming.
Until a vaccination can be developed, we as a community of people are forced to accept this new and frightening reality. We must come together as a people in finding ways to make this new reality, at the very least, bearable and sustainable; and ideally, a reality in which we can still be inspired, emotionally engaged, and, perhaps most important of all, find means of escape; for we are not merely physical creatures; we are creatures of soul and spirit, and it is in this regard that we artists and entertainers can and must do our part.
That’s a great idea. I’ve been looking into what I need to live stream from home as I took the decision a couple of weeks ago to postpone gigging for the next few months (or as long as necessary), so the items proposed in this article will be a great help to those like me who are having to learn new ways to reach audiences.
Grassroots musicians will certainly struggle, so we need to support them as much as we can. Buy their music or stream it from official platforms, and venues please postpone instead of cancelling outright.
Stay safe everyone
Hi. I’d thought about live streaming my performances last week. It seems several acts have already done so recently – Youngblood being one. Since I’m a humble keyboard player, songwriter, singer & ‘visual performer’ never short of stage props, I was going to use the Facebook live video-thingy. Of course, not everybody is on FB, so it’s a bit of a dilemma really. Still, my main goal is to entertain/cheer people up in these strange times..
& what better way to do it, than to throw a Surrealistic viewpoint of life at those who might watch it. I’d thought of keeping it to a short set of four songs, & presenting one every few weeks, rather than all at once – a bit like a mini series.
It’s going to be all trial & error, but it’s worth giving it a go, do you think?
A tentative title will be ‘Oldblood – At Home With Graham Graham Beck’.
All this sounds like a great idea Tobi. Maybe even stream a Fresh on the Net Live – it’s so sad to have to cancel these events.
Graham, there are companies that facilitate live streaming to all services so people can view on their favourite platform eg. Restream – https://restream.io/pricing – has a free first level option – although I haven’t tried it.
We are live streaming a set from our rehearsal room on Friday 20th of March at 8pm.
There are various ways for artists to do this, from a simple Facebook live stream from your phone, to a full blown hosted and professionally mixed show.
As budget limits us, we are doing the Facebook live route, but trying to get the best sound we can, by using a brick wall limiter to regulate the sound.
Here’s some tips for any bigger productions:
For the audio portion of the stream, the principles are the same for getting a good recording of a concert. The best sound for recording a concert involves getting the mix from the front of house. If it is a large venue, or if everything is electronic, the mix should be good right from the board. For small venues, and with some loud instruments in the band, the board mix will be lopsided, like for a rock band, it will be a ton of vocals, some kick, a little bass, and no guitar or snare. Some people put a mic back at the board for room sound, and add it to the board mix, but there is a better approach. The mic at the board has 3 problems- it hears instruments that aren’t in the mains, good, and the balance is good, but it is washy sounding. So you mix in the board mix, but because the board mix is lopsided, the sum is halfway lopsided. Also the time it takes for the sound to get from the speakers to the make makes phase problems with the board mix, when summed together. What you need, to mix with the board mix, are the sounds that are not in the sound system, micced at a place where the sound is in phase with the mains. The spot is at the front of the stage, pointed toward the band, in a place that doesn’t pick up a lot of stage monitor. The sound will be in phase because the mic is on the same plane as the mains. I use a zoom recorder for this mic often, using the built in XY stereo mic. Even better are a pair of small diaphragm condenser mics on a stereo bar, either XY, or ORTF pattern is more interesting sounding in headphones. Then you can mix that with the board mix and find a balance that sounds really clear.
You can also use a figure 8 pattern mic (or a pair spaced apart for stereo) for the stage mic, and it will pick up the audience and some room ambience, as well as the band, but thoroughly reject the monitor bleed.
Getting the board mix to the camera can take some doing if the board is at the back of the room, like a typical club. If it is a special send from the board and you have time to get it set up with the sound person, you may be able to send it back through the snake to the stage, on an unused send channel, or you can go backwards over an unused input channel with a pair of XLR to TRS converter cables, if you have both sexes of XLR.
Or, if you don’t have the time to set something like that up, a stereo mic on stage, near your head, where it sounds good, can be pretty clear, as long as your monitor mix is good. Your viewing audience hears what you hear. It will be less washy than a mic at the back of the room or in the crowd, by your camera.
I’d recommend a brick wall limiter on your mix, either hardware or in the box, so that you send a good level out to the viewers, and you don’t clip, or worse, have too much headroom and things can get surprisingly loud and hurt peoples ears with headphones cranked up to hear the quiet parts. Infinity to one ratio, 0dB threshold, short attack, medium release (like 50ms), and with enough gain going in to the limiter that you see the reduction meter kick on on the loudest notes.
Cheers and good luck!
Thanks to everyone who has commented and left thoughts, advice and info – much appreciated!
Tobi, my friend, thank you again for helping promote online performances. I firmly believe it’s a win-win-win: it helps people stay connected through music; it helps musicians share their music; and, it help music-lovers access to amazing talent!
Musicians are also welcome to promote their live online concerts — from a living room, practice space, or wherever — to the Facebook group “Live Online Concerts” https://www.facebook.com/groups/liveonlineconcerts
A big thanks to everyone offering tech support to musicians to help make their streaming performances happen!!
Rock on,
Dave
This is awesome! Thank you for putting together something like this. It’s truly a whacky time, and this is a great way to keep people connected. I’m doing a live interactive stream this Saturday night on Facebook, and will be pulling together a community project online soon. I love the suggestions above, and sounds like Def Robot has really got this down!
I think the key thing right now is the massive opportunity available for artists to interact and engage with their audience through this form. I put out a one minute songwriting challenge that has been gaining a good amount of traction in the songwriting community since last week, so maybe a writing challenge online festival could be cool! Happy to talk more about how that could look, and how artist audiences could engage with this.
Thanks for being awesome!
Michael
Hi Dave, awesome group! I’ve sent a join request.
We have set up shop on Periscope for the stream.
The following link to the free app, allows viewers to interact as well as watch.
https://www.facebook.com/1095642918/posts/10220831343548817/
Oops! Direct link here.
https://www.pscp.tv/defrobot/follow
This is great everyone! Loving the spirit of mutual support! Dave’s group on FB is a great place to share your live streaming events!
If we ran a weekly post on twitter/FB for artists to drop their upcoming live streaming shows, what day would be best?
Hi I’ll be going live off and on over the coming days. My hope was to have a place where people could come and chat whilst listening to music, in an attempt to help people stay connected. https://www.twitch.tv/pianotpot. As well as live performances, I am trying to figure out how to broadcast some youtube vids in there as well.
A facebook group I’m part of is also thinking about how we could create mini virtual festivals/concerts/open mic night type style events. I think there’s gonna be a lot going on! It’s all very early days and am sure there’ll be a load of technical hitches and issues to iron out, but it’s certainly fun trying!JC
Great work Tobi. I will definitely be looking to promote some online streamed events so this is fantastic timing as far as I am concerned. Neil 🙂
Just noticed my pic didn’t appear on my last post so sending another message to see if there is something amiss here!
Okay.
We had BIG technical problems.
So, tips to pass on.
Make sure your room isn’t too small
Internet connection – ours made it sound like it was recorded on a potato. It’s all well and good sounding great in the room, but if the internet is overloaded, UK broadband can’t handle it.
Small room – again, make sure the mics aren’t getting overloaded.
Find a streaming site that won’t drop connection.
Another option. Record the gig then upload it.
Technology isn’t quite up to speed with the common people.
Last point, good luck! It’s new territory to us and a lot of others, needs work!
Thanks, Neil! Appreciate the kind words!
Thanks, Def Robot, for sharing your experiences… it helps everybody to share both the good and the bad.