Before we did anything, we needed to do some research on live performances, how they are presented, how they should sound, their layouts, and how to keep one running smoothly. So what better way to do this than attend a small gig?
S.O.R.M Charity gig:
We all went to watch a live charity performance that was taking place outside of college in the main car park. The event was run by S.O.R.M studios, a local music studio, and lasted about two to three hours with various acts playing; Including some of the other college students. Overall this gig ran very smoothly and swift with one act on straight after another. There was a great variety in the style of music, and even a small speech to announce the purpose of this charity gig.
Overall this gig was well presented and the sound produced was to a good quality, which was excellent considering that there was a lot of ambient noise due to it being an outdoor gig. However, I personally don’t think that it was made clear enough that this was a charity event. There were little to no donations due to the fact that nobody knew that this event was for charity, as the small speech announcing this was only about a minute long, and towards the end of the event. Another issue that I noticed with this gig was that there was no spare equpipmet in case of something breaking. So, when one of the performers had a guitar string snap, there were no spare strings to fix it quickliy, and no spare guitar for him to play. While this might seem like a minor issue, or rather the performers resposiblity, It was definiatly something to take on board for when we hosted our own event.
Manchester Bombing charity concert:
In addition to attending the S.O.R.M gig, we all sat down to watch the footage from the recent charity gig for the victims of the recent bombings in Manchester hosted by Arianna Grande. We watched her performing the song “Where is the Love?” along with the Black Eye Peas.
This was a much better example of a large scale charity concert as it was made very clear that this was a charity event due to talks from each of the band members, and the huge posters and backdrops around the event site. The fluidity and sound produced from this gig was obviously far better than the previous small gig within college as this was a large scale, professional event and was far superior to the S.O.R.M gig. While this gig was much less realistic to the sort of show we were having to put on, it gave us a much better insight into good showmanship and how to make it clear that it will be a charity event.
Classic piano concert:
Finally, we actually held a small concert of our own to test the waters and get a feel for how we should run a concert of our own smoothly and efficiently. This required a small amount of organising, such as preparing equipment to record audio and video of this performance to be later used as promotional material.
As I was in charge of sound, I set up two sets of microphones to record the grand piano up close, and the room ambiance. There were four microphones used; two for each placement. They would poin away from each other at 45 degree angles to captre the sound of the whole room, and the treble and bass from the piano. These all recorded directly into Logic Pro and was mixed along with video from two camera placements, arranged by the other students, later on.
So, other than the sound and video, we positioned the piano, arranged appropriate lighting, and set up seating for the event and had some students sat by the door to get people’s contact information to later help us promote our gig.
Unfortunately this event was very last minute and we only had a day to prepare so we focused on the running of the event rather than promotion and such. This meant that we would get a good feel for the quality of sound we need to produce, any seating arrangememts we should use, how to announce acts, and how to arrage visual effects such as the lighting and background image.
Overall the event ran very smoothly, however it did run longer than expected. I would say it was a success given the timescale to prepare for it. This gig was not for charity and was a free event just so we could get an initial experience of running a gig.
Here is a video that we mixed of this performance: