by String Arranger/Composer, Producer and Musician Christine Wu
I’ve been hired to be the bandleader and violinist at BlizzCon. We are performing songs from World of Warcraft, StarCraft and Diabolo in front of 25,000 fans and a TV and online audience watching live. I’ll be playing electric with fx and distortion. Problem is, my hardware-based live rig is already floating across unknown oceans to my next gig in South Africa. I need to find a simple, reliable setup for my distortion, harmonizer, delay and other effects. I also need flexibility; customizable options to control the tone of the violin.
My preferred laptop-based amp modeling and effects pedals is Waves GTR. Problem is, Waves GTR standalone won’t yet run on Snow Leopard. I can still run waves GTR in Pro Tools, but when I try to set that up I find that my antique mBox has kicked the bucket. Reliability is key here, and that’s not good! Also, I can’t use my Waves GTR Ground controller because of Snow Leopard; the MIDI doesn’t seem to be reliably assignable when GTR is a plug in.
Time to phone my team of problem solvers. Chris Morrison, the American Idol guitar tech, Joel Shearer who has been Alanis Morissette and Damien Rice’s guitarist as well as my Bollywood touring brother, and Kevin “whatever is wrong I can fix it” Doucette. Actually, Doucette suggested I call Joel, which was a stroke of genius. Joel recommends the Apogee GiO and explained how it was perfect for my needs. It’s an interface AND you can control it with your feet. Awesome! Kevin helps me get the right wiring, program settings and idiot proof pedalboard layout in place. Chris advises me as to how I’ll power my custom modded Yamaha 5 string electric without the custom cables he’d built. They’re also on the boat to South Africa.
GEAR LIST: The GiO’s audio output is a stereo headphone/line out quarter inch. I split this into left/right with a stereo 1/4 inch cable split into 2 mono 1/4 inch, and plug the 2 monos into a Radial stereo passive DI. FOH will get a grounded left and right output from my rig. Simple and elegant!
SETUP: I unpack the Apogee GiO and run the easy setup. It’s assignable, but within Logic it works perfectly out of the box. Score! USB to the laptop, audio cable out of the headphone jack and then I plug in the instrument. Signal! I route the stereo output to my DI on the pedalboard. It’s this easy, really? Now, I can run Waves GTR and Logic pedalboard within logic, control my fx with this interface and FOH doesn’t have to do anything for me? Brilliant; I love it.
I open up an instrument track in Logic in input mode and set my input and outputs to the GiO. Logic’s Pedalboard and Waves GTR are inserted one after the other. Since I won’t be able to easily control the Waves GTR remotely, I’ve decided to set up just my basic tone within Waves: amp modeling, a bit of delay and a little bit of dirt. I’ll build a custom patch so I can use Logic’s Wah pedal and distortion and control it with the GiO. Both plug-in windows will be open so I can make quick tweaks on the fly. This is the simplest solution. I have 30 pop songs and 5 video game scores to learn and only 2 rehearsals to get this band together. They’re the best of the best LA players but still. EEK!
REHEARSAL #1
Good thing I’d sorted through my various input scenarios. I’d assumed our wireless rig would be at the rehearsal but I was wrong. No one had an 1/8 to 1/8 stereo cable handy, so I set up the GiO and Macbook with my acoustic and pickup. The feedback was awful so I couldn’t play with any distortion. Rule #1: Don’t rehearse with 10 wedges all pointed at each other, especially in a really small square room with a lot of open mics. Rule #2: Always overprepare. I have a backup instrument, laptop, cables, connectors and even a Boss multi effects pedal as backup-backup. Somehow, I’ll make it work even if everything goes wrong.
SOUNDCHECK. CAN YOU HEAR ME NOW?
After rehearsal, we head to the Anaheim Convention Center, Hall D, to find BlizzCon being set up. Massive screens everywhere and a beautifully detailed and totally freakin’ cool stage built. This is gonna be amazing!!!
They’re not ready for us to soundcheck yet, of course. When they are finally ready, we are told they did not bring the wireless they’d promised to souncheck either. WHAT? I find a sound guy and we rig together an 1/8 inch TRS so I can hardwire my 5 string Yamaha electric using phantom power. They finally bring the wireless, but the stadium-length cable run on the return is crinkling my sound. GAH! Can you hear me now? Not so much. We barely get up and running before we have to tear down. The audio guys are already getting massive overtime. The clock is ticking, and hotel’s bar and restaurant will be closed by the time we’re done. Le sigh… It won’t be my first dinner from 7-11, or my last.
REHEARSAL #2: The band is sounding great! I’m so lucky to be working with this band, and the other solo violinist and cellist are SLAMMIN’! These girls are friends from other gigs and I can’t say enough good things about their talent, stage presence, stunning beauty and killer personalities. It’s a wicked cool group. We manage to learn how to start and stop the songs with a variety of cues. We’ll be working with the show’s emcee and we have no idea if we’ll play 10 seconds or 2 minutes of each song. I finally decide on a martial arts-like cutoff, which no one could ever EVER mistake as a sign for “keep playing”.
I don’t yet realize it, but the fact that I’ll have no feed from the show’s producers or a talkback mic to talk to my band is going to present a MAJOR challenge.
BLIZZCON SHOW DAY
They want me in a Pussycat Doll’s type outfit so I’m off to the tanning salon. Touring with AR Rahman and the Bollywood crew isn’t friendly on the waistline and I need all the camouflage I can get if I’m going to trot out in this little getup. I arrive at the Convention Center with my gear and wardrobe, in time for my slot in the makeup chair. A memo arrives in my email inbox explaining that there’s been a change of plan. We no longer have an hour to build the stage and line-check. We have 20-30 minutes. WHAT! Considering how well the previous soundcheck went off….not good news! I choke down a NAMM-style cardboard sandwich from concessions and get my makeup painted on. I still don’t have a show order, and I’m wondering about the audio. Too many unknowns in the 11th hour, but I know I’ll pull it off somehow. I always do; you have to.
When I’m all dressed and taped into my clothes, I put together my GiO rig offstage and test the signal. All good! I power down the laptop to save battery and wait for the all-clear. With only 15 minutes to go before live broadcast, we are given the sign and rush out with our gear. I hand an audio guy my laptop power and dial in my 5 string. The wireless return goes into my rig and YES!! It’s ALIVE and it sounds good! The band sounds really good on the first song from Starcraft. The live sound and video are slammin’. This is fun! We exit the stage to wait an hour for the next songs we’ll perform. I leave my rig switched on and simply power down the wireless. No need for loud noises in case FOH hasn’t muted the board.
The rest of the show wasn’t quite so easy. All of the songs were in unpredictable order and I had my hands full leading the band. We pull it off, with the help of all the guys and girl in the band and the sheer brilliance of their musicianship. The show closes with a beautiful piece from World of Warcraft by my talented composer friend Neal Acree.
All the distortion pedal solos I traded with the other strings worked out well with my in-the-box effects. I hadn’t stabbed myself or anyone else in the eye trying to lead the band and we’d made it through the dance contest gauntlet. Rock! I switch off my wireless and look down at my laptop. It’s dead as a doornail. The audio guy never plugged in the power supply. The laptop had stayed alive exactly as long as the show. Stunning! Did I really run a laptop and a big interface with blinking lights for a 3 hour show on BATTERY??! Thankfully the GiO isn’t a power hog… Did I EVER get lucky on this one, wow.
The following night is another live gig on cello and violin with pickup. The GiO was so reliable and easy to use that I’ll bring it to that show as well. None other than George Lucas ended up watching me saw on the cello that night….eek! I’m looking forward to exploring all the useful applications with the GiO and live performing. Running backing tracks in Logic, working live in MainStage or Ableton controlled by the pedalboard… The possibilities for fun and innovation are endless.
