mike257

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.

Lovely stuff! Plenty of nice new Yammies. I've mostly been tour managing and guitar wrangling recently, but I did get to give a dLive a little run out in the real world at last before Christmas and it's a VERY impressive piece of kit.

My mate Ali bought a keytar. He seems quite pleased with it.... https://youtu.be/ulDZdUzn7EY

I wasn't blaming the sound guy. I am the sound guy!

This is about right though, because, unless I hear something that obviously and immediately requires some remedial tweaking, I want to quickly flash through all inputs to make sure I've got a good clean signal I can work with, then hear things in context with the band playing together before I make any serious sonic decisions and start to tweak. No use me arsing about with things in isolation if it isn't going to sit in the mix right when the rest of the band start.

It's really never going to be the kit. It's all in the players own technique and touch, how hard/soft they play, the angle they attack from - spent two weeks teching for a great session player who stood in on a tour I was looking after, I knew the lines as well as he did having worked with the band for ages, but when I line checked his bass, I sounded almost exactly like I sound playing through my own kit. He sounded completely different. I was lucky enough to work for Victor Wooten for a couple of shows. I can 100% confirm that having his actual bass in your hands and pedals at your feet in no way makes you sound or play anything like him 🤣

Better?

I have it on authority from mutual acquaintances that this was a fully unprovoked attack, and that the singer gave the offender a well deserved pasting.

Although the inputs have an instrument level, the outputs will be at line level, so a lot hotter than the front end of a bass amp is expecting to see - I'd bear that in mind when you're hooking it all up.

As much as the first three records are still my go-to more often than not, I think (especially if you dig in to albums/b-sides/live shows, rather than just the singles) they're one of the few bands that have managed to nail down a more broadly appealing songwriting approach whilst keeping a lot of what made them exciting in their early days. It's still full of musically clever bits, unusual time signatures squeezed in to the context of a catchy song, and little bits of weirdness amongst the more polished sound. They're still absurdly great live too. Albums 2 and 3 are probably my faves, but there's gold on every record.

At the bare minimum, I'd be looking at Sennheiser G3. You should be looking at a Channel 38 (Sennheiser GB band, 606-648) unit, although these come with the obligation to buy an annual license from OFCOM for about £75/year. If you have a tour manager or FOH engineer who is advancing the show (and for a show of that scale, someone should be advancing it properly - happy to chat about this if it's not something you're familiar with) you can ask them to put your wireless requirements in to the production rider and see if it can be supplied by the visiting production company. If you are carrying your own, include details of it in your production advance so that the person from the sound company doing the RF co-ordination can include it in their frequency plan.