Why My Mum Hates Dance Music.
I love dance music. I also like and appreciate live bands, just not as much. One thing that really bugs me is the ignorance some people display when talking about dance music. Two arguments I hear go something like this. “It all sounds the same” “The tracks are just repetitive & don’t develop” Lets look at these arguments in order. The “It all sounds the same to me” argument is the one I despise the most. Yodeling all sounds the same to me, but I understand why it sounds the same. The reason is because I have not spent hour...
read moreBands Are Never Happy!
I sometimes get a little hassle from bands and engineers for not putting enough monitors on a job. This weekend was an exception and hopefully the new rule for a venue Im currently working in. I put 3 pairs of 15″ wedges up front with a full drum fill at the back. In a venue for only 400 thats a decent amount of wedges. But the band still were not happy! Apparently the problem this time was the front of house sound system. “There are more monitors than front of house system in here!” was the exact quote. It turns out that you...
read moreAll The Gear, No Idea
The part time bank attendant got talking to me yesterday when he saw my company was called Onion Audio. He wanted to know what it was I did as he was in a local band. He then started talking about how his band had done a gig recently with four other bands on the bill. “They all had amazing equipment though”, “Really” I said, “Yes, they all had these amazing pedals, I really need a pedal”. What I then tried to explain to him in the short period of time that I was going to be stood cashing my cheque was, it...
read moreLocal Band To Touring Act pt2 – Looking The Part
Im doing a short series on some of the steps you would need to take from local to touring band. Part one focused on booking agents. This second part looks at image, why its important and things you should be thinking about. Image isn’t as important as the music. The music is 100% the most important part of any band. Bad songs will get you nowhere quickly. Im still assuming your music rocks and you have a tight set down with a small following already. The bands image can be any image you want, as long as everyone in the band conforms to...
read moreLocal Band to National Touring Band Pt1 – Booking agents
In this series of posts Im going to assume a couple of points. Your an awesome band who’s music rocks. You have committed band members & local following. You have interest from national booking agents. What does it require to take your band from a local act that plays a few out of town gigs, to a national touring act with followings in towns & cities up & down the country? There are a number of simple things you can do to help you get to the next stage in the development of your band. The first and most important thing is...
read moreSound Engineer / Technician Skills – Working With People
As a sound engineer, the most important thing you must learn is how to work with people. Any courses you have qualified in will probably deal with mixing, sequencing and other technical aspects of the job. What is over looked is dealing with people and getting the best from them. Over the years you will deal with thousands of bands, conference speakers & promoters. It can be easy to start treating each of them in the same way & come to expect a certain standard from them. The fact is that every individual you deal with has different...
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