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The Gear Blog: Part iii: 5 Things the Remedy wouldn't be caught without

In our first blog of this series we looked at the first couple pieces of gear that we would hate to be caught without at a show, our in-ear monitoring system, and a quality keyboard with a good pad patch. And in part two we covered the importance of the overdrive and delay pedals for our guitarist. No guitarist should ever be caught without their delay or overdrive. During this installment of 5 things we wouldn't be caught without, we are going to discover the importance of a metronome and a couple vocal effects.

When you think about the glue that holds everything together in a live performance, you might think of a great vocalist or a drummer and bassist that are grooving, but few people outside of the music industry truly appreciate the importance of a metronome or click track. Some bands may utilize the metronome for only their drummer, while others give it to the whole band via their IEM system, but every professional band uses a click. Over the years, we have used many different versions of a click, and it is really not so important which kind you use so much as it is important that you use some variation of a click track.From running them through a software like Reason, Protools, or Ableton Live to playing one through hardware like the Boss DB-30 (pictured to the right) there are many different options for using a click. So whenever you find your band just not being able to stay in time, or speeding up during your really rocking bridges, adding a metronome to the equation can solve many of your problems.

In the same way that a metronome can help tighten you up as a band, adding a few well made vocal effects can move you from garage band good to professional artist. As good as any vocalists voice might be, they will almost always sound better with the addition of vocal reverb and compression. Everyone wants the amazing sound that comes out of a studio like the one above, but few people understand all of the post production work that goes into getting a vocalist so sound CD quality. With the addition of reverb and delay, you can make your live show just a little bit more like your most recent CD. Vocal compression helps to even out the dynamics of your voice, and when applied correctly can really help to smooth out your vocals so that they always stay where you'd like them in your mix. While not everyone will be able to afford studio quality compressors, TC Helicon's VoiceTone line makes some very affordable effects that can be controlled by the musician themselves so you don't have to leave the sound of your voice solely in the hands of your sound tech. So as the compression effect smooths out your high and low output sections to one cohesive amazing sound, you can now add reverb. Vocal reverb by many opinions is a vocalists best friend(well if you don't include autotune, cause no one uses that lol). Want to sound like you are singing in an intimate wood lined room? There's a setting for that. How about a massive stadium? There's one for that too. Typically best practices for these effects is to be subtle, but be creative and try new things, you never know what you might like til you try it.

So we've reached the end of our list and honestly we've left alot out. In just writing this list it brings to mind so many more things that are vitally important to what we do as musicians. So this is us, but what about you? What are 5 things that you wouldn't do a show without? We'd love to hear your thoughts on the matter and who knows maybe you'll remind us of something else we left off the list.

Cheers!