mike257

I've always found good ones quite tough to locate. There's a huge number of pianists calling themselves keyboard players, who'll vamp big heavy full-sounding two handed chords through everything because it sounds great in their house on their own. Good keys players who understand their instrument and how to get the right sounds out of it, and that sometimes they only need to play with one finger at a time are gold dust. If you find one, grab on tight!

The big one is to keep it simple. If you do too much to it, you'll get so far away from a natural sound that it'll never feel quite right. It's something I see a lot when people go to digital - the temptation to use all sorts of processing just because they can. Flatten it all off, and start with the High Pass Filter at around 120, and cut some of the low mid mud out around 250ish, and see how it sounds from there. Less is often more. Go easy on the reverb - maybe shorten the reverb time but try increasing the pre-delay a little. This can help get it "out of the way" of the initial transients of the vocal sound, so you get a little more clarity. I often find myself cleaning up the low mid of the reverb returns too, in similar areas to the main vocal channel.

That's the current G4 model, which is great. The previous G3 isn't hugely different though, and is basically just as good. There's god second hand deals on G3 as people upgrade to G4.

Unless you can afford seriously high end digital, I'd stay analogue. Too many issues in the 2.4GHz band. My suggestion would be to get the best analogue setup you can afford. Although you're comfortable with Shure, I'd strongly suggest a look at Sennheiser radio kit. For the same price as a brand new BLX, you could pick up a used Sennheiser G3 system which is much better radio kit and still in regular use on pro stages. The Sennheiser handhelds can take interchangeable capsules and there's heads corresponding to most of their wired handheld range.

It was a month-long club tour, but from the sounds of the video, the three guitarists shared the bus, the crew and one backing band between them all - so already, what would be three artists worth of costs are cut down considerably to be closer to one bands expenses. With the costs pooled and cut back like that, across fees for the three artists, it suddenly becomes a lot more affordable.

Not so much in the UK, but it's definitely affecting gigs abroad for people I work with (and potentially me soon). I've had various techy and muso friends had things pulled in the Dubai/Bahrain/Saudi area in the last week, another friend had a big Asian tour cancelled, and a few big exhibition/conference events in mainland Europe have had the plug pulled, leaving a lot of production companies in a bit of a hole. I'm due in Italy for some gigs in mid-April. The production manager isn't booking the flights just yet though, he doesn't sound too confident!

Aux fed subs are an oft-misunderstood approach. Even on festival-sized rigs, you'll still not find a consensus amongst engineers as to whether or not it's a better method. The right way to do it is with either a fixed-level subgroup or any post-fader aux with the sends set at 0db for the channels you need sub content from (generally kick, floor tom, bass, keys and any samplers/tracks etc, as well as whatever you're playing your interval music from!). This means the content hitting the subs tracks your fader movements and stays proportional to what is hitting your tops. With your setup, you'd still want a crossover in line with the tops so you could filter the low end out that the sub is giving you, or you won't get the benefits that aux fed subs provide - reducing the load on your tops by stopping them fighting to reproduce low end energy that they can't do efficiently. As far as subs go, that Evolution one you're looking it is, to be brutally honest, absolute pants. It'd definitely be worth your while saving a little more money up and getting something more capable.

Some tours are using smaller individual perspex screen in front of each cymbal, which is a nice middle ground. Vocal mics can effectively act as another overhead, the amount of cymbal spill that generally finds its way in to them, so anything to mitigate that will help get a clearer vocal sound and higher gain before feedback. Certainly helps the engineers on a loud stage.

Most monitors aren't designed to be adjusted during a gig by the person stood in front of them. They're, generally speaking, controlled from the mixing desk. The only type I've seen with EQ controls accessible on the front are of the extremely cheap and cheerful variety. What are you struggling to hear on stage? There's usually a better solution than just making your wedge louder, because that'll just contribute to other issues with overall stage volume.

Very much depends on the people you're with. I did a run last year where we were on two buses for a bit. Seemed to naturally separate in to the quiet bus and the party bus. We had a couple of last minute escapees join our bus when they realised it was the more civilised option 🤣

It is, but I'm still always very happy to see a proper hotel room after a few days of it!

When I've done bus tours, it's been because it's cost effective compared to the alternative of hotel rooms for 10 or so people, plus ground transport and flights for same. Living in a metal box on wheels with a large group of people and no real personal space takes a bit of getting used to, but as a tech, it's nice to finish a load out, roll in to your bunk, and wake up fresh outside the next gig, instead of having to deal with the hassles of bus/airport/whatever and arrive at the next show still tired and fed up!

At 28, with a little baby and another on the way, I left a reasonably steady but dull job at BT (after be redeployed from a far more interesting project-based role when budgets ran out) to chance my hand as a muso and sound engineer. Took voluntary redundancy so had a couple of months worth of bills in the bank but that was it. That was seven years ago this month. Have managed to buy a house since then, still just about clinging on, although I get the occasional rough patch (Jan/Feb are always tough). I've gradually moved away from the muso work and more in to the tech/production roles, and haven't actually played a gig for a year, but I've been very lucky to work with some incredible artists, travel to some beautiful places and get to do something I love for a living. It's VERY difficult to balance with a family. I think if you're going to do it, you need some money in the bank, a very understanding partner, and a reasonable amount of work in the diary. I was playing in a busy function band and doing semi-regular freelance sound gigs before I left my job, but the transition was still rough!

I never knew he was a director. I thought he just took care of the money, and his partner Steve Twofer looked after the show

A lot of those DIY store toolbox type things are, in my experience, pretty flimsy, particularly where the moving parts are concerned. If you can live with one big box, but the Pelican stuff is too pricey, there's inexpensive alternatives that are nearly as good as the Peli stuff. I've been touring with one of these as my tech workbox for the last three years or so. It's rock solid. The advantage with Trifibre over the other similar alternatives is that they sell spare parts too, so if you do ever damage a latch/handle/wheel etc you can fix the case up. https://www.trifibre.co.uk/product/waterproof-tr5013-equipment-hard-carry-photography-drone-wheeled-travel-flight-case/

Popular with the mobile DJ crowd, never seen them on a pro gig. They'll be functional but don't know how reliable they'd be in the long term. I usually use wireless DMX kit to go from a control position to a lighting rig without having to pull a line right across a venue, but stay wired between the fixtures themselves. If you're literally just replacing one cable across the width of the stage, having to deal with a transmitter, receiver, mains supplies or batteries/chargers doesn't seem like it's less hassle really!

Big difference between the two is in the output section. +16dBu on the Berry, +22dBu on the Midas. Will deliver a hotter signal in to your amps.

Very handy little box for small gigs. I've drilled the rack ears out on mine to fit some connectors, so there's a Powercon in and through, feeds a junction box fitted in the back that powers the XR and a 13a socket to charge a tablet from. TP Link micro router velcroed in the back too, and the tablet, charger, and 13a > Powercon cable all live in a zip pocket in the case lid. I'll have to get a better pic when I'm down at the lockup over the weekend, the only one I can find appears to have been taken with a potato...

It works for a lot of drummers I've looked after on tour. It's also meant ditching a sub from the drum monitoring setup in many cases, so cleans up the stage sound. Happier artists, happier monitor engineer, and happier FOH guy not dealing with an extra source of noise off the stage.

Most covers bands are pulling stuff from a pretty common pool of songs. When I was doing regular function gigs, I'd have been pretty happy to dive in to most things with minimal notice and feel like I could get through it. I've done things at three hours notice, where we've jiggled their set list around to make sure it's stuff we all know and just gone for it, and I've banged a Spotify playlist together for the drive there for anything I wasn't too familiar with. Nice to have a challenge, keeps it interesting!

Beyer DT series are staples in studios and have been for decades. I use Sony MDR-7506 for live work, comfortable to wear and perform well sonically without too much colouration. I've used them for reference to mix FOH from shitty mix positions, as well as just for PFL use, and been more than happy with them.

The Cluny is a cracking little venue, always a good gig in there. How are you finding the DM? Never had more than a brief glance at one to be honest.

Nice to see they're still going strong! I've been spoilt lately, spent the whole of August on a Digico SD5! Everything else feels tiny in comparison now. Really impressed with it too - I'd only ever used Digico very briefly and not had time to get comfortable, but having spent a month with one I'm fully converted, such a well featured and powerful bit of kit.

I'd aim for this spot here, stick your hazards on and do shifts staying with the car while you ferry stuff in - that's likely to be the shortest walk to Flanagan's. I've pulled a van up on the pavement there when loading kit in to another venue nearby. The parking advice you've already had is spot on. On street parking free after 6pm in designated pay and display spots, or the new multistorey just around the corner. The traffic wardens are still out of a night enforcing taxi ranks etc so I'd not chance it anywhere that isn't a proper space.