Keresley Rock Festival - Sat 18th July

I have no opinion.

Wicked day. Had to fuck off after Fiori, so regretably I missed a few people. I was there from the start, but had to eventually get back to spend some time with my daughter.

I thought the younger bands were great and a promising sign of things to come, and I know some on here might not like it, but it was cool to hear some covers, there was plenty of original stuff to keep people happy so it was nice to mix it up for EVERYONE'S benefit. The Police tribute band were incredible; tighter than a nun's minge, also - incredible drummer - I haven't heard better in The Midlands!

Too many bands to mention all the highlights, but thought Blackbelts were great and just the right time slot, Geordie was hilarious. Fiori were my favourite as usual, and The Getaways had a kind of NOFX type show which they always pull off so well.

Nice one everyone involved, will upload pics asap (up until Fiori, but by that point there were 6 photographers around the stage, so I just enjoyed the show instead of trying to climb over them)

Mwah!

Clarke

Yeah. Thanks a fucking lot Myke.

What does a technical director do ?

Directs.

Technically.

My curiousity, she is quenched

Mofo wrote: Didn't have proper control over most of the band's sound, especially the Blackbelts boys! The cymbals and guitars were just coming off stage and I still had trouble with the vox!

We've had these kinds of issues with getting the sound right before, luckily we don't really need it to sound precise or anything, but I was just wondering you had any advice on whether theres anything that we're doing at our end that means our sound is hard to sort out, such as dodgy equipment/leads, or even just that a distorted sound is hard to get right? or is it just specific circumstances on the night such as the marquee?

I had an absolute blast!
THANK YOU EVERYONE INVOLVED.
I was technically drunk in charge of two minors but had enough lovely people around keeping their eyes on the little rascals.
I realise that Cider is a whole different ballgame to lager anyway now.
I've had a severe migraine all day. Been lying in a dark room for hours. The 'visuals' have been electric. Gone now so I can see again.
Thanks once again for a lovely day that my granddaughter enjoyed immensley.

mr stuart wrote:

Mofo wrote: Didn't have proper control over most of the band's sound, especially the Blackbelts boys! The cymbals and guitars were just coming off stage and I still had trouble with the vox!

We've had these kinds of issues with getting the sound right before, luckily we don't really need it to sound precise or anything, but I was just wondering you had any advice on whether theres anything that we're doing at our end that means our sound is hard to sort out, such as dodgy equipment/leads, or even just that a distorted sound is hard to get right? or is it just specific circumstances on the night such as the marquee?

Ahh man it's a difficult one cause that's the type of music you do. I think the two problems are the tone of the guitars mixing with the heavy cymbals. Fiori don't have a massively different guitar sound to yous BUT they're playing through bloody amazing amps with awesome guitars. Arthurs tone is so different to Daves and they just sit pefectly next to each other. Their songs aren't as hard and fast as yours though so they've naturally got more definition to their sound, but as I said it's the type of music you do. I'd say tone down geordies a little more and give Marky G's sound a bit more of a fuller one, its quite bass/treble with little middle at the minute. Marky's is a little harder to mix than Geordies and his one is the one that mixes with the cymbals more. A couple of rack compressors would help the guitars too if you want to go even further with it! You'd be able to mix it at a big venue cause you can control the cymbals and guitars properly, it's just when there's a lot of stage sound coming through like yesterday it can get a little messy. I had a good 10db bit of headroom in your monitors but the gtrs and cymbals sent the feedback a bit crazy. Managed to eliminate that further though and got a much better sound for the second half of the set.

Was just expressing my opinion John, I'm tired and a little frustrated, sorry.

hmm, so we're stuck with it until we play wembley, cool, cheers for the reply, I was jsut really curious about it thats all

What a stunning day! Charlie Company played our 1st festival and we can all say we seriously enjoyed ourselves. Personally speaking it was really excellent to take in all the local acts & put faces to names.

Was very impressed by Mourning Becomes Electra (very!), Momma's In The Kitchen had a laid-back vibe, but didn't catch Just Morale cos had to shoot around 8:30pm. A brilliant day & just what this region needed; bring on next year if the administrators will have us Muppets back!

Just a note, our Guitarist Dokter Dave had the coolest finger injury halfway throught the set resulting in a blood-splattered Stratocaster; he soldiered on in true CC style & there's NO chance he's cleaning it; Get in!!

mr stuart wrote:hmm, so we're stuck with it until we play wembley, cool, cheers for the reply, I was jsut really curious about it thats all

Can't say for sure as i wasn't there but generally the problems come on stage from guitarists/ bassists being turned up too much. If they are quieter on stage the engineer has more control off stage, ie if the guitars sound to similar the engineer would be able to eq them slightly differently if they're not blaring on stage. Basses that are too loud just feed back everything on small stage too since they literally vibrate everything. There's simply no need to have amplifiers turned up full since the majority have a master volume after the pre amp and can therefore be distorted at low volumes and you can have your guitar fed through the monitors. The PA system is there for amplification for the audience. They don't need to hear your amps! If you're in one of the rare bands that has an amp with no volume after the preamp then you should invest in a hot plate or the like. Little device that allows valves to distort with hi gain but then fitted after the preamp allows the volume to be turned down, transferring the sound energy into heat energy. I'm getting one for my AC30 6tb at some point but i'm a fussy fucker that only wants it on one channel so a little extra modifying is required! Lol!

Anyway. Hope that's some help to bands that are always hearing that they're difficult to mix. The key is listen to what the engineer has to say. They're there to make you sound good. I've had a bass player stand in front of his amp and refuse to turn it down before which just made them look crap.

Hmmm...that's true but also there's nothing worse as a guitarist than feeling like your guitar has no power. A drummer hits the drums how he hits the drums at the end of the day so unless he plays quieter with less performance then it's not going to work. If there was adequate dampening around the stage it would've been ok but it was really loud. Their guitars weren't cranked up, it's just when they got going all together, with the on stage sound as well, it got a bit crazy.

Mofo wrote:Hmmm...that's true but also there's nothing worse as a guitarist than feeling like your guitar has no power. A drummer hits the drums how he hits the drums at the end of the day so unless he plays quieter with less performance then it's not going to work. If there was adequate dampening around the stage it would've been ok but it was really loud. Their guitars weren't cranked up, it's just when they got going all together, with the on stage sound as well, it got a bit crazy.

Yeah but that's what the monitors are there for and a good set of stage monitors should be able to get louder than a guitar amplifier but at least can be graphed out and directed more as they don't throw sound in all directions like a guitar amp/ cab.

Mofo wrote:Hmmm...that's true but also there's nothing worse as a guitarist than feeling like your guitar has no power. A drummer hits the drums how he hits the drums at the end of the day so unless he plays quieter with less performance then it's not going to work. If there was adequate dampening around the stage it would've been ok but it was really loud. Their guitars weren't cranked up, it's just when they got going all together, with the on stage sound as well, it got a bit crazy.

I've also found using less directive overheads actually works better on drums and produces less of a harshness. I've been using AKG C3000 for the past 6 months which have a more general pattern than the Neumann KM184s I was using and it smooths the sound no end allowing more of an even sprinkling. I got lumbared with just 3 channels to use for drums for The Twang's support act. Now I usually use around 11 channels for drums so I was gutted. But just used Kick and 2 well placed overheads and I was amazed by the results! Sorry that this post will probably only interest Myke! Lol!

I'd probably kick snare and overhead with 3 channels personally, or maybe kick/snare/snare.

The cymbals were coming off stage, the overheads weren't doing a lot for some bands, worked with bands like Chiefs of Police though. Amazing drummer he was. So much space but still power to their sound.

Mofo wrote:I'd probably kick snare and overhead with 3 channels personally, or maybe kick/snare/snare.

The cymbals were coming off stage, the overheads weren't doing a lot for some bands, worked with bands like Chiefs of Police though. Amazing drummer he was. So much space but still power to their sound.

I would have normally wanted to mic the snare but i wanted to see the quality of using the C3000 as live overheads as i'd heard rave things about them. The snare cut through perfectly. Such a difference to the small diaphragm neumanns. Was such a great even sound.

Would have been nice to see a band from Keresley!

C3000's are decent enough not as good as 414's mind

freyne wrote:Would have been nice to see a band from Keresley!

Do you have anyone in mind per chance?

Mofo wrote:C3000's are decent enough not as good as 414's mind

414s are a little too sensitive GENERALLY for live use. The high spl of other instruments around means you're gonna have a hellish time with the mix. The C3000B have been made to try to combat some of this by being one of the less sensitive of the large diaphragm condensers. Also at 3-5 times the price for a 414 they're simply too expensive, in my view, to be taking on the road.

Dale Hermit wrote:

freyne wrote:Would have been nice to see a band from Keresley!

Do you have anyone in mind per chance?

Are there any bands from Keresley?

blitzsounds wrote:

The PA system is there for amplification for the audience. They don't need to hear your amps! If you're in one of the rare bands that has an amp with no volume after the preamp then you should invest in a hot plate or the like. Little device that allows valves to distort with hi gain but then fitted after the preamp allows the volume to be turned down, transferring the sound energy into heat energy. I'm getting one for my AC30 6tb at some point but i'm a fussy fucker that only wants it on one channel so a little extra modifying is required! Lol!

haha what is this turn it down thing you and mofo are talking about? Sod that :-) If it's loud on stage turn it up out front simples :-).

Nah know it does give more control to the engineer and I did turn down for Myke I just don't like having my amp quiet on stage I love to feel it through my amp and yes my ears are fooked and yes I play in a band with Ash so I have to keep up with THAT noise haha, Had to shoot off almost straight away on Sat as was playing at the colly with The Hearing Saturday night aswell but thought the sound out front for MBE was spot on and what I could make out for Reubens was spot on out front. Just a personal thing of I always want shit load of me on stage and I know with Reubens I have to control myself, enjoyed the gig and pats on backs for everyone.
Think people should maybe not take themselves too seriously when doing these things and chill and try to have more fun but yeah I know I'm not anything to do with it so can't really say either way x

Haha you were flat out through your monitor mate. I think Mikey had the mons turned down a little though as they were powered. It did indeed sound ace out front. Personally I love a drummer who hits the snare the way Ciaran does. Chiefs guy was also the same, his snare was proper lush, lovely ring on it.

You can always put up screens to stop yourself from having a hellish time jamie.

Mofo wrote:Chiefs guy was also the same, his snare was proper lush, lovely ring on it.

You can always put up screens to stop yourself from having a hellish time jamie.

Wish i'd seen Chiefs as i've heard lots of good things about them before.

Screens? More things to clutter the stage and cause extra reflections towards the other mics? Rather not. Screens are only really suitable for large stage around the 15m+ mark else they just cause more problems than it's worth. Would rather just go for a more suitable live mic such as the C3000B.