Live recording and PA duty

Date: 18/12/09
Duration: 8hrs

I was asked by a band I know to manage the desk during one of their performances. They were to be joined by another trio on stage as well as a singer on few of their performances. They never had to manage so many musicians at once so therefore they asked if I could do it for them. Their usual sound man is on holiday and they weren't confident enough to do everything themselves. I agreed to help them and asked if it was okay for me to record their performance for part experience and also to add to my portfolio of work. They agreed and I traveled to the performance venue (smallish pub/cafe) 10 min outside Nottingham city centre.

My equipment:

• Behringer XENYX 2222 FX mixer
• Boss BR-600 Recorder
• 2 Shure SM57 mics
• 2 Rode NT1-A mics
• Pair of headphones
• Assortment of audio cables

When I arrived there I had roughly 1 hour to do the sound check which is normally more than enough but complications with monitor placements and feedback, we were still not finished when the first of the audiences started to arrive. We had further problems when the band's PA desk ran out of inputs. Their mixer was relativity small and quickly ran out of mic inputs when it was revealed that the trio they were performing with were to use multiple instruments as well as backing vocals for the singer.
I overcame the problem (just about) by using inputs on my mixer and sending multiple instrument back to their desk in stereo. This obviously limits the flexibility of having one sound per channel but time was of the essence so we had to go ahead.

 Guitar cabinets were miked up with either my microphone or their own, there was a keyboard which went direct to the desk, and couple of microphone stands for the singers.

To record the performance I took the studio monitors out from the band's desk and fed it into my desk and the headphone outs from the desk which went into the line input of the Boss multi-track recorder. This process worked rather well (better than I thought) and I managed to capture decent quality performances.

A huge problem I faced during the performance was the fact that I had to sit pretty much in front of the speakers and near the band. This obviously meant I couldn't do my duties properly. It was hard to distinguish between the sound coming out of the speakers or the guitar amp and what the overall balance was. After a unnerving first half I managed to get a another sound check during the break. This time I managed to get a sound which both the band and I was happy with.
The second half of the performance went more smoothly with minimal glitches.

After the performance I quickly reviewed the recordings, some of which I was happy with and some of which I was sure could not be salvaged. I talked with the band members and talked about possible future performances and me managing the desk and doing a official live recording for the band. After packing up everything I headed back to Derby.


 Note
The picture at the top of the page is NOT from the date of performance. It was taken after returning home. I had forgotten to take my digital camera with me on the occasion. I took the picture above to demonstrate the setup used. If I obtain photos of the event from the band members, I will update the post or post a link to where these photos can be viewed.

The recordings made at the live performance will be posted on another posting soon. I will need to tidy them up and general enhancements.