Live Events Process and Production

For this module we are tasked with putting on a live music event, and we have decided to do this in the form of a festival.

Firstly I will cover the necessary legislation and safety precautions that we will require in order to host the event.

Legislation:

The Live Music Act (2012):

This was introduced in the UK to amend the Licencing Act (2003) with respect to the performance of live music. (Legislation.gov.uk)

This allows a venue to host live music events, so long as they follow these main requirements:

  • The venue must have licence to sell alcohol
  • The venue must only hold a maximum of 500 people
  • Performances must fall between the times of 8pm – 11pm

This act allowed many small venues to begin hosting live events without any more licencing, and in turn benefited the music industry for smaller acts on the whole.

The Music Licence:

In order to play music to a public audience, venues must have “TheMusicLicence.” This is a licence from the PPL and PRS organisations who collect the royalties for artists when their material is performed live. This covers any public playing of music, from live gigs to radio plays.

Noise Regulations:

Workers are now required to wear ear protection if the noise in their work environment exceeds 85 decibels. This is thanks to the Control of Noise at Work Regulations (2005) which makes it illegal to expose workers to noise levels higher than this without providing proper protection.

This ultimately helps combat things like tinnitus and permanent loss of hearing, and applies to all noisy workplaces.

PAT Testing:

Portable Appliance Testing is used on electrical equipment to test for faults. In a music event this would apply to things like guitar amplifiers, the PA system, and anything requiring power really. Some venues may ask a band to have their gear all PAT tested before they are allowed to perform there.

When an item has been PAT tested there will usually be a small green sticker, often found on the power cable, to indicate that it has passed.

Public Liability Insurance:

This is necessary for many industries, particularly live music. Public liability insurance covers any potential injury to a member of the public, for example someone tripping on a wire, or even something as serious as a speaker stack falling over. This however is NOT a legal requirement, however I argue that it is 100% necessary for any venue or band using large amounts of gear.

Risk Assessment:

Here is a risk assessment that I wrote out when surveying the room for the event:

As we would be performing this in the new performance space within the college, we have all of the necessary licencing to host an event like this, and we do have members of staff who are fully trained in performing first aid.

Stage plan and equipment list:

Because of this being one of the bigger events we will have held, planning and organisation is essential. Here is a list of all of the required equipment for our band to perform shown on my stage plan:

I have also taken the time to draw up a couple more images showing the placement of power cables, and another showing the XLR cables sending sound to and from the Mixing desk:

Something to mention here is that we can link our PA speakers and monitors together with power cables to power all of them without having to use a large amount of plug sockets. On the plan above you can see the bottom 5 monitors linked together, and both front of house stacks having power linked up through each speaker.

Next, here is a list showing the approximate place where XLR cables will be:

The red cables here are specifically for the drum microphones, as we will set this up first and it also has the most mic placements. The blue cables here are for the other instruments, so the vocals mics, guitars and bass, and the Moog synth.

The green cables are XLR’s going out to the 6 monitors and front of house PA.

I tried to arrange the wires in a way that will keep them mostly out of the way. For safety, I will tape down any cables that had to be left on stage, such as the vocal microphone cables.

Channel List:

Once we have set up the stage correctly, the channel list going into the desk should look like this:

  1. Kick Drum
  2. Snare Drum
  3. Hi-Hats
  4. High Tom
  5. Mid Tom
  6. Floor Tom
  7. Overhead Left
  8. Overhead Right
  9. Bass Guitar
  10. Guitar Left
  11. Guitar Right
  12. Moog Synth
  13. Vocal Mic 1
  14. Vocal Mic 2
  15. Vocal Mic 3

With the actual plan in place, here are a list of 10 problems that could occur on the night, and some quick methods of overcoming them:

Feedback from the front of house PA:

  • Are the gain levels too high? We can start by turning this down on this desk.
  • We can also try and find the frequency causing the feedback on the desk, and lower this using the EQ. This can sometimes be referred to as ‘ringing out the room’ where you find the frequencies responsible, and adjust them prior to the gig.
  • If this still continues we might need to alter the position of the speakers to combat it.
  • Finally, we can try asking singers to sing louder, allowing us to lower the gain on their mics.

No signal from microphones?

  • Are the XLR leads faulty? It’s good to have some backup cables to try nearby.
  • Does the microphone have an on/off switch? While this sounds silly sometimes the mic is simply turned off.
  • Make sure the XLR’s are plugged into the right place.
  • If the mic is a condenser, it might be that phantom power is turned off.
  • Check to see if the channel is muted on the desk.

Hum or buzz from a DI input?

  • Check for faulty cables.
  • Is the ground loop on the DI box turned on?

Hiss from the guitar channels?

  • Is the gain on the amp too high?
  • You could use a noise gate to try and cut this out of the mix.
  • Is the mic too close to the speaker?
  • Applying a low pass filter can help reduce this noise.

Bass guitar not coming through the PA?

  • Check for faulty leads
  • Is the channel muted?
  • Is the DI box/output working?
  • Is the bass actually turned up?

Vocal channel becoming distorted?

  • Is the gain too high?
  • Is the correct type of microphone being used?
  • Try using the EQ to lower the appropriate frequencies.

Are the dynamics of a channel loud in the chorus but quite in the verse?

  • Try adding some compression to even out the volume.
  • If you know the song well you can alter the faders live to adjust the volume appropriately.

Vocals are sounding dry?

  • Adding a touch of reverb or chorus can help this.

Are wireless receivers not working?

  • Check the battery level first.
  • Check for faulty wires on the receiver.
  • Are the radio frequencies matched up?
  • Is it all connected correctly?

Tom drums ringing out loudly after being hit?

  • Using a noise gate can help stop this ringing out.
  • Try applying some tape or moon-gel to the drum skin.
  • If this carries on, try adjusting the EQ to lower it.

Obviously there are many more issues that could happen, but listing them all would be endless.

Lighting Effects:

We have access to a professional lighting rig in out performance space of choice, so here are some ideas for utilising this for the event.

I would want to make the lighting available for each act through the evening, and we could set up some preset lighting prior to the event. I would opt for having some solid colour moving lights available for each act, and I think being able to project the artists’ logos onto the back wall would make the event look really sweet.

Something like this as standard for each band would be perfect, and out rig will be capable of this as the room isn’t the biggest of venues. I would utilise more colourful lighting than in the example image above, as I feel this would give the event a more exciting feel.

I will ask the acts prior to the event about what kind of colour schemes they would like, and prepare them in advance as we can program presets.

For our own act I can go into a bit more depth. We have a psychedelic theme going with our logos and advertising, and I would want to reflect this in the lighting.

I would project the three of our logo designs onto the wall behind the band on a loop for the first couple of songs. Here is what they look like:

This combined with some moving lights of similar colour schemes would look fantastic as a backdrop for the band.

One more thing is that we have had a music video produced for one of our tracks, and I think it’d be really cool to have that playing behind us when we come to perform that song. I’d leave the stage lighting to be a bit more subtle here so put a bit more focus on the backdrop and keep it fairly visible to the audience.

On top of lighting there is also the possibility of things like a smoke machined for example. These look brilliant when used on stage combined with the lights, however we will need to look into the possibility of this further before deciding on using one.

Schedule:

Here is a quick schedule I put together for the day of the gig, both for setting up, and for the event itself:

  • 09:30 – Set up PA and Backline on stage.
  • 11:00 – Ring out the room to help counter feedback later.
  • 12:30 – Lunch.
  • 13:00 – Set up the lighting rig for use with appropriate presets.
  • 14:00 – Sound check for the first band.
  • 15:00 – Soundcheck for the headline band.
  • 16:00 – Final checks, and ensure the risk assessment has been adhered to.

Here we will be able to relax a bit and prepare for the event later.

  • 17:00 – 17:40 First band on (Other Fungus)
  • 18:00 – 18:40 Second band on (The Surge)
  • 19:00 – 19:40 Third band on (Alfie and the Rockets)
  • 20:00 – 20:40 Fourth act (Rhyanne)
  • 21:00 – 21:50 Headline act (The Late Show)
  • 22:00 – Event officially over and time to pack down.

I feel this is an appropriate schedule that will allow everything to be done on time. I didn’t want to push the event past 10pm as I feel it would then be getting too late as it is already a long event.

Recap / Evaluation:

To summarise, I feel that if we follow the set schedule and follow the layout of my stage plans then this will be a successful live music event. It will also adhere to health and safety guidelines using the appropriate risk assessment.

Unfortunately due to the Covid-19 outbreak, we are unable to go though with this plan which is why I have tried my best to include so much detail in my stage plans. Hopefully when the lock-down does end we will still be able to host this even, even if this module is already in the past.

Thanks for reading.

References:

Aisolutions.co.uk. 2020. Control Of Noise At Work Regulations 2005. [online] Available at: <https://www.aisolutions.co.uk/Community/Knowledge/Topic/713/900/Control-of-Noise-at-Work-Regulations-2005> [Accessed 20 May 2020].

PPL PRS. 2020. Get Themusiclicence | Play Music Legally In Your Business | PPL PRS. [online] Available at: <https://pplprs.co.uk/get-themusiclicence/> [Accessed 20 May 2020].

Legislation.gov.uk. 2012. Live Music Act 2012. [online] Available at: <http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2012/2/introduction/enacted> [Accessed 20 May 2020].

Electrical Safety First. n.d. PAT Testing Explained | Electrical Safety First. [online] Available at: <https://www.electricalsafetyfirst.org.uk/find-an-electrician/pat-testing-explained/> [Accessed 20 May 2020].

Simplybusiness.co.uk. n.d. What Is Public Liability Insurance?. [online] Available at: <https://www.simplybusiness.co.uk/insurance/faq/what-is-public-liability-insurance/> [Accessed 20 May 2020].