on the road!!

[soundmanjim]

After a very sucessful night with my mates band, the Sam I Am, supporting Babyshambles, ive been asked to go on the raod with them as their tour-tech.
Anything i should consider before i dissapear off into the distance? packed lunch? toothbrush? your experiences / advice please!! First gig is the forum in london im told.

[ian hasell]

A few active DI's if you use DI boxes
A couple of decent mics (some venue mics are rubbish)
Cable tester and basic tool kit
MP3 player loade with lots of music (to while away the time)
A few blank mini-discs (to record a good gig)

I'm sure there is tons more, but that should get you started.


Ian

[soundmanjim]

cheers ian!!
im looking at taking
sm58beta,
sm57 beta,
sm57 and
one sennheiser 604.

also taking small soldering iron, cable tester, small toolkit with the tiddly screwdrivers for undoing xlr connectors, and my laptop which can double for tuneage AND recording of gig!!! (i tunes and pcdj red pre loaded!!)
di wise ive got a selection of active di's, plus one that works as a splitter as well as a di PLUS a behringer guitar di that you can stuff loudspeaker volts up (the orange one) makes tranny combo's sound awesome but rubbish on valve heads.

flask of tea i think is also in order (ive given up the grog, more on that later!)
Anyhting else guys?

[Chris Philpott]

Hi Jim,

We met at TMF dont know if you remember?

Just finishing a 2 month tour of Holland - dont forget the pro plus, plenty of red bull and matchsticks for the eyes when all else fails! From experience its always a good idea to sort out money - how much and when it will arrive BEFORE you go!!

Hope the tour goes well,

Chris

[soundmanjim]

yes chris was i waffling on about your monitors???

that should remind me which stage i was on!!!

first gig went well, the garage (highbury, upstairs!!).

the in house engineer is a great guy called A.K. and he was most helpful. noticed they were using tony rossells mx1000 spektra cabs too!!

good luck and thanks for the advice

peak soon

jim

[John Bell]

Plenty of Gaffer, even cable guard for the places that have to get walked over, spare batteries for stomp boxes. I even take spare guitar strings and drum sticks. Lots of spare cables, mains leads. It's great when a panicking muso' asks for something and you can produce it.

[soundmanjim]

indeed! thankyou for that! mind you i am limited as i dont drive anymore (courtesy of southend magistrates, dont ask) so all my gubbins will be going in a stucco flight case that bugees to my pushbike, so jumping on and off trains and fighting my way round the streets of london shouldnt present a problem...i'll definately get to a gig quicker than the band!!!

[mic mk]

Keep us posted as to what gigs and where you do with this band.I would be interested on your impression of the venues in London.

[Simon Ryder]

Hi Jim,
I would suggest also taking an effects processor set to any specific sounds you use with the band.
On a more vital note; as you will be guesting in many venues, which may or may not be well set up (many well known venues are shockingly badly tuned) I ALWAYS take my reference CDs and digital test gear. If the touring thing is going to become a serious fixture, it would be worth getting a copy of SIA SMAART to run on your laptop. SMAART is a superb analysis tool that can tell you exactly what is going on with a rooms frequency response and RT60 times. If you are on more of a budget, I am rather impressed with my Phonic PAA3 analysis gadget. This retails at around £300 and features pretty good resolution (.5dB) and will give you room frequency plots, RT60 times, phase checking etc.

Final items are a good pair of headphones and a calm and unflappable nature.
Good luck with the tour,
Simon