One-off and fly-date shows can be particularly stressful because they take a band and crew out of the comfort zone. Couple this with the fact that management typically doesn’t want to foot the bill for shipping production and/or backline gear for a single show, and it’s easy to see that there’s a lot of potential for error. A bit of careful planning can help ease the pain, even when you have to leave your bunk behind.
Console-ation
In an ideal world, you’d be able to advance rentals for your preferred front-of-house and monitor consoles — and that goes a long way toward making the day easy. To take advantage of digital desks, you should be carrying various storage devices with your console files on them. These files should be backed up on your laptop (and perhaps someone else’s). Since file size tends to be small, it’s not a bad idea to periodically e-mail the files to yourself so that if all else fails you can still pick a file out of the cloud.
While most desks employ USB ports for storage, there are still tons of Yamaha PM5D and PM1D desks in service employing PCMCIA memory card slots. Though finding PCMCIA memory cards is becoming difficult, it’s easy enough to find an inexpensive adapter that enables use of a Compact Flash (CF) card in a PCMCIA slot.
Where possible, store a separate “scene” (snapshot) as well as an “all” file and a separate effects library file. You may run into a situation where a systems tech is understandably reluctant to load an “all” file just to access your scene. “All” files can displace current input and output patch routings and clock settings that are unique to the system setup for a particular venue. Some digital consoles feature the ability to “safe” certain parameters when recalling an “all” file, allowing the house routing to remain intact. Just about every digital console manufacturer has an offline software editor (typically free of charge), providing the opportunity to build a scene ahead of time, even if you’ve never used the desk. Keep in mind that if you do this for the aforementioned PM5D or PM1D mixers, you’ll probably need some sort of USB card reader to transfer the file because computers with PCMCIA card slots are scarce.
We’re Ready for the Bill Now
Life becomes more complicated when there are multiple acts on the bill. Of course, in that ideal world (that doesn’t appear often enough), there would be multiple desks both at front-of-house and monitors. (When I mix a show in that world, I’ll let you know.) Assuming that you need to share consoles with other acts, it makes sense to ask for desks familiar to both the monitor and front-of-house engineers (duh!). This is particularly important if the situation dictates that there will be no sound check.
Having said that, you may run into two conflicts: Either the other engineer(s) don’t want the same desk you want, the sound company providing production employs a “festival” style input patch. If the desks are laid out festival-style, scenes for digital desks are pretty much useless, though it may be advantageous to e-mail a file to the systems tech ahead of time and ask them to adapt the scene to their system setup. In such situations, it may actually be easier to grab and fly an analog desk (!) because everything is laid out in front of you without the need for paging. (This arrangement seems to work very well for the Sweden Rock Festival.)
The widespread use of in-ears means that engineers can no longer rely upon wedges to fill in vocals for audience members seated in the front rows (see T&P, FOH, July 2012, page 41). If your band doesn’t use stage monitors, make sure a front fill is part of the system spec so you can dial up a mix for the premium seats.
Ask for rolling risers for drums, keyboards and complicated guitar rigs. This way, you can have a majority of the gear wired and preset, and then just roll it out on the changeover between bands. Advancing a subsnake for the drums (and extra drum mics if you are not carrying them) facilitates pre-miking the kit, relieving you of a major task on the changeover. While we’re on the subject of advancing, don’t assume that the production company has received accurate stage plot, input list and backline documents. I’m amazed at how many promoters keep a file with a band’s info, including room list, hospitality rider and tech info — the problem being that it hasn’t been updated since 1994. Send the info ahead, follow it up with a phone call and have the docs on hand at the gig. We carry laminated stage plots, input lists and cards with keyboard patch charts, and keep copies in our work cases.
I Can’t Live Without You
I always find it comical when an act demands they get a particular mic, keyboard, guitar amp, etc., or they “can’t do the show.” Really? If there is any must-have item that falls into the category of “we need this to do the show,” then you should be carrying it with you, and not ask someone else to provide it. One item that seems to be getting scarce at front-of-house is the CD player. Sure, everyone has an iPod and a computer, but those of us who have timing-sensitive show cues need CD players, because iTunes doesn’t cue fast enough. And if you’re using MP3s to evaluate a PA system, you should be ashamed of yourself. MP3s are not for professional use.
The Little Things
Other items that are easy enough to carry and make life on a one-off more bearable include extra memory sticks, a flashlight, rain slicker and a small toolkit including a soldering iron and ear plugs. In fact, don’t even step on stage unless you are wearing plugs. There’s always some knucklehead ready to fire up a Marshall double-stack just when you’re walking in front of it. Sealed headphones are a better idea than open-air cans, because you’ll have less trouble PFL’ing a channel when the ambient din is muted by the cans. In the personal care aisle of your gig bag: sunscreen, Benadryl, Band-Aids, aspirin, extra Sharpie markers, board tape, batteries, a 1/8-inch-to-TRS or XLR adapter cable and blank CDs. Those of you who double up as a tour manager should consider carrying a copy of everyone’s passport and/or driver’s license just in case such documents get lost.
