Revisiting Tech – part 1

We streamed the concerts from the gathering at the start of Feb. Like an idiot I forgot to hit record, so we’re at the mercy of other folks in the audience who had a camera, but here’s the skinny for anyone interested in doing similar with surprisingly good results.

Video

I own a Canon 250D DSLR, which has the considerable advantage of having a ‘clean’ HDMI output (i.e. minus all the menu graphics etc) if you can find the setting in the labyrinth of menus. I also grabbed a small power supply (that plugs in in place of the battery) to keep it up and running. This I paired up with a 10-18mm wide angle zoom, although the wide end of the 18-55mm lens that comes with the camera will probably do the trick. Set the camera to manual mode, the shutter speed to 1/50th second, and adjust the ISO for suitable image brightness.

(Side note, you could do this just as well with a decent video camera with HDMI out.)

You will also need:

  • a MiniHDMI to HDMI cable
  • a HDMI capture device – I’d recommend an Elgato CamLink or similar.

Unfortunately, its audio’s a bit rubbish and lacking in low end, hence:

Audio

Basically, we stuck a Rode NT-1 condenser mic up on a stand and plugged it into our Behringer audio interface. These days I’d do the same with a decent USB condenser mic (such as an NT-USB) and save the need for an audio interface.

Software

Actually? we used Zoom, with the video set to the capture device, and the audio to the mic/audio interface. Turn ‘original sound for musicians’ on, and there you have it.

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Live at the MillHouse – MillCon 1

A couple of weekends ago we had a small musical gathering at the Mill House.

Watch this space for at least one of the concerts from that event!

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Ashton Lane are back!

Twice is a tradition, right?

Ashton Lane are coming back to the Mill House on Thursday December 14th for a house concert. If you missed them last time, you’re missing a treat – superb vocals (the wonderful Esther!) backed by great arrangements, and they are really REALLY nice people. Tickets will be £10 to cover the bands costs and fees, and trust us, it’ll be worth it.

http://www.ashtonlaneofficial.com/ has some of their stuff to listen to, including the iconic One Kiss Later and Nashville Heart. They”ve appeared at Country2Country at the O2, and are frankly just awesome – you’ll love them.

There’s a Paypal link on the right to book, or if you see Mike or Anne in person you can pay them. Once you’ve booked we’ll give you directions!

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Live stream

The stream for Andrea and Banter is up – however, it’s suffering from the fact that the bandwidth at the venue isn’t of the best, and our streaming software is not coping very well 🙁

The stream is here – rest assured that we are recording it, and the files should be available later, even if the stream quality isn’t good enough to watch live.

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Live At The Mill House On The Road – Andrea Capezzuoli & Banter

2859_andrea_grootShort notice, I know, but:

The Live At The Mill House streaming rig is on the road tonight, to Welbourn,
Lincolnshire, for a live concert featuring Italian melodeon player Andrea Capezzuoli, along with members of Banter (Tim Walker, Nina Zella and Simon Cale). We’ll be streaming live on our Facebook page.

Andrea is an amazing melodeon player with a huge repertoire of tunes and some songs from all over Europe and a deep love of Québécois (French Canadian) music too. He regularly has Nina flying over to Italy to play with him and plays at many major festivals in Europe. He was scheduled to play with Banter at a concert in Sherringham tonight, but due to unforeseen circumstances that gig has been cancelled.

banterThe concert will start at 7:30 UK time, with tunes from Nina and Andrea, songs from Nina with Tim accompanying and some of our favourite Banter tunes from Nina, Tim and the ever cheeky Simon Care.

If you enjoy the stream, we’d like to suggest a donation of £5, as this will help take some of the sting out of Andrea’s air fare.

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Ashton Lane – December 2nd 2016

We’re back!

The fabulous Ashton Lane, UK country band, are coming to the Mill House on Friday December 2nd for a house concert. If you haven’t heard of them, you’re missing a treat – superb vocals (the wonderful Esther!) backed by great arrangements, and they are really REALLY nice people. Tickets will be £10 to cover the bands costs and fees, and trust us, it’ll be worth it.

http://www.ashtonlaneofficial.com/ has some of their stuff to listen to, including the iconic One Kiss Later and Nashville Heart. They”ve appeared at Country2Country at the O2, and are frankly just awesome – you’ll love them.

Note – we are hoping to live straam the gig: as per previous occasions, if we do we’ll make a streaming link and a Paypal donations link available.

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Talis live TONIGHT!

You’ll be able to listen via our UStream channel as usual. We gave Google Hangouts On Air a whirl, but it needs more testing time (and a bigger second monitor!).

Expect the stream up around 6.30, and the concert around 7ish.

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Streaming Talis – some technical changes

First up – we’re considering a change this time out, from UStream to Google Hangouts On Air. Watch this space for the URLs.

The reasoning behind this is several-fold: it means we don’t get the stream interrupted by adverts. Second up, it will archive the concert to YouTube as soon as its done, and thirdly the hangout interface is better supported and less browser-fussy. We’ll be running a test stream sometime on Saturday to see how this works.

Secondly, we’ve got some better camera software to drive the webcams, so hopefully we should have less issues with the flicker on the fluorescent tubes in the room.

And finally, we have managed to get hold of a backdrop, so no more watching buses going past the window through the blind!

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Talis Kimberley live at the Mill House

Should you be free on this Bank Holiday Sunday as ever is, that’s the 26th in (yes, yes) less than two weeks time, Talis and band will be performing live as ever is at the Mill House, and on streaming video here.

The set will start around 7, to give folks time to get home afterwards if you’re coming from further afield. As per usual, this will be a pass the hat concert at the venue, so we can cover Talis’ fuel costs etc, and the option to donate online via PayPal for listeners.

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Tricky Pixie live TONIGHT!

We’re just busy getting ready at the moment – the guys should be arriving around 6ish, and hopefully we’ll be ready to roll around 7pm.

As previously mentioned, we’ll be doing this in a similar way to before – a hat will be passed with a suggested donation of £10/£5 (waged/unwaged), and folks watching the stream are welcome to make a donation via Paypal via the buttons in the sidebar.

The live stream will be up sometime before at http://www.ustream.tv/channel/live-at-the-mill-house

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