Live Performances
Stats for BW Live2
Mackie and the Firewire Journey
Whirl and I had decided way back in April 2009 to begin playing a little in SecondLife for our friends. So we set out on a journey to find all the pieces, parts and software which would help us to do live performances.
We knew we needed microphones, cables, a soundcard of some kind which would provide a preamp for the microphones and a way to get those signals into the Macintosh.
Next we would need some software which would take the noises we made and mix them together.
And Finally some means to “broadcast” the sounds so that others could hear our noises.
Whirl had worked professionally in music and has recorded on a label in RL. She was familiar with most of the aspects of both live performances and recording, but certainly no expert (they had a sound person who took care of the mundane stuff).
She suggested getting 4 microphones, 2 specific for vocals and 2 specific to the guitars (she did say some studios use 2 mics on the guitars, but one should be fine for our purposes).
She also thought an external mixer would be the best way, without spending a fortune on professional studio gear.
Mixers are kinda of old fashioned today, the computer Digital Audio Workstations (DAW) all have the ability to mix from discrete channels (tracks), so the need for a mixer might obsolete. Although from what I have read this is almost a “religion” on which to do, so I’m going to duck it.
We chose a Mackie Onyx 1220 mixer mostly for the flexibility it could offer and because it promised to provide a way to digitize the signal into discrete channels within the firewire. NOTE: USB can not do this.
Problem: Bart did not read the fine print, which said that the firewire card would not work with any Mac OS X version past 10.4.9 (released in March, 2007). I’m not blaming Mackie for my stupidity, I stand up and take my lumps for a poor choice in interfaces.
The Mackie Pre-amps in the Onyx are almost legendary, for the price point you can not buy better ones (in my humble opinion) and we tested quite a few.
There is a work around for the Mackie Firewire card, so I set out on a journey (yesterday) to try and back level one of my Macs so that it would work with the version of the OS.
I just happen to have an original MacBook Pro which is from March 2007 and came with the older OS X Tiger (10.4.5).
So I loaded up that version, booted up the Mac and was immediately given the option to update my system to 10.4.11. Well I know that wont work. So I declined the update.
I went instead to the Apple web site to try to find the 10.4.9 Combo updater. After about 15-20 minutes of hunting, I found it, downloaded it and performed the install.
It work! So far so good. The updater once again fired up and told me to update about 15 components. One of which was the 10.4.11 again.
I unchecked the 10.4.11 update, and lets the other stuff get updated. Big mistake. Once I came back up, iTunes would not run. Garageband (version which came with the original MacBookPro) would not run. No indications as to why, so I started looking at the logs.
No help, just said iTunes is not supported on this version of the OS.
Ok start over, from the initial OS X load.
Everything came back up and was working. Yay!
So i shutoff the updates and resolved to do everything manually.
The MacBook Pro is back at 10.4.5, so I installed the 10.4.9 update, everything was still working.
I go check the versions if iLife that I have, iLife09, was no go as it won’t support anything older than 10.5, iLife08, will support 10.4.9. Well Alight!
So I installed that, everything is working, I see there is an update to Garageband, so I install that.
Garageband patched will not run. It needs a newer version of Quicktime. hmmm, I go find the level of quicktime it needs, ok this is odd the version it says it needs will not support 10.4.9. So I find a slightly older version of Quicktime and install it. Keeping my fingers crossed the old version of Quicktime will work. And…Garageband is happy, but there maybe problems down the road since these two versions may have never been tested together.
iTunes now works too (version 8.02), latest version will not work because of the age of the OS.
Ok, so lets go hook up the Mackie mixer to the firewire port. Only one Firewire 400 port on the original Macbook Pro (Intel). And the MacBook Pro finds it, no problem.
Next open Garageband and set up 4 tracks, all is good, I route the output back through the mixer. I record a short test, volumes are a little low, but that is ok, we can work on the issue as time permits. The recording otherwise sounds good. I let it run for awhile to see if the firewire clock sync problem returns. And it does not.
Ok! Next step I need to be able to broadcast this mix. I usually use Nicecast to send the sound output into Shoutcast, so that Secondlifer’s can hear it on the music stream.
I download Nicecast, fire it up, and….and no dice Nicecast refuses to run on this version of the OS. I check the Rogue Ameoba website for older versions of their code. I do not see any.
So here I am stuck, I could ask Rogue Amoeba for an older version, they are very nice folks and probably would, but is that right to expect a company to support such an old version of the software?
I will probably have to compile a version of icecast, install it on the Macbook and broadcast to a public IceCast server in order to get this to work.
The second work around on the Mackie website is to download and install an old Firewire SDK from the Apple Developers Center (v2.01). This version has been removed by Apple and is not longer available as I write this.
I am still using the Mackie, but I now have a MOTU 823mkii which is handling the firewire interface chores. It works just fine with Snow Leopard and MOTU takes the time to certify their drivers with Apple, something apparently Mackies does not do.
Mackie does have a post on their forums from June 21, 2007 that they are working with Apple to get a fix to the problem. In the meantime, Mackie released a whole new set of mixers called the Onyx “i” series which support up to 10.6.0 (note they do not support the latest patch level 10.6.1 as I write this).
The odd thing is, Mackie still offers the Firewire board for the older Onyx mixers…I guess that’s for Windows users.
There are other issues besides 3rd party application compatibility with running old versions of Mac OS X. The two biggest issues are any security patches later than the ones for 10.4.9 may or may not work, so you have the choice or risking your setup to incompatibilities or you leave your system vunerable to the security risk that the patch fixes.
The second biggest issue is that Apple doesn’t just release new Operating Systems patches for the fun of it. They do it to provide new features, to support new versions of their product lines, and update device drivers. Not being able to update leaves you held hostage to old equipment, which as it is ages becomes more prone to failure.
In my opinion, Mackie has made some poor choices and we the consumer are stuck with their poor marketing/engineering decisions. As an analog mixer I still think their stuff is the best at the price point, but for use with 21st century studios, perhaps this is not the right company to bet your business on.
Johnny Winter
As if the show we played with Groucho and Peet weren’t enough Sunday, we also had the Johnny Winter concert to look forward to. We are both BIG fans. Whirl LOVES Johnny. Whirl thinks Johnny is the best slide and probably all around blues player EVER. Whirl listens to Johnny OVER and OVER. You get the idea. Johnny Winter is an amazing Texas bluesman who most people agree is the Guitar Slinger, doing a huge amount in keeping the blues alive the last forty years and especially since many of the old bluesmen have left us. He is a living legend.
I didn’t think he was going to come here, so when I saw the show posted I grabbed great seats and drove Bart nuts freaking out with happiness. Bart saw Johnny in his prime years ago, but I’ve never had the chance.
I play a tricone resonator guitar made by Frank Helsley of Republic Guitars. Bart discovered Frank when I wanted to buy a resonator and didn’t want to spend a fortune on a National brand guitar. Frank, it turns out, lives 20 minutes from our house, and makes totally awesome guitars. If it weren’t for Frank, I probably wouldn’t be playing slide. Frank has done wonders for the small but fervent resonator community.
Johnny w/ the new Republic cutaway resonator guitar
Frank’s also a huge Winter fan and for a year has been trying to get a meeting w/ Johnny and his mgmt. to give him one of his guitars. He was finally set to take his newest cutaway reso (which I’m going to get yay!) this Sunday. We saw Frank at the show while we were waiting through the opening acts. He’d gotten to spend time w/ Johnny, give him the guitar, and get a couple of guitars signed, as well as get great pics and some video. I was very very happy for him; Johnny is the best endorsement a resonator maker can get…it’s a huge deal if you know anything about Johnny Winter. I was also insanely jealous and told him so. He showed me the guitars and I loved them. He said Johnny really liked the guitar and wanted to play it right away. It went really well :)
whirl w/ Johnny
Half an hour later Frank came to our seats, talked to Bart and then motioned for me to follow him. I asked Bart ‘Huh?’ and he told me ‘Go with Frank, you’re going to go meet Johnny.’ They only allowed one person back in the bus at a time, so I followed Frank out in shock and went into the band’s RV! I sat next to Johnny and Frank took some pictures and I was so thrilled I was barely able to shake Johnny’s hand and tell him what an honor it was to meet him. ZOMG. I was so happy I couldn’t see straight. Half an hour later, Frank was able to get Bart out to the RV to meet him too. HOW COOL IS FRANK!!!! If you play guitar, you need to go to Republic Guitars right now and BUY HIS STUFF. You will NOT be disappointed.
bart w/ johnny
Johnny is 65 now; he sits down to play and kept his eyes shut the entire time (he’s almost blind I think) but he absolutely smoked and was awesome to hear. He still plays great and has fun. I was not disappointed one bit. The crowd loved him. I would’ve been happy with that, but meeting him was a huge surprise and I am very grateful to get the opportunity. I’m so excited I have to post the pic…and I never post RL pics, so there you go! If Bart wants to post his too I’ll add it later. What an incredible night! I am one lucky dork!!
Some shots from Sunday’s show @ Pitreavie
Baggz Yue @ Cookie
Going to post a few of the great shots Inga took from Sunday’s show at her store, Inga Wind Clothing, in Pitreavie. More to follow as soon as I get them ready!
Groucho March is back in SL. Yay! For those who haven’t heard Groucho, he plays guitar and harmonica and sings, specializing in Dylan, Prine and Tull songs, as well as some great originals, and is a treat not to be missed.
Peet Peterman is our favorite folk-singing chimp. He has an amazing catalog of great songs and is probably the longest performing hobo. His interpretations of songs are always lovely and interesting. We love Peet!
We were honored to play with these two great professionals. They are good friends as well as awesome musicians. Inga was suitably satisfied with the show and is threatening to make it a semi regular event, so we can only hope for more :)
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- Groucho
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- Peet
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- Bart & Whirl
Weekend of Oct. 3-4
Wow, we had a lot going on this weekend. Thursday we played at Inga’s store, Inga Wind Clothing in Pitreavie (see her ad lower right of this page for SURL). It was great to play for Derek and Inga who we have known our whole time in SL and who are dear friends. Buy Inga’s clothes! She is the nicest person in SL! We played another gig at Cookie on Saturday night to a good crowd…Cosmic played afterwards and we all had fun being very silly. The Home Cooked Music shows are a lot of fun!
Back to Inga’s Sunday where we played with both Groucho March and Peet Peterman. Yes, Groucho is back and a whole lot of people are happy about it including us, he is awesome. Inga wasted no time in getting her ‘sugar daddy’ to come play even though he’s been back less than a week, and gentleman that he is, he was there and the sim filled up very quickly! A good hobo reunion, especially when Peet showed up and played too!
Will post more pics from that when I have a chance to go through all the great shots Inga took. We’re going to play there again opening for Arman Finesmith soon, date is on the calendar. And I bet the ‘hobo reunion’ will become a semi regular thing at Inga’s too.
Thanks everyone for coming out, we had a great time and it was great seeing everyone. Inga took all the pictures. Thank you Inga <3 !!
Saturday at Azzure
Bart / Whirl
Whirligig and I played Azzure this past Saturday night as part of a four show line up.
Savannah Cornet took the stage at 6 pm, she is just a real joy to listen too. Great voice if you haven’t heard her sing you should go to one of her concerts, you will not regret it.
Whirl and I played at 7pm, no issues except Garage Band went into the beachball spin cycle and I lost the recording of our show. I’ll try again this week and make some mp3′s to add to the site.
Cosmic Haystack took the stage at 8 pm, his band is great what more can I say. Once again if you haven’t had a chance to hear the best bluegrass band in SL, you have a chance this coming Saturday at Cookie at 8 pm sl time.
Nile Compton played at 9 pm SL, he is just great, really enjoyed hearing him as well.
To all of you who came out to hear us, thanks! Whirl and I do appreciate your support very much. See you at the next event for us this will be at the Merry Pranksters tomorrow night where we are playing an open mic at 7:30 pm (PDT) SL Time.
Bart / Whirl
Thanks to all of you who came out to listen to us play on Saturday and Sunday! Whirlgig and I really appreciate the support you all give us.
As many of you know we played Saturday at the Cookie Farm at 7 PM SL and again on Sunday afternoon 4 PM SL at the Space Gallery on Hobo Island.
Also on Sunday we attended the premier of Mourna’s and Scrim’s place, very cool build.
Also we attended another premier of the opening of the Fat Tuesday venue. Our friend Arman Finesmith played, he is always so good. Von Johin is right, his guitar can do things mine can’t as well. Arman, want to trade?
Great place and yep, we will be back
Have a great week, we will be playing on Sept 16th (Saturday) at Azzure at 7 PM, we are looking forward to that. So hope to see you all there, I think you will like the venue, its a really neat place.
A Busy Weekend
Bart / Whirl
Last weekend we demolished Cair, right down to the plywood. The only things we left were the steam house, which is some 500 meters up and the build platform (seemed kinda silly to take both of these up when we like them the way they are.
The ground was a different story. Cair has always been a park, although it has had many different structures on it over the years. Things on the ground were just not working, we were not using the builds, there were tons of prims being used for no apparent reason, and so it was time to tear it up! (did I mention I like this part?)
So we spent the Labor Day weekend designing and rebuilding Cair, setting things right and making it a park once again.
As luck would have it, we were scheduled to play at Miso’s Tap today (if I get this article in before midnight), however due to unforeseen events the event was cancelled.
So we decided since we had a set list ready and Cair had not been given a proper opening ceremony, that we should use the opportunity to play there.
Lots of nice folks showed up to lend us a hand in celebrating the opening, if i start naming names I will skip someone and then be in deep trouble. So thanks to everyone who came!! (yes, you are right I am a chicken)
Saturday we opened ahead of Peet Peterman at Guthries, I sure enjoy playing there, so many fine musicians in SL and so many nice folks who help those of us just starting out. Like Thinkerer Melville, Dottie Iceberg and Reggier Rumbaud.
Even Peet helped us with a difficult audio issue which had been driving both whirl and I almost crazy.
So here’s the deal, go see a show in Second Life, support the venues with a some lindens, because these places provide a place where musicians can all go. And without music, I’m afraid SL would be pretty dull.
See ya’all next week, we will be playing at Cookie on Saturday Sept 19th at 7 PM SL, and then Hobo Island on Sunday, Sept 20th at 2 PM SL, hope to see ya there!
