Pat Kenneally, the sound man at Chicago's Darkroom, has worked rooms like the now defunct Lounge Ax and The Empty Bottle. He was the man behind Portland, Oregon's Blackbird (a favorite amongst national touring acts). Now back in Chicago Kenneally spoke to Gearwire as part of our series, The Sound Engineer Is Your Friend. In this segment on live sound, Kenneally talks about stage plots or diagrams, plus technical riders and being on the same page with the band and vice-versa.

"The biggest problem you find with stage plots is that they’re typically made by a bands current engineer, and then passed on to their booking agent who then passes it on to the club's booking agent who loses it. Or doesn’t actually look at it to verify that the club can accommodate the bands needs," says Kenneally. "You usually get stage plots 5 minutes before the band arrives and then the real fun starts."

Sometimes the band's engineer changes and the stage plot isn't updated. Relying on booking agents to take care of this is like throwing your proverbial baby into the gorilla cage at the zoo hoping one of the apes is feeling maternal. Make sure the plot is up to date or do not bother sending it. Ridiculously overdone plots are also a nuisance. If you do not really need it, don't include it.

"Another problem is that some bands have different riders depending on where they’re playing. Clubs in Europe, for instance, are state subsidized, and can afford equipment that not even the largest of venues in the U.S. would provide," says Kenneally. "Also if your band has a lot of special needs, it would behoove you to contact the house engineer directly, because typically booking agents will sign a contract without looking over the tech specs, and even they do look at it chances are pretty good they don’t have the foggiest idea what they’re reading."

High maintenance bands should should consider carrying as much of their own gear as they can. Kenneally says he remembers electronic and noise bands showing up needing 12 DI boxes and expect the club to have them. Pretty much no club is going to have a dozen DIs lying around.

"Luckily now a days most of those bands have figured out that having their own mini-mixer on stage, and giving the engineer one or two lines makes thing dramatically easier," says Kenneally. "Basically the best policy with stage plots is make sure they’re accurate and it’s also good to put them on your website. That way if the booking agent lost or neglected to get one, the engineer can access it easily."

Another thing you may want to do, if you have something out of the ordinary in your live set up, is contact the sound engineer in advance.

"Ninety-nine out of a hundred bands fall very easily into the very simple set up of drums, bass, two guitars, maybe a keyboard, and three or four vocals. Also if you do talk with the sound engineer remember to respect the engineers professional opinions," says Kenneally. "When you hire a carpenter or a plumber you don’t tell them what hammer or wrench to use. Although you can explain a concern to an engineer, let them do what they need to do to make things work. If you find it impossible to do that then hire your own engineer to mix your band and you can have everything exactly like you want it, at least until you annoy them into quitting."

Kenneally has dealt with ethnic instruments and some even further beyond the pale.

"The most bizarre instrument I had to deal with, belonged to The Music Tapes -- an off-shoot of Neutral Milk Hotel’s live band. They had wooden stocking palettes, covered in chicken wire with a contact mic running through the reverb unit on a small p.a. head. They jumped up and down on them to create a lightning and thunder type of sound, which they were using as sort of a percussion instrument. Sort of like a rattley snare with lots of reverb on it," says Kenneally.

"It’s usually good to consult with the band and try to understand the thinking or concept behind the instrument. Basically when sound engineers encounter the out of the ordinary, they need to take these unusual sounds and try to draw similarities between them and more familiar instrumentation. That buzz sound is a lot like a bass guitar or the hitting that milk jug sounds like a kick drum. And so on."

The Darkroom has an Apogee sound system which fits well in the room--a room primarily geared toward dance crowds on Fridays and Saturdays and bands on other nights. The system matters less than the engineer. A good engineer can make you sound passable using an old car stereo.

"To be perfectly honest gear ultimately has far less to do with your sound, than the person mixing your band. I've seen some of the ugliest sound systems around make the right room sing. And if your band is good it will come through regardless," says Kenneally. "The one thing that I would tell bands is that sound engineers are doing their job; the mixing board is their desk and the club is their office. Just remember to show them the respect that you’d expect from your boss and coworkers, and you’ll be surprised at how easily you can get along with even the crabbiest of sound engineers."