Had a disastrous gig with the Kemper...

  • I played at the office talent show this evening.


    The soundman first killed my synth completely and then must have turned up the treble on his mixer. The mic wasn't also working and I found out that they gave me the same mic that the emcee for the event was using.


    Horrible feedback too, like every 10 seconds.


    And to top it off, their sound engineer kept coming to the front of the stage to adjust the mic closer to my face and it just kept feeding back even more.


    He also kept adjusting the main volume up and down throughout the performance due to the feedback.


    By the end of the performance, it was just my voice and a buzzy mess of a guitar.


    Drum sounds killed, synth sounds killed. Just a buzzy $3k guitar and $2k Kemper.


    The judge at the show complimented me on my guitar playing and noted that I had something like $12k of equipment on that stage (it was actually far less, because I usually buy used).


    "Technical difficulties" is how he put it.


    It just got me thinking how maybe having my own backline at these kinds of gigs would probably have saved my life.


    Amateur soundmen. The bane of good performances everywhere. <X

  • Honestly studio is one thing but live I like to keep things as simple as possible. Unless you have your own tech then introducing fewer variables is better. Analog pedals, amp, mic and even then things go wrong with leads etc!! Nightmare. Sorry to hear but well done for pulling through.

  • setup your own mixing desk for FOH and Mon and demand an PA L/R input from the venue

    which can't be leveled from the foh venue desk

    at soundcheck you have somebody with you who will judge your sound or you go wireless

    in the venue to listen to it by your self

  • Hehe. Almost everyone has had shows like that, but keep cool, sell what you can, and get back to entertaining! After all... That's why you are there.


    If the feedback was really that out of control, the sound guy clueless how to fix it, and the show absolutely couldn't be paused (obviously regular uncontrolled mic feedback is a show killer.. no-one wants to hear that every 10 seconds ||), I'd probably unplug the mic, and yell with a grin "Well.... that obviously isn't working.. so..... we're going to do something a bit different for you", and just play instrumental.

    Play some stuff the audience will know and prompt them to sing along.. etc. Do whatever you can, and try to enjoy it.



    Technical issues can be tough, and your example seems particularly awful.. but if the people on stage battle through it with a good attitude and own it, shows like that usually turn out to be some of the more memorable nights for both the performers and audience.

  • All other crap aside.... It is possible that next time the mic feedback problem might be alleviated by singing more loudly into the mic / closer to it. That's often the culprit - the FOH engineer having to turn up the mic channel in order for the voice to be heard, which causes feedback from the PA->mic.


    Especially if the performer is a bit "shy" about his or her voice (I have no idea if you are, mind you :-)), then turning up the mic often causes people to actually sing less loudly, which makes the problem even worse...

  • In my experience, when there is feedback or sound issues like this, we go into survival mode and all this fancy gear, KPA rigs and tweaks suddenly become totally irrelevant... then I wish I had brought just a Blues Junior and a TS9! These kinds of gigs still occur very often for me and I still really hate how dependent we are on other factors when going direct with a digital device. If I have any doubt that this situation might happen, I bring a small amp instead. I recently went back to a nice full pedalboard (that has the ability to go direct too) and live, I use it now as often if not more than the KPA (depending on the gig); it's just consistently good throughout any random system or situation I come across (ie. touring in small venues).

  • In my experience, when there is feedback or sound issues like this, we go into survival mode and all this fancy gear, KPA rigs and tweaks suddenly become totally irrelevant... then I wish I just had brought just a Blues Junior and a TS9! These kinds of gigs still occur very often for me and I still really hate how dependent we are on other factors when going direct with a digital device. If I have any doubt that this situation might happen, I bring a small amp instead. I recently went back to a nice full pedalboard (that has the ability to go direct too) and live, I use it now as often as the KPA (depending on the gig); it's just consistently good throughout any random system or situation I come across (ie. touring in small venues).



    Yeah, I totally wish I had brought my own cab and a couple of powered speakers.


    You live, you learn!

  • Oh man, you can't legislate for stupid...feel for ya!


    Even with the KPA I always have my back line/cab but not much you can do when the sound man ( who is responsible for the sound - his only job!) screws it up!


    I like the idea of unplugging the mike and going acoustic though :)


    On some rarer occasions, we've taken over the desk when the sound man can;t get it together because its not that hard, but I guess you didn't get much time etc for all of that..