I need equiment for going on tour

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fldrummer

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Some friends of mine are going to do a tour playing wound the country and they want me to be the sound engineer. I's going to be about a month long so I'm thinking about maybe even renting the gear for the shows. Their going to be performing mostly at churches some small some pretty damn big. I'm guessing from 100 to 2,000 people. They want to go wireless in-ear monitors so it looks like the PSW 200 will work for that. Sonce it is 2 drumsets(yes 2) bass and keys I'm looking at the mackie 32ch. 8 bus. From around 3,000 it looks pretty good. I've used one before and it was pretty decent for me. Now I need amp speakers and stuff for the rack like eq's and what else will I need? I'm thinking their going to have around 10,000 or more to spend so it might be better goin to rent the stuff. I'd be nice to get a midas 1000, all ev speakers and ev remote controlled amps and all the goodies but thats a big ole over kill and no way in hell to rent that. lol. I have no idea what are average rates for renting. So I need to know what gear I need and prices (to buy and/or rent). Thanks!

Almost forgot...what are good cables and snakes?
 
The brand and price will pretty much just depend on what you can get in your area (which you haven't mentioned). Call around and see what's available. For gigs like that you'd probably want at least four 15-18" cabs and 2 subs. Probably minimum 4K watts and preferably 8K. A lot just depends on how much room and help you have to travel and setup.

You might want to bring a backup monitor or two just in case there are problems with the In Ears. At least the singer will be able to hear himself.

You can also rent snakes. Make sure you have about twice as many cables as you think you will need and bring a butane soldering iron and a bunch of spare connectors.

You will want a stereo graphic EQ and maybe a limiter for the mains, crossover for the subs, compressors and gates for the drums, reverb for the vocals. A few DI's and some backups.

Oh and lots and lots of gaffer tape. You can never have too much tape. Use gaff tape and not duct tape because it's much easier to take off of cables later on.
 
Thanks!
I went to my local store today in daytona beach and it looks like a 32 Channel mixer won't do. I found out today that their will be 2 drums, 2 key players(more keys then that tho), bass, and 4 brass. It looks like the Allen and heath GL300 might be the way to go. I gotta see what kind of budget these guy got. He said maybe 2 yorkville sub cabs (2 x 18 each) and 2 stacks should do the trick. Are you sure I will need all of those effects? I don;t think I really need the gate and reverb. I gotta see what the boys think!
 
You don't have to have comps, gates and reverb but it will probably make the difference between sounding great and sounding okay. Unless the drummer has great dynamic consistency and the singer has amazing pitch and voice you will need comps and reverb. The first thing the singer is going to want is some reverb in his moniitor mix.

To be honest you are probably getting in over your head but I admire your enthusiasm. Are you familliar with the power requirements of a live show? You can't just plug in a 4KW PA and 10KW of lights into some plugs in the wall. Unless the facility is already setup for touring shows (few are) you will have to run power directly from the service box and that requires a proper power drop and the knowledge to hook it up.

It's actually pretty rare to travel with a PA on small tours. I've rarely seen that on any shows that bring in less than $3k-5k per night. It's usually more cost effective and practical to have a local company setup a PA at the location and just have the band's soundman mix the show. Usually that is a condition of the Rider (contract) that the venue gets before the show. It specifies everything that is needed for the band to do the show. You would tell them you need a 32CH board with whatever your PA requirements are and etc.
 
Yea, I was told about the tour a few days ago. I've been doing my homework the last few days and I think I've come up with a list. Then he told me today theirs a 25pc chior too!!!!! Man..keeps on getting bigger. How much money / knowledge will I need to figure on running from the box? I think i only have to run about 3/4 amps on stage so their shouldnt be that much power I need. I for get the ratings on the ones the guy showed me. The guy at the store is pretty good. He's done some major tours before w/ all those midas and digital boards. When I get the system I'm hoping to get him to show me the round-a-bouts of it all. I know it's a big thing to pull off. the drummer was saying about this 12ch mixer the church had and me adding like 10channels to it. I still have no idea how he thinks that will work. lol. It's looks like I'm goin to send about 6 mixes for monitors. So that will be fun. What reverb would you reccomend to run the vox through? Whats a good compressor? Would you run each thing through a diffrent one(snare,bass....) or through a bus?

http://www.innovason.com/pages/product1.php I wonder how much those are.....
 
TexRoadkill said:

It's actually pretty rare to travel with a PA on small tours. I've rarely seen that on any shows that bring in less than $3k-5k per night. It's usually more cost effective and practical to have a local company setup a PA at the location and just have the band's soundman mix the show. Usually that is a condition of the Rider (contract) that the venue gets before the show. It specifies everything that is needed for the band to do the show.
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yeah, agree with all that. I was a tour manager for 4 years and the rider always specified minimum 24ch desk 8 K rig and I rode the faders.

Alec.
 
fldrummer said:
Yea, I was told about the tour a few days ago. I've been doing my homework the last few days and I think I've come up with a list. Then he told me today theirs a 25pc chior too!!!!! Man..keeps on getting bigger. How much money / knowledge will I need to figure on running from the box? I think i only have to run about 3/4 amps on stage so their shouldnt be that much power I need. I for get the ratings on the ones the guy showed me. The guy at the store is pretty good. He's done some major tours before w/ all those midas and digital boards. When I get the system I'm hoping to get him to show me the round-a-bouts of it all. I know it's a big thing to pull off. the drummer was saying about this 12ch mixer the church had and me adding like 10channels to it. I still have no idea how he thinks that will work. lol. It's looks like I'm goin to send about 6 mixes for monitors. So that will be fun. What reverb would you reccomend to run the vox through? Whats a good compressor? Would you run each thing through a diffrent one(snare,bass....) or through a bus?

http://www.innovason.com/pages/product1.php I wonder how much those are.....
Click to expand...

Dude seriously you are heading for disaster or pulling our leg about the likelihood of this gig. Is somebody realy going to use a 16yr old kid to spec and run a tour? Do you guys realize it will take 2-3 semi skilled people 4-6 hours to set this up?

Running 3-4 amplifiers doesn't mean anything unless you know what their wattage is. Remember you also have the band amplifiers playing on these same circuits. You will have to figure out what your amp draw is and call all the locations and see if they can handle it.

It's pointless to recomend brands if you are going to rent. Most rental houses also rent effects and comps.
 
this does strike me as slightly odd ... are you just talking trash to play games? you know that if a tour such as this was on the road the budget would extend to roadies and experienced engineers?
 
What what I hear from the band members they really don't have much money. From what I gettin it looks like the gig are goning to be about making 3k+ a show. If you're think I'm playin games I'm not!! The one band member has a frieds that just came out of Full Sail so if they come through I'll let them take over. But for now the main thing is the money for the gear. I'm goin to look into renting if possiable. That would be nice to have companies from each town to have the gear ready but it would be easier for me to have the same gear for the whole duration. They already have a truck ready. If you think I'm just a 16 year old that wants to just go plug in some stuff and push buttons well....I do have experience working at churches before so I know a good idea on how it will be but theirs always the unexpected! Right now I have me another person (he's 18) to run/set up/down the equiment. If we need help the band's always their. I talked to a guy that did KC and the sunshine band for a tour and they had a total of 4 for the whole sound crew. Running a midas monitor console and I think that innvason. He's helping me set it all up.
 
I hate to do this...but it caught my eye.

I don't think your friends have any idea what they're talking about, im sorry to say. I know it's nice to sit around and dream things up in your head, no harm in that at all. But major Christian groups that tour the world with label support rarely get over 3-5k for playing a church house show. I know few artists who are really big who scrape off 7k at church shows, but they're big artists with several major albums and years of accumulating a following. Unless you have representation which rivals the top acts somehow, they will be really lucky to get $500 out of a church show. Also, most churches that tend to local or regional groups are sound-capable themselves, knowing about limited budgets of small or new artists. Any church that does not cater to music groups can probably be dealt with by using the minimum of sound reinforcement.

If you want further advise, send me an email.
By the way, if you think I'm blowing smoke...this stuff is my job, what I work with every day.

H2H
 
fldrummer said:
That would be nice to have companies from each town to have the gear ready but it would be easier for me to have the same gear for the whole duration.
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Why would it be easier to have your own? A console is a console. The other company will set it all up and do the sound check. You just have to sit in front of the board and ride the faders during the show. It doesn't get any easier than that.
 
When you put it that way thats alot easier!! I was thinking when I get their all the stuff is sitting their ready to set-up not already set-up.
 
fldrummer said:
If we need help the band's always their.
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Never rely on the band. from first hand experience, no matter how great a bunch of guys they are or how well you get on with them....They're there to perform, that's their job, everything else is yours.
 
I don't think they all will help. I'm just thining a few might help a tiny bit.
 
Dude that sounds like a nightmare. 200 to 2000 ? That's a little vague isn't it ? Are you using one rig for all of these shows ?

Nathan
 
Curious.

I stopped posting on this board when I started working full time in the music industry. It seems that people never want to hear about reality and always choose to go with what they want to hear in the first place.

Just keep in mind that some of the artists I have been around recently (Rebecca St James, Michael Tait, Newsboys, Audio Adrenaline to name a couple) usually get under 500 for big church shows. These are all large full time productions with national promotion and publicity for the tours. Not to mention the 10 years plus established fan base.

The local and regional bands I have seen lately average 30-100 attendance in metro areas in the midwest and southeast. It always helps to be realistic in all your planning so you don't feel hurt in the end.


No more posting...back to the road for me, see you all out there.

H2H
 
hey gidge-mo:)

I'm working all over right now. I have discovered the secret to this thing is versatility. I'm not doing the "Artist thing" right now. Just plopping my butt where it's asked to go and whoever I can hang with and work with. The secret is the producers;) Hey I gave that out publicly, so there ya go!

Shoot an email to let me know whats up wit you.

Cya
H2H
 
Hard2Hear said:
hey gidge-mo:)

I'm working all over right now. I have discovered the secret to this thing is versatility. I'm not doing the "Artist thing" right now. Just plopping my butt where it's asked to go and whoever I can hang with and work with. The secret is the producers;) Hey I gave that out publicly, so there ya go!
Click to expand...

It's called coming to terms with being a whore ;)
 
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