Ole Simmo' ramblings

[simmo123]

Hi All, just thought i would share the following with you,right i decided to bite the bullet & replace my Yamaha Stagepas 300 Pa system with the next model up the stagepas 500 which has a bit more grunt, i put everything through the Pa eg.my ac/ele ovation guitar which is fitted with a Baggs pickup system,an Mblaster midi/mps player with my backing tracks on plus my vocals using a shure sm58,ok i picked the new system up on monday morning this week in readiness for quite a busy week,five senior concerts of around an hour each,Ok i turn up to the first one monday around 1.00pm set it all up which i have got down to a fine art, arriving with it all on a sac trolley all set up all leads plugged in & just a matter of putting the speakers into place ,tune the guitar ,plug into the mains & i'm away,so far so good,the person in charge even pays me ;how good is that!!!next!!! who'a!! no sound from the new speakers,ok go back & check that its all connected ok mixers all lit up & showing that an mp3 is playing but still no sound,ok panic sets in ole Simmo's unplugging & changing leads & trying to engage the audience at the same time looking very calm & collected but still know bloody sound,the audience is completly unaware that there is a problem,ok lets face it Simmo you are in deep shi#,plan B comes into action,Right folks what say today we do something a little different lets have an acoustic concert for a change,big cheers from the crowd, how brilliant is this bloke!! what a good idea, we wouldn't have thought of that so i've got my big break, give it to em Simmo, so i'm right into it walking amonst them all giving them my best shot with me acoustic with a brand new Pa system standing behind me just waiting for me to finish my antics for the benefit of the crowd for the next hour & then pack it all up & put it back in the car,hey but do you know what not only did i get away with it i done it with flying colours,( if i may say so ) i found that once away from the restrictions of the Mic, mixer controls etc i was able to connect with the folks so much better, give them a few saucy jokes & generally play the fool,to be honest though when i got home i was shattered, must be feeling my age but it was really rewarding to know that i could actually do it without any of the backing etc,but you know what, i wouldn't want to do it to often,the PA is in for repair ,thank god i have still got my old one, well if any one else has a story to tell about similar situations i'm sure it would be of interest to all the members,mine was very minor, although not at the time, thanks for taking the time to here an ole fellas ramblings,so lets be hearing some of your experiences,from your old mate Simmo from downunder ;D ;D ps i've tried to post it but not sure if it went so here goes again

[kemo]

Hi Simmo, first of all I congratulate you on your improvisation. Although I'd have to agree that I do love the old fashion accoustic sessions, they are not easy to pull off if you have a floor filled with dancers. I remember on many of occasion leaving home without my disk box or thumb drives and having to do a complete set without tracks. Yes you do panic, maybe have the odd mark on the old underpants lol, but you get on with it, we are all musicians, we have played without midi/mp3 files before. Sometimes Lazyness can creep into musicians, I for one would have to hold my hand up and say yes I've been there. What I normally do now is try an incorporate a slot in my set where I do not use any tracks at all. I love to improvise.

Nice story Simmo. Thank you for sharing it with us