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

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

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:

On a side note – thanks for all that support. Visitors have been piling on board. And it puts a smile on my face to know that you enjoyed the stuff I write so much that you even clicked the “Like” button! Thank you!

Anyway, back to that horrible stuff that usually pierces ears and damages speakers. Feedback.

It would be greatly appreciated if you could leave a few comments below with idea’s of what you would like to see on the blog in the future. More technical? Less technical? Big tours? Little gigs? Tell me and I shall do my very best to deliver it to you!

Also, tell me what you like and dislike about the site. What could be done better. And I promise that I will not pull your frequency out of the graph to get rid of the feedback! Shit, I think I just went too technical again…..

Thanks in advance folks! Look forward to hearing your opinions!

The band graced the Circus Tent with a completely new and improved set list, which also included some stunning new tracks. But of course didn’t neglect to open the set with their ever powerful “Howrya Folk” and slip in “Be Easy” somewhere in the middle!

Music by The Eskies has the creativity, musical talent and catchyness that will see them sneaking into the charts very soon.

Unfortunately, I had to reset my “time without analogue desk” counter, as the Front of House mixer was the Midas Venice 320. A fine console, but an analogue console! However I don’t mind this time, as I would have done anything to mix the gig anyway!

Keep your eye on The Eskies. Get to one of their gigs if you can!

http://www.theeskies.com/

Listen to “The Eskies – Be Easy“

I replaced the audio on this video, as I have not yet got permission from the bands to use it, but the video should give you a quick overview of the buzz at the festival this year.

Monitors were D&B Max 12′s and the console was the Yamaha M7CL.

The rig consisted of a Funktion One PA for FoH, a M7CL-32 at mix, and EV sxA250′s for wedges.

View the video below to see the place from our perspective!

Enjoy! And don’t forget to click the Share button below if you know others who underestimate the work involved!!

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On the 5th of May 2010, AMP Sound Systems was booked to provide the PA system and crew for a show by the Dublin Glee Choir in The Bank, Newry. I knew this would be a great gig, so decided to engineer it myself. My day went like this:

It all starts the night before at the warehouse...

...cases are picked and loaded...

...the D&B Max12's will be used as monitors...

17:22 – All the equipment is pushed into the venue

17:46 - Speakers are positioned

17:52 - The backbone of the wiring is installed

18:21 - A rough layout of the stage is created

18:21 - Mic stands placed on stage

18:22 - Stage coming together

18:28 - Mix position is set up

18:33 - Things start to get patched in

18:50 - Studio Manager is connected...

...and the show is loaded

20:15 - Wiring on the stage is complete

20:15 - Connected. Now to start tidying up.

21:20 - Leads tidied up and taped where required

21:20 - The band arrives...

21:25 - ...and sort out their positions

21:29 - Souncheck starts

21:41 - Rough levels are set and a song is run

21:56 - Final adjustments before the doors are opened

22:22 - Mix position tidied

22:23 - And show is saved as a backup

22:23 - Then lots of muted channels as we wait...

23:13 - Time to check out the controls of those rather cool screens!!!

23:13 - And say hello to the DJ who was playing music dangerously loud

00:23 - Quick check that I am receiving signal on all channels

00:25 - And the place starts filling up

01:05 - The choir arrives on stage

02:17 - Starting to get loud now!

The last photo of the stage, as we were too busy packing up the gear to take photo's!

04:03 - Yes, that does say I will be home at 5:59 AM!

04:17 - On the A1 just about to leave the North of Ireland

04:18 - How depressing - the sat nav says turn left in 92.1 km!

04:41 - The fact that the sun is coming up just makes you realise that it is in fact the next day...

...so its Red Bull time!!!

05:47 - The sun is fully up now, so I just want to go to bed!

06:16 - Does this really need an explanation???

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A good friend of mine, Pat Nolan (Barry in Fair City) is joining a team of over 100 (motorcyclists, pillion passengers & support) to tackle the infamous / historic “mother of all roads” – ROUTE 66.

2,448 miles of unforgiving highway crossing Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and California.

The gig was to help them raise funds for Temple Street Children’s University Hospital in Dublin. It was held in The Mill Theatre, Dundrum and it was a night of music, magic, comedy, acting, and much more! Phil Cauly was the MC, and welcomed guests such as Pat Fallon, Dana Davis, Brendan Burke, Dave Duffy and many more! Was a fantastic show.

Unfortunately though, the theatre only had an analogue mixing desk – the Allen & Heath GL2400. Nice desk, but an analogue desk! Although it is like riding a bike, I would obviously never forget how to mix on one of these bad boys. But I did miss the features. I missed having everything I could possibly need at my finger tips. I missed having a screen telling me exactly what is going on with my system. I missed having an EQ section that would do what I wanted it to do, rather than be confined to the bandwidth and frequencies that the EQ on the board had.

The show still sounded great, but it made me realize that investing so much in digital consoles was worth every penny.

If you made it along to the show, thank you very much for your support. However, if you could not make it – you can still support Pat by donating to this very good cause at http://www.mycharity.ie/event/patnolansevent/

Luan Parle on Stage

The stage outside Wicklow Gaol rocked the town with the help of 4 subs from AMP Sound Systems. Luan Parle played a beautiful set as expected. Was thoroughly proud that our equipment shared a stage with Luan once again. An array of D&B Q1′s from Acoustik completed the rig.

The sun kept shining and made for a magical day!

M7CL at Mix position

Eoin & Luan after the gig