Hi all,

Welcome to my blog on all on my adventures in audio. 

So, let’s begin. Back in May I was in a tour bus driving through France with a Motown function band, and the gig we did that night was in Bordeaux. During that long journey, it really got me thinking about what things to bring to gigs that aren’t immediately obvious. Let me explain..

At the gig we had a relatively standard setup, a HK Audio Actor DX rig FOH (1 top, 2 subs a side) and HK Audio monitor wedges. The desk was a Mackie 1608, their wireless iPad desk, and 4 members of the band were all using in ears. They were playing with a click track, which also featured a drum track as the band didn’t have a drummer for this gig. 

So already a lot to think about. We ended up using a selection of bits and pieces from my toolbox including:

•  Mini jack to phono lead with phono to jack adapters (this was for the playback going into a DI box from a laptop
•  Speakon adapters (to extend the speakon cable between monitor wedges)
•  UK to Euro power adapters (these were obviously needed to run all the PA and the backline)
•  Jack to XLR (this was because the desk has jack outputs and the in-ear monitors had XLR inputs on the receivers as well as XLR inputs for the monitors/amplifier)

So there we are, without these odd little things, the gig wouldn’t have happened. No-one would have been able to hear anything on stage for monitoring, there wouldn’t have been a drummer backing track and the monitors would not have been in the right place. Plus, as we were in the middle of nowhere in France, it wasn’t like I could pop home if I had forgotten something. I remember starting out and getting excited about microphones, speakers and mixing desks. But it’s important to remember the little things too. Here are some more examples of what I take out to shows:

Spare SM58
Extra mic clips
Electrical tape
Gaffa tape
Sharpie
Multi-tool
XLR couplers – both female to female and male to male
Cable tester
Headphone extensions
Batteries – 9v, AA, AAA
Moongel and drum key
Measurement microphone
13a to 16a power adapter
16a to 13a power adapter

Here’s to many more blog posts and I’ll try and blog as many times as I can during these busy times.

Speak soon.