Jinjer and dealing with very loud environments [Rant]

[AndrewMeronek]

I've been grooving on Jinjer lately, and I finally ended up finding a very "honest" live show recording them. Here, the band still sounds pretty good, but the singer Tatiana is definitely pitchy in her full-voiced vocals. So, stuff in other "live" videos is probably is "fixed" in post-production. However, I think this is probably a consequence of the band's setup in live shows, specifically it being extremely loud, which is pretty typical in that "genre". I know from my own experience that playing in very loud concerts, I literally cannot hear my own pitch. It's not just not hearing the sound of my bell, but actually having my ear drums over-driven so that it's literally impossible to hear pitch. The natural tendency in that circumstance is to go sharp - and that's exactly what I hear in this concert.

Everyone has room for improvement, I guess. I still think this is a great band, although definitely not for everyone, as is all music. And even with the pitch problems, I think that Tatiana still sounds fantastic. It's cool to see other musicians deal with the same problems we deal with - musicians who know me all know that I gripe about trumpets (sometimes), and more often, keyboards and bass, being loud.

A related idea: there definitely is a conceptual similarity between bands like this and some forms of jazz. I'm thinking specifically of people like Maynard Ferguson making a spectacle of blowing the piss out of his trumpet, and still being able to perform with well thought out ideas.

To not just be a nit-picker and suggest a solution: if they could find a way to work with the visual change, have Tatiana perform in a noise-cancelling helmet, similar to what we see some helicopter pilots use. In really loud environments, earplugs, in-ear monitors, and even headphones may not be enough, because sound will travel through the skull to the eardrums.

[baileyman]

Could plugs change the situation? I'm thinking that if the head noise can be shielded by plugs from the band noise to the extent you can hear it, especially for tuning, then maybe you can be confident you played well, and maybe also think the resulting balance is in the hands of whoever is running the board.

[harrisonreed]

Musicians ear plugs

[AndrewMeronek]

Could plugs change the situation? I'm thinking that if the head noise can be shielded by plugs from the band noise to the extent you can hear it, especially for tuning, then maybe you can be confident you played well, and maybe also think the resulting balance is in the hands of whoever is running the board.

Ear plugs are helpful when there are no other options, certainly. Next step up would be noise-cancelling in-ear monitors, which are a lot more expensive but still relatively unobtrusive.

Musicians ear plugs

I tried musicians' ear plugs, and found that they weren't significantly different from good quality "vanilla" ear plugs that are the right size for my ear canals. IMHO not worth the extra $$$.

[harrisonreed]

Did you try the -33db version?

[Burgerbob]

She'd be wearing some custom fit IEMs for all these concerts. Everyone on stage would be at all times.

[harrisonreed]

Not sure why they don't have a live pitchy vocalist running through a slow pitch adjustment device or plug in.

[AndrewMeronek]

Not sure why they don't have a live pitchy vocalist running through a slow pitch adjustment device or plug in.

I'm sure something like that would totally mess with the screams.

And listen to a few tunes. Blue-sey pitch bends are part of that style. You don't want any dumb computer messing with that.