On a shoestring project part 34

  April just seems to be flying by. We have been busy working on our 100 concert challenge, now it is a lot of concerts... But I must say I am really happy how it is going :-) We'll get there one concert at a time.
  As you might have noticed, the technical advice here I tend to write about here, is always some how linked with what we have been up to. And this week is no different. In the past we talked lot about recording and sound in general in recording environment. This week I thought I'd share with you practical advice on live sound, and also with in conjunction with the Battle of the bands subject from last week. What I am talking about here is a situations where you have a sound engineer, not your own, but one for all the bands on the night. Now we all have heard bands giving out about sound engineers, bad sound systems and what have you. The way I see it is this: Everyone who plays in the venue with a house sound system, uses the same system. So lets for a second assume the sound system is not the greatest. We can moan about this all night, or we can just get on with the concert. We have played now 3 concerts with jpkallio.com, and I am blown away every time when people come to see us :-) It is just one of the greatest things in the world. So yeah we do want to give the people the best possible show. And moaning about the sound is not going to make it any better. So first of all, if you play in a small venue, go back to basics. Get the band sound balanced on the stage; bring the Guitar and bass amps to the level of the acoustic sound of the drums. Make sure you can hear everything spot on. And here is something I learned the hard way last week, if you are a singer, make sure none of the amps are closer to you than the vocal monitor. We played at a very small stage and there was a Marshall Guitar amp on a shelf pretty much right beside my ear. Sounded good, and when I checked the vocals in the monitor it sounded ok as well. But you need to understand that in the battle of the band situation you hardly ever get a proper sound check, it is a quick line check. And even when you get further in your career you will find yourself at festivals that only have quick line check as well... So there you go, get used to it. Learn to set up your equipment fast and train your ears to figure out what you need to hear. Well when the full band kicked in, I completely lost my vocals... It was guess work from there on... And I am talking about three or four song sets where you have only few minutes time to win the crowd over. So you do not want to be fixing the monitor levels between every song. And I must say here that with Sliotar I have been spoiled:-)

On the road we have our own sound system, and at the festivals the sound systems have been top class and the sound crews true professionals. Anyway, after the level of the instruments on the stage is ok, and be critical here. It's not about individuals here, it's about the over all sound. I know your dream valve amp has a sweet spot when it comes to alive, but the best guitar sound in the world wont win you any competitions if you burry the rest of the band. Also you should EQ the guitar and bass already at the amps the way they wont get on top of each others, Bit less bottom on the Guitar, bit less mid on the bass and they should sit nicely together. If you get this right, all the sound engineer would need to do is add some drums. Depending on the size of the room and sound system, this could be anything from Kick and snare to a full kit. Vocals on top clean and clear, and if needs bit of bass and guitar. But this is a job for the sound engineer. You will find that most sound engineers are good at their job. Some are miracle workers. But still if the band sounds Sh*t on stage, you will get a speaker load of the same stuff from the front of the house as well. And if the sound engineer has never heard you before, just explain him shortly what the line up is, what you need in the monitors and in the mix, and he will appreciate this, and you will straight from the beginning give your self much better chance of getting a good sound. Once again let me remind you: if the sound is not great, every one else who is playing on the night are in the same position, so suck it up and get on with it!

  Now, back to the band news. It has been a week of mixed feelings. Tomek’s war wounds acted up big time this week, so he has been out of action with back pain. Any one who ever had it knows how horrible it can be. We can only hope he'll be back in fighting form soon. But on the good side of the news, our E.P. Has gone around a bit and has started having some Radio play:-) There are 3 stations in Canada who have given it a nice bit of spin, Dundalk fm is coming up next week as well :-) We are also been busy on our Facebook and twitter pages, so if you haven't done so, join the fun there at:
www.facebook.com/jpkalliomusic
www.twitter.com/jpkalliomusic
Also if you ever have any questions, or suggestions, Facebook is an easy way to contact us:-)
That’s all for this week and I will talk to you more next week :-)
   J.P.