alex_kyuss Posted October 7, 2007 Share Posted October 7, 2007 Hi all,I might be some backline teching for a mates band and I was wondering other then making sure all instruments / amps are working and set up and the tuning of such things is there anything else that could go under the job ?cheers I have had a look around but I can't find anything really on the subject cheers all Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bryson Posted October 7, 2007 Share Posted October 7, 2007 Stand offstage with an extra guitar and play the song if the "real" musician is too drunk to play..... :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bobbsy Posted October 7, 2007 Share Posted October 7, 2007 Stand ONSTAGE and play when the real musicians don't turn up for sound check. Bob Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lightsource Posted October 8, 2007 Share Posted October 8, 2007 If you're general backstage tech then make sure there's a spare guitar for the guitarist if he snaps a string..... then be prepared to re-string the knakkered guitar at a frighetening pace. Learn drum tuning, if the drummer's lazy, then it'll come in handy :D Make sure all the levels on the amps etc, are where they were in soundcheck. Bobbsy / Bryson.... Could possibly agree there, but he'd have to learn the songs first..... :( Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
charlyfarly Posted October 8, 2007 Share Posted October 8, 2007 You will also need to "dress" the stage ie. put out towels and water (or whatever is the musos tipple!)Probably goes without saying but when you put on a fresh set of strings (the guys I work for have fresh strings for every performance) give them a good stretch and tune and tune again and then again and then some more! Snip off excess guitar string, nothing looks worse then a "whiskery" headstock!Don't leave guitars in an area where there are drastic temperature changes like an outside side door being constantly opened and closed. Apart from the risk of them being pinched the tuning will go all over the place once the instrument is on a hot stage, so keep them somewhere close to stage in the warm. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob_Beech Posted October 8, 2007 Share Posted October 8, 2007 As the others have said. But I'll add a few points. Its fairly common for a band not to be there for soundchecks. Between you, the in house / hired engineers and the bands own engineer you need to get everything set for the show. So it helps to know exactly how their backline is setup. Being able to play the instruments really is a bonus at this point. It enables you to get the sound that the musician wants from his or her backline, it enables the monitor engineer to do their job and get the monitors right for everyone and it gives FOH a chance to sort things. The same applies with drums. Learn what the drummer requires monitor wise, learn how hard he hits the drums, play them like that for a sound check. Tune them up where required. Keyboards, make sure they all work, load any patches that need to be loaded from disk or otherwise, make sure any monitors are setup right. Vocals. You should have an idea of what a vocalist(s) wants. You can't be expected to mimic their voice but you can get a good idea through indirect comparison (a little like you have to do when mixing FOH from the side of the stage). Make sure there is headroom incase they want it a bit louder, know how much taller or shorter they are than you and set the stands to the right height, there's nothing worse than a 6ft5 backline tech leaving the mics setup that high if the band are only small, and the same applies the other way.If the band do a full soundcheck. be with them. listen yourself to their monitors, don't be afraid to ask them if you don't think something is right. A few times I've been stood on stage during a sound check and asked someone if his vocal is ok (because it certainly wouldn't be for me) and he said "well not really but I don't like to complain". It's not complaining, its asking the monitor engineer to alter something which if it is possible, they should do. It gets a bit more difficult with some other instruments unless you can play them all, ok so it helps to be able to pluck, blow, bow, create noise on a fair few instruments but a general grasp of guitar bass drums and keys is fairly important. Don't rely on the guitarist having the necessary stuff to restring their guitar. He or she should have the strings, but if you are a full time backline tech doing this sort of work, you'd be silly not to have a few sets of strings for guitar and bass, the necessary tools for quick changes, eg, a pair of cutters and one of those quick winding things. Also, buy your own chromatic tuner and a jack to jack, and check before hand to make sure they're all using standard tuning. Drum key, Drum sticks and gaffa tape for mending broken skins when its not practical to change the drum always comes in handy too. During the show itself, you must always be watching. If a guitarist breaks a string you must be ready with a guitar for them. If its already plugged in then its one less job, if not then you need to sort that out aswell. Then take the other one off, new string, retune, bit of a play, retune again and put it back on the stand. All the time you are doing this, you still have to be watching the stage. It also helps to be the link between the band and the monitor engineer. If you work with a band and they don't also have a full time monitor engineer they are more likely to ask you for changes during the show as you can probably understand their arm waving and lip reading better than a monitor guy who doesn't know them. Take their guitars off them as they walk off stage if necessary and feel satisfied that you've done a good job. Rob Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
charlyfarly Posted October 8, 2007 Share Posted October 8, 2007 Excellent advice there Rob which just about encompasses everything up to a grade A backline tech! Also don't forget the old crew adage: Tecnically they might be their instruments but in reality they just borrow them from you for one and a half hours! :D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peter F Posted October 8, 2007 Share Posted October 8, 2007 It also helps to be the link between the band and the monitor engineer. If you work with a band and they don't also have a full time monitor engineer they are more likely to ask you for changes during the show as you can probably understand their arm waving and lip reading better than a monitor guy who doesn't know them. But please don't feel obliged to take on this role unless you are certain that you can communicate what your band actually wants to the monitor engineer and confirm that they got it and are happy. Bit of a bugbear of mine! 90% of the people who come between the monitor engineer and the artist are not helping either party. A large part of doing monitors succesfully is being able to communicate with the artist effectively whilst they are concentrating on doing something completely different. It's the little gestures and over the shoulder glances and they get lost if someone is in between putting their interpretation on it. Knowing what your band has in the monitors, yes very valuable, very helpful to everyone. Fulfilling some sort of artist contraceptive role mostly not so helpful. Do everything else Rob says. Cheers,Peter Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lightsource Posted October 28, 2007 Share Posted October 28, 2007 Do everything else Rob says. Cheers,Peter Well, just to add to this, we had the nightmare situation last night. We were at the venue at 6pm, the backline turned up at 7.40pm, the doors opened at 8pm, and the band turned up at 8.45pm. (They got lost, trying to find the venue) Soundchecks were done to our (and crew) satisfaction. So everything was ok. This was because the backline crew knew what they were doing..... every instrument was accuratley soundchecked. Easy night... But it wouldn't have been, if the crew were clueless. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alex_kyuss Posted November 1, 2007 Author Share Posted November 1, 2007 Cheers everyone as usual all very helpful Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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