What do I need as a live gigging musician?

[fmw]

DI box? to get a simple output into the XLRs in the stage box or multicore (or the channels on a powered PA system etc)

[udenjoe]

One thing that will help is to package up your gear. Then unpack in a different location in your house. Doing this will help you make sure you have everything you need. Power strips, cables, etc.

I like to have a mixer and compressor to control my levels. DI is a good idea!

[tedopon]

All you really need is a headlamp, a mixer and your instruments. A headset or a small set of monitors is helpful, but I try to have run through what I’m playing at least a couple times so I can be prepared to improvise during the inevitable periods when you can’t hear anything except the audience.
Someone mentioned earlier that if you have the option, get your levels right before you play. There will be many situations where for whatever reason you can’t, but it makes things go a lot smoother if you can. If they are cool with it, do it.
Just remember to have fun. You’re being asked to play for people…they want you there. You’re going to make plenty of mistakes, but 9/10 times, you’re the only one who notices. People are there to have a good time, so if you’re having a good time, you’re setting the right vibe.

EDIT PS:
Plug in with cables unless you have plenty of time beforehand to set up and test a DI box. I have had DI boxes take a dump before because we got in a hurry and it wasn’t pretty.

[rozzbud]

i don’t perform but the one tip i keep at the back of my head is to keep the kick drum on one channel. So that you can eq it according to the venue you’ll be playing.

[andreasroman]

Very much appreciate the good advise and kind words of encouragment here. Thanks, everyone.

This is gonna sound ridicilous but I’m telling you anyway - I did a small gig just for the family in the kitchen the other day, like a rehearsal in an environment where mistakes were highly tolerated.

While it felt awkward and silly, that feeling went away when my daughter said “Dad, I’m gonna have to dance to this”, and up she went, and her mom joined in with our baby son on her arm.

So the venue was our kitchen, the lighting was our ceiling lamp, the crowd was only three, but for a few minutes, we rocked the house with an Analog Rytm and a Bose portable speaker. And before I started playing, I was a little bit nervous. In a good way.

[drone]

for me, the most important thing to have in mind, when I play in a gig (whatever the place: I’ve been playing as well in clubs and in free parties in the woods), is this: never play against the sound system, but play the sound system itself. I mean this: I’ve been playing on very good sound systems in clubs, but also on very crappy small sound systems in free parties sometimes. The important thing is not to try to do the same thing you do at home, or reach the same sound: it’s impossible. So, do the best you can do with the sound of the actual place in which you are playing. Use your ears, not your memory of the ideal set you want to play. Be here and now, and don’t imagine what it could have been with a better sound. So, if you don’t have a good kick, or if you have too much mediums because the sound system is calibrated for rock bands, or whatever, just play with it and try to discover other territories of sound with this peculiar sound system, no against it.

my two cents…

[fmw]

I did a small gig just for the family in the kitchen the other day, like a rehearsal in an environment where mistakes were highly tolerated.

love it!

[vos]

Very much appreciate the good advise and kind words of encouragment here. Thanks, everyone.

This is gonna sound ridicilous but I’m telling you anyway - I did a small gig just for the family in the kitchen the other day, like a rehearsal in an environment where mistakes were highly tolerated.

While it felt awkward and silly, that feeling went away when my daughter said “Dad, I’m gonna have to dance to this”, and up she went, and her mom joined in with our baby son on her arm.

So the venue was our kitchen, the lighting was our ceiling lamp, the crowd was only three, but for a few minutes, we rocked the house with an Analog Rytm and a Bose portable speaker. And before I started playing, I was a little bit nervous. In a good way.

[vos]

for me, the most important thing to have in mind, when I play in a gig (whatever the place: I’ve been playing as well in clubs and in free parties in the woods), is this: never play against the sound system, but play the sound system itself. I mean this: I’ve been playing on very good sound systems in clubs, but also on very crappy small sound systems in free parties sometimes. The important thing is not to try to do the same thing you do at home, or reach the same sound: it’s impossible. So, do the best you can do with the sound of the actual place in which you are playing. Use your ears, not your memory of the ideal set you want to play. Be here and now, and don’t imagine what it could have been with a better sound. So, if you don’t have a good kick, or if you have too much mediums because the sound system is calibrated for rock bands, or whatever, just play with it and try to discover other territories of sound with this peculiar sound system, no against it.

my two cents…

Some exellent advise I never thought of - ( for a control-freak like me )

[Mies_van_der_Robot]

So, do the best you can do with the sound of the actual place in which you are playing. Use your ears, not your memory of the ideal set you want to play. Be here and now, and don’t imagine what it could have been with a better sound. So, if you don’t have a good kick, or if you have too much mediums because the sound system is calibrated for rock bands, or whatever, just play with it and try to discover other territories of sound with this peculiar sound system, no against it.

Top advice right here. The “Give Mozart a toy piano and he’d write a concerto” principle. The PA is an instrument…play it!

Also, I cannot underscore enough the earlier advice to have some kind of backup: mp3 player, iPhone…some device independently able to produce an entire set’s worth of music if your main rig fails.

In their days of performing on laptops with Max/MSP, Autechre carried around a Minidisc player full of tiny snippet tracks and would put it on auto-shuffle if the laptop crashed.

[JVonD]

Get Reason and an Octatrack.
I show you how to use Reason to setup live performance channels and use Blocks to bring in and out accompaniment. Whether is Christmas tunes or rap. I do it all. One man band style but have the ability to bring in session musicians at will.
It’s insane. Check out the BEATOMATIC IV, the greatest jamming instrument ever!

The power of blocks - https://www.jvond.com/2020-01-17_jvond_reasonblocks/

[PlumWrinkles]

@cosmosuave

The minute you drag your equipment somewhere else, you introduce all sorts of weird variables including

-power fluctuations

I always have my gear plugged into a power conditioner. I love the Furman stuff. one of them has a meter on the front and I’ve watched power (in the U.S.) go as low as 99v and way over the expected 120v to like 133v in the same club!