mike257

For festivals, you need to find out how they're managing merch sales. It varies depending on the size of the festival, but bigger, better organised ones will have a centralised merch setup where they'll sell for all bands and charge a commission. Also, with a festival - your schedule might have you in and out again in a few hours. If you want to make the most of sales you need to think about if you want your merch there for the duration of the weekend and not just the few hours you're on site, so you'd have to ship it in and out. You should be able to get this information from whoever you're advancing the festival show with. For the "arena" show - are you the headline artist or part of a bigger bill? Do you know if the venue charges a concession? If you're the main draw and selling enough tickets to fill a 750 cap room then it's absolutely worth your while to be selling merch. If you're the opener, your return on investment is going to be much smaller as people aren't there to see you specifically so you're a harder sell at the merch desk, by and large. As others have mentioned, many larger venues do levy a charge and it's not usually negotiable. What you get for your money varies wildly here. Some venues charge you for the privilege of selling under their roof and do nothing else to help. Others will provide sellers at one or more locations in the building, load your products on to their POS systems, count your stock in and out etc. Theatre venues usually charge 15-25% plus VAT commission on your sales. O2 Academy concession charges apply in most of their venues, where they contract a third party company (who are usually very good) to manage it, and have recently been reduced from 20% to 15% (again, plus VAT). If you negotiate not to use their in-house concession (or if you're in a venue in their chain that doesn't have one) you'll usually be charged 12p/head +VAT instead. Sometimes there's leeway for some of the above for support bands on a show but this is very much case-by-case and depends on who you deal with on the day and how well you sweet talk them. I've been spared commission altogether on support gigs, or had a threshold of sales put in place before it kicks in. If you're providing your own seller(s), you also need to factor in wages, and get your hands on a card terminal. Zettle and SumUp are both affordable to buy and have reasonable fees (around 2%). Keep accurate records - count out your inventory in good time at the show, and count it back in at the end of the night. Make sure your sales figures match your stock, and if you've had a venue concession sell for you, make sure their count matches yours. The figure used to track merch sales is the Sales Per Head - so divide your total revenue by the number of attendees at the show. Keeping tabs on this helps you make better projections in future for how much stock you need and how much you can expect to make. Some bands might average £2p/h, some sell by the bucketload and can hit £20p/h and beyond! All depends on your demographic, the quality of your merch, and how efficiently you're selling it, but having some history on what that number looks like for your band is really useful when deciding what to order next time out. If I can shamelessly plug a friend too, my go-to supplier is Ozzi at Oz Merch & Touring (https://www.ozmerchco.co.uk/). They deal with every flavour of band merch from small bands to huge ones and it's always good quality and reasonably priced. Edit to add: Another important thing is how you present it. Think about display boards/grids to hang garments on, hangers if needed, making sure the display is presentable and well lit, and printing out signage for prices etc. a scruffy shirt gaffered to a wall in a dark corner isn't a great sales pitch.

I was there to work on Saturday. After somehow avoiding it for years, I've been through for three years in a row with various artists now. I've stayed an extra day to watch a few bits for the last couple of years, but didn't actually leave the safety of the stage I was working at this year, and got away on the night to escape the chaos! The Streets were great as always, and Camilla Cabello's crew building an entire BMX ramp on stage and bringing a bunch of riders out doing stunts on it wasn't what I expected to see but was very impressive 🤣

Sorry to hear about the M32 problems, hope the replacement is running smoothly! Had a busy few weeks on production manager/FOH duties for James Marriott and his band. Had a lovely dLive package out and indulged myself with an S5000 surface for this one - started out with a fly show at Rock For People in Czechia and only managed to locate a rental console on the morning of the show, after much hustling - just about got it in to FOH and set up a couple of bands ahead of our slot! Got back in to the UK and hit Dublin, Liverpool, Glasgow and Edinburgh with our own touring package (S5000 up front for me and a C1500 for our monitor guy)... Then downsized to a C1500 myself for two festival shows, just to make it easier getting in and out. Had a double show day at Isle Of Wight - my regular tour management gig were also playing straight after the band I'm currently touring with. I don't mix that show, but here's my SQ5 set up for our FOH engineer right in front of the C1500 I was carrying. It was a quick dash back to stage after mixing one set to immediately go and guitar tech for the next one! The next day was more interesting - we were straight off to Pinkpop in the Netherlands. Sadly, although our tourbus made it, our gear van didn't, so 90 mins before our show we were on site without a single guitar to our name, our entire backline and audio kit stranded hundreds of miles away. Thankfully, we managed to borrow enough backline and instruments from other bands we knew at the festival to put our gig on, and the monitor guy and I jumped on the house consoles, Digico SD8 at both ends, and just threw it together on the fly! Ended up being an amazing gig, and we went from thinking we'd have to cancel, to pulling the whole thing out of the bag in less than two hours. Was proud of my team that day!

I bought the two I've owned in the mid-2000s and they were about £1250 brand new. Can't believe what they go for now.

None of the arenas have that stuff in-house, the entire production (sound, lighting, video) all comes in with the tour - so it'll be whatever show you were at deciding not to tour with IMAG screens, not the venue itself.

Chris Chaney is a killer player. Obviously it's always good to see the original line up but I can't imagine it being disappointing to see him play. Loved the one album he did with them too.

If you're playing festival shows, and venues with halfway decent sound engineers, having a few channels of playback and a click to deal with should be no problem. It's extremely common these days. For a playback rig, you've got two routes - standalone hardware or laptop(s) with appropriate software and an audio interface with enough outputs for the amount of channels you want to send. Hardware is great for the simplicity and stability - it's built to do one job and generally does it well. The cons are in the faff of making changes to tracks, or rejigging setlist order etc, which involves connecting to a computer for control software, data transfer etc. Cymatic was my go-to brand, their products were rock solid and I toured them heavily, but they're no longer manufacturing and I'm not super impressed with the alternatives that are around at the moment. Software is the way most productions are going these days. You have the flexibility to edit, reorder, tweak whatever you need to, but the cons are that it's a computer so there's plenty to go wrong 🤣 If you're in Ableton world, there's a lot of good Max plugins made for smooth control of live playback (Fullfat.co do some great stuff for this) and there's plenty of ways to set up dedicated external hardware or generic midi pad controllers for live use so you're not fiddling with the mouse and space bar! One mistake I've seen made is to run your playback from a full DAW session with all the plugins, processing etc active. This is asking for trouble. You want to bounce out audio files for each playback channel and not run any processing/plugins on them in a live environment for stability purposes. Ableton is the most commonly used software for this. qLab (Mac only) is great too and very stable. They'd be my first choices for running multitrack live audio. Other things I'd suggest for preparing your stems - on the Click channel, add the name of the song spoken to the top of each track, so everyone gets an audible cue of what's been fired. That way, the day that someone screws up and plays the wrong one, or you misread your setlist, you don't start playing the wrong thing! Other cues can be useful too, and I'll often have this as a separate line from the playback rig, but sometimes see it mixed in the click channel. If you've got sections where instrumentation is sparse, I'll also add simple piano/synth chords in the cues track as a pitching reference for singers if there's not much else happening for them to go off. One thing I wish all bands would also do is a line check track - have a "song" that you can run in line checks that just speaks the name of each channel. As a monitor engineer at a festival who might not be familiar with what your tracks sound like, if I can just solo each line in my IEMs and hear a voice saying "click, cues, BV Left, BV Right" etc, I've got absolute certainty that the patch is correct and I have all of your lines in the right place. As far as an audio interface goes, anything with the right amount of outputs will do the job, but if you have something that outputs at balanced line level, you won't need DI boxes on the end of it. I'd always have your own loom (clearly labelled) with XLR ends so it can be patched straight in too. Nothing worse than someone rocking up with a 12 channel playback rig with no DI boxes and no cables and expecting you to make it happen in a 30 min changeover! The best shout for an interface would be the iConnectivity PlayAudio series. You can actually connect two synchronised laptops to it running a main and backup and it'll detect if one stops playing and automatically switch audio over to the spare, pretty much seamlessly. This is what I see in most touring rigs these days and is probably the most cost effective route to a robust, tour-ready setup. Total stream-of-conciousness brain dump there but hope it helps!

Theatre pay is generally poor for technical crew in comparison to music or corporate events. I'm stunned at some of the rates I see thrown about for that stuff. As far as rates in live music go, obviously your man in the video is very much entrenched in the Nashville world and how it works over there, although I don't think it's a million miles removed from the rest of us. Session players in touring bands can get a real bum deal. I've looked after (and ran budgets for) all sorts of artists as a tour manager, and have seen some moderately recognisable names paying hired hands significantly less than I used to get for playing bass on the function gig scene 6+ years ago. In my experience it pays much better to be touring crew than it does to be a hired gun on stage.

Sound engineer here, have seen many people turn up with various flavours of these things over the years. In my experience, the Boss ones are best avoided, and the TC kit, as with the general consensus in this thread, is far and away the best. I'd also advise moderation, and much like dialling in a multi-effects pedal, often what sounds great in your house/in the shop is probably overkill at gig volume through a proper rig.

Centre fills are normally something that comes in to play in larger venues with a big stacked or flown PA to fill the gap in coverage for the folks right up on the barrier. They're usually on the front lip of the stage, or occasionally on Sunday stacks if they're spaced appropriately to make it work. They're not meant to hit the middle of the room because if the main system is properly deployed, it'll be covering that space - they're just filling in where the horizontal dispersion of the main hangs/stacks don't reach. Not really something that you can translate to a small portable setup, unless you're carrying a 4ft high stage with you too!

Proper pieces of kit! I never really spent time with the MPCs but for a brief period in my late teens I did a lot of work with an S6000. Akai were always head and shoulders above anyone else when it came to sampling hardware. Looking forward to hearing how you get on with it!

Creating successful content on YouTube is a musical career path these days. It's just not one that existed when most of us first set out on our musical journey. The landscape has changed. If he made a successful TV show on a mainstream broadcast channel about bass that had over a million viewers, would that be different?

The important thing here (aside from the fact that it sounds like your guitarist is loud enough to (1) cause his band members serious hearing damage and (2) ruin any hope of a decent FOH mix) is that you need to make sure you get the best possible fit on your earphones to block out as much of the outside noise as possible so you can have a clear IEM mix. The best you'll get is custom moulds, but if you're looking for budget wireless I'm guessing you're not keen to drop hundreds on that. Next best thing is to experiment with the different sizes of Comply foam tips on generic IEMs to see what seals the best for you. Sounds like the real problem is plugged in to the Marshall though, and addressing that will do you all sorts of favours!

It'll never be cost effective printing in such small runs. The unit price comes down as the quantity goes up, so it's best to go bigger if you can, rather than multiple small orders. I use Ozzi at https://www.ozmerchco.co.uk/ a lot for merch printing, tour laminates etc. They work almost exclusively with touring bands, so know the market and know the margins. Saw Pins & Knuckles get a mention above, they're great too. Also just had some really good quality merch from BSI on a recent tour. Good advice above about simplifying the design to keep the cost down, I'd echo that. The ability to take card payments is essential these days. I've generally used Zettle for shows in the UK, but SumUp and Square are popular too. They all run regular offers to get the cars reader for next to nothing for new sign ups, and (depending on your phone model) you can also take contactless payments in the app without needing the card reader at all. The fees are relatively low (around 2-2.5% of each transaction) and the increase in sales you'll get from being able to take the card payments makes it absolutely worthwhile.

Love to see it still in action! What are you up to with it? Yeah, the SQ is far and away the best option in thar price range for sure. Really not a fan of the TF and the X/M32 are showing their age. I think Soundcraft is a lost cause at this point, sadly. Nothing has really happened since Samsung acquired Harman, which they mainly did for the home entertainment end of their portfolio of brands. I don't think they've got any real interest in sustaining a presence in the pro audio sector, but it's a shame to see a historic brand run down like that. Maybe someone will buy it out, who knows?

There's a real skill to hiding the mics discreetly in the costumes and still getting them in a good spot for the audio. The advantages they have on a West End stage is that they're working with top notch musical theatre performers who really understand how to project their voice, and the band are quiet, and below them in a pit (usually with the drummer in a box) so they're not fighting stage spill. They also mix the shows line by line, with the FOH engineer having every scene in the script blocked out with a corresponding scene in the console to recall mutes/levels, and riding the faders of every live mic with each line. It's a whole different art/skill set than mixing a band!

If it worked that well, everyone would be doing it. They're a big compromise in a lot of ways. An omni headset mic will pick up loads of spill on a live band stage. A cardioid one will be very sensitive to positioning. Genuinely good headset mics are a lot more expensive than their hand held equivalents too. Unlike a mic on a stand, you can't back off or move in to control your dynamics if you're one of those singers that really belts it out. You also can't turn away from the mic to cough, catch your breath, call the next song, tell the guitarist the right chords or ask the drummer to slow down. It's always there, picking up every huff, puff, grunt, burp and muttered curse.

Of the common brands, Zettle seems to have the best app features, reporting etc. Also has robust integration with WooCommerce, so if you sell from an online store too you can tie them together. Worth noting that if you tour abroad, none of these will work for you in other territories and you'll need a different solution.

Marios is a good'un! I'm in the main room tomorrow on house mons. We've got Thrice in, which I'm very much looking forward to as I'm a big fan but have never caught them live. Won't be mixing anything all day as both the headliner and the support are self contained, so it's a day at work of mostly just watching good bands! Just got back home from a couple of weeks around Europe as TM/FOH with a pop artist from South Africa on his first headline tour up these ways. Smallest rooms I've done in a while but we had an absolute ball. Great shows, all sold out, and a lovely bunch of people to be on the road with. Took my trusty little SQ5 out for its first shows of 2024 and it did a cracking job. Doesn't get used too often these days but it's such a great little desk for the money.

I've just got home from two-and-a-bit weeks on tour, and judging by the way I found the kitchen on my return, I'll be considering myself a dishwasher for a fair portion of the evening 🤣

Yes, I'll always put ambient mics out when I'm mixing monitors for IEM. Usually a small condenser mic at each side of stage, firing up in to the room (you often see them pointed straight at the crowd, but I find you get too much "front row chatting" that way). Some people like them subtly in the mix, most likely them just pushed up in between songs so you can get the vibe of the crowd that you can't hear naturally because of the isolation. Yep, they're in the outer fringes of Manchester. If you speak to Mike at Cosmic, feel free to tell him Mike Prosser sent you along and he'll look after you! @AxelF the usual advice is that because our ears keep growing throughout our whole life, any custom fit IEMs or plugs are generally only good for 4-5 years before the fit won't be quite right and the isolation suffers. Low end response is the first thing affected if the fit isn't right. If your Cosmics are 10 years old, I'm not at all surprised if the bass feels lacking to be honest! @Higgie I've had a couple of artists on the 6B, but generally speaking I don't think there's any need for more low end than the standard 6P gives you. The response is great, and I've used them to prep FOH mixes with multitrack recordings, and the low end has translated really well once I throw it in the PA. If you really feel you need it, you can always bump a little low shelf on the EQ but there's plenty bass in the standard models. @Sharkfinger They'll only guarantee the fit if it's from an approved audiologist. Cosmic use second-bend impressions, which are a little deeper down the ear canal than some others use, and they issue specific guidelines for audiologists to follow when taking the moulds. They will accept moulds that aren't from their approved people, but if you use the approved ones and the fit needs tweaking, I think (if I recall correctly) they'll do the first adjustment for free. If you're up north, their in-house person does weekly appointments at Cosmic's place in Manchester, and their recommended person in London is Gisele who does the fitting for all the majority brands for all the big artists and is wonderful.

My go-to recommendation for a UK manufacturer is Cosmic Ears. I'm a touring monitor engineer so spend an enormous amount of time with them stuck in my head. I've been very happy with the service I've had from them, and with the IEMs themselves (CE6P), they sound fantastic. I had an issue with the cable connector and they were very responsive and got it sorted quickly too. Moulded IEM are a big investment, but they're night and day compared to generic-fit models. The isolation is fantastic. One thing worth bearing in mind is that getting high end IEMs will expose the limitations in the rest of your monitoring setup! You'll likely want to add ambient mics to your mix as the isolation from outside noise is so effective.