View the full album here.

Please take a look at the price list below and get in touch to discuss your requirements.

FP1 – Small Outdoor Festival

• 4 x 600 Watt subwoofers and 2 x 600 Watt Tops
• Total system power: 3,600W RMS
• 3 x Stage Monitors
• Cable, mic and DI package
• LS9-16 Digital Mixing Console
• 2 crew members – one stage tech and one sound engineer

FP2 – Medium Festival

• D&B Line Array consisting of 6 Q1 and 6 QSub
• Total system  power: 4,800W RMS
• 4 D&B Max12 as stage monitors
• Cable, mic and DI package
• LS9-16 Digital Mixing Console
• 2 crew members – one stage tech and one sound engineer

FP3 – Larger Festival

• D&B Line Array consisting of 8 Q1 and 8 QSub
• Total system  power: 6,400W RMS
• 6 D&B Max12 as stage monitors
• Cable, mic and DI package
• DiGiCo SD9 Digital Mixing Console
• 2 crew members – one stage tech and one sound engineer

Will that Midas desk really make your band sound better? Surely that Klark Teknik graphic cant make a whole lot of difference? Pay €100,000 for a PA or €10,000?

€18.50

€109

All the above questions are questions that I have asked myself before – other than the band bit, so in my case my client’s band. I ain’t gonna say buy the most expensive gear you can find, and I ain’t gonna say “just buy cheap shit”. With a combination of skill and knowing “the right tool for the job”, this post will show you how to maximize the rewards of spending your hard earned cash!

I like examples to help illustrate my points – so lets base this example on a recent gig. A few months ago, I set up a full PA system in Conary Community Hall. Quite a big system for a small venue – 4 subs and 2 tops. I placed 3 wedges on the stage. I set up a desk for front of house mix. The gig was a stop on a headline tour with Clive Barnes and Luan Parle, so audio quality was paramount.

Click for a larger view of the setup

I had planned to use Shure SM58′s as the mics for all the vocals – Gav Ralston, Luan Parle and Clive Barnes. But all of my 58′s were out on hire, and the person got stuck in Galway so couldn’t deliver them back in time. I had to dig to the bottom of the mic drawer, and embarrassingly had to bring a bunch of Behringer mics to the gig. I had bought them ages ago for dry hire to singer/songwriters etc. Ideal for that type of gig, but I didn’t put much faith in them for a very high end show!

Anyway, soundcheck time came and went. Then gig time came and went. Then many comments like the following came:

Best sound on the tour

- Gav Ralston (Musician with Luan Parle)

You outdid yourself tonight. The sound was fantastic.

- Pat Nolan (Conary Community Hall)

Thanks to Eoin on Sound. It makes our live’s so much easier when the sound is good.

- Luan Parle

Surprisingly these €20 mics sounded amazing!

Gav and Luan giving it socks!

So what just happened here? If I was buying equipment specially for this gig, and had known how these cheap mics would sound, would there be any point in spending 6 times more money to get Shure mics? No is in fact the correct answer. A different mic may have sounded different, but probably not better. In this case, the cheap Behringer mic was the right tool for the job.

But, there are many other factors to consider. Factors about the gig that I purposely neglected to mention at the start. I had a very high quality PA system for front of house. Monitors were exceptional EV wedges. I was mixing on a Yamaha 01v digital mixing console. The room naturally had nice acoustics. I spend 3 times longer setting the EQ on the mics than I would have if they were SM58′s.

So where does this leave us in regard to the original questions:

Will that Midas desk really make your band sound better?

If your PA system is crap, then no desk will make it sound better. If your sound engineer is crap, no desk will make it better. If your desk is crap but all the rest of the equipment is amazing, and you have a good sound engineer behind that crap desk – then it is very possible to have a fantastic sounding gig.

Surely that Klark Teknik graphic cant make a whole lot of difference?

Again, if the engineer can’t set a Behringer graphic EQ correctly, what makes you think a more expensive EQ will sound better? However, a quality engineer with a quality graphic can lead to stunning results!

Pay €100,000 for a PA or €10,000?

Again, if any part of the signal chain is degraded by worse equipment or people, your €100,000 PA can sound like a €100 PA. And the flip side to that… Good equipment and a good engineer can make your €10,000 PA sound like a €100,000 PA!

I’m confused… Do I buy the cheap shit?

Well, I think the main bit of advice is to invest in knowledge rather than expensive equipment. Do not get expensive equipment as a compromise for someone who knows their stuff. No matter how much you spend, your sound will not magically get better.

If you can’t drive, buying a flashy new expensive car won’t make you pass your test! Same goes for audio equipment!

Gavin Ralston, Luan Parle & Clive Barnes

Market House Sq. for Dublin's Culture Night

I ended up mixing a gig from a projection box on Friday night. Part of Dublin’s Culture Night was a screening of a few Irish short films, followed by a late showing of a classic – The Commitments. This all happened outdoors in Templebar’s Meeting House Square.

Splicing the reels together...

I had a few DVD’s to play and a few speeches and DJ’s to amplify, but the fun started when a professional projectionist came in to power up the real 35mm projector! A Blueray player was always enough for me – until I saw the quality of this picture! But the picture quality was not what really got me. I got to see the projectionist splice together 6 reels of 35mm film to make up the entire 2 hour Commitments. He then rolled it onto a huge reel and fed it into the amazingly complicated box of wheels and pullies.

Transferring the reels

And it wasn’t a matter of pressing play and heading to the pub! He was constantly checking the tension of the film, and waiting nervously for his next splice to make sure he had not made a mistake and joined them backwards where the soundtrack would disappear and the video would be flipped on the screen!

Loading the film into the projector

When not very busy testing and checking things, I managed to get some fantastic stories of him running 6 screens simultaneously, and the horrors of film breaking. It was such a beautiful insight into what actually happens behind the scenes when you go into a cinema with your popcorn!

However, I did have to ask – why didn’t he get DVD and press play? He could not give me a definite answer, but I am just glad I got to experience this art before it died off.

Sunday the 12th of September meant an early start for the AMP Sound Systems crew! Just off from a late night at Darver Festival, we were in Phibsborough in Dublin for Phizzfest. AMP Sound Systems was subhired by The Sound & Music Co. to provide sound equipment and staff to the event.

The gig consisted of everything from rock to trad! The sun shone down all day – with the clouds only bursting as the case was put on the desk and the punters had gone home! It was a fabulous festival, and we hope to get the chance to work on it next year. Well done to all the organizers and thanks Vinny for putting the gig our way.

Now just for Vinny… The rig consisted of a centre-cluster of 4 x 600W DAP Subwoofers, 2 600W Mid-Highs and 3 EV sxA250′s for monitoring. FoH and wedges were mixed on a Yamaha LS9-16 by Eoin O’Grady.

Now the rest of ya’s can go enjoy some pictures:

The rig consisted of a groundstacked array of 4 D&B Q7′s on top of 2 QSubs on either side of the stage, with a centre cluster of Meyer HP600′s. FoH was mixed on a Yamaha M7CL. Wedges were a combination of D&B Max12′s and EV sxA250′s.

Click on an image below to enlarge!

Congratulations to Eoin Dixon Murphy who won our recent competition for a pair of Electric Picnic tickets! Eoin’s review received 335 votes.

Hope you enjoyed the weekend Eoin, and thanks for entering the competition!

Here is the winning review:

Stevie Wonder, The o2, 24th of June 2010

As I awoke early on a sunny Thursday in June, I knew it was going to be a long and interesting day. Today was the day my Dad was getting married for the second time, and also the day of the much anticipated Stevie Wonder concert. It’s obvious to say that I was much more excited about the latter.

“How can you go to both?” my friends asked. I wasn’t sure, but I knew I couldn’t miss either. I accidentally found out my Dad was getting remarried a couple of months before he officially told me, so in keeping with our relationship’s secrecy, I decided not to tell him that I was bailing half way through the ceremony to head to the gig. I thought it would be much easier to do if I kept it a secret until a few days beforehand. It would at least buy me some time, and it seemed only fair. The plan was to arrive, have dinner, converse with relatives and then hop in a taxi to The o2. The wedding was being held in Merrion Square, so it seemed fairly possible to do both. Either way, seeing Stevie Wonder perform was a once in a life time experience, it had to be done. It’s not like my Dad hadn’t been married before!

However Stevie wasn’t the only musical act I was going to witness that day, as we all know that with weddings comes the dreaded wedding band. Yet I didn’t know what to think because in this case it wasn’t your typical performer. A long time friend of my Dad, Paul Harrington, volunteered to play. For those of you who are unfirmiliar with this man, Paul won the Eurovision Song Contest for Ireland back in 1994 with the hit “Rock N Roll Kid”. The question I asked myself was “What’s cheesier, the Eurovision or wedding bands?”. To my surprise he was actually quite good, and invited me up on stage to perform a few songs with his band. His trio consisted of keys, guitar and drums, playing an array of classics and ultimately producing an impressive and powerful sound.

Realising the time, I downed my drink and headed for the door. Staying in my suit and arriving at The o2 looking slick was probably the best idea I’d had all day. A passerby commented saying that my brother and I looked as if we were in the mafia. I’m yet to decide whether this was a good thing or not. We found our seats, and everything was going perfectly. There was no support act, so this meant an extra long show of Wonder. The lights dimmed, and Stevie appeared on stage.

Thirty seconds into it and I was already impressed. He’d managed to walk up the little side steps, across the stage and find his seat at his piano without any help. Just incase you didn’t know… he’s blind. This was followed by a string of hits both old and new – from his 1968 hit classic “For Once In My Life” to his later 1984 ballad “I Just Called To Say I Love You”. A nice touch was his cover of the Michael Jackson song “Human Nature”, as he preformed it as a dedication to The King of Pop on the eve of the first anniversary of his death.

Backed by a massive band (which consisted of guitarists, a drummer, a bass player, percussionists, sax players, keyboard players and backing singers.) his performance lived up to my expectations. He produced hit after hit and had the crowd calling out for more, chanting “Stevie, Stevie!” at every short moment of silence. He captivated the audience with every riff, and proved that even at the age of 60, he’s still got the “funk”.

As the gig came to an end, I was left awestruck and satisfied. With a setlist of 24 songs, Stevie gave a magnificent performance of all. His voice was sublime and definitely stood the test of time, and his ability to jump between four different instruments throughout was inspiring. His talent was truly mesmerizing.

I can definitely say that skipping out on my Dad’s wedding to see one of my favorite artists of all time was well worth it. Let’s just hope he’s still married the next time Stevie’s in town!

• Go to the AMP Sound Systems Facebook page.
• Find the review you would like to vote for. It should look something like this:

• Click the link to view the entry. Or visit the post here to read them all. Click “Like” to vote for this person’s review.

NOTE: Only posts containing “NAME’s gig review for our Electric Picnic Competition” can be used to vote on.

If you would like to enter our competition to win a pair of Electric Picnic tickets, then visit this post!

We happen to have a few too many tickets for Electric Picnic, and we would love you to have a pair!

We want our dedicated readers to write a blog post for us! Actually, even if this is your first visit to the blog, you still can enter! Anyway, all you need to do is write a short review of a gig you were at recently. This winning review will be posted as our next blog post, and the lucky author will get a pair of tickets to Electric Picnic 2010!

All you have to do is write your review in a comment below. Tell us if you enjoyed the gig or not, and why. It could be a mainstream famous band, or a small local artist you saw in your local pub. Mention the name of the band, the venue, the type of music etc.

Your review will be linked to from our Facebook page. People can vote for your review by clicking “Like” on your review which will look like this:

Tell all your friends that you are in the competition, and they might just vote for you! Send them this link: http://www.facebook.com/AMPSoundSystems and tell them to “like” their favourite review! They might have to click the “Wall” tab to get to the review.

The user with the most “likes” by midnight on the 31st of August will get their review published and will have a pair of tickets to Electric Picnic waiting for them at the gate!

We may email the winner to request photo’s of the gig to improve the blog post, but if you didn’t take any, don’t worry – a press photo or band logo will do! A mention of the sound quality at the gig may impress the techie subscribers we have on board and may gain you a vote!

Get writing your review, and we wish you the best of luck!

NOTE:

The review must be entirely your own work. We will take this very seriously and check up on all entries.

2 guest judges will apply a weight of 20 “likes” each to the review that they deem to be the best.

Only posts on the Facebook page containing “NAME’s gig review for our Electric Picnic Competition” can be used to vote on.