Sound for a band

[dfinn]

Hi,

 

Ive been given the job of doing sound for my schools Tsnuami band appeal. Its basically a load of our school bands doing a few songs each plus the teahcer doing a few bits to raise money for the Tsunami.

 

I have never done sound for a band gig before and need help on basically how things are generally set up.

 

Do I run everyhting through the main PA, do I run mics and kit through pa and let gitars run through their own amps?

 

The hall is your average achool hall seating about 150 - 200max.

 

Sound rig includes 4kw ish warfedale rig, 4 tops 2 ubs, 4 monitros (2 active 2 passiv so can only run 2 separate monitro channles), 24ch sound desk, eq, over etc

 

I just need to know how I would go about it.

 

Thanks

 

Daniel

[audio]

Recently did something along these lines at my old school,

 

We soundchecked the microphones until they were as loud as possible pre-feedback, then turned up the guitar and bass amps so they were still just below this level, and then made up the rest through the main PA to balance it all out. This way you aren't pushing your PA too hard.

You may find that you only need a small amount of drums running through your PA, we used just a little to balance the whole thing, in a small venue the drums might be almost loud enough.

 

Basically to answer the question, you want to have control over the levels of everything on the stage to be able to balance it nicely, so you want it all going through the main speakers a little bit.

 

:)

[Bobbsy]

Good advice from audio. Ideally you'd be mixing everything, but with a typical school rig (actually yours sounds rather better than typical!) you likely won't have the "ooomph" to run over the top of the backline amps and drums. Even so, it's worth miking or DIing everything into your board to give you a bit of control.

 

The more you can persuade the bands to keep the backline volume reasonable, the better off you'll be. Despite what the guitarist or drummer will likely think, the vocals are your "money channels" and keeping them clear and audible will make or break your mix.

 

When doing your sound check, I'd keep a bit of gain in hand as there's a tendency for musicians to give it a bit more energy in a real performance.

 

Bob

[dfinn]

Hi,

 

So basically the more I can get running through the main PA the better.

 

I think I am going to have a chat with the local sound and light company (HSL) who were brilliant for our last performance who will give me guidence and advice on what kit to use.

 

So if I mic up bass guitar and normal electric guitars using a normal instrumental mic (SM 57?) on the Guitar amps. Mic vocals up using SM 58's and if needed mic up the drum kit with SM 57 type instrumental mic. Whack this all through the multicore to the desk giving me full control over the band.

 

Im just concerned that if they are using crappy guitar amps that I will get a crap sound from them via mic. If they are would the DI box be a better route, I would prefer the amp route tho as it is much easier for me to do.

 

That a good idea then?

 

Cheers

 

Daniel

[david.elsbury]

So if I mic up bass guitar and normal electric guitars using a normal instrumental mic (SM 57?) on the Guitar amps. Mic vocals up using SM 58's and if needed mic up the drum kit with SM 57 type instrumental mic. Whack this all through the multicore to the desk giving me full control over the band.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Drum Kit : mike up at least the Kick and the Snare, as these provide the beat and the tempo for most peices of music. If you have another mike, stick it overhead to pick up a bit of the toms and cymbals / hihat,

Guitar amps: Use a SM57. DI's could work but the sound of an electric guitar DI'd is a lot different to thru an amp, hence why most play thru an amp. Make sure you keep control of stage volume though.

Bass amp: DI the bass. It's probably easier. If you feel the need, stick a mike (a 57 should do here as well) in front of the amp.

Acoustic Guitar: if it's an acoustic-electric, DI it. much easier for you.

Vocals, SM58's will be fine.

 

You just want everything thru the desk, to balance the sound out front with the sound coming off the stage.

 

David

[dfinn]

Righty,

 

Been a great help, got a buch better idea baout what im doing, going to check everything tomorrow with school and hire comany.

 

Thanks

 

Daniel

[Freddie]

Probably too late but still, check if your guitarists have effects pedals (Active ones, not footswitches that control the amp) I mean the sort which connects twixt Guitar and Amp and can make a cheapo amp sound (vaguely) like a nice marshall/VOX etc (Guitar amps aren't my speciality). If they have, use that between the guitar and DI, you should get the amp sound, but through the FOH rig. Alternatively, if their normal guitar amp has an emulated line-out, plug that straight into a line level input of the desk, again you should get the amp sound through your desk ergo FOH mix.

 

(Come to Freddie 100th post, thaaaaaaaaaats it...)