Need set list advice please

Seems like the best decision would be to ask them. Myself, I wouldn't start making a decision on what I think is bad and could be dropped. Put it on 2-CDs or a BR-disk. Avoid MP3 at this stage. Make it the best source resolution you can.

It's important to realise that I was simply doing FOH and the recording part was incidental.   It's a full multi-track recording from my digital desk that I'm mixing down (in Sonar X3, from Cakewalk by Gibson) just like any other session.
 
I disallowed one of the band members from plugging his PDR into the tape out on the desk, knowing how crap it would sound.  I told him not to worry as I was recording it anyway and he could have a copy...
 
When I say "bad", I'm talking in a professional capacity as an engineer and producer, not subjective as an audience member...  Some of the playing in certain bands was embarrassing. Bad timing, not knowing the song structure, coming in at the wrong place, ending at the wrong time, messing up solos, general amateurism.  The sort of stuff that a good manager would turn to them and say "What the F&^% were you doing?"
 
Do I cut it to make them sound good?  Or leave it in for them to learn from?

bapu
Out takes CD?

Did you not read the thread?  There's to much for a CD... 

 
 
It's a good idea,  but if I'm going to give them two CD's  (the good and the bad) I may as well just give them a 2 CD set of the whole lot (the ugly).

Ok,  thanks guys.  It looks like I'll be producing a double album or two..
 
 
PM for pre-sales.. 

Maybe a DVD - they hold more data.
??
No, I don't know, probably not then.
?
 

Just trim everything between "HELLO"  (first power chord)........ to ............(last power chord fades to feedback)...... "GOODNIGHT, YOU'VE BEEN A BANGING CROWD......WE LOVE YOU".
 
That should fit nicely on a CD with no problem.

I say give em 2 CD's and exactly what they played. They might even want to throw money at you to let them come in and do some 'overdubs'. 

Karyn
I'm all for people throwing money BECAN at me.

fixed.

Oh and since you did the recording multi track (if I'm reading that right) you could "cheat" by getting the guys to overdub the mistakes and try to match the sound to the live recording (via reverb, saturation, eq, etc). That seems to be pretty common for live albums anyway these days.
 
I'm going to be doing some "enhanced" live stuff that way for some old recordings that have some major problems like some instruments are completely inaudible (like my acoustic guitar) or non existent (as in we didn't have a bass player but the material would very much benefit from it) where I'm going to completely overdub those parts and blend them into the existing stereo mix.
 
Should be fun... lol
 

And to clarify,  it's NOT the band featured in my Pics from the Gig thread.  They were excellent.
 
I'll be posting a couple of taster tracks from that band in a day or so.

As always happens with amateur bands, one guy messes up and it throws the rest of them....

lol, bubba... so true.
 
I enjoy playing with "amateurs" and upstart bands in many ways because  there tends to be a lot more enthusiasm and energy with dudes and dudettes who are getting their first taste of band camaraderie, those sweet gelling moments in band practice when a song comes together or the "victory" of acquiring and pulling off a live gig. I do (or did when I was able to actively keep up band schedules) try to force at least a couple rehearsals a week until there was a decent set and there were a couple band members solid enough to act as anchor points when things went awry (which ideally is the drummer but they can be notoriously crazy and erratic in my experience).
 
As a really young "man" (my mid to late teens) I was hired to axe wield for a long established signed act who were all much older than me so I kind of started off playing with guys who knew their shiz (mostly). After I bailed from that I ended up in a lot of underground upstarts so I inevitably ended up being the anchor point. It was fun but harrowing/frustrating. After getting a reputation as being a solid guitar player some of the more pro outfits started asking me to fill in as a hired gun. It was a totally different experience and had its good and bad points. The good being that these dudes knew their shiz and the material so I didn't have to concentrate so much on what everyone else was doing and could focus on my own playing BUT they KNEW they knew their shiz which led to cockiness and, imo, slackarsedness. So while I was dealing with "pros" they were jaded and band practice was a chore instead of a joy. They would book important tours without allowing enough time for pre tour rehearsals. So many times I've had bands say "hey, man... we're going on tour for X days, weeks, months and want you to come along. Here's a recording of the set list we're doing... learn it and we'll get at least 4 or 5 rehearsals in before we hit the road." So I'll diligently learn all the material on my own time and make time for the rehearsals only to show up at the practice space to have them either not show up at all or only go through a few songs or get drunk or insist we should spend the time making shirts or whatever so when we hit the road we have MAYBE played the whole set as a band once and usually not even that.
 
But hey... that's okay because we're all "pros", right? lol... NOT! The first few shows bomb, everyone's angry and anxious but after using the first week of gigs as pretty much rehearsals things start to gel more or less. By the end of the tour (if it's a reasonably long one) the band is a well oiled machine BUT it could have all been SOOOOO much better if there had been a good solid month of ACTUAL rehearsal where the ENTIRE setlist was hammered out. Trying to gel on stage (the trial by fire method) sucks IMO. The sound is generally bad so you don't get to learn those subtle cues from your bandmates like you can in rehearsal, there are loads of distraction and noise (like the girl flasher her cooter or the drunken dudes fighting in the front row), everyone is trying to "look cool" and "rock out" so the band isn't boring to look at, etc... Instead of having the songs completely ingrained in everyone's heads and muscle memory BEFORE the chaos of touring and live gigging it has to come on stage right in front of the people you are trying to sell your brand to.
 
Trial by fire is a good thing to be able to survive but good gawd I do not understand why so many bands INSIST on that method of pre-production for gigging.
 
Is band practice REALLY that boring? If so do these people ACTUALLY enjoy playing music or do they just want to wave their weens around and look cool?
 
I love music. I love playing music. I love playing in bands. I love being in rehearsal. In fact I think I liked rehearsal far more than playing live. It's more pure and the focus is on the music... not all the other stupid crap going on.
 
Sadly I do not get to participate in any of that anymore. Suxxors.
 
/rant

Or when the drummer's playing 50/64 at a 122 bpm tempo; the bass player's playing 46/64 at a 113 bpm tempo; the guitarist is out of tune and keeps inserting the interplay riff he forgot to play during the previous song; and the singer is boldly screaming out all of his 1/2 octave range while spraying the audience that's too close to the stage with tequila spittal.
 
Yeah.