The person employed to set up, run, and maintain the venue’s sound system for visiting acts is the venue’s audio technician a.k.a. the “house sound guy”. If you create music that needs to be amplified—(pretty much any contemporary music) then the house engineer will help you when you arrive to perform your show. Likewise, you … Read more
In this day of Pro Tools on stage, quantising guitars to the beat in the studio, and syncing tempos for CDs, it is easy to forget that a good show, and therefore a musical career, starts with a great performance. And that performance, although coming from the heart and soul, will need a little refinement … Read more
Did you get a loud hum coming through the PA system at your last show? Or is there a persistent ‘zzzz’ sound in your rehearsal room, especially when plugging in certain bits of equipment? If so, you are experiencing ‘earth loop’ or ‘ground loop’ hum. All musicians recognise this sound (especially guitarists) and the way … Read more
Are you playing your first green-field music festival or outdoor show this summer? Not quite sure how it all works on the other side of the ‘Artists Only’ sign? Don’t worry; help is at hand. In an extract from my book on playing your first music festival, I am going to give you my tips … Read more
Billy Reed, a tour manager, has written some great articles, detailing his approach to tour pre-production, advancing and other tour related activities, on his blog here. You will find this advice really useful, especially if you can’t afford a tour manager yet, and are doing all the pre-production for your shows yourself. He also relates … Read more
A student recently asked me answer some questions about concert tour management and live sound engineering to help her with a college project. I get a lot of these requests and am always happy to offer answers and advice (time permitting) and have even posted an FAQ to help with this type of research. However … Read more
It is festival season again which means bands and their crews are clambering aboard sleeper buses in order to travel around Europe and sit in muddy fields for hours on end. Of course, touring by sleeper bus goes on throughout the year on both sides of the pond; it is by far the most convenient … Read more