Laying The Ground Work

I've been in the live music game for almost 40 years now.  Like most musicians, I started playing in bands in high school, and just never really out grew it!

Somewhere along the way, my love for music and electronics merged, and I found that if you knew a thing or two about PA systems, amps, and lighting you were generally in greater demand than if you were a player. 

Along the way, I've gotten to work on some pretty major productions.  During an 8 year span with High End Systems , I got to work on equipment destined for acts like Rush, Metallica, Tina Turner, Lynyrd Skynyrd, and the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, Australia.  

In the bands I've been part of here in Austin for the last 14 years, I usually worked into the role of "Chief Engineer"...responsible (in part or in whole) for the technical aspects of the show.  That included packaging the show so it could be rapidly deployed and struck by a small number of people, keeping it in good repair, and making sure that it sounded as good as it could for what we had available.

I'll let you in on a little secret....it's really easy to make a $100,000 PA system sound good.  Especially now days with digital systems that auto analyze the room and apply their own corrections. 

No, what's tough is making the $5000 (or even more so the $1000) systems sound decent with a band.  That's where you need to really watch where you're investing your money, and learn how to read beyond the specifications on equipment. 

In the last couple of years especially, I've received a lot of emails asking questions about this kind of thing.  And as of late, I've been asked over and over again to provide some kind of lessons or instructions for this kind of stuff.

There's a lot of information out there on the web and YouTube these days about how to put together and run PA systems.  But, most of them are geared toward your $10,000 and up sound systems.  Again, the more resources you have available the easier your job is.  What I don't see a lot of is information for folks just starting out or who are playing small to medium size rooms where "what they're making" doesn't justify spending 5 figures on a PA.

And that "packaging" thing I mentioned....I see no info at all there (other than for arena grade systems).  There's a lot that can be done to a small to medium size system that makes it easier (and more foolproof ) to set up and run.  In the near future, I'll tell you how the investment of a couple of hundred dollars cut the setup time of one band from almost 3 hours to 45 minutes! 

So, in the coming weeks and months, I'm made a commitment to myself to share some of the knowledge I've acquired with the general public.  The format will likely be "top-of-memory" recall.  In other words, if I've just had an event I've had to deal with on a show, I'll probably talk about that.

I'm also open to questions.  If there's something specific you would like addressed, let me know and I'll do my best to help you out.  The main thing I ask of you is to be specific when you ask questions.  Let me know what equipment you have, and what you're not happy about.  Questions such as "what is the best and cheapest PA available" will be summarily dismissed with possible public humiliation involved.

I'll try to post weekly updates starting next week.

In the mean time, keep the meters out of the red.

Ken

Ken Carver has been a musician and performer since the early 70's, and involved with live music production since the mid 70's.  He worked for 15 years as a broadcast engineer, building numerous studios and transmitter sites around Texas.  He's also worked in Critical Care Communications for the medical industry, R&D for automated lighting, and owned Project Lighting & Sound in the 80's.  He currently heads up an R&D Hardware Technician Team at an Austin Hi Tech firm, and still performs on the weekends in the Austin area.  You can reach Ken at kcarvertx@gmail.com.