Hi, everyone.

As I slowly grow as a Stick player I'm also slowly starting to have more opportunities to play out. These are following a similar pattern. They aren't a full gig where I can take my time to set up. I need to quickly get my rig ready to play. I will have a few minutes, but the quicker the better. I have a pair of QSC powered speakers and I can usually get them on stage beforehand. But all the stuff from my Stick to the speakers I have to grab and set up in a few minutes, then tune up and go.

This is causing me to change my plans for a performance rig and I'm not sure what to do. I don't have sophisticated needs. I have a little mixer and just need a few effects and maybe something to make the bass side sound more like a bass sometimes. Before this my goals were to have the best sounding rig I could create. Now I just need something that sounds OK, is small and quick to deal with, and has minimal on-stage fussing.

Any recommendations from the accumulated wisdom of the community?

Many thanks,

-Eric

Personally instead of letting speed of setup dictate my decisions, I just got good and setting up as much as I could off to the side and then when my time came around, move it from floor to stage.

This will be an interesting thread to watch. I suppose it depends on the house setup (if any). For example, this is a picture I took of Rob Martino's setup when he opened for Belew in Wisconsin.

I'm sure I will get faster and more comfortable over time, too. But, I still need to get something for performance, not just sitting here in my office and noodling.

Everything I have, like audio interfaces to my computer and iOS apps, don't travel well.

-Eric

Group your cables together, all pedalboard output cables loosely tied in a half knot to combat the spaghetti effect (a tangle of cables on the floor). All power cords and wall warts bound together, then tethered onto your power strip. Also, any rack type effects boxes Velcro'd neatly under your small mixing board.

Confusion reigns on a dimly lit stage with the hustle of musician sound checks and the house door about to open. (Your audience might as well see you in your underwear.)

Even then, you'll need the skill of a jet pilot to manage all the knobs, buttons and sliders on your cluster of floor pedals, the programming on your rack effects, and those rows and columns of tiny controls on your mixer.

Better take a flashlight and a clock, maybe a good pair of glasses, also headphones for your sound check. Now, don't forget to clean your fingernails.

I was using a RME computer audio interface as my main rig and it travelled well with me for six or seven years. Then it broke. I used it with flute, sax, guitar, EWI and at its final period of duty with the Stick as well. Today I have a dedicated digital box for everything (the Fractal Audio AxeFxII), I like having it all "inside a box" and my sound patches prepared and learned as part of my instrument. You never reach that level of stability if using stomp boxes connected with cables and dozens of knobs that has to be set right, so you can't really learn to master your gear because it fluctuates so much from time to time.

I do have a traditional pedalboard though, but it only has one stereo volume pedal, one overdrive on the melody side and a stereo delay as the final effect for both sides. That board is used in outdoors street busking and works with any pair of battery driven speakers. (if using speakers with no reverb I add a stereo reverb pedal to the board)

I had no excuse for not being there since I live in WI. But, I couldn't make it. That is Rob's wonderful setup. What is the blue box on the left in the pic? I know what the other two are.

Thanks,

-Eric

This is a great subject for a thread, Eric! I've been working toward a similar goal for about a year now: to have a setup light and compact enough to schlep from the car in one trip, both for physical ease and quickness. Here's where I am today...hopefully someone else's response will give me an idea for improvement.

Currently, I have my hard case in one hand (containing Stick, small pedal board, and Stick cable), a bag over one shoulder (containing redneck-style broken-down Stick stand, 2 1/4" cables for board/amp connection, amp power cord, music stand/light, iPod, and notebook), and the remaining hand carrying a combo amp. This works pretty well. I can unpack and be ready to go in 2-3 minutes if I hurry. During last year's Christmas season, I had to park ~.2 miles from the stage for a performance with the concert band I play in, and while I was a bit tired when I got there, it was actually not nearly as bad as it could have been.

Next step in the evolution is to incorporate a small mixer with my pedal board to drop the number of cables from 4 to 3, then migrate from the current 90W keyboard amp to a lightweight combo bass amp for more oomph and better bass tone (Markbass 2x10 currently tops the short list). Beyond that, I may need to consider something with wheels for those longer walks.

Can't blame you for not making it. Turtle Lake Casino isn't particularly close to Monona. I think the other box was a reverb. Hopefully Rob is watching and can clarify.

I believe that blue guy is a Strymon Bigsky