Hey -

Just wondered if anyone wanted to divulge their first sound gig stories? How it went, how they got the gig,where it was, etc. Everyone started somewhere!!

Cheers

Mike

Posted by Tim Vanden Bempt on August 31, 2002

My first gig (without being payed) was for a track and field event. Because I played in band and was a member of the organising team, they asked me to find a band to play, hire a PA, and work with it. They gave me a budget of 750 dollar for everything (band, PA, organising,...). At that moment I knew almost nothing about PA's as I just came out of recording school (what a different world that is). I had to bargain over the the band and the rented PA and reduced the renting price by half (there still are understanding sound companies out there!).

Than came the date of the gig. The band had to perform at 6PM but couldn't make it before 5PM. I was at the gig at 8AM to unload the PA and to erect the stage (actually, they only got me some army tents, but what the ..., the band was covered from the elements). At 2PM I was still trying to put the tents with only the help of a friend. Finally at 4PM everything was set up and ready to go, except that they didn't had any decent powercircuit.

Everytime I switched everything on, the main fuses refused to let me do my thing. 5 minutes before showtime, I finally get some decent juice delivered and the band starts to soundcheck (done in 15 min.) They speeded through their songs (hey, they got another gig at 10PM that evening) but in the end both the public, the band and the organising comittee was happy! I on the other hand lost 5 years of my life just running on the edge of my nerves but I was hooked.

I am now doing FOH for a coverband and I am still encountering lousy gigs more often than I would like to. But if you can earn some pocket money by doing something you really like, than it doesn't matter what problems you have to overcome. I still enjoy every minute of every gig.


Posted by Rob on April 19, 2002

Well I had been into recording through most of high school, and gradually ended up with a pretty decent gear collection. My brothers band had been borrowing PAs from other bands just to use something for vocals, other than a guitar amp. They ended up getting a gig to play a party with a few other bands for new years eve. The party was being held at a dog training facility, which was essentially a warehouse, which was run by the mother of a friend of theirs.

About a couple hours before the show I get a call from the band. They decided that since the room is too live, and the gig is too big, they wanted to mic everything, which is where I came in, since they were used to power mixers with only a few channels. After some convincing, I finally accepted the gig and packed up all my gear.

The band still borrowed a PA (a mackie powered mixer and a couple of peavy cabs, 12"+horn I beleive) for this show, since I didn't have anything of the sort. Since I didn't have a snake, the mix position was just off stage (if you could call it a stage) right behind the PA speaker. I mixed their band for soundcheck, and walked around the room to make sure it sounded good.

Come showtime, I get bands I've never heard before, and the finely tuned mix I had was being changed on the fly. Of course, my only reference was the echo that shot off the back wall, and headphones. People constantly came over to tell me to turn up the vocals, but I was pretty limited since they set up the speakers too close to the vocal mics.

Aside from my Mackie SR24, my gear was pretty cheap. I had mics that were on sale for $10, and cables of equal cheapness. I didnt even have enough, so the rest of the bands chipped in with more gear. I taped a mic to a stool in front of the base drum, since there were no stands left. All in all I think the gig went pretty well, all things considered. People tell me the mix was fine, as long as you stood close enough to the speakers.

Eventually I got picked up as the permanent sound guy for my brothers band. I wired up a pair of fender cabs with 2 12" guitar speakers in them to a receiver for a home stereo application I was using as a power amp (a long standing tradition of mine). The band was playing another party, and the room was so small they only needed vocals. The speakers weren't nearly powerful enough, and I soon realized I had the amp putting out 2 ohms, which explains why it shut down every time the singer would hit a peak.

And once again, I mixed from behind the speakers. Eventually I got a snake and a pair of Mackie 1530 power speakers, and I'm still waiting for a chance to show off my new gear, since the last 2 shows got canceled (and I had to work anyways).


Posted by Emily on April 02, 2002

I just started learning how to run sound from a sound tech I met through a local band called Sweaty Bob. I've been running with him for about three months and was given the opportunity to mix a show by myself a couple weekends ago. I spent the first set shaking so bad I could hardly twist any knobs or turn the band up at all. I wanted to puke I was so nervous I was going to mess something up.

Here's me all by myself behind this mixing board trying to talk myself into giving the vocals a little gain without passing out from being so damn nervous. Not only that but I've got about ten people sneering at me because they had never seen a chic run sound before. It was like they were waiting for me to screw up so they could point and laugh and come and tell me what I was doing wrong.

All in all the show turned out really well and I got a lot of compliments on how good the band sounded.(besides the fact that the band rocks anyway) And I calmed down after the first set and really had a blast doing what I love-running sound. I've got a lot to learn yet but I'm thankful for having been given the chance to prove that women can run sound too!!


Posted by Mike Babcock on March 27, 2002

I had met this guy who owned (and still does) PA and lighting. He seemed cool, I was a guitar player in a local metal band Ubiquitus (metal band names were awesome in the 80's). We booked our first show and of course I knew this guy with a PA so we called him. He said I could get a decent discount if we (the band) helped him load in and out his gear.

I was thinking 'how hard could that be??? sure' little did I know then. But I still thought what he did was the coolest, so I called him the next day and got booked to help him out the next weekend. I did off topics for him for a few shows and learned audio when I could, I was hooked.

My first test with audio was with another band (nightmare's end, I think they may still be around, anyone in Madison, WI tell them I say hi), I was playing guitar and our drummer brought in his PA, a collection of MI gear and mismatched JBL and EV cabinets. I was the only one with any kind of experience with it.

It sounded pretty horrible at first, many phone calls to my original mentor and reading of a couple books, it started sounding halfway decent. I taught myself a distorted understanding of gain structure and EQ settings. Went to a recording school to further inform myself and one of my instructors worked for the company I am the production manager of now.

Mike Babcock

PS once I found out what a monitor desk was and what it did, it was hard for anyone to get me away from it, I thought it was soo cool, still do.