The Sound Chick

Tourage

2012-02-18T09:04:00.003-08:00

So the tour begins! Finally back out on the road. It's a weird thing..... half not relaxing between tour because your anticipating and wanting to be out on the next. The down time has been awesome, but its great to be out here.

We started in Paris, the show went well everyones happy.

Loving the time in france. to be totally immersed in the language really helps you learn. :) Starting to pull together the technical terms etc. Need to learn more!

Happy New Year!

2012-01-02T16:03:00.001-08:00

Looking back over 2011 I have come such a long way and done an amazing number of miles in the name of rock and roll! Being out on tour and meeting some amazing people. Its been a pleasure to work with you all!

Highlight of the year for me had to have been doing my first arena shows. Deacon Blue and Brit floyd at the liverpoole echo arena. Great fun.

2011 started out very slow which gave me the chance to go do my snowboard instructors qualification, and 2 day first aid course. Which was incredible. I'll be looking to get some work in and work towards the next level in a few winters time if it goes quiet again. However 2012 doesn't look like its going to be letting me off lightly. The quiet start to 2011 was balenced by a busy as hell end to the year. Totally unexpected and awasome, some very interesting work came in which looks set to keep me even more busy this year. More on that as it rolls out!

I'll try to keep this blog updated! It all went a bit mental at the end of last year and I ran out of time. But we shall see how this year goes.

Kim sound chick!

Live from Berlin

2011-10-25T08:53:00.000-07:00

Greetings,

Ok so I have been totally terrible at updating my blog on this tour. I'm currently sat in monitor world at the Tempodrom Berlin. and its an interesting venue to say the least.

but thats about all I have time for! hahah Hopefully can upload some photos tomorrow. Finaly a days off in a major city also fingers crossed I have tinterwebs. hehe

have fun and stay safe out there.

Kimx

Stormin The castle!

2011-09-13T04:56:00.000-07:00

Festival season is over! We head in to Freshers at the university!

Hears a taste of stormin the castle

the fantastic Zink buckets

http://youtu.be/i2ykdsOzlg8

What a weekend!

Festival season almost over

2011-08-30T06:08:00.000-07:00

Well the last festival of the season is almost upon me. This week we head to witton castle for "Stormin the castle" bikers rally.

I have had an awesome 2 weeks with ESS, first at Clumber park, and Reading festival. Reading was awesome all be it a bit muddy! The rain did vanish for the last couple of days so we had a great time. Bands included Bridget Aphrodite (awesome chick), Tim Minchin, and Dead cat bounce!

Clumber park was wicked. 3 days of gigs, Pop party with Ndubs, 80s with Level 40 and human league, and a classic day with Katherine Jenkins. PA provided by ESS

Thats all for now. Stormin here I come!

Kim x

another 2 weeks of manicness!

2011-08-09T06:11:00.000-07:00

Wayhey It's been a full filled fortnight just thought I'd drop in an update and a load of photos. I've once again been out and about with ESS.

Last week started out with a road trip from mansfield to a one off show in london at the beautiful Cadogan Hall.

Great venue and great crew we were out of the venue by midnight and heading north again. This time heading for Liverpool arena to have some fun with Deacon blue and Brit floyd again.

The Deacon blue show was wicked FOH was an XL3 and monitors an H3000 (very nice just toooooo heavy!!! and bigger than ME!) Fun was had.

From liverpool I had a fun filled couple of days off in mansfield prepping kit for the Blackpool punk festival Rebellion!!!! Jules and James It was a pleasure to work with you both and the festival was fun. *** Squeaky Chicken! ***

The weather in liverpool has been awesome, yet I have been hearing of Monsoons in other parts of the UK!! weird.

Well thats all for now! I have to start thinking about hitting the road and heading to Newcastle Academy. I'm looking after A2 tonight. fun.

Bye for now!

Kim x

First aid

2011-07-25T14:25:00.000-07:00

I had the pleasure of spending a weekend in Keswick doing my 2 day outdoor first aid course. This has been for something I have been working towards in my spare time. I now only have one more thing left to do before I'm a licence snowboard instructor and can teach on UK ski slopes! The course was run by BASP (http://www.basp.org.uk/) and our instructor Christine was fantastic.

The first aid also can come in handy while I'm out and about. If I learned anything this weekend its always carry a roll of Gaffa tape! hehe

The surroundings were incredible very grand house. We were running accident practice on the lawn and surrounding tree area. With some random visitors to the house giving us some weird looks as they were taking photos and enjoying the house. Fantastic fun. The highlight of the whole practice was the severed finger. :D

The next few weeks are looking busy. I'll update when I can!

Kim

Newcastle Riverside

2011-07-15T07:28:00.000-07:00

Yo yo yo!

I was working at a new venue this week (well new to me) and snapped the bellow photo with my new camera. (GoPro HD). The venue itself was pretty cool. nice lighting rig. Decent sized stage. LS9 out front & Stuff provided by New York Productions.

Back there tomorrow for a festival. Should be fun!

Next week I'm off on an adventure I am doing a 2 day First aid course in Keswick.

TTFN

Kim

What a Fortnight. Brit Floyd & Formula 1

2011-07-11T09:25:00.000-07:00

Well the last 2 weeks have been a bit of an adventure! I have just got home from Silverstone. I have the pleasure of working the F1 Grand Prix. Working for the awesome Ess. Lots of Turbosound boxes in sight :D

I was totally impressed with the Race, managed to get some time to take a few photos below is the best of the lot! The cars were insanely loud! Being so close to the track was amazing.

Last week I got to do my first arena show. I was with ESS for that one too, and working with the fantastic Brit floyd. The show was wicked. Lighting incredible and the sound was totally awesome. Had a wicked time with everyone on the tour!

Should probably write more but photos are worth a thousand words right? hehe

Have a good one

Kimx

Main Stage CYC

2011-06-22T08:31:00.000-07:00

Couple of photos of the main stage at CYC fest. I have the pleasure of sharing the multi core with Johnny once again. Great fun was had by all! Looking forward to next year. Lets hope next year the heavens don't open RIGHT before load out! hehe!

Looks like a busy few weeks coming up. I'm off out with Brit floyd for a few days for ESS. Looking forward to it!

Have a wicked night
Kim x

CYC culture shock

2011-06-16T14:51:00.000-07:00

I have the pleasure of working for AS audio again this week. I am looking after the theater tent. I have a very nice D&B Q1 & Q7 rig with J subs under it. very tasty rig. The band is the Portuguese version of Stomp. be:dom. lots of live condensers on stage.

The site itself is huge. Main stage is almost finished. Will put up some photos if I get across there tomorrow between shows. I'm paying for the sun today.... keep forgetting to put sun cream on. Not used to being in daylight, us sound engineers are usually kept in the dark, in venues with no windows. Well better had get used to it too many festivals coming up!

Have a wicked day!

Kim x

Evolution festival

2011-06-04T15:08:00.000-07:00

AS audio provided for the Ballast hills stage at Evolution festival and I Had the pleasure of being on monitors. This gave me the chance to find my way around the loverly Digico SD8, I really love this board. After having used it once before I found this time much easier. I got to learn alot about set up and about setting up macros. made for an easy festival.

The whole weekend and patch was worked towards getting bellow head onstage on time! They were HUGED. but we managed it! :D

We had an awesome weekend all the acts were something special. Hats off to the Jumping hot club!

The weather was that good I wound up with sun stroke on the first day from walking between the stages. Note to self Cap & suncream!

Have an awesome week.

Kim

Busy Busy Busy

2011-05-21T17:43:00.001-07:00

Hey

Well I have been nice and busy this last week. I have been playing down at the Cluny2! Yesterday I was looking after "Peculiar disco Moves" and today the Mighty Mighty Knuckle Dragger!!!!

http://www.myspace.com/peculiardiscomoves

http://www.myspace.com/weareknuckledragger

If you weren't there you certainly missed out. Both shows were awesome. PDM were electronic disco grooves, surrounded by rope lights, Disco balls and awesomeness with alot of fun sprinkled on the top. And Knuckle Dragger were tightly packed riffs and heavy meaty guitar bring a brutal onslaught of screaming Metal!

Needless to say fun has been had by all.

I had some very interesting questions asked tonight. One of which I am going to have to do some research to answer. Random punter comes up to me and asks "what is the safe dB limit for a pregnant woman??" (I have no idea!) and another one came from a bass player. he wanted me to take a direct out of his amp head and was puzzled that I was insisting on a DI box pre amp.

Well there is 2 reasons I use this methord. One I get a really nice clean bass to my desk, and second If the amp goes off I will still have bass guitar in the PA.

He pointed out YES BUT I want it to sound like it is coming out of my amp....... fair point however your bass amp is made up of alot of 10" speakers..... my PA has separate lows mids and hi....... so where you have boosted the HF drastically to get the presence in your amp so you can hear it on stage, It really doesn't work very nice with my speakers and sounds nothing like your amp if I come direct out of the head. At least taking the clean uneq'ed signal lets me eq it appropriate to the speakers and the mix. Letting me slot it in nicely with the other instruments.

Oh ok..... and he wanders off happy.

I do like the clean sound of the bass and even if I do stick a mic on the cab and blend them together to help out it can make a world of difference, having that clean bottom but character of the mic.

Thats all for tonight I think.

Sweet dreams

Kimx

Boyce Avenue

2011-05-15T02:44:00.001-07:00

So last night I was in the academy doing Boyce Avenue, now this is a band that I had never actually heard of. So I popped on to youtube before the show to actually check them out! Sounded great. Gets to the academy the band set up and soundcheck and I thought the show was going to be a bit average....... I was blown away. They were incredible live.

Turns out this band have no management, no record deal, and are getting made bigger and bigger purely from Youtube and social networking. This is awesome to see. They were a great bunch of guys and really rocked it. I was doing lights hehe as they had their own engineer..... still really enjoyed the show.

Give them a chance and check them out!

GEAR FOR SALE

2011-05-11T04:19:00.001-07:00

Yo!

I'm having a tidy out of kit that has been sat around for a bit. Everything is going on ebay!

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/RME-Fireface-800-cables-/300556451195?pt=Midi_Controllers&hash=item45fa8f7d7b#ht_742wt_1009

There will be a Second RME, a 4u flight case and some other bits and pieces through the next day or two.

Kim

First Festival of the season!

2011-05-08T16:09:00.000-07:00

After an awesome week of snowboarding I left the wonderful world of Tamworth snowdome to embark on my first festival of the season. I was looking after monitor world For Black Magic Audio. The festival was a Fake Festival! headlining we had the awesome Antarctic monkeys, Coldplace and Kings of Lyon. Fun was had all day and the fantastic Jez kept us fed and watered. The best bit of the day was the Roast pig! :D

This week is looking to kick off with a good start. 5 shows this and 5 shows next, things are getting busy!

Have fun

Kim x

Re learning, when 2 steps back isn't really 2 steps back.

2011-03-20T04:06:00.000-07:00

Hey there!

Well everything happens for a reason..... for some time I have been pushed in to only doing monitors, I have been missing out on those skills you learn from mixing FOH or even better looking after a small venue. You learn allot. The start of this year I have been thrown back in to grass roots mixing. It's given me the chance to relearn some of those chops I have forgot and to polish those skills again.

So here is what I've relearned this week!

ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS have 3 rubber feet on your mic stands - especially when on a hollow stage...... RING RING that you can't eq out!

Always check every line of the multi before you start the show.... and every xlr cable as it gets put on stage. Saves loads of hassle when sound checks run nice and smooth.

If joining 2 xlr cables together TAPE IT. also if you have a MAJOR excess of cable at the mic end.... tape the coil to stop it being pulled in to total mess. this can always be undone if you need more length.

When putting mics in stands put the xlr clip UP so that when the artist pulls the mic out of the stand it doesn't pop the xlr out of the mic.... anything that happens after that is the artists fault! or tape the mic to the cable.

Make sure your Female xlr end has a rubber ring when putting it on vocal mics to stop the xlr moving and disconnecting when they are jumping around like id10ts.

will think of more! an if you can think of more..... please feel free to comment and add them here!

Today Im off to the Cluny to do some Regge.

Laters x

Northumbria uni.

2011-02-27T10:45:00.000-08:00

It's been a busy week

2011-02-27T10:38:00.000-08:00

Well its been an interesting few days 4 awesome shows back to back. This is what I have missed! 3 days at the Cluny2 and a day at Northumbria uni. All really enjoyable shows. The highlight of the weekend was the above gig. The little comets. They really are a great band. I actually have a day off tomorrow. Time to reflect on the weekends fun I think.

I had my iPad hooked up to the pfl bus of my mixer yesterday..... Just for the rta. I think I am going to get the smaart for it so that I can use the spectrograph in monitor world. Saves carrying a laptop and the 10 hours battery life is awesome.

Have a wicked day Kim x

The Minx is Back.

2011-02-25T04:46:00.000-08:00

Well it's been a while since I have blogged about my passon of live sound and Life in General. I think it's about time it makes a comeback. Its reassuring my old blog name was still available and ready for my return.

Allot of things have changed since I was last here... but one thing for sure is I still love my job and it will continue to be a passion for me.

I am currently looking after a little venue, I'll have time to take some photos today as I have the rig set up from yesterday. It's not the worlds greatest set up but it is an awesome little venue. For me it has been a step back form working big shows coming back to the smaller shows are helping me re-polish my chops I have been missing for a while.

This year has started of quiet for me, however it is looking to be getting much busier.

Heres to a new start!

Sound chick Kim x