We hope that your New Year brings more great shows, talented casts, great musicians and most importantly - great craic! We look forward to being behind the mixing desk for you again in 2012.

For more information, or to book Eoin for a show, please visit EoinOGrady.ie.

There are many free apps in the store that can read these codes – just search for “QR Codes”.

The skydive is being arranged by Skydive Ireland who will prepare and train all the jumpers before they hit the skies! The cost of the dive has already been covered by Eoin, so every cent of donations will go directly to Temple Street. It is a fantastic cause, and any support would be greatly appreciated.

Please consider making a donation through mycharity.ie as this money will get to the charity quickly and safely. Or else feel free to nab Eoin at a gig where he will be carrying a sponsorship card at all times!

AMP Sound Systems would like to wish Eoin the very best as he falls from the sky, and would like to sincerely thank everyone who makes a donation!

Donate online – click here

Cheap PA Systems for the masses!

Is the availability of pro audio equipment to the masses making sound in general better or worse? A quick search on Thomann can get you a little PA system like this, ready to go. Just throw in a mic or 2 and for under a thousand quid you have a gig!

With the rise in technology, and the affordability of equipment like this, a new breed of “sound engineers” has appeared in the world. A group of amateurs who think they can achieve the same results as a professional would have. They can suddenly be at the same level as someone who took years to study his art, and years to perfect it.  Now this new guy on the block, money in hand,  goes to Thomann and buys the same equipment that a pro would have and voila, a new genre of professionalism is born.  The lack of experience doesn’t matter anymore.   He can now buy his experience – because as far as most people are concerned, having sound equipment is all that you need. As long as someone knows how to plug it in, it will be fine.

But is this good or bad?

There are many parts to that answer, but before I answer it I must point out that I am aware that there are some cases where “anyone” can do the gig and that is perfectly fine. It will sound just fine, and realistically, a professional wouldn’t do any better. But these cases are always at the very low end of live sound – an area where good engineers don’t want to be anyway.

I am not for one moment trying to say that anyone who buys equipment from Thomann and does a gig for very little money is a bad engineer. Some of them are very good. And your gig might sound great! That is brilliant for you – hang on to him/her for as long as you possibly can.

But these guys are cheaper…

Well they are obviously going to be a lot cheaper than a reputable sound provider. Of course this is good for the band or musician. But what happens if you take this analogy on board:

You have the option of paying a doctor in your local GP’s office €60 to diagnose your symptoms and provide a cure. But you could also go to a back-alley doctor who is operating a practice illegally and most likely without proper qualifications. Yes, he will only charge you €20, but I severely doubt that you will go to him!

But how can this real doctor charge 3 times more? Because he has spent years studying his art, and you are not paying for the 5 minutes you are in with him – you are paying for the years he spent learning how to be a doctor.

Now take that example further – the doctor is your sound engineer, and your health is your bands sound! If the doctor messes up, you will be worse off!

But his last few gigs sounded great…

If you were smart enough to pop along to some other gig that your new potential “engineer” is mixing, it will give you a great insight into the quality of his work. If it sounds crap, you can just go and get someone else. But if it sounds good, does that mean that you should book him straight away? Certainly have a chat with him, and see if he is available.

But again there is a caveat to this. He may have worked with that band many times before, and after months of fine tuning has managed to get it sounding great. Your show will be a lot different, and you will need someone who can adjust quickly and notice and resolve problems instantly. A good engineer will know straight away what is wrong with the mix, and fix it. This will make your first show sound as good as any other show you will play. “I don’t know the band” is no excuse.

Basing your judgement on a past gig may not answer all your questions. His equipment might be working fine at the gig you saw, but what if something goes wrong? Does he carry spares? Probably not. Does he know how to fix things when they do go wrong? Probably not. A good engineer has gone through all these problems before, and has the experience to deal with them correctly. He also will have connections or possibly the sound company to back him up with replacements.

But you did it too…

He knows his stuff...

Yes I did! It’s how most people start. But I also made mistakes at those gigs, and learnt from those mistakes. Mistakes that will never happen at one of my gigs now. All I am saying is to not to skimp on your sound budget. If you want it to be done right, pay for it to be done right.

There are plenty of gigs where the amateurs can practice and learn. Leave them doing those gigs. Lots of them will develop into very experienced and skilled sound engineers. Book them when they reach this stage. If you are only at this stage yourself, then thats fine. But as soon as you are at the higher level, book a sound engineer who is at or above your level.

You get what you pay for is the most true statement when talking about sound engineers.

Look at an engineers portfolio. Check up on his/her testimonials. If an artist was genuinely happy with the sound, they will be happy to pass this information on. Do your research. If it is too good to be true, then it probably is! You get what you pay for!

And we hope that your New Year brings more great shows, talented casts, great musicians and most importantly - great craic! We look forward to being behind the mixing desk for you again in 2011.

This means that we have equipment and engineers available this week. If you have been let down by your sound company due to the adverse weather conditions, or are a sound hire company yourself and need us to cover one of your gigs, please do not hesitate to give us a ring on (01) 524 2720 and hopefully we will be able to help you out.

Thanks to Eoin at AMP Systems for providing a wonderful sound system for our party in Solas, Dublin. He braved a snow blizzard to get it out to us, so I really appreciate their dedication to their clients. He was always friendly, helpful, and flexible.

Thanks again!

– Louise Bernstein

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