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Looper's Delight
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future perfect wrote: > This has been a concern for my band too...especially if you are not the > only band playing. How do you minimize setup/breakdown time, minimize > the inevitable 'something must be plugged in wrong' error when you have > to set up fast and have a lot of gear? > I do use a Gator case now that has the mixer on top, with all my rack > stuff plugged in. I have my pedals zip-tied to pegboard so they are > already set up. We try to get on and off stage and try to be good about > troubleshooting when something goes wrong. > I have played with bands with lots and lots of gear- it is funny. Some > bring out tons and tons of stuff- so much so that when they take forever > to set up and it eats into their performance time, they don't seem to > mind. Hell, I have seen bands that take as long to set up as their > performance. Maybe ok if you are the only band, but if people are > waiting to go on stage and the crowd starts leaving, then it is no fun. > Then there are guys/girls that have huge setups that they have set up in > no time at all. > I played with this band once, that was a 4 piece- > vocals/harp/guitar/bass. They were the 2nd of 3 bands. The bassist > played bass pedals & cello also. The harpist played keyboards as well. > They played to a DAT tape of drums. They had 40 minutes to play. It took > 40 minutes to set up, and the stage was a mess of wires. Well, the DAT > tape didn't work, and they fumbled with that for awhile. There was no > sound out of the cello. In all, a bit of a nightmare. The club owner cut > them off after 20 minutes. They *seemed* to know their gear, but in the > real world, the more you have, the more can, and will go wrong. I felt > bad for them, because I could see what they were trying to do, but in > that situation, the 2nd of 3 bands, and only 40 mins to play, some > compromises should have been made. Maybe it just takes experience, and > setting up/breaking down your gear many many times. > > Dave Eichenberger > http://www.hazardfactor.com > > > > > I'm always torn about the BIG SCHLEP. It's a bit the whole > > schlepping > > thing, but also a huge part of it for me is the break down of the > > studio and the set up brake down set the studio back up again. > > This is quite a relevant thread for those of us who perform regularly. I agree that the schelp is one concern, however setting up/tearing down is probably bigger for me. Also, sometimes having so many gear options can be distracting. Personally, I've been wrestiling wtih this because if I have so much stuff to play with/worry about on stage it can negatively effect my performance. I think the key for me is that I need to practice using all of the looping/effects/drum machine stuff in the same way that I practice singing/playing guitar and lap steel. The more you know the less you have to think about it. On this subject. I use a Behringer 802A mixer. I use a DL-4 for looping but would like to upgrade to an EDP at some point. Any suggestions for a rack that would carry the EDP and a the small Behring mixer on top? This would make set up/tear down much quicker. Thanks, John www.johnmazzarella.com