Chris Reitz dot Com

This is the first in a series of short articles I’d written while I was still back in school. When I graduated, I lost my web space, so I’m just re-posting them here. So here goes: How to perform music on a tight budget.

Who cares about recording? Your band wants to perform! You have seen the setups that big bands use, but there is no way you could ever afford them. Is there any way to perform without spending thousands of dollars?

The technically correct answer is no. My band managed to pull off a performance setup for about $2000. Which technically is thousands. But hey! it’s not $20 000.

The first thing to ask is how many instruments do you have and how many vocalists do you have? In my band, we have three instruments (plus an acoustic instrument) and two vocalists. So we need three mics (one for each vocalist plus one for the acoustic instrument), two guitar (mono) inputs and one keyboard (stereo) input. We also use a CD player for extra tracks that we can’t perform (like extra harmonies). That brings the total up to 3 mics, 2 stereo, and 2 mono. Mics usually run off XLR cable, and guitars and keyboards run off 1/4″ phone (or TRS) cable. CD players sometimes run TRS and sometimes run RCA. So, we needed 3 XLRs, 4 TRS and 1 stereo RCA. Go to your local audio dealer with these numbers and they will show you a mixer which might work for you.

Ask yourself (realistically) how large your typical audience would be. For us, we didn’t see catering to a crowd any bigger than 500 people. And that was an overestimate. We ended up needing two 15″ speakers. Tell your dealer this number too. They’ll show you a speaker/amp setup which will work.

Just a side note, there are two ways to amp your speakers. One is to buy an amplifier and run the output of your mixer into that. The other is to buy a power mixer, one with an amp built in. We used a power mixer. It works, but if you see your band ever needing to expand a bit, I’d suggest getting the amp separately. Either that or get active speakers (speakers with a built-in amp). These options cost more, but they are more expandable. If you’re planning for the day when you play the Astrodome, don’t get a power mixer.

What if you are in the situation my band is in? 2 vocalists and 6-part harmony? How the heck do you perform your music? What my band did is to burn a “Performance CD” which has all the tracks that you won’t perform. That way, you can’t be accused of lip-syncing, but you won’t have to figure out how to sing more than one note at once.

Get a good sound guy. This can be the toughest thing to do on this page. You have two options. 1) get a guy who is familiar with your music and knows what kind of sound you’re interested in, or 2) YOU do sound and write down all your settings and teach someone how to set up the mixer for your settings and how to fight feedback if it occurs. My band did #2. It works reasonably well, although, I suppose #1 is a bit better.