Nerve Center 27/11/10

This gig featured 3 bands who were Chasing Coyotes, The Wonder Villians and Furlo. Each band used the same amps and drum set that were on stage so a lot of time was saved not having to shift equipment about. The first thing we did was set up the moniters. We wanted to control them from the desk we were using at the back of the room but they were already set up going through graphic eqs at the moniter desk so we took xlrs straight out from the graphic eq hardware and plugged them into the wallbox that was linked to the auxs on the desk we were using. We did this so we could control everything from the one desk and make the job easier. The xlrs going from the graphic eqs to the wallbox were daisy chained because the space between them was took long for just one set of cables and we tucked them behind every thing on stage so that no one would trip on them.
We set-up everything in the order we had planned out in the channel listing made before the gig so we started miking up the drums with the Shure beta microphones which were chosen simply because they worked well at previous uses.  The bass amp had its on built in DI and for handyness we tried it out in soudcheck and it worked really well so we decided to use it. The guitars both had cabinets and went miking them up we asked the owners of the cabinets which speakers they knew were the best as they both had a least one busting speaker on each so we stayed away from them obviously. Each band had a synth playing but the Wonder Villians had two so we set up 2 DIs simply muting one that wasnt being used by the other bands that only had one synth player each. 3 vocal mics were set up as every band had a singer and 2 back up vocalists with each bands backing vocalists put to the left and right and the main vocals in the middle.  An ipod was put in up at the desk for music between bands also.
For health and saftey reasons all the wires were kept as neat as possible and taped down to the ground to avoid any form of tripping and musicians were asked to get drinks away from electrical equipment and preferably in bottles.
During sound check we asked the bands what range they normally sit in for example which of the guitarists playing more rhythm and was more bass heavy in the frequency range. We got them all to play and turned up or down anything the playings needed in the moniters then just have to remember what they wanted for when they went on to properly play.  During soundcheck we also found that some cables needed replaced and one DI was very noisey so it needed to be changed about. Banging noises happened during sound check also but this was due to the man looking after lighting walking into the xlrs that connected to moniters to the wall box but luckily the xlrs were fine and just needed to be plugged back in properly then we got the bands to continus and there was no problems.
There was no real problems during the actual gig itself just that one synth player had moved so I ran up  and moved a moniter more in her direction.
I learned to always watch the performers during a gig for example to know when solos could be happening so to turn up while they played that then bring them back down.

Channels

1: Kick- Beta 91
2: Snare- Beta 98
3: Rack- Beta 98
4: Floor- Beta98
5: Overhead Left
6: Overhead Right
7: Bass- Built in DI from amp
8: Guitar Left- SM57
9: Guitar Right- SM57
10: DI 1- Stereo for synth
11: DI 2- Stereo for synth
14: Vocals Left - Beta58
15: Vocals Center- Senn840
16: Vocals Right- Beta 58

Left a gap between instruments and vocals just to make it easier to follow on the desk and the vocals were usually worked on the same way together.

Total of 29 XLRs were taken for every thing here and more for moniter set ups. Plenty of spares just in case.