Nate Najar
February 9th 15, 08:03 PM
I just played a festival in NC over the weekend. 3 days of jazz musicians thrown into different combinations to do 30-40 minute sets... It's in the ballroom of a hotel. I am really impressed with the production folks they've hired for this event. This is the 2nd year in a row I've been at this festival and it was the same production guys. They have a nice sized stage and subs on either side with small line arrays on sticks. Wedges all across the front and a handful of 58's and 421's for whatever may come up as necessary.
but with all that "standard" production, they really honestly treat the gig as sound reinforcement and not production. So on stage really the only thing in the wedges are vocal mics the tight be used, or a little piano for the drummer. Of course it goes without saying that the musicians in this station are really top, top players who are used to playing in purely acoustic situations...
So it's odd that I'm the only guitar player there and yet I play a classical guitar. kind of cool. I always travel with my fire eye redeye DI box and an re15. They have a little guitar amp so i use that for my "stage sound" and they can use the DI and or mic for the sound reinforcement aspect.
But Charlie Byrd's wife came to the festival and she brought Charlie's Ramirez guitar for me to play. I've recorded with this instrument before but I've never performed with it. I knew she was coming so I thought I'd try to figure out how to amplify it. I have an AKG contact mic that I bought real inexpensive a few years ago because i remembered someone saying once it would be a good utility thing to have. So I had brought this with me.
On my trio set I played the ramirez into the re15 and used the akg contact mic to get some guitar in the wedges and to help out the FOH. It sounded extremely good. Of course we weren't playing loud (not even the drummer!) and that helps a ton, but I am amazed at how well that worked. Not once during my set did I feel uncomfortable with the sound or as if I had to compensate with my playing in any way.
Of course that RE15 helps a lot too- you can put it RIGHT in front of the sound hole at about 8-10 inches and get a very good, full sound that isn't boomy but has a lot of signal.
but with all that "standard" production, they really honestly treat the gig as sound reinforcement and not production. So on stage really the only thing in the wedges are vocal mics the tight be used, or a little piano for the drummer. Of course it goes without saying that the musicians in this station are really top, top players who are used to playing in purely acoustic situations...
So it's odd that I'm the only guitar player there and yet I play a classical guitar. kind of cool. I always travel with my fire eye redeye DI box and an re15. They have a little guitar amp so i use that for my "stage sound" and they can use the DI and or mic for the sound reinforcement aspect.
But Charlie Byrd's wife came to the festival and she brought Charlie's Ramirez guitar for me to play. I've recorded with this instrument before but I've never performed with it. I knew she was coming so I thought I'd try to figure out how to amplify it. I have an AKG contact mic that I bought real inexpensive a few years ago because i remembered someone saying once it would be a good utility thing to have. So I had brought this with me.
On my trio set I played the ramirez into the re15 and used the akg contact mic to get some guitar in the wedges and to help out the FOH. It sounded extremely good. Of course we weren't playing loud (not even the drummer!) and that helps a ton, but I am amazed at how well that worked. Not once during my set did I feel uncomfortable with the sound or as if I had to compensate with my playing in any way.
Of course that RE15 helps a lot too- you can put it RIGHT in front of the sound hole at about 8-10 inches and get a very good, full sound that isn't boomy but has a lot of signal.