When you go to a concert, big or small, most people aren’t aware of just how much preparation goes on before-hand. As some of you know, but maybe some don’t, along with my business degree, I’ve been going to school for audio production. Ultimately I’d like to own my own recording studio, but until I strike gold or get in the right doors, I’m just along for the ride.
Yesterday I had the opportunity to be an audio hand for a John Fogerty concert. This concert is actually going on tonight, but there was a full rehearsal yesterday. He is only stop-ed-meds for a small corporation, so the concert is being held at the Phoenix Country Club.
7:00AM- Arrived at the location, waited for the stage and stage hands to arrive.
Once they arrived, we loaded in the pieces of the stage and put it together.
This is halfway through building the stage:
After the stage was built, we waited for the audio gear to arrive.
9:00AM – Audio gear arrives.
It took us about a half hour to get all of the gear upstairs(we had to use the freight elevator, as the gear is extremely heavy). Once we had all of the gear in the room, it was time to set it up. This is where it starts to get fun, but also challenging.
Halfway through getting the audio set-up:
One thing that I’m learning along the way is how much cleanliness plays such a huge role in live sound. There are literally cables EVERYWHERE and if you don’t keep things neat, it just becomes a nightmare. Every cable needs to be straight, and follow the same direction.
Bad:
After hooking up all of the gear, it was time to get the levels and fix any issues. We had a buzzing coming out of one of the speakers, which meant that there was a ground that was up. (To keep things simple, cables typically have a hot, cold and ground. If the ground is up, it creates a loop which creates feedback.) After fixing this issue, we began texting the amps, making sure that mix 1 was coming from speaker 1, etc.
I don’t have pictures from the rest of the day, but by the time we were ready for the band to rehearse, it was 5pm. That’s right, it took 10 hours (w/ a 1 hour lunch) to set up the stage for this small concert.
I have to say, the more involved I get in the music industry, the more drawn I am to it. I was able to have a lunch with a man who has worked with every big name musician you could imagine. The stories he has to share are amazing, and although as an audio engineer, producer, or even talent agent you literally become the musician’s counselor, mother, father, sister, brother, best friend and doctor, the rewards outweigh the downsides.
I know this isn’t fitness related, but I wanted to share another part of my life with you guys. I am going to do this more often with this blog because although fitness and health are a huge part of my life, I have more going on that I’d like to share as well.
Speaking of that, my sister is getting married in 6 months! Get ready for some wedding-related posts!