My Guitar Rig - November 2012

I became interested in the technology side of music through playing the guitar, I learned how to capture sounds and get the tones I wanted.

My current rig includes:

Vox AC30cc2 for my clean tones. I replaced one of the stock Wharfedale 12" speakers (which are meant to be clones of a Celestion G12H) to a Celestion alnico blue. The alnico blue gives a much more typical vox chime, tonnes more high end (the Wharfedale sounded quite dull in comparison) and radically different sound when cranked. I also replaced the tubes from stock Sovteks to JJs which allowed the power amp tubes to add flavour to the sound at different volumes, the Sovteks didn't seem to be very interactive. I use the spring reverb tank in the ac30 for my cleans most the time, I'v heard a few people on forums complain about the reverb saying it's too long but I absolutely love it!  

I could never find an overdrive tone that I loved through an AC30, I think the best overdrive tone I found was a replica of Billy Lunn's rig from The Subways, I used my Gibson SG classic through a Boss BD-2 and into the AC30 cranked a bit. This overdrive was rich and heavenly, everything seemed to work together really nicely BUT it just didn't suit me personally.

I find it to easy to get a good clean tone, especially with an AC30! I could never really find an overdrive tone that I really loved for a decent price that didn't blow your ear drums out!!! Then I found the Marshall Class 5!

I borrowed my friends 4x12 loaded with Celestion G12T-75's and a/b tested it with the Celestion alnico blue in my open back ac30 cab. I found the alnico blue to (surprisingly enough) have a punchier sound and sweeter overdrive.

I also a/b tested my Shure Beta 57 with my Rode nt2a and found that the Rode won every time hands down for me. My friend (who was convinced that the Shure SM57 was the greatest microphone in the world) actually agreed with me! I like the fact that it doesn't put too much of a sonic stamp on the recording (it's much more transparent and captures the instrument more accurately) and doesn't cut out a lot of low end unlike the Shure.

Middlesbrough College Magazine show

Middlesbrough College Magazine Show

During September and October I have been helping Middlesbrough College with a show they put on every week called "Middlesbrough College Magazine show" I used the college gear (such as the little Behringer desk, mics and active FOH monitors) we worked with the bands and lecturers to put on a show in the pod above reception in the middle of the college.

I worked with my mate David Turner and together we got the gear from the college's cupboard of doom and set up this little rig in the pod on a lunch break.

I really wish these little Behringer desks had a compressor built in because I needed one for this type of gig. I had to ride the faders manually and act as a sort of human compressor really.

Me running the show... like a boss!

College bands performing live

These shows have also been performed in the college theatre, Unfortunately nearly everything was already setup in the theatre so I only got a chance to wire up the stage monitors and mics, which was kind of cool. Wish I could have wired the whole thing up though mwaaaaaaahahahahaha would have been fun ^_^

"Please thank Tom & David for me ~ more or less run the whole caboodle themselves (I was teaching and was just able to dip in and out) ~ they didn't complain once, though they had a right to being left to organise it!!" 

"Thanks to David Turner and Tom Munro for doing the sound on Friday morning. They ran the whole thing professionally and without a single grumble. Thanks Tom and Dave"


http://www.facebook.com/pages/Middlesbrough-College-Magazine-Show/183169761785267?fref=ts

Me hard at work 

Here I am operating the Soundcraft lx7ii which I quite liked, I am a bit of a Soundcraft fan (especially with them being made in England!) the desk I learned from was a Soundcraft ghost but recently at another one of these events I was given the privilege to operate a Yamaha LS9-16 which made me fall in love with digital mixers!!!! It was a thing of beauty!

Riffraff vs Ruckus on the Teesside Princess

Stockton-On-Tees

Me chilling whilst the battle royal was taking place 

On the 20th of October I did the PA system for the Riffraff VS Ruckus show in the Teesside Princess. I setup two systems, one downstairs and one upstairs. This was a battle of local titans in the DJ world, "Set to be one of the grittiest, dirtiest DJ battles of Teesside naval history"

http://allevents.in/Stockton-on-Tees/*riffraff-Vs-Ruckus-on-the-high-Tees/369262523096918

The side of the mighty Teesside Princess herself 

It wasn't too much trouble getting both PA systems on board but I found myself singing a Lonely Island song in my head... which is not necessarily a good thing!










I might have been a bit naughty here and leaned over the side of the boat to take this magnificent piece of art... mwahahahahaaaaa

This is downstairs on the Teesside Princess, I used a PA system lovingly nicknamed "Stonehenge" for this. This is where the legends of the DJ world enlightened us with their sweet musical knowledge such as the mighty Lee Pennington! As you can imagine... IT WAS PACKED downstairs!

This is upstairs on the Teesside Princess, I mainly spent the night here relaxing and listening to a college mate of mine doing his DJ set.

Salvation Army - Durham

Elvet Methodist Church, Durham

On the 18th of August 2012 a friend of mine and I where employed by a particularly kind lecturer to drive up to Durham and record a salvation army gig at Elvet Methodist Church. I drove up in my pickup truck with all the gear, which only included: my M-Audio fast track pro, a laptop, some XLR cables, a mic stand and a pair of SE electronics pencil condensers.  

http://www.elvet-church.org.uk/

The orchestra was brilliant, as were the other acts that performed!

 We set up within half an hour or so but it took us a little while to set the gain levels because of the diversity of acts at the event. We managed to troubleshoot this by using the -10db pads of the microphones and the audio interface, we then reduced the pre-amp gain on the M-Audio fast track pro in order to simply prevent any digital clipping.

We decided that it was better to be safe then sorry and gave ourselves plenty of headroom to prevent clipping, I think the highest input signal was around -30db but we did this because we knew we could just boost the signal on the old Cubase post production and save ourself from the grief of a digitally distorted 2.5 hour track. If I could do it again, I would have been a bit braver with the gain structure BUT we learn through our mistakes and apart from the gain structure not being optimized, nothing went wrong at all.    




The church was packed full of interesting people and the room sound was nice, big and ambient, as expected. Perfect for an orchestra in my opinion.


I think at one point I even met a Lord! He seemed like a nice chap and was just curious as to what we where doing with a microphone in one of the seats.

Here I am, hard at work with my little rig set up in my control room at the back of the church

Easy Audio and Lighting

As part of an additional Enterprise module from the music technology course at Middlesbrough college, a group of young passionate students, eager to break into the industry where given the chance to form their own company. http://www.facebook.com/pages/Easy-Audio-Lighting/319778074699044

The Easy Audio crew (that's me on the far right) 

Some nice star cloth and par cans here

So with the help of a kind lecturer we set out to start a PA hire firm, getting work around the Teesside area, we hired out some of the college's audio and lighting equipment from the music technology department and offered our services as aspiring audio technicians. The primary goal of this operation was to gain real life experience in the industry, start networking to gain a foot hold in the local music scene and getting paid beer money didn't hurt too much either!

You don't really learn live sound properly unless you experience it first hand. Learning the theory is essential... but you have to go out and get the experience in order to really know what your doing. At this point in time there's still lots I need to learn but I'm looking forward to doing so and after this brilliant little module, I can honestly say that I have learned an absolute tonne from it and gained much more confidence to work in the industry.

  

The beginning of an unpredictable story

Hi, my name is Thomas Munro and this blog is dedicated to documenting my journey through the music industry. I'v been a student at Middlesbrough college for two years now, studying the strange and deeply subjective field of music technology. I live in Eaglescliffe, Stockton-On-Tees which is a bit of a weird place I guess, everybody here calls it a dump but there are some good points to it (though I cant think of too many apart from parmos and my friends and family).

My VOX AC30 recorded with my RODE nt2a

I started my musical life listening to bands like AC/DC and learned to play the guitar. My first guitar was an Argos strat which put me off stratocasters for years. I upgraded later on to an Epiphone Les Paul which I still have now and it sounds pretty decent (I just wish it stayed in tune) now I have a Gibson SG classic with P90's which sound fat as hell and a Gibson es 335 dot diamond in black which is just the most amazing guitar I'v ever played, it's actually a limited edition from the Gibson custom shop, here's a hyper link to the story of it: http://www.fatneckguitars.co.uk/#/gibson-es335/4545584572

My first good amp was a VOX AC30CC2 and I love this amp. It's impractical as hell and it's an absolute bitch to carry around because it weighs so god damn much... but my god, it sounds heavenly if you want clean tones. I have recently bought a Marshall Class 5 which is a perfect little 5W class A tube amp that I fell in love with the moment I first tried it in the shop.

Middlesbrough College by Steve Mayes

In my two years at Middlesbrough college I have learned so much and made some good friends on the way, just about all the lecturers are brilliant, as long as you respect them enough to get work in when needed and don't act like a complete idiot. I cant wait to start my last year here because I just want to learn more and more. I love meeting fellow students that are as passionate about music and the technology side of it as I am. Middlesbrough college is a great environment to learn through conversations with fellow students, and lecturers are always more than willing to pass on knowledge and advice.