See where volunteering gets you

[rikibeth]

I got sick of complaining that shadowflyer's band, Calley McGrane and the Exiles, really really REALLY needed someone to sit at the sound board during their shows and mix for the house.

shadowflyer pointed out that the trouble with that was that sound people typically wanted to get paid for doing that sort of thing, and the band wasn't exactly pulling in enough to support that yet.

I said, "Well, how hard can it be to learn to run your board?"

Looks like the answer is, "not very."

mcroft, feel free to tell me everything I'm doing wrong and how much of an idiot I am.

Calley's guitarist/manager/dad has a six-channel Yamaha mixer. He'd already neatly labeled the six channels with masking tape and a Sharpie with "Calley's Mic," "Fiddle," "shadowflyer's Mic," "Bodhran Mic," "Dave's Mic," and "Guitar," and everything was plugged in, so all I had to do was pay attention to the volume dials for each of them and the separate dials for "High," "Middle," and "Low." There were also dials for "Monitor" which is probably a lot more important on a real stage than in the McGranes' basement, and for "Effects," which, honestly, I don't think they ought to use, given what they're playing. Straightforward Irish trad and folk does not need echo or reverb on the vocals, not at all.

If the gadget were more sophisticated I probably wouldn't understand it. But as it stands, I felt pretty comfortable with it. I had fun turning up the high range on the bodhran for "Thousands Are Sailing" so the broom would sound a lot like a snare, and I solved the damned muddy vocals problem on "Johnny Jump Up" -- when shadowflyer is singing against full guitar and bass, instead of the scaled-back arrangements that they've got for "Raggle Taggle Gypsies" or "Off to Jerusalem," it helps to tweak the mid-range higher so it carries over the guitar. I cannot do anything at the mixer to fix flat vocals because Calley's still shaking a cold, but I can make the $10 Clarke whistle less painful on "Red Is The Rose" by pulling the high range waaaaaaay back.

They're playing on Saturday at the Audobon Society in Glastonbury, at 7:30 PM. I am probably going to spend more time looking over the house sound guy's shoulder than actually running it myself, but I am sure it will be educational. And we'll be out of there in time to make the Rathkeltair show at the Half Door!

eirehound, that takes precedence over the Attrition show. I listened to the CDs, and one of them was middling-good, and the other was pretty unimpressive, and I'm unlikely to want to flirt with their bass player, so... I'm sure you can find someone else who would be delighted to make use of that other ticket you lucked into.

Now, if I can just keep from sporking my boss in the eye...

Comments

[neilfein.livejournal.com]

Sometimes matfein runs the board at my gigs (when there's a board at all). I generally ask her for a little bit of reverb so I can hear myself sing. What you hear through bone conduction isn't very accurate, and generally sounds better than what's going out into the world. Reverb helps me stay on-pitch, or as close to it as I can get.

There are ways to fix flat vocals, but the processors aren't cheap, and that kind of processing is generally overkill for a live setup.