The Alaska Folk Festival is a unique performing environment. Volunteer stage crews set up a new act every 15 minutes, inexperienced performers are using microphones often for the first time, and the sound crews are mixing 12 to 15 acts a night &endash; acts they've never heard before. It's a daunting situation. We want the performers and the audience to have great sound and a good time. Here's what you can do:
Tentative schedule corrections:
Please look over the tentative schedule. If you discover you're leading a workshop at the same time you're playing on stage, or your name is misspelled in the schedule, call 907-463-3316 so we can fix this before we run the final schedule. Call us ASAP if you can't make it to the festival so we can move someone from standby in. Do not call just because you want a better time slot. In short: tell us if you can't make it; keep it short; when the light comes on you have two minutes to quit; Do not start a tune after the light has come on; have fun and remember - it's only 15 minutes.
At the Festival:
When you arrive at Centennial Hall you will find three warm up rooms at the parking-lot end of the building. Get your band together in one of the rooms at least an hour before you are scheduled to go on. The stage manager will be circulating backstage, near the monitor board side-stage and in the warm&endash;up rooms. Check in with the stage manager and spend a few minutes with your band to fill out the stage diagram form. Give it to the stage manager. He or she can help you with it if you have questions.
The warm-up rooms all have speakers and will be playing the stage music at low volume. Controls are by the light switches, you can turn them up to check on the stage progress.Ten minutes before you go on the stage manager will herd the band down the long hallway directly backstage. There is water and usually coffee backstage.
Stage Diagram Form:
The form can ruin or enhance the performance. It includes a stage diagram &endash; so the sound crew knows how to set up the band &endash; and tips about the band for the monitor and sound board operators. If it is sloppy or filled out wrong it will waste your stage time.
Give some thought in advance to how your band will be positioned on stage. You may practice in a circle in your living room, but you will be in an arc on stage, facing the audience. Think about who is next to who, and practice that way. If you decide to perform standing up, practice that way. Note if you sit or stand so we can have chairs ready.
If you want something specific, make a note of it. If you tell the soundman to put the vocals way up front of the instruments, or a lot of reverb on the Dobro, he can do that. If you don't want the drums in the monitors, mark that down. Make note of how you want your instrument miced, if you have a preference.
Spend a few minutes correctly filling out the form. This is especially important with bands of four members or larger. Four musicians who all sing means setting eight live mics on stage.
Sound:
The microphones used at the Alaska Folk Festival are the type most often used in live performances. They have a very close pickup pattern which reduces feedback. Every year "mic shy" performers sabotage their sets by backing off the mic. Ideally you should be very close.
If you have experience with mics you know it is possible to work a microphone, pulling back slightly to blend harmony levels, or singing just to the side of the mic to avoid popping P's. That's great. But if you haven't practiced this, just sing like you do at home, but right into the mic.
When you come on stage, stand where you need to be and let the stage crews set the mics up in front of you. Look at the number on the stand and say, "Check, check, number (number)," in a loud, clear voice. The sound man and the monitor board operators need sound to work with. Sing a little, make sure you can hear yourself in the monitor. Make sure you can hear your bandmates before you start your first song.
If you are playing an instrument, it's the same drill. Give the board operators something to check the mic with. Play normally. If you do a soundcheck one inch from the mic and then pull back five inches when the song starts, you will sonically disappear.
If you have experience working a mic, you can mix yourself during a song. If you position a guitar, banjo or fiddle two or three inches away for the sound check, and then play your rhythm chops at that distance, you should be just right in the mix. Then when you take a lead break, you can move right in to the mic or play harder and louder and you will stand out at a lead volume level.
If you play with a pickup in your instrument, you and your bandmates can still control your dynamics by playing harder or more softly as needed. Test your cords and pickups before the moment of truth on the festival stage. Make sure the battery is fresh. Bring the cords you need and make sure they work.
Sometimes musicians are too eager to make the most of their 15 minutes. They storm the stage, forgo any sound check, and launch into the first song. The result is the first song (or two) IS the sound check.
Instead, devote the first couple minutes to the sound - make sure everyone is on mic, plugged in and working properly. Don't rip into that first tune only to discover halfway through that the levels are bad or the pickup's dead. Time a 12 minute set, counting between-song talking, and let yourself relax a little.
15 minute limit:
All sets are 15 minutes total, including all set up, music, and talking.
There are no exceptions. A red light will come on at 13 minutes to cue you to wrap it up. At 15 minutes a trap door beneath the stage opens and stage hogs are dropped into a pit of alligators.
Monitors:
If you back off the mic then your bandmates can't hear your in the monitors. Often, they will then ask the monitor board operator to turn you up in the monitors. This is sabotaging your set. Cranking the monitors reates tubby, reverby sound, encourages the mics to feedback, and causes the musicians to back off their mics because they seem too hot.
Performers with CDs to sell:
See J. Althea. She has a table in the lobby and handles all the CD sales at he festival. She has done an excellent job over the years and it is in everyone's interest to have a central place for this. She sells all CDs for $15 and takes $3.50. If you have any questions she can be reached at jalthea@gci.net or 907-586-4933.
Songwriter's Showcase:
Betsy Sims is organizing this again. It will run Saturday and Sunday
afternoons in the Backroom at the Silverbow, as last year. If you want to
perform at the Showcase, email Betsy at bsims@rsims.net. Email is the BEST way to contact Betsy but, if you have to use a phone, leave a message for Betsy at 789-0449. You can also find Betsy at the Festival.
More microphone tips, courtesy of John Palmes:
Sing to the Microphone The microphone is both your audience and your instrument. You may want to sing to some attractive person in the front row, but you need to sing to the microphone.
Distance from the mic:
Your mouth should be within 6 inches (a hand span) away from the mic, usually about 2-4 inches. If you work in a middle distance, you can then move in or out to change volume.
Most microphones also have a "proximity effect", that is, if you get right up on the mic so that your lips are close to touching the wind screen, the mic sounds warmer and the voice sounds deeper and fuller. As you get out past 6 inches or so, there is a loss of presence and fullness and you sound "off mic."
Distance from the mic is extremely important. Decreasing the distance by half increases the volume to the microphone by 4 times. Your voice or guitar at 12 inches will be 4 times louder at 6 inches and 24 times louder at 3 inches. At 1.5 inches you will be almost 100 times louder than at 12 inches. You can't play your guitar 100 times louder without breaking strings &endash; just move in on the microphone.
Now, if you back away from the mic, it is sensitive enough to "hear" you. But it will also be hearing the monitor system and the main speakers almost as well as it hears you. If the sound crew has pity on you and turns you up, they turn up the same sound that the microphone is hearing. This leads to feedback.
The signal goes into the microphone at the speed of sound, through the sound system at the speed of light, and out of the speakers and back into the microphone again at the speed of sound &endash; a cycle that repeats and repeats. This is feedback, and the longer it goes on the worse it gets. The closer you stay to your mic, the easier it is for only your sound to be amplified and controlled.
Mic Placement:
Vocals: If you sing directly into the mic, your p's (and f's & t's) will pop and explode as that big gust of wind hits the microphone diaphragm. Avoid this by singing over the top of the microphone or off to one side.
Guitar and other stringed instruments: Aim the mic at base of the fingerboard of the instrument, just above the sound hole on the guitar. I like to angle the mic across the sound hole and aim it at the base of the fingerboard. Aiming the mic into the sound hole gives a booming sound that is hard to control and can lead to feedback. However you can use this effect to change the sound of the instrument by moving towards or away from the sound hole as you play.
Not everyone likes to mic instruments the same way. For instance, some guitarists like to aim the mic at the face of the guitar, below and behind the picking hand. The stage crew should let the performer decide if they have a preference.
back the tentative schedule
