Alessandro del Vecchio from Italy : "Ale's" Gig Bag
Alessandro del Vecchio, Associate Instructor from Italy who tours with Joe Lynn Turner and members of Deep Purple has a very informative article about what he has in his Gig Bag, check it out!
Alessandro del Vecchio's Gig Bag (click here)
Alessandro del Vecchio' s gig bag for studio and live works.
I've been touring and working as a pro musician since I was 16 (that's when I signed my first deal).
What I learned during these 12 years of pro activity is every musician and singer has to be prepared for every work he's in. Being prepared is one of the hardest features for every singer. When you decide to become a singer you don't have to think only about your vocal folds and vocal technique. That's the main point. If you look at your voice as something that is able to give you what you always dreamed of or ,simply (in the case you work with your voice), your voice is what you're making your living from, you gotta train yourself to give your music the best each day. So besides your hard work for becoming a better singer, you gotta work on the “professional” side of your voice and always think of yourself as the “perfect guy” for every record your cutting or band you're in.
I will divide studio and live application of your voice.
The studio gig bag.
I've produced many singers and bands, and what I often see is that singers live the recordings in a different world;-) They come in and think they can sing as if they're in their bedroom. Well...that's not like that at all!!!!!
The studio is something you gotta be familiar with and, above all, you gotta look at the studio as a place where you're voice gotta be BETTER than other places. What is fixed on the records is what people will know of you EVER. It's like writing a book, people will know you as a singer from that record and each of your recordings will be the mirror of your voice and musical environment of that period.
Let's start with something easy.
Remember always to bring with you some music sheets where you can take notes of lyrics, certain vocal passages and whatever you need to fix about the songs. If you're doing your own thing don't forget your lyrics (with just few notes to remember accents, pauses and stuff like that). Bring a double copy so that your producer can follow what you're singing and add notes , words or whatever he has in mind.
I always have a little mp3 recorder in case I need to fix some notes or in case I have difficulties reproducing something; I just let the producer do it (or who's to do that) and learn it by listening what's on the recorder.
Another funny issue. If you're working on background vocals don't trust only your ear. I always bring with me a little 3 octave keyboard (like the ones children use to play) on which I study the right harmony. This can be useful when you're doing difficult and intricated harmonizations. This will help you getting control of the hard notes. Sometimes when you're working with a producer he gives you music sheets with the notes of the harmonies. Well if you have your own little keyboard you can check them without reading it real-time, and this will help you not wasting time being prepaired to this kind of situation.
If you're doing your own songs, always bring your mp3 player just to have a quick, or deep, listening of your songs. Sometimes you need to recover some passages and your memory doesn't help you. Well, just a quick listen and you will get it again.
If you have your personal mp3 player, you can upload on it your warm-up's so that ,while the producer and the sound engineer set up your microphone, you can warm up your voice and get into the songs in just a second. Don't forget to do lips trills, mutes and whatever you need to warm up your voice before singing. In a studio recording you need to preserve your voice and let it work for hours.
What I hate while recording is not hearing my natural sound on the tracks.
I discovered there's the right microphone for each voice. I always sound crap on Neumann U87, even if it did the history of music. And I sound crap on so many other microphones. I solved this problem by bringing with me my own set-up on each work.
I found that when you know your sound and you get into the studio knowing how you do want to sound, you will sing better. A sound engineer can't know all the features of your voice. But you do! And above all, if you work with your set-up you will always give everybody the idea you know “your own whole thing” and not only know how to sing. So you gotta work hard finding your perfect set-up for getting the sound you want on your records.
That's mine:
-Rode NTK Vacuum Tube microphone; it sounds prestine, perfect high-end and that 70's vacuum sound I love. And forst of all, it's cheap!
-Avalon 737 mic preamp. I love the satin, airy sound you get using it. This is not cheap;-)
Don't even forget to bring with you you're own headphones. This will help you singing with a sound you're familiar with. The worst thing is singing without recognizing you!!! Remember that in the studio your voice has to be in best shape; so drink a lot of water, keep your throat moist and don't drink beers and shout like being at a party;-) I always bring with me a mint-green tea. It works on me getting my throat warm and hydrated.
Let's go to the live applications.
The live gig bag.
When you tour or simply gig in your city, you're not “home”, protected by your own shelter. The main problem of live clubs or arena is you're not in a place where everybody respects singers. So PLEASE avoid smoking areas and stay in places where there's no cold or windy air. In my experience of touring around the globe, you will never find a club with warm temperature and no-smoking areas. So prepair yourself to get to hell once you're on stage;-). Don't ever forget something to cover your throat when it's cold inside the club. Don't let your voice warm down while you're singing!!!!
Just as if in the studio, bring with you some paper on which you can fix notes, maybe some lyrics you write while travelling or simply write a different set-list for some gigs.
Upload on your mp3 player the warm-up's working right for your voice so that before each gig you can prepair your voice for the show. I use to bring with me my 3 octave keyboard so that I can do scales and octaves in my whole range and do different ones each night if I need to.
Sometimes when you tour travelling by plane you won't have place for the keyboard. Let's try with a little portable cd-player. If you warm-up your voice with “air” sound and not in your ear you'll do a better work. And the little stereo-cd will help you. If have Ipod's Jbl, Apple and many other brand are doing portable Hi-Fi with Ipod connection that can help you warming on some mp3's. There are two main points for singers while they're on stage. The sound they hear and the sound the audience gets. The main thing to avoid is getting not a good sound in the wedges. If you don't have your own sound guy you gotta do everything to get it the best way you can. Most of sound-engineers are not musicians or singers so they don't relate at their best to what the musicians really need on stage.
The best solution is to get an XLR signal splitter to send one sound to the P.A. and one on the wedges. It's simple to understand. In normal situations the main problem is to have the right balance of the eq and compression for the P.A. and the wedges. The outer sound could not match the frequencies you need on stage; this will destroy your performance because you will never hear yourself. But if you send two different signals to the guy you're done. He will use one for the audience and one for you so that your eq and processing will be done ONLY for wedges and won't afflict the FOH sound...and viceversa. This will work for floor wedges and in-ear monitors too. Try it and you'll see that this is the solution!
Don't forget to bring with you some gaffa tape; it will help you fixing the set-list on the floor.
If you can use some flourescent tape; you can use it for putting some X to fix where the sound from the wedges is perfect. When the lights are down you can always get to where you hear best. When I tour I always bring with me my own stand, my microphone and my XLR splitter. I just use a Shure SM 58 (occasionally a Shure BETA 57..I like its dynamic and high-end) and some Ultimate stands. As for the studio just try different microphones and you'll discover what works best for you. I used Neumann, Sennheiser (I was endorser of this brand for some times) but I always got back to my root. A straight SM 58 is what makes me feel natural. The best cables I use are the one made by Reference; they never lose signal or afflict performance and above all they are crafted to last years. Don't forget to have some bottles of water near you on stage. Don't forget to keep hydrated all along the show. I drink 2 liters of water and sweat like a cow;-) That's what rock'n'roll is about..
These are some tips for getting to the studio or on stage and just sing, avoiding most of the problems you have while working with your voice.
Alessandro del Vecchio' s gig bag for studio and live works.
I've been touring and working as a pro musician since I was 16 (that's when I signed my first deal).
What I learned during these 12 years of pro activity is every musician and singer has to be prepared for every work he's in. Being prepared is one of the hardest features for every singer. When you decide to become a singer you don't have to think only about your vocal folds and vocal technique. That's the main point. If you look at your voice as something that is able to give you what you always dreamed of or ,simply (in the case you work with your voice), your voice is what you're making your living from, you gotta train yourself to give your music the best each day. So besides your hard work for becoming a better singer, you gotta work on the “professional” side of your voice and always think of yourself as the “perfect guy” for every record your cutting or band you're in.
I will divide studio and live application of your voice.
The studio gig bag.
I've produced many singers and bands, and what I often see is that singers live the recordings in a different world;-) They come in and think they can sing as if they're in their bedroom. Well...that's not like that at all!!!!!
The studio is something you gotta be familiar with and, above all, you gotta look at the studio as a place where you're voice gotta be BETTER than other places. What is fixed on the records is what people will know of you EVER. It's like writing a book, people will know you as a singer from that record and each of your recordings will be the mirror of your voice and musical environment of that period.
Let's start with something easy.
Remember always to bring with you some music sheets where you can take notes of lyrics, certain vocal passages and whatever you need to fix about the songs. If you're doing your own thing don't forget your lyrics (with just few notes to remember accents, pauses and stuff like that). Bring a double copy so that your producer can follow what you're singing and add notes , words or whatever he has in mind.
I always have a little mp3 recorder in case I need to fix some notes or in case I have difficulties reproducing something; I just let the producer do it (or who's to do that) and learn it by listening what's on the recorder.
Another funny issue. If you're working on background vocals don't trust only your ear. I always bring with me a little 3 octave keyboard (like the ones children use to play) on which I study the right harmony. This can be useful when you're doing difficult and intricated harmonizations. This will help you getting control of the hard notes. Sometimes when you're working with a producer he gives you music sheets with the notes of the harmonies. Well if you have your own little keyboard you can check them without reading it real-time, and this will help you not wasting time being prepaired to this kind of situation.
If you're doing your own songs, always bring your mp3 player just to have a quick, or deep, listening of your songs. Sometimes you need to recover some passages and your memory doesn't help you. Well, just a quick listen and you will get it again.
If you have your personal mp3 player, you can upload on it your warm-up's so that ,while the producer and the sound engineer set up your microphone, you can warm up your voice and get into the songs in just a second. Don't forget to do lips trills, mutes and whatever you need to warm up your voice before singing. In a studio recording you need to preserve your voice and let it work for hours.
What I hate while recording is not hearing my natural sound on the tracks.
I discovered there's the right microphone for each voice. I always sound crap on Neumann U87, even if it did the history of music. And I sound crap on so many other microphones. I solved this problem by bringing with me my own set-up on each work.
I found that when you know your sound and you get into the studio knowing how you do want to sound, you will sing better. A sound engineer can't know all the features of your voice. But you do! And above all, if you work with your set-up you will always give everybody the idea you know “your own whole thing” and not only know how to sing. So you gotta work hard finding your perfect set-up for getting the sound you want on your records.
That's mine:
-Rode NTK Vacuum Tube microphone; it sounds prestine, perfect high-end and that 70's vacuum sound I love. And forst of all, it's cheap!
-Avalon 737 mic preamp. I love the satin, airy sound you get using it. This is not cheap;-)
Don't even forget to bring with you you're own headphones. This will help you singing with a sound you're familiar with. The worst thing is singing without recognizing you!!! Remember that in the studio your voice has to be in best shape; so drink a lot of water, keep your throat moist and don't drink beers and shout like being at a party;-) I always bring with me a mint-green tea. It works on me getting my throat warm and hydrated.
Let's go to the live applications.
The live gig bag.
When you tour or simply gig in your city, you're not “home”, protected by your own shelter. The main problem of live clubs or arena is you're not in a place where everybody respects singers. So PLEASE avoid smoking areas and stay in places where there's no cold or windy air. In my experience of touring around the globe, you will never find a club with warm temperature and no-smoking areas. So prepair yourself to get to hell once you're on stage;-). Don't ever forget something to cover your throat when it's cold inside the club. Don't let your voice warm down while you're singing!!!!
Just as if in the studio, bring with you some paper on which you can fix notes, maybe some lyrics you write while travelling or simply write a different set-list for some gigs.
Upload on your mp3 player the warm-up's working right for your voice so that before each gig you can prepair your voice for the show. I use to bring with me my 3 octave keyboard so that I can do scales and octaves in my whole range and do different ones each night if I need to.
Sometimes when you tour travelling by plane you won't have place for the keyboard. Let's try with a little portable cd-player. If you warm-up your voice with “air” sound and not in your ear you'll do a better work. And the little stereo-cd will help you. If have Ipod's Jbl, Apple and many other brand are doing portable Hi-Fi with Ipod connection that can help you warming on some mp3's. There are two main points for singers while they're on stage. The sound they hear and the sound the audience gets. The main thing to avoid is getting not a good sound in the wedges. If you don't have your own sound guy you gotta do everything to get it the best way you can. Most of sound-engineers are not musicians or singers so they don't relate at their best to what the musicians really need on stage.
The best solution is to get an XLR signal splitter to send one sound to the P.A. and one on the wedges. It's simple to understand. In normal situations the main problem is to have the right balance of the eq and compression for the P.A. and the wedges. The outer sound could not match the frequencies you need on stage; this will destroy your performance because you will never hear yourself. But if you send two different signals to the guy you're done. He will use one for the audience and one for you so that your eq and processing will be done ONLY for wedges and won't afflict the FOH sound...and viceversa. This will work for floor wedges and in-ear monitors too. Try it and you'll see that this is the solution!
Don't forget to bring with you some gaffa tape; it will help you fixing the set-list on the floor.
If you can use some flourescent tape; you can use it for putting some X to fix where the sound from the wedges is perfect. When the lights are down you can always get to where you hear best. When I tour I always bring with me my own stand, my microphone and my XLR splitter. I just use a Shure SM 58 (occasionally a Shure BETA 57..I like its dynamic and high-end) and some Ultimate stands. As for the studio just try different microphones and you'll discover what works best for you. I used Neumann, Sennheiser (I was endorser of this brand for some times) but I always got back to my root. A straight SM 58 is what makes me feel natural. The best cables I use are the one made by Reference; they never lose signal or afflict performance and above all they are crafted to last years. Don't forget to have some bottles of water near you on stage. Don't forget to keep hydrated all along the show. I drink 2 liters of water and sweat like a cow;-) That's what rock'n'roll is about..
These are some tips for getting to the studio or on stage and just sing, avoiding most of the problems you have while working with your voice.