Power Praise Charity Concert

I did some floor work with the Ipswich Music School Orchestra and the Ipswich Community Gospel Choir, among other acapella, and acoustic acts.


The first to sound check was the choir, as they were on last. This involved a very large number of people on stage at once. The three chorus sections each had their own row, with two or three mic's covering each row, place just above head height, looking down on the vocalists.
A section of soloists at the front had each to have their own microphone, 13 in total. Each had to be wired into a multicore separate from the main, which was routed into a second mixer, the stereo output of which was connected to a pair of inputs on the main desk. The connecting process was fairly hard work, as 10m cables were being used for all except the closest few to the multicore, which was set to the right of the stage. Spending the time keeping the excess tidy really paid off when it came to derigging though, meaning we didn't have to deal with a knot of 13 XLR leads.

Radical Lounge, Kai SU Bar

Saturday night Radical Lounge made it's Kai debut.  Having had a number of events in previous venues (mainly the Goals center at Suffolk New College) the new venue provided a different environment for performances and to engineer and enjoy the Radical Lounge.  


The Kai student union bar, for University Campus Suffolk, is a fairly unique 'L' shape.  With the stage, made from three steel deck pieces, placed in the corner of the 'L' shape, with the mixer placed on the oposite side of the curve.  The audience backing up each side of the 'L' gave me an unobscured view of the stage, meaning I could keep track of what was happening on stage with ease.  


With the sound system I used being rented, I had to get to grips with the Tascam DM-24 digital desk that was provided pretty quick.  With a normally very handy function that can recall presets turned my sound check into a nightmare! Without me realising, a blank preset was selected, and me hitting the recall button wiped my check clean, along with all the routing settings.  With some panic and a call to the owner of the desk, the solution was to find a preset that had the routing needed and reset all the EQ and send levels manually.  I got my head around it, and redone the sound check.  


I need to thank the Radical Lounge House Band musicians and everyone else who turned up of the set up.  While I was fiddling around and getting to grips with the desk, these guys set up their equipment, then moved onto setting up the stage mic's, then wiring them into the multicore.  Without that help I don't think I could have managed to be ready in time we were.  Many thanks.

PS95 in Sussex

Easter Monday (25th April 2011) PS95, a local band based in mid Suffolk, travelled down to Cuckfield, Sussex.  Local Ipswich act Rayon Nelson also travelled down to perform.

Rayon finishing the night.

Two bands local to the venue also performed in the small church building.  All the acts performed really well over the 4 hour gig.  I was able to run the desk for three of four acts.

Tech!

The first three acts were full bands. PS95 short a member, leaving drums, bass, electric guitar and vocals.  The next couple of bands swapped during the sets between an arrangement of keys, acoustic guitar, electric guitars, as well as bass and drums.  Rayon finished the night on a quieter note, starting with a keyboard and vocal performance, followed by a number of acoustic guitar tracks.

The lights and tech know how was supplied by CEG Productions, where the PA was PS95's own equipment.