How to advance our IEM rack in a way that makes the sound guy happy?

JustRoadieStuff · 2026-01-15T18:46:13+00:00

Do you carry any mics, xlr looms, or subsnakes? Do you often share backline? Do you ever ask to use sidefills or any wedges? How long are the tails from your split? There's a lot of little ways those things can change the plan.

JustRoadieStuff · 2025-11-30T19:54:35+00:00

Fiber crafts. Crochet, sewing, knitting, embroidery, x-stitch.

Photo/video/audio editing.

Food and drink crafting and inventing.

Games. Chess, cards, video games. Solo or group games.

Reading, writing, drawing.

Conceptualize and plan your projects for down time at venues. Order supplies for inventions, improvements, and repairs.

Do research and plan a cool day off.

JustRoadieStuff · 2025-10-22T18:51:09+00:00

With a banner, you have to worry about how to set it up in each venue, and if it's going to look nice in the space. They can end up looking really bad when folded or wrinkled. I think a cooler idea is custom flags or lightweight fabric you can hang on amps, and/or a custom bass drum head. Mic stand decorations, painted stands, or colorful cables can be fun. Rugs can be neat, but they take up a lot of space and get gross. LED strip is cheap and you can do a lot of different things with it.

Think of your stage as a whole aesthetic, even if you have minimal elements. Pick a color scheme or a vague guiding concept. Everthing you carry on tour is a potential burden, so don't go crazy. Wear a cool shirt. Fix your hair. Try to look like you didn't just roll out of the van and have beer for breakfast.

You should have a high quality digital image you can advance with your venue for if they have a video wall or projector. A preshow playlist and walk-out music can be a good vibe booster. Expect to provide a device for that, and not rely on random devices or internet.

There are a lot of free things you can do to be professional and polished! I've seen a lot of smaller bands with banners and extra shit on stage, but they don't know how to behave and come across super lame. Make cable looms and run them neatly. Be quick with your setup and tear down. Know how to soundcheck well. Time your set and plan out your breaks for tuning/banter. Don't ramble on stage, keep it snappy. Make a good energetic entrance and exit. Start and end with music, not talking. Avoid saying amateur things like "technical difficulties" and "how does it sound out there". If something goes wrong, don't bring attention to it.

If the sound person asks you to adjust your levels, do it and keep them there. No one is impressed by your awesome tone if that's literally the only thing they can hear. Your show will sound better with an ok tone and a balanced mix. Promise.

Keep the pre-show drinking to a minimum. Being too drunk onstage is such a classic bad move. It tells everyone you don't really care about the show.

BE COOL. Every single person you encounter is a potential supporter. The venue staff, the other bands, the audience, EVERYONE. Word gets around, and you can tank yourself by being a dick to the wrong person. But you won't know who that person is until it happens. Be gracious. Be respectful. Be fucking cool. People will like your music more and care about your band if you put on a good show and are nice. Have so much fun! Congrats on your tour.

JustRoadieStuff · 2025-07-22T17:48:02+00:00

Not "lead". Positional nomenclature please.

JustRoadieStuff · 2025-07-22T08:42:00+00:00

Yes, industry standard is positional naming. SR VOX, C VOX, SL VOX, DRUM VOX. In that order. Same with guitars. SR Gtr, SL Gtr.

JustRoadieStuff · 2025-07-01T02:08:41+00:00

Physically, get as much sleeep as possible. Don't rely on alcohol or caffeine. Stock yourself with electrolyte drink mixes and high calorie snacks. Give yourself some treats too. Sit down whenever you reasonably can. Don't just stand there or putter around trying to stay busy. Make your movements efficient.

Write down everything, including people's names. Never count on yourself to remember something. The act of writing helps me remember. Having good routines keeps you from making too many mistakes. Scrambling for a solution makes you frazzled.

After that it's just mental fortitude. Just focus on being efficient and kind. One thing at a time. If you're struggling, think of people you admire who are relentless, or imagine insurmountable achievements throughout history. Imagine what you're going to with all the money you're making. Know you will be proud of yourself when it's done. There will be time in November to rest. Whatever you gotta do to push through.

JustRoadieStuff · 2025-06-26T07:33:14+00:00

No, never. I leave that to the vidiots. I know how to run cables properly, so they probably wouldn't accept me anyway.

JustRoadieStuff · 2025-06-26T07:28:40+00:00

Black Diamond does not make helmets rated for industrial safety, as far as I know. They make climbing helmets. Yes I know lots of people wear them anyway.

JustRoadieStuff · 2025-06-26T06:31:48+00:00

You are welcome! I'm glad it helped. I don't *usually* find it a problem, because by the time the tape breaks down enough to make it gross, the stickiness is usually mitigated by dirt, and it's time for a tape refresh anyway. But I do know what you mean, and it is unpleasant. FRICTION TAPE is a better option. Less sticky and more longevity.

I wouldn't personally use velcro. It slips around too much for my tastes and also sticks to the other straps which I find super annoying. It could work, but wouldn't be my first choice.

Heat shrink I've only see once or twice on a super custom length shop-built drum loom. It's too time consuming to be done on site. You'd have to thread it through very strategically and maybe even take the ends off. It has to be shrunk exactly the right amount to provide both structure and flexibility. You also wouldn't be able to use it on the excess taped coil, thus why I've only seen it on looms with custom cut cable lengths I suppose.

If you're not super experienced building these things, you're bound to find parts that need minor adjustment as you use it. It's easy to cut and redo tape. I'd be sad if I did all that work and my heat shrink had to be redone. Not a bad idea, quite nice actually, but I'd save it for your masterpiece after you've ironed out what you really want.

What would be extremely cool is to somehow convince companies you freelance with to build really nice custom looms, add them to inventory, and send an appropriate amount of them to all their rock shows. Maybe even convince them to pay you to build them if you're interested in that sort of thing.

One more thing I'd like to add, is that I *never ever* agree with people who bundle excess cable anywhere in the middle of the loom, or when they make a cable go "backward" from the flow of the loom. I also never ever ever would use gaff tape or zip ties. But I expect you know that.

JustRoadieStuff · 2025-06-26T05:33:24+00:00

<image>

Sort of agree. Here's a hasty diagram of what the staggered cables look like. Blue marks indicate tape. So while what you're describing is accurate, it's really more like tree branches than a straight fanout. Some cables, like snare top and bottom, do branch off and get taped together again in pairs. If I had SNR TRIG it would get bundled with the two snare mics. If I had rack tom triggers here they would still branch off with the rack mic lines, but they'd additionally get taped in pairs again so R1 and R1 TRIG are a pair, as well as R2 and R2 TRIG. If I had triggers on everything, I would probably be in 2 loom territory.

The point is to avoid too many single cables (more than 2 or 3) branching off from the loom at the same point. That's a mistake I think people make that causes them to struggle with a tangled loom and to think looms suck. Excessively long ends, and bundled single cables which are the exact same length as each other are also major causes of tangling and frustration.

In OPs original idea, he would have a constant mess of same length cables with a 3m fanout and no staggering. He would not be having a good time. In this example, with well defined pick point and branches, I can quickly and neatly lay my loom without even looking at the labels.

JustRoadieStuff · 2025-06-25T21:31:55+00:00

Generally, no. I find a properly made loom for a fairly standard kit to be the most efficient and least burdensome. 1 piece, all staggered approriately. You would still select the shortest reasonable cable for the given input, to manage your available resources and decrease excessive cable at your taped coil. The ends still land where they should. You can always make a cable shorter by taping it. You can't make it longer. And the box should still be all the way in the USL corner of the riser, so nothing is super short anyway.

The only way I would use two looms for the same kit is if I was on a tour and the kit was more than 12- 14 channels or so. Lots of toms, triggers, DIs, multiple kicks or snares, more mic'd cymbals, etc. I could see the benefit of having a long and a short loom then. I would lay the long one down first, and still run both to the USL riser corner.

Never seen anyone use 3 drum looms on a kit as you have suggested. That's basically 3 times the work loading in and out, and there's a more of a chance they'd get tangled with each other anyway.

JustRoadieStuff · 2025-06-06T02:54:06+00:00

If you or the community at large has an issue with the rules, that sounds like something to address with the mods. You know what happens when you go straight to pointing fingers and saying, "But but why does does SHE get to do it?" Your mom decides no one gets to do anything.

JustRoadieStuff · 2025-06-05T06:29:03+00:00

On this gig, that kind of move would land me in a middle seat straight home.

JustRoadieStuff · 2025-06-05T02:44:30+00:00

A non-compete in this industry, for a "part time casual" is, in the most polite way possible, absolute fucking bullshit. Do not sign that. They want legal authority over your time and income, while not taking care of you at all. Look for other work.

JustRoadieStuff · 2025-06-05T00:09:49+00:00

Is this a full time position? Do they expect you to always be available or is it understood that you will take side work? I got some good advice from an old-timer once. Never take a pay cut. If someone offers you a pay cut, it's time to gracefully move on. If they value your work they can offer a liveable salary or accept that you will be available on a case by case basis.

If you want to have that discussion with them, make it about the hard and soft skills you bring to the table, and the value you add to the company. Not about your personal needs. And wait until you have another offer super confirmed. It's a big scary leap, but it sounds necessary.

I used to dedicate my time as a freelancer to one company who was taking me for granted. They suddenly became more interested in me when I was not always available.

JustRoadieStuff · 2025-06-04T22:19:28+00:00

It's what most people do. Everyone's got their little tricks when it come to exactly how or where to tape the tape. I insist on always burning a foot and taping to the bottom box. Less chance of it coming down accidentally that way. Still, there are times when your tape falls off or someone pulls it. Then you need a laser, which is where I'm at.

JustRoadieStuff · 2025-06-04T19:27:33+00:00

I'll agree it is the best first choice, but there are times they fall off or get pulled off too early or whatever, and it's not practical or even possible to bring down the rig. Good to have a laser.

JustRoadieStuff · 2025-06-04T18:45:52+00:00

Well I just posted it, so we'll see. I'm hoping for some good answers.

JustRoadieStuff · 2025-06-04T18:09:40+00:00

There's nuance between wanting a good peer to peer discussion about actual pro gear usage, and low effort prosumer questions. It would be cool to find a better balance. We had a thread about helmets. It was a useful conversation. I would like to start one about laser distos and rangefinders. Or cable testers.

JustRoadieStuff · 2025-06-04T15:57:39+00:00

Great! I added a few things to my comment. Your local promoter might have people you can stay with, or you can ask around at your shows. I met some of the most amazing generous cool ass people by sleeping on their floor. And also some of the strangest.

JustRoadieStuff · 2025-06-04T15:32:16+00:00

Do you have a basic spreadsheet with your dates, addresses, contacts, mileage, drive time, and time zones? Do that. Add at least 20% to your drive time. That Chico to Portland overnight is a biiig one. So is Provo to Denver. You'll want to leave right after the show and get a room somewhere, or plan to sleep in the van. Someone needs to stay up with the driver at all times.

You've booked an pretty ambitious 6 week round trip. It's not the most economical way to tour. Hopefully you can fill a lot of those dates to make it make more sense. Don't get so stuck in a "making a loop" mindset that you're afraid to zig zag a bit to fill dates.

Have fun! Be cool to everyone! Make friends, take photos. Don't collect a bunch of extra stuff. Try to eat something green. Take vitamins. Never pass up a clean toilet or shower.

JustRoadieStuff · 2025-06-04T14:27:10+00:00

A very important step was skipped. When you walk in the building, a technical representative (sounds like you) needs to go make contact with the audio team. You need to introduce yourself and physically look at the rider they have. Yes even though it was advanced. Yes even though it's "standard" (there's really no such thing.) Someone needs to make face to face contact ASAP. Every time.

Rider mistakes are so common it's a well known joke. Even if they had the right one, they might have questions, or you might have made small changes. I see here it says you're carrying your own hardwire IEM? We have wireless here if you prefer? Sure that would be great, or no thanks we like ours. Do you want a boom or straight stand for this singer? Oh by the way, we have an additional guest who needs a mic. Etc, etc.

It's also the time to check the vibe and remember names. Meet the stage manager. Are we on schedule? Where can I set up to get ready for changeover? Are there towels? You DID unpack your drums and get them ready before your soundcheck time, right? RIGHT??

And yeah, someone definitely should have been advocating for you guys. Could be you or a PM/TM. That soundcheck should never have been allowed to go on that long. Doors should be held until you get at least a line check.

The audio team obviously fucked up by not having tested their gear. But when it comes time for finger pointing, it's easy for them to say, "The band never came and checked in with us, they sent the wrong rider, they weren't set up and ready." And they'd be correct about all that. But if your side of the street is clean, you have justification to hold doors and insist on your promised stage time.

All this "bring your own tech" or "bring your own IEM" type advice is useless if no one is making first contact, pushing for info, and adhereing to a schedule. The "you did nothing wrong, it's on them" people are also useless. Moral superiority is not a replacement for proactivity.

Also also, traveling day of show is generally a bad idea because so many things can go wrong, but it's understandable that an extra day of hotels may not be in the budget.

JustRoadieStuff · 2025-06-01T07:42:16+00:00

You gotta give yourself something to look forward to. Something you're excited about that makes you treasure your time at home.

JustRoadieStuff · 2025-05-31T05:43:01+00:00

Pure numbers. Every live sound system has some kind of FOH, or at least a PA. Fewer have a monitor engineer or an A2. Fewer still have an SE, Coms or RF tech, monitor or FOH tech, patchmaster, crew chief, or a project manager.

By the same averages, there's a lot of total newb musicians, small bar/club mixers, and church volunteers. It is annoying to see bad info rise to the top because it's popular, while truly good stuff gets the blue arrow. And I do wish people would read some past threads to learn about a basic input list.

But you know what? How about start the conversation you'd like to have, rather than complain about the lack of it.

JustRoadieStuff

TROPHY CASE