Allegiant
As a few people know, I play guitar with a band called Allegiant. I also work as a technical assistant and audio engineer with the band. Often, the rest of the band puts the songs together, and I not only play with them, but also record them and set up the live shows, mostly with my own equipment.
Recently, we had the opportunity to play at a church retreat. This was an exciting show for us – the first show with lots of new equipment, as well as debuting several new songs. As for me, I recently bought myself the Midas M32 mixing console, and this would be the very first show I would use it at. The band had been rehearsing for months, and I had been preparing the technical side for quite some time too. I had made a microphone input list, designed a lighting show, and laid out every detail of how the stage and venue would be set up. The night before the show, we loaded up the microphones, lights, guitars, amps, drums, mixer, cables, and speakers – we were ready to rock.
We had played at the same retreat the year before, but with my live sound education, new equipment, and new songs, it was almost an entirely new experience. When we arrived, we split into three groups – one group set up instruments, one group set up lights and speakers, and I set up the front of house mixing position. Within a few hours, the show was really coming together. Front of house was set up, instruments were on the stage, and lighting was being raised on the truss. Then, I broke out the microphones (this is going to get technical, bear with me).
First, I miked up the drum kit. The drum kit is extensively large – 7 shells and 8 cymbals. I used an Audix D6 for the kick drum, an Audix i5 for the snare drum, MXL 840 pair for overheads, and an AKG P420 for hi hat. I then moved on to guitars. There were three guitar amps – two were equipped with Sennheiser e609 microphones, and one with a Shure SM57. The bass guitar and acoustic guitar did not have amplifiers, so I just ran them through Klark Teknik DN100 direct boxes. The keyboard ran MIDI through Logic Pro X, and outputted through a Scarlett 2i4 interface. The three vocal microphones used were the Sennheiser e835, the Sennheiser e838, and the Shure SM58. Then, right before we checked levels and tested lights, the event started. We ran out of time.
For the next several hours, we waited for the moment we could retake the stage to practice and test everything out. It didn’t happen until 11 PM. We began to start work once again, but by midnight, we were ready to sleep, as we had to be back up at 7 AM the next morning. The next morning, we waited through a few more hours of the event, and then took the stage to prepare for the show. But there were more obstacles yet. The video projector died. Members of the audience didn’t leave the auditorium for a final sound check. A loss of adrenaline.
We played our show. It wasn’t the best show we played – not many people in the audience, confusion over the start time, and we were exhausted. But at the end of it all, we looked back at the technical aspect of the show. The sound was great. We sounded great. The lighting was great. The Midas M32 was a game-changer for us. While it wasn’t the greatest show ever, we learned a lot, and it was an incredible experience.
We’re always looking to play more shows and would love to have your support. Check us out and like Allegiant here:
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Allegiant-Band/544776905554835
Allegiant Engineering 