Fire your light guy and sound guy!

[fiddlebak]

I just joined a new band about 4 weeks ago called: Noneother - www.noneother.com.

I've been friends with most of these guys for some time, I got sick of my old band of 4 years and decided it was time for a move. Music just got Lame and Lamer- same old crap.........no change....ya know!

The band mostly plays in Florida at private functions, corporate events, and weddings(our big market). We occasionally hit the road for mini tours around the East Coast - mostly weddings and corp events. We stay away from the bar gigs not that we are snobs about it, just not enough money in it - we don't like working real jobs to pay our mortgages - plus our material isn't rocking enough ( sad to say, but true)........

Personally......my roots are deeply embedded in the "paying to play" scene!

Anyway - We have some real cool intelligent lighting including a few lasers, DMX scanners, moving yolk lights, Martin Wizard, DMX LED lighting, all kinds of cool stuff. We rig it on trussing, have a pro distro with breakout boxes, the works.

I use a TD12 customized E-set live. This things rocks - VEX powered of course. Will be upgrading to the TD20 EXP when it is released...so looking forward to that for my live rig.

Lighting: I've programmed our digital DMX light controller ( a Chauvet DMX-55) with 5 banks of 8 scenes. I've kept the same theme basically ( per scene number) through the various banks. Mostly for my own memory. Then I midi it up to my SPD-S unit which sits to my right above my tom 3 floor pad. The 9 SPD-S pads control the 8 scenes, plus a master blackout pad. As I change the programs on my SPD-S, it corresponds to the next bank and 8 scenes on the light controller.

I've programmed my SPD-S to have cymbal sounds, so every time I hit the SPD-S, it changes the light show and the audience hears a crash cym or a splash cym depending on the pad I strike. I also run the hazers ( continuous foggers) from the drum set as well.
Always use a water based fog juice and you'll never have a fire marshall problem.

Running like this, it is saving the band from hiring a light guy, and honestly, it is the sickest, most awesome way to run a light show. Who's more qualified than the drummer to run a light show in-time to the music - while paying? Hit your pads and the light show changes....cool!

Sound: We run our sound from stage out of necessity- and I'm the guy with the mixer next to the set........Firstly and most importantly I can set and control my own personal aux mix, and because most of us drummers can play with one hand, I can adjust sound as the singer
( w/ wireless mic innovation ) goes out into the room and signals adjustments to me.

For me and the group- it doesn't get any better and the money we save running sound and lights ourselves - that puts at least another $50 in our pockets per gig!
We play almost 150 shows a year - it adds up quick - cha ching!

I know some bands can't do this- but it is worth looking into to save some $$ and make more for yourselves!

Anyone else running the sound and lights from their kits?

[eric_B]

Hi Chris, that looks very good! Great website, good sound, very professional! Using a SPD-S to control the light is a great idea, haven't seen that before. I'll keep this in mind for when I'll start playing gigs.

[Big Bopper]

Very professional, very cool. Thanks for the heads up about the lights and sound; I can work it in as we build our current band instead of re-working later. How expensive is it? (Roughly.)
Shalom
Bruce

[pasta]

You need to do something about the photographer. You're not in very many of the pics.

[Alan VEX]

You need to do something about the photographer. You're not in very many of the pics.

LOL They're about to update the site and are shooting all new video demos.

[Junius]

Good post with some useful info. Our bass guitar player used to run lights from a foot board and it was never highly reliable. But, it would be cake to hit a pad and control lights.

[Mixxit]

I like the light idea alot.

However, my band runs sound from the stage and I hate it. I feel like the mix is being mixed to sound good on stage instead of in the audience. I feel like we need an objective set of ears in front of the stage. Instead we have 5 pair of biased ears (turn up "my" instrument) sitting BEHIND the mains. Glad it works for you. If you're old sound guy is outta work, have him call me!

Again, I love the light idea!

[fiddlebak]

expense

thanks for the comments on the band. They are a great bunch of people, all dedicated to music. Yeah - I'm not in any of the pics unfortunately..........but it is being updated slowly.
Check back in mid Sept when the new video is posted. The main guy is shelling out about $10K for a dynamite Hi Def video.................for wedding promotion mostly. You'll be able to see most of our lighting and my set up as well.

I guess the expense is a used SPD-S around $400, a mount around $50, a midi cable around $10, and the DMX controller - around $100. Intelligent Lighting on the other hand can get expensive. Programming it can be tricky too - I spent countless hours on programming lights.


To make this work - THE SPD-S has to transmit on Channel 16 for the Chauvet controllers.

As far as using the e-set, it goes over amazing. To my surprise, it was well accepted intially. I'm no slouch on drums, but the sound of my set is what sold everyone, plus the fact they don't have to compete with stage volume. I'm starting to use my 18" acoustic kick drum with a mesh head and R10 trigger - the kick drum fools most people into thinking its a new "Space Age" acoustic set. They dont know what to think, but do know the drum sound is intense and powerful. Im very annimated when I play plus Im a huge guy behind this smaller set - so I get alot of focus - Plus I have a 2' riser as well!

Running sound on stage can be tricky. We all have discerning ears, as well as wireless rigs mostly - so most of the band goes out into the room at sound check and puts in their 10 cents - trust me it can get annoying quickly..........we always get feedback from the "musicians" in the crowd who tell us what's wrong too. I always love to hear what the "Aunt Ginny's" of the party have to say: with the PA off - its always still TOO LOUD.

At one show recently for 150 people: We turned the subs off and had the mixer at about 1 green LED - You could hear my sticking on the mesh heads louder than the PA - and it was still TOO LOUD. That show - we gave up and put on some Ipod background music. These people were wicked. When we did play - we turned off the PA entirely and just used MY JBL facing out into the crowd. We started making up words and just jammed 10 minute versions of things.......They loved it and said it was perfect. We promised never to play for these people again! Accountants - AHHH!

Clint, the main guy, is very particular on sound, and we run it efficiently. We have a brand new powered QSC system with 4 - 18" subs and 2- 3 ways. We stack it all up ( 2- 18's and a 3 way per side. I came from a Mackie Tetrad system that I sweared by - this QSC is the nuts over that! We use my old Mackie 1521 A's as side fills (on stands facing back to us) on Aux 1 as our monitors.

Aux 2 is my little monitor send. I have my own personal mackie 1202 VLZ mixer that I control my drum kit level as well as mixing the aux from the main board back to me. To my right on a speaker stand at ear level ( mounted to my rack) I use a JBL G2 10" speaker. With our stage volumes so quiet, this speaker is perfect. I use a buttkicker so the lack of bass from the speaker is non-evasive to me. The female singer also stands basically in front of the set ( I always have an excellent view!) so she gets an earful of herself from my JBL. She loves it. 4 of the 6 members sing full time, so it's a picky mix to say the least. Plus two of the members wear in-ears off the main signal.

Keep your ideas rolling in - Anyone who adopts this light running method and needs assistance feel free to contact me at: [email protected]

[drumslinger50]

Great band and I love the video presentation on the website.