Quadcam79
11-23-2009, 12:34 AM
Well we managed to pull off our first little gig, my drum teach threw together a benefit show for the local humane society. about 2 dozen or so musicians playing 1 set of 3 songs each, 6 sets in all and solo performers between sets.
We helped with everything, we were literally the first to arrive and last to leave, we helped do everything build the drum risers, set up all the sound, seating and well everything.
The drums consisted of two seperate kits, my teach brought his monster pearl masters mahogany kit and I brought my own kit, his is just set up too weird for me. Anyway, My kit is just a cheap old taye kit, probably 15 yrs old and about two days prior to the show I find out that other drummers will also be using my kit. So I replaced the heads on my kit the night before the show, Evans g2's on the toms and an eq4 on the kick, wow a world of difference from the old heads.
We arrived at 8am and spent 4-5 hrs setting up, all drums were mic'd plus 2 overheads. Now this was our first time working with a soundman so things were a bit confusing. When we ran through soundcheck the only thing I could really hear in my monitor were vocals, did I bother to say anything? nooooooooo, because in practice at my place all amps are facing me and i get vox through the monitor.................So I dont mention it to the soundguy, big mistake. But I wasnt the only one, later my bassist goes, man I couldnt hear myself at all. another big mistake.
5pm and we're finally finished setting up and fixing the sound. 7pm showtime and we hit the stage at about 8:30. next lesson, when other people have played your kit before you make sure you go over everything just in case they maybe do something like throwoff the snares. They didnt want us messing with our gear before the song so it was supposed to be first hit was the beginning of the song. lucky for me we played "I hate myself for lovin you" and I start out on the snare, just happened to lightly tap the snare before the song and realize the last guy threw off my snares.........quick flip and start the song.
Even worse, our guitarist was told, just plug back into that Marshall head and set the volume to where it was during soundcheck. He did that but what he hadnt planned on was the last guy had cranked the distortion channel gain so when he hit that first chord it was BLARING!!!!!!!! soundguy finally cuts him way back and we finish the song.
go right into the next tune, cumbersome and his lightly distorted chord sound like pure mud coming from the amp......... UGHH!!!!!!!!!! again, previous guy had walked off and turned all but that gain knob to 0, all the tones were at 0..............so now i ave 2 guys next to me trying to get the amp set up right and I'm watching them while going through the song on autopilot because the only thing I'm hearing are vox.......go for my last sets of fills and realize my kick had shifted about 2ft foreward, so I miss part of my fill, get frazzled, and manage a minor trainwreck for about 10 seconds.
last song, "hit me with your best shot".......... finally, got the guitar issues fixed, still cant hear anything but vox in my mix but we've played this tune over so many times I can play it in my sleep so we just own that one.
All in all it wasnt the worst disaster, I listened to the audio from my h2 that was sitting in front of the soundguy and what the audience heard was way better than what I thought it sounded like. My stepdaughter who is brutally honest told us that we sounded much better then what she heard from the H2, that was good to hear.
We did learn quite a few things. #1 if you need a better monitor mix, speak up and keep complaining until you have what you need. #2 either bring your own gear or make sure everything is set correctly after someone else uses your gear, dont take anyone word for it. #3 it's usually never as bad as you think, I thought with all of that we sounded horrible and after the show people kept coming up and telling us we sounded great.
I know from now on I want kick and snare in my monitor, nothing like stomping on your kick because you cant hear yourself and think you need to hit even harder because the sound is projecting, meanwhile the audience thinks you're animal from the muppet show.
well live and learn but have fun doing it. my bassist called me tonight and he was all kinds of stoked about getting out and doing gigs. he's got the fever now................... and there is only one cure
MORE COWBELL
lol
heres some audio from the show, go easy on us........
http://bipolarbarbierocks.com/media/concert1121.mp3
the whole show was recorded from the board and also in HD video, It's supposed to be on the local cable channel, a local magazine website and youtube. I'll post some video when I get it
We helped with everything, we were literally the first to arrive and last to leave, we helped do everything build the drum risers, set up all the sound, seating and well everything.
The drums consisted of two seperate kits, my teach brought his monster pearl masters mahogany kit and I brought my own kit, his is just set up too weird for me. Anyway, My kit is just a cheap old taye kit, probably 15 yrs old and about two days prior to the show I find out that other drummers will also be using my kit. So I replaced the heads on my kit the night before the show, Evans g2's on the toms and an eq4 on the kick, wow a world of difference from the old heads.
We arrived at 8am and spent 4-5 hrs setting up, all drums were mic'd plus 2 overheads. Now this was our first time working with a soundman so things were a bit confusing. When we ran through soundcheck the only thing I could really hear in my monitor were vocals, did I bother to say anything? nooooooooo, because in practice at my place all amps are facing me and i get vox through the monitor.................So I dont mention it to the soundguy, big mistake. But I wasnt the only one, later my bassist goes, man I couldnt hear myself at all. another big mistake.
5pm and we're finally finished setting up and fixing the sound. 7pm showtime and we hit the stage at about 8:30. next lesson, when other people have played your kit before you make sure you go over everything just in case they maybe do something like throwoff the snares. They didnt want us messing with our gear before the song so it was supposed to be first hit was the beginning of the song. lucky for me we played "I hate myself for lovin you" and I start out on the snare, just happened to lightly tap the snare before the song and realize the last guy threw off my snares.........quick flip and start the song.
Even worse, our guitarist was told, just plug back into that Marshall head and set the volume to where it was during soundcheck. He did that but what he hadnt planned on was the last guy had cranked the distortion channel gain so when he hit that first chord it was BLARING!!!!!!!! soundguy finally cuts him way back and we finish the song.
go right into the next tune, cumbersome and his lightly distorted chord sound like pure mud coming from the amp......... UGHH!!!!!!!!!! again, previous guy had walked off and turned all but that gain knob to 0, all the tones were at 0..............so now i ave 2 guys next to me trying to get the amp set up right and I'm watching them while going through the song on autopilot because the only thing I'm hearing are vox.......go for my last sets of fills and realize my kick had shifted about 2ft foreward, so I miss part of my fill, get frazzled, and manage a minor trainwreck for about 10 seconds.
last song, "hit me with your best shot".......... finally, got the guitar issues fixed, still cant hear anything but vox in my mix but we've played this tune over so many times I can play it in my sleep so we just own that one.
All in all it wasnt the worst disaster, I listened to the audio from my h2 that was sitting in front of the soundguy and what the audience heard was way better than what I thought it sounded like. My stepdaughter who is brutally honest told us that we sounded much better then what she heard from the H2, that was good to hear.
We did learn quite a few things. #1 if you need a better monitor mix, speak up and keep complaining until you have what you need. #2 either bring your own gear or make sure everything is set correctly after someone else uses your gear, dont take anyone word for it. #3 it's usually never as bad as you think, I thought with all of that we sounded horrible and after the show people kept coming up and telling us we sounded great.
I know from now on I want kick and snare in my monitor, nothing like stomping on your kick because you cant hear yourself and think you need to hit even harder because the sound is projecting, meanwhile the audience thinks you're animal from the muppet show.
well live and learn but have fun doing it. my bassist called me tonight and he was all kinds of stoked about getting out and doing gigs. he's got the fever now................... and there is only one cure
MORE COWBELL
lol
heres some audio from the show, go easy on us........
http://bipolarbarbierocks.com/media/concert1121.mp3
the whole show was recorded from the board and also in HD video, It's supposed to be on the local cable channel, a local magazine website and youtube. I'll post some video when I get it