first big gig experience ....

[piano_ex]

heyya .... today i play for a quite big event ... 9th XQRJ Chinese Songwriting Competition ... with lots of band playing ... lolx ...

situation is ....

I bring my own synth ..... (i'm a keyboardist .. if u haven notice) ...
and we did a sound check yesterday ... and it was okay .... already ....
BUT ... they change the setting for today .....

and the worst thing happened is!!!

my synth is already on stage since yesterday's check sound ... and guess wad? .... SOMEBODY CHANGED MY PEDAL SETTING! ... my damper pedal become switch pedal, and my switch pedal become damper pedal ..... luckily there's "dry run" .. so i knew about it ..... and after the dry run ..... (all the band will play) .... in the actual performance .... IT WAS CHANGED AGAIN! .... lolx .... lucky i checked during the buffer time ..... so i manage to fixed it again .... =) .... i wonder who changed it ....

the change that he made to my pedal was .....

1. Original Damper Pedal ..... (the good pedal) ..... he put in "Pedal" slot ... which actually triggers nothing .. because I don't set anything there .....
2. My Switch Pedal ... u know the square pedal? .... the small one, and ocasionally can be used to be damper .... that person make use it for damper pedal ...... i was like .... hum ..... r u sure u want that one? .... lolx!

imagine that today's event will be without "dry run" .... i think i'll mess it up ... cuz i'll stepping at the wrong pedal ...... and i'll be thinking that the setting is still the same ...... gosh ....

lesson for me .... ALWAYS CHECK no matter what ..... lolx =)

how bout u guys? got any experience like this?

 

[ChanMin]

erm ... i was actually playing for the guest band.

i came to UCC at 4pm. to sound check. ran thru everything ... decent sound...
went to the dressing room to relak for abit. 7pm - gig time.
went on stage to play the XQRJ theme song and guess what. One of the sound guys changed my amp settings... i was like WTF???

instead of upping the amp's clean master volume. he upped my preamp volume.. which resulted in a really disgusting overdrive.

worse part is i kept looking at him to help me. and looking around for aid... - nothing
i ended up using my hands to signal my amp was too loud and the settings were off.
still .. no help. So i had no choice but to floor my volume and force the sound man to turn me down. Big apologies to everyone in the crowd... i sound checked. but i think its pointless to soundcheck when the guys change your settings prior to the gig.

i mucked around abit and got decent volume for the ending bit. Ended up with a awesome venue and crowd, but so-so guitar tones from me.. haizzz

lesson learnt - always write down the equipment settings on paper. and double check before the song starts.

all in all.. good gig and thanks to the xqrj crew for their hospitality.

 

[bernardgoh]

yup, UCC is certainly not a list on my TOP 10 place for this kinda events.... the worst thing that can happen in this kinda gigs is there's too many bands/guitarist/drummer. you just need one guitarist or drummer to screw the sound there. have learn my lesson there and i would never bring a big amp there.

 

[piano_ex]

haha ... agreed on that =)

ChanMin! so u're the guy in the Ark!! =)

lolx .... is the keyboardist cum singer here also? i wan to buy that Roland Ax from really long long time ago! ... =P

i did my soundcheck the day before, and the sound was okay, decent ...
but then .... the next day, they changed everything .... and the worst thing happen is, during my first song .. (my friend has 2 song.. i played for both) .... my volume was taken down sooo low until it's not really audible if the band play together ... and only after i consult it with them then the 2nd song was .... better ..... =P (but i mess up with the volume though ... i cross the volume limit that was set during checksound ....)

did any of u were there? .... there's one song that I've heard from the dressing room .... it was quite a fast song ... then the guitar got 1 solo part .... so i hear him volume up.... but then! ... only after 3 audible note ... the soundman bring him to almost inaudible solo ..... -_-" .....

but .. yea ... thanks to all the XQRJ crew! ... for all the hospitality and fun!! =)

 

[ChanMin]

haha yea.. i was in the dressing room when i hard this guy step on his boost pedal for his solo .. then it was SO LOUD... the soundman had no choice but to cut him down la..

 

[piano_ex]

lolx! ... yea ...agree ... but apparently ... cut down too much until it was inaudible ... hahaha =)

 

[bernardgoh]

dressing room and front of house mix is very different... i think if you're listening on the hall... you would should be shock on the mix of just the bands without any PA sometime. the musicians is killing the mix themself. ;P musicians always need to remember that when they're playing in UCC, it's a hall... so if you fuck up the volume on stage... man, the front of house mix would be fuck at the same time.

 

[piano_ex]

hehehe ......

that's quite true .... but i don't think UCC has a very good acoustic?

I've always tell myself to trust the soundman ..... but sometimes it's very hard to do when all the setting is changed by them .... so i don't really hear anything ....

even more ... when my sound didn't even get into the main mix .... =P

 

[bernardgoh]

mmm.... how do you know your sound is not on he main mix when you're on stage??? i think the problem is on your monitor on stage.
During multi bands setup with only one soundman and not monitoring engineer, when just one musicians of any bands screw up them self on the stage, like push the keyboard volume too loud or drummer playing too loud, all the monitor volumes need to be adjust again. what i'm trying to say is for places like UCC which is enclose, the best thing that a bands should do is to get the stage mix right. the most problematic instrument i go is the drums for UCC. once you got drummer who can't control their stoke, you can't mix anything. musicians can't hear on stage, engineer have to push up everything to compensate for other instruments. then when it come to the other bands which is ok. the setting on the broad is totally screw by the previous band. so in any case, playing in a multi-bands setup with not much transition time and in a enclose area is like playing with fire :lol:

 

[ChanMin]

bernard , i totally agree man ... luckily i was the first band and the last band to play. if i was inbetween bands... i would be kinda paranoid about my sound settings. after they screwed up my first song... my second set i just re-adjusted the amp to my tastes and thank god i did cus i got some feedback that the second set i had much better sound.

i think the main issue is that the sound-techs "should not alter the soundchecked settings". All problems with sound and volume issues should have been addressed DURING soundcheck.

 

[piano_ex]

I agree on that ..... =)

and yesh, actually what happened is they alter the setting that we already did for the soundcheck .... and my monitor really totally different with my soundcheck ... and everything also sounds different with soundcheck ......

hum ..... it's hard eh? .... hahahah ..

experience .. experience ... =P

 

[slutgarden]

what gig are you guys talking about?

 

[piano_ex]

9th XQRJ chinese song writing competition ...... at first .... =P

 

[ChanMin]

its a national song writing competition man ..
heres some pics...

 

[bernardgoh]

oohh... what i'm trying to say is it might not be the sound tech who is fucking up the sound. it might be the musicians before you. are you the last one to do sound check and the first one on set? for this kinda gigs, there's always those " man, i know everything" kinda musicians and they just screw the balance of the mix for the events. i've meet alot of this kinda of musicians, but when working with experince musicians... never this kinda problems. the sound engineer didn't even have to mix much as the stage mix for themself was so good that the FOH in a enclose area sound is just sweet.
my advice for new bands/ musicians would be always work on your stage mix first. a perfect bad example would be this. "if the drummer hit too hard, the guitarist have to listen to their sound but can't.. then the guitarist have to crank up their sound. which would come to bassist crank up their sound again, then vocals is inaudible which come back to drummer and he think... shit, everyone is getting louder so i must hit harder so people can hear me...." at the end of the day... sound would be like shit... and everyone would be point the finger at the poor engineer. then the poor engineer have to screw up other people setting to suit this "GREAT" band hahaha.... i was not in the events so i'm not talking about this event.... i'm mainly talking about what i see on most multi bands gigs.

 

[piano_ex]

thanks bernard for ur advice!!! =)

yea ..... i think that kind of thing happened often .... hahahaha =)

and yes ... i'm not the last to soundcheck and first to play ...

i'm the first to play for the competitor ... but before me was the ARk ... and Chanmin, u got problem rite?? ...... there's really alot of people playing that day .... =P .....

btw!! nice pic!!! .... i was sooooo bored that day cuz i can't see a thing on stage .... i was required to stay in the dressing room at all time ... and I still dun have any pic of any performance .... thanks!!! =)

 

[bernardgoh]

haha... no worries man... is your first big gig and man i can tell you... shit do happen. i'm doing Outdoor broadcast with all the professional but let me tell you. so far i've never been to a show which have no cock up in anyway. so... shit do happen. just that after everything, study the mistake cause mistake made is always a cause. and the source of the cause might be due to a small small matter and it turn out to be a big shit at the end.

 

[piano_ex]

lolx .......

like in the dry run ..... my guitarist have no sound at all? ... and no signal ..

and the soundman checked everything ....

and somebody changed the patch ..... mixed up the cable ..
FIX! ...
still no sound .....
then ..... ask my guitarist .... did u change the battery? cuz yest during soundcheck u did not rite? ..... lolx .... he changed it already, and brought extra also ....
then he changed it .....
FIX! ..
still no sound ...
in the end ..... the cable (their cable) ... gone case liao ... can't use anymore ..
so they use my guitarist's cable ....

hahahaha =) ......

things just do happen .... i believe it more and more .... especially gigs involving many equipment =)

 

[melvin]

hello piano_ex.

you are a man of many dots...... haha okie. anyway my band's 1st big gig experience was something i would remember fondly for a long time.

we won some competition in Timbre and had the opportunity to open for hoobastank. it was the first time we had a gig with so many people coming to watch, well, not us, but hoobastank, but still it was great to open.

all right, before the concert, we had a very comprehensive sound check, and i was really grateful as the soundman did a wonderful job and yup, we loved the sound.

it was a great experience, haha. during our 1st song, before we even started, our guitarist's amp couldn't on. apparently it was a circuit problem and we took some time to set up. but the rest of the gig was great and we had a great set too.

the crowd were appreciative and of course, we were appreciative too, of them and that was the most important thing for us.

hey guys, share some more of your big 1st gig experience!

Melvin

 

[piano_ex]

hehehe ... yea ..... ... i love dots ....

and this dots on those 5 lines can be music .... lolx! =)

thanks for sharing man!! .... this is becoming quite an interesting thread .... =)