Ep. 26: Gear Maintenance and Tech Advice for Live Gigs with Johnny Balmer of Alchemy Audio

Stephen: Welcome to Secrets From The Scene. My name is Stephen Helvig and I'm your host. If you don't know who I am, I'm a local producer here in the Twin Cities. And this podcast is all about showcasing our local music scene and the cool businesses and artists, producers that are here making it up. And also just sharing stories and insights, tips, tricks, whatever that we can amongst each other to make the scene a better place. Today, I'm joined by Johnny Balmer. Johnny and I just met recently. He reached out I thought his story was [00:01:00] really interesting and I want to showcase his business. His business is called alchemy audio and alchemy audio is a a repair shop that, well, they repair, build, and modify guitar effect pedals. So if you've got a pedal or two that isn't quite working right, you might want to reach out to Alchemy Audio. Or more interestingly, maybe if you want to do a modification on that. And well, we're going to dig into what that means and what the possibilities of that would be later on. Johnny also is a live sound engineer. He mixes at the Astor. Green room, cloud land theater, and several others. So, so if you're out playing shows, you might run into him. Please welcome Johnny Balmer. Johnny: Yeah. Stephen: for being here, man. Johnny: Thanks for having me. Stephen: Of course. Yeah. Let's start at the top. Johnny: All right. Stephen: some people the context of your background and, and Johnny: was born on a stormy night. Kidding. We'll fast forward a few years from, from the Stephen: that's probably a good Johnny: Uh, [00:02:00] grew up in Minnesota. When I was a teenager, I started getting into not just. listening to music, but playing it as well. And I started taking guitar lessons, kind of took a similar path that a lot of people probably take when they're younger and started playing around in bands. And then that just around the same time, I, I also started becoming interested in being able to record. Some of the mediocre songs that I was writing at the time and that blossomed into, you know, owning my first Tascam cassette four track Stephen: Nice. Johnny: so I was kind of doing, you know, not only playing music with friends and creating music, but also trying to figure out the art of like recording it and capturing it. And then once I got out of high school, that led to me going to a music school for, for music studies, for guitar studies. It's no longer there. We were talking about that earlier. Stephen: Yeah. What was it called at the Johnny: Um, At the time it was called [00:03:00] muses originally I think it was called guitar center and then for obvious reasons, I think they had to chart change their name. And I think it turned into musician and it wasn't musicians Institute. Cause that's a place in L in LA. What was the name of it? Cause it went through a different name change. Stephen: did that just turn into IPR then? Johnny: yeah. So once, once I graduated in a few years had passed, then it went from, you know, this music school that it was to more focused on like production and audio recording fast forward a few years and I ended up continuing to be interested in, in producing music. producing and recording music. And I went to uh, the two year program at Hennepin Technical College. And that's where I really kind of cut my teeth and decided that this was something that I, you know, not only had a passion for, but I had a certain skill set for it and that really like, Stephen: Sort of solidified that you were in that industry. Johnny: And through that, I got an internship at a local [00:04:00] recording studio and graduated to the point of where I was tracking and mixing a lot of projects in that studio. Um, It was called the Emerald Studio and at the time it was a 32 track digital, 24 track analog. And they had an older, I think it was a Soundcraft console. It was like nothing special, but they had some nice pieces and a nice room to work with. That is no longer there, unfortunately, but that really got me started on that path of, of audio recording. Fast forward a few more years and I find myself in Chicago because I was working at a record store here in town. Shout out to Cheapo and I ended up moving to Chicago because I had bought a chain of record stores. I had an interest in, in opening stores of my own. so moved out there in 2002 and was there for 20 years before moving back to, to Minnesota. So I guess the, the common thread with all of these things that I've done is that it was all music related and [00:05:00] I, I found ways to kind of keep involved in music and in. Perhaps unforeseen ways. They all, I feel kind of benefited me and gave me some skills that are really useful to the stuff that I'm doing today. Stephen: Yeah. Yeah. Where did alchemy start coming along? Johnny: So that was founded in Chicago when I was there. I was running this chain of record stores, not really too involved in music beyond that. I wasn't really performing or playing with anyone other than just at home as a hobby. And kind of got back into playing guitar more seriously. And then I. bought some random boss pedal and I, you know, probably discovered, you know, some available modifications that you could do to it. I'd always known how to solder. Since I was a teenager, I was constantly, I've, I've always had that interest and, and kind of that skill of being able to tinker with things and troubleshoot things and, and, uh, real good with things. My hands and, you [00:06:00] know, building things. And I just found some mods for this boss pedal and, and did a few of them and they sounded, I thought it improved the sound of it. And then through that, maybe I bought a broken pedal and fix that. And then someone would come to me and say, Hey, could you fix this one for me? And so it really just organically grew from something I was doing just as a hobby on my kitchen table. In Chicago to what it is now. Stephen: That's cool. Yeah, I have a lot of questions about alchemy and obviously that's going to be a big part of today's episode, but before we do that, I do want to just ask a few questions about the whole record store experience. What was the chain called in Johnny: Uh, Second hand tunes. Yes. Stephen: Why? And, and maybe a little bit of a background of like what that business was like what the ups and downs of owning the record store was. Johnny: And and in addition to that, the ups and downs of buying an existing [00:07:00] business, which was you know, the real challenge of it as a, as I saw it So when I was still working here at a record store in Minneapolis, I had started to think of the possibility of, you know, opening my own shop and, and doing that, and I started looking at other cities around the country where I thought you could do something like this. I quickly realized that it had to be a stu, a city where there was kind of a vibrant and, and well known like music scene. And so that really narrowed the list down to, you know, places like maybe Nashville or New Orleans or Chicago being one of them. Someplace that had a real hitch, rich history with music. And just coincidentally, this chain of record stores that had been around since the seventies in Chicago was for sale. And I ended up partnering with my guy that I worked for here and Buying those stores and then moving out there. And it happened really quickly once, once the deal was, was done. [00:08:00] So, I mean, in a matter of weeks, we were packing up and selling our house and moving out to Chicago. So yeah. What was your favorite part about owning a record store? Just being exposed to all the music and just being, you know, like it, there would be people that would come in and say, Oh, this must be a great job. You get to listen to music all day. And. They were not wrong. That's a big part of it, just being immersed in music. And then you would meet people and get turned on to other things that maybe you weren't familiar with. And you're, you're also surrounded by like minded people. So the customers that were coming in were obviously very into music as well. And it gave you some common ground right from the beginning. Stephen: Yeah. Did you have something that made your record store different? Like, was called secondhand tunes. So was it more about like the curation of what you were bringing in there Johnny: And primarily used, obviously, there was more of a profit margin with pre owned music, whether that be on CD or record versus ordering new, because the [00:09:00] profit margins were much slimmer on the new product. So that was all. And I, and I would tell people all the time I was in the business of buying, not selling because As I, much as I could take in buying collections and buying from people that would come in off the street with some CDs or records, I always had a buyer for it because we also did some pretty healthy online sales as well as the retail stores. So, I mean, this was kind of the height of music retail back in the late nineties and early two thousands. And so, you know, everyone had CD collections. This was pre streaming. Vinyl was still kind of not as popular as it Stephen: would have people that were collectors and digging through stuff, of Johnny: yes, Stephen: And then, you know, that winds down. Was that, did that go all the way up to 2022 when you moved back or did it wind down before Johnny: before then I, I kind of saw during my time out in Chicago, the direction things were going as far as music retail and just online retail in general [00:10:00] everything was moving towards the online platform. The stores that were really suffering and struggling were the ones that didn't really have an online presence. And. It's very expensive to have retail stores when you consider the rent and the employees and the staff and, you know, every maintenance repair, everything that goes into having a physical location. And so as the leases would expire on some stores, we would just not renew them. I had a couple employees that had worked for me for a good deal of time that had an interest in doing something on their own. So they. Bought the stores from me and continued to operate them under a different name. But toward the end, we were just operating one retail store as well as a warehouse where we would have all this online inventory and a bulk of the sales were coming from the online sales toward the end. Stephen: Interesting. Johnny: And this also corresponded with the time that I was starting Alchemy, and you know, started off very [00:11:00] organically, but it was continuing to grow just through word of mouth, so it dovetailed really nicely into, I was trying to kind of figure out what my future might look like with, you These record stores and if they would continue to, you know, be a viable business. And then this alchemy stuff was, you know, taking up more and more of my time. And it was something that I actually had an interest in, you know, pursuing as well. So yeah. thanks for sharing that. I, I'm just kind of curious. I mean, as As somebody who also frequented record stores all the time and was trying to buy as many, you know, use CDs as I could Stephen: and build my collection. You know, it's, it's something that I miss a little bit of obviously it's way more convenient, you know, streaming now, but do you have any record stores in town that you are a big fan of? Johnny: Believe it or not, I do not own. a music collection anymore. So going into a record store these days would be completely useless to me. And I'll mix bands and they'll be offering to give me a copy of their record [00:12:00] or CD. And I just have to graciously decline because I want, I want it to go to someone that will actually, you know, Stephen: Hold on to it. Johnny: Do something with it, play it, enjoy it. I'm happy to stream all the music, but yeah, when we moved back to Chicago, my wife and I, we just decided to really downsize. We went from a house to a condo where we're at now. And it was very liberating to just get rid of a lot of the non essential stuff that we had accumulated throughout the years as most people do. Stephen: Yeah, I get that. Cool. Well, let's, let's dive into alchemy a little bit. So as we said, you know, guitar effects pedals, that's the main focus. Johnny: Yes. Stephen: I think it's obvious that if you have a broken pedal, you're a good solution for that. But. Talk to me about what does modifying pedals really mean? What are common modifications? Cause I, I think that's probably an area that a lot of people may have heard of like, okay, I get that there's gear mods, right? But why, and what do they [00:13:00] look like? Should, is this something people should think about? Johnny: So with modifying pedals, usually the objective is to add some kind of features that maybe aren't included in the stock design or just more practical reasons, and I see this a lot with. Some of the vintage gear that we work on is maybe they weren't originally wired for true bypass, maybe they were battery power only. So we're doing things like wiring them for true bypass, which for those that don't know, it just means that when the effect is not on the signal, that's coming from your guitar to an amp is just. passing through the pedal, not going through the actual circuit board and potentially altering the tone or sound of it at all. But we also might be just adding features like a DC power jack, so you could power it with a normal power supply, maybe adding a switch to select [00:14:00] between a couple of uh, different capacitors to change the tone of it or something. So it's, it's kind of a mix of both practical upgrades and performance upgrades, I would Stephen: that makes total sense. What is the most bizarre modification you've ever been asked to do? Johnny: I have to think about this. We've definitely received some vintage effects in the mail that look like they've been through a war and back. I do recall one particular pedal that someone sent. It was a, it was a vintage rat distortion pedal that had literally been run over by a truck. Like they sent it in, in pieces. It was kind of misshapen. It needed a lot of work and you just had to kind of roll up your sleeves You know, go through it item by item and see, you know, what needed replacement, what needed repairing. And those are always kind of fun. trying to think of what else, I know there's been some pretty, some pretty odd kind of custom [00:15:00] jobs that we've done. We might have to come back to that. Stephen: Yeah, well if anything crosses your mind, I'd love to I'll, I'll think on You know if it's one of those things you're like, why are you why do you want this? Johnny: Yeah. Stephen: we've covered, you know, just fixing something that's broken we fit we've covered the kind of common types of modifications that people may want for older gear or extra features What about the build stuff? Talk to me about what you get asked to do in terms, when it comes to building. Are you totally creating something new from scratch? Johnny: Generally not. And I, and I explained to people that I'm not really, I'm not an electronic engineer, I'm not you know, I'm completely self taught and just, you know, what I've, what I've learned from others. explained to people, I'm not an architect. I'm more like a builder or I'm, you know, I'm a mechanic. I'm not uh, Stephen: Okay, sure. Johnny: So when we, when we get requests to do kind of custom one off builds, it's usually maybe a circuit that is no longer made something vintage, [00:16:00] maybe a circuit that exists, but they want additional features with it. They want a couple extra knobs or switches and they want it to do certain functions. And that's where we can help because if, if there is like a verified schematic or layout or something. Um, We can take that, build it to the customer's specifications and make it look how they want, because that's always important as well. And did that answer the question? Yeah. Stephen: absolutely. Yeah. I just didn't, you know, I wanted to know sort of the, the range of what you're doing at the shop, you know, now, Alchemy Audio is you and your wife, correct? Yeah. And what is her role in, in the services? Johnny: Believe it or not, like a lot of the stuff that comes through the shop, especially if it's modifications, she's actually the one behind the scenes doing it. And when I first started doing it by myself it was kind of a one person job and there wasn't enough, you know, workload to sustain, you know, more employees or more staff. And then [00:17:00] as I started getting busier, she expressed an interest in it. She didn't really have any background. You know, she, she, she. plays music here and there but didn't really have any background in electronics or anything. And I started just showing her how to do some things. And my only expectation was that the quality of the work didn't suffer in any way. So, If someone sent something in, whether I worked on it or she worked on it, it was going to leave the shop the same way. And to my surprise, she just really took to it. And it was, it's still like uncanny to me, like how she just had a natural skill for it that to this day, like she's doing a lot of the stuff, even though I'm more kind of the public face of the company. Yeah. Stephen: really cool. Now, you guys have done some big names in terms of some repairs and stuff like that, Johnny: we have since most of the stuff that we do is, you know, guitar pedals, it's small, it's easy to throw in the mail and ship we get stuff from all over the world, literally, and some [00:18:00] of the people that have sent us stuff include Joe Walsh members of Aerosmith, and, Foo Fighters, Anthrax, Megadeth. When we were in Chicago, both Wilco and Smashing Pumpkins were frequent customers of ours. They both had, as you would imagine, like rehearsal facilities and big, you know, spaces where they would keep all their gear. And we had relationships with people that worked for, for both bands. And they would just literally like give us, you know, boxes or tubs of non working gear that had been cast aside. And we would go through and, you know, get everything working again, return it. And they'd usually have another box to give us once that was dropped off. So we had relationships with a lot of really well known musicians. Stephen: Yeah, that's great. kind of feel like this is a good segue into my next sort of question, which is gear maintenance. All right. So you're getting stuff that's broken all the time, right? But what [00:19:00] could, should people be doing to take as good of care of their guitar pedals as they can? you know, what tends to go wrong first? Johnny: is a great question. Well, there are things like foot switches that are physically being stepped on and engaged and disengaged. And so when you've got anything mechanical like that, where there's like an actual switch being, being engaged over time, it's going to wear out, it's going to break. So probably one of the more common repairs that we do is replacing. foot switches, potentiometers, little toggle switches that always seem to break when you drop the pedal on the floor or something. Stephen: Now, real quick aside from that, is this usually then on like vintage equipment? Cause is it cost effective to repair a newish, you know, like say boss tuner that stops working? Johnny: it depends on the particular piece. Um, a lot of things nowadays are digital and that's a whole other realm. You know, they're [00:20:00] assembled by robots. The parts are miniscule. And there's oftentimes not a lot inside that you can service without special tools or Okay. That makes sense. If it's an analog circuit, chances are it can be repaired. That said, there are some things that are just like any electronics that are just so inexpensive and almost disposable that they just make them so that they're not very cost effective to repair. Stephen: recommend people then just contact you before sending something in? Then? Johnny: Absolutely. Yeah. And I can usually just advise them based on the information that they give me, whether it sounds like something that would be worthwhile to send in or Stephen: Got it. Cool. Okay. So yes, there's the stuff that it has natural wear and tear it's eventually going to wear out if you step on it enough times, but is there other stuff outside of that that tends to happen? Mistakes that are made that you end up repairing that people should know about. Johnny: Yeah. So pots get dirty, you know, and [00:21:00] that's oftentimes an easy DIY project. So if you've got some electronics cleaner that you can squirt in there Stephen: Talk to people about what pots are. Johnny: pot stands for potentiometers. And those are all the knobs that you turn on, on the amps and guitars and pedals. And oftentimes they have an opening in them that will. Collect dirt and dust and they just over time, they start to wear out or get dirty. And you usually hear that in the form of scratching when Stephen: that's yeah, exactly. So if you've, if you've turned a knob on something and it's, you know, and it makes noise as you are turning it, that's a dirty pot and you can clean those things. Johnny: And when you do turn those, there actually is something that's physically making contact. So that's another area where things over time can wear out. But oftentimes you can prolong the life of them just by doing some general cleaning and, You know, and there's some special cleaners that you can buy specifically for electronics that you can spray inside there. And then there's also some lubricants that you can [00:22:00] spray in there to, Stephen: Anything that you would recommend? Johnny: deoxit is what I use in the shop and they make one called D five. It comes in a little spray can, much like. You know, WD 40, I would not recommend using that. Even though I know that's common, but that has a tendency to attract like moisture and dirt, and you don't want that in your electronics. And then they also sell one called fader lube that is specifically designed for like lubricating faders and pots and stuff like that. Cool. All right. So there's things that just wear out. There's cleaning pots, deoxit, that sort of thing. Anything else? Power, that is probably one of the more common areas with regarding guitar pedals, where people just are misinformed. And you can do some damage to electronics like that. If you're using either an incorrect power supply or One that's not sufficient for that pedal or just a poor quality one. Like they're, you know, power supplies come in different levels of [00:23:00] quality, and I always advise people when, especially when they get to the point where they've got like a nice assortment of pedals, they've got a pedal board Oftentimes a lot of those pedals are very expensive and it makes sense that you would invest in a good quality isolated power supply, even though I know it's not the most sexy of gear purchases because you could spend anywhere from a hundred to several hundred dollars on a good power supply, but it really does make a difference in keeping everything quiet and operating properly. Stephen: Yeah, I think power supply is something that people spend very little time unless you're a gear person and you've read up on this sort of thing that people don't think about. And the truth of the matter is when it comes to your, your setup as a guitarist, let's say you've got a pedal board, you've got the cables connecting everything, you've got your instrument, you've got the power supply and then, and then an amp, your signal is really only going to be as good as your weakest part of that chain. Yeah.[00:24:00] Whatever, so if you've got beautiful brand new or expensive pedals and a great instrument, but you're using the cheapest cables possible, you're sort of taking away a lot of the quality that you were paying for between your instruments and your pedals by not using proper cables. Now, all of this adds up and I get it like you have to budget somewhere, but at least be conscious of what it means that if you are going to use the cheapest cables, then maybe don't put as much into your guitar pedals. You know, if you're spending money on like a mod or like doing those kinds of things, then you're, you might as well spend money on cables. Otherwise it's making no difference. Johnny: It's, it's probably the area where people, whether intentionally or not, just cut corners and they just go with the cheapest option. And a lot of that just might be, they're not aware of the difference it makes. Stephen: this was eye opening for me because I was not aware I, I bought whatever [00:25:00] was at guitar center and on sale, you know, when I first started playing guitar and that was that or whatever I could get for free from my friend's other band or whatever. I got an opportunity to go on tour, you know, a while ago and it was a big deal. We were going to be opening direct support for a large artist. And so I was getting my stuff together. Right. And I had a really nice amp. I had a nice guitar and I started looking into the cable situation. And I had read that. Yes, it makes a big difference. And I thought, well, how big of a difference could it make? You know, these cables are fine. So what I did is I went and I bought high end cables. I bought Mugami cables. It cost a fortune. I couldn't believe how much money I was spending on cables, but I just plugged it in. I did my normal set up and had Everything, you know, set the way I would normally. And then I swapped out all the cables and I just listened without changing anything. And it was a massive difference in tone and in volume between the two. There was way more signal going into the amp and it was richer. It wasn't a [00:26:00] subtle thing where you go, Oh, I can kind of tell it was night and day. Johnny: And I would say power supplies, you would get very similar results. Stephen: Yes. And that's the other part of this is the, the power supply itself is one of those unsexy things, just like a cable that beyond. Influencing the tone and the quality of sound that is coming out it's also protecting your gear because if you have fluctuations from your power supply, if it's cheaply made, it can break other things. And so you're, you're just losing all the money that you put in by trying to save a little bit on a power supply. Johnny: And another very common repair that we do frequently is repairing pedals that have had the incorrect power supply connected to Stephen: Yeah. Okay. So I know that we can't, perfectly inform people of all the technical, Johnny: You don't want to have an hour long discussion about electronic principles. Stephen: I mean, I don't even, I don't even understand most of them. I. know enough to, to get by, but the main takeaway [00:27:00] is just read what it says it needs on the pedal before you plug something into it. Johnny: And if it doesn't say on the pedal, most manuals are available online, but it's worth the few minutes to find the manual, see what the power requirements are, not only for voltage, but also the current draw, which is measured in milliamps. So you'll see those two ratings Stephen: You'll see the V you got to make sure that that's correct, that the V on your power supply and on your pedal match up. And that the milliamps are ideally exactly the same, although they can be slightly different. Right? Johnny: You can supply more current than is needed for a pedal. You can't supply less because that's when they'll start doing strange things. Most pedals do not draw a lot of power. So you're usually fine with any standard pedal power supply, but where you run into an issue is when you get into some of the digital effects that do a lot of stuff and there's a lot of processing going [00:28:00] on and some of those can draw like a significant amount of power. Stephen: Yeah. So a lot of times when you're, when you're buying a power supply, it will have the milliamps listed at the total that it can supply to all the amps or all the pedals that are plugged into it. So I just want to point that out if, if there's any confusion. Johnny: And the pedals will only draw what they need. So there's no danger in giving it more current than what it needs, but You can always supply more current to a pedal than what is needed, but the voltage, you really do have to follow the recommendation of the Stephen: that has to match. Johnny: so if it says nine volts, do not give it 12, do not give it 15, do not give it 18 because that's when the pedals come to me and we have to fix them. And sometimes they're not able to be repaired depending on the pedals. So, Stephen: Yeah, that's great. I mean, all, all those tips are going to be super helpful for people. If you, have no idea about any of this stuff, then hopefully this will end up preventing a major repair for you or having to replace a pedal. And it's all good stuff to know. basically, all we covered there is enough to get by for a [00:29:00] career. You don't need to go any deeper unless you want to. Johnny: ultimately it just ensures that your gear is performing as it's intended and that it's, you're going to remove a lot of variables that could cause issues with. The pedal functioning the way it's Stephen: Yes. Yes. So don't buy cheap cables, put a little bit of money into a power supply and make sure it's the correct power supply for what you're running. Make sure all those things are lined up the same way and then just take care of your gear. You know, the harder you're stomping on it and running it over with the truck, the more likely you're going to have to get it repaired. Yeah, cool. I want to keep on this topic about gear maintenance, but at the same time, kind of transitioning into the next piece of this conversation, which is the live side of things with you know, you as being a live mixing engineer you know, as we had a conversation before this podcast, we got onto all the little things that you see be either unprepared or just go wrong at a show. Obviously a [00:30:00] lot of these things, again, are for people that are just getting started, haven't had a lot of experience on stage yet. So we're going to go through a list of considerations to make sure that your gig goes as well as possible. And I'd like to start with the technical stuff since we're on that right now. Johnny: Yeah. And this is an area where I can kind of share my experience and knowledge just based on, you know, my work with Alchemy as well as my work as a audio engineer around town at various venues. And so these are just some things that I've noticed to be aware of. Pay attention to hopefully it will ensure that your gig goes smoothly without any issues. Stephen: The first thing is dealing with unintended noises. Like if this is so common and I get it because it's hard to know. What is causing this noise? Is this a noise that's a problem or is this a regular noise that is just sort of a part of owning this instrument? So the first [00:31:00] thing is, be Conscious if your instrument or your amp or whatever is humming and causing weird noises, particularly if you rehearse at pretty low volumes and then you get on stage and it's going to be a lot louder, you might all of a sudden go, Oh, that wasn't a problem before, but now it's a big problem. Uh, And those noises can really be an annoyance at a live show or be a huge problem. Johnny: absolutely. And there are some things That might be unavoidable single coil pickups through an amp. That's just the nature of, of what it is. And it's going to have some buzzes. You just have to be aware that that is going to be amplified through a PA system. And so if it's noticeable at low volume, it's going to be much more noticeable at the higher volume. But there are things where it's not normal behavior for your gear. If you've got a temperamental guitar pedal, guitar amp, that's, you know, cutting out, making noises, don't assume that [00:32:00] that's going to just go away. During your gig if there's an issue that needs to be addressed, make sure that that's taken care of before. If repairing it is not a possibility, see if maybe you could borrow a friend's amp or guitar, or just figure out a way to not use that piece of gear for this gig until the issue is sorted out. Stephen: know, it, it seems fairly obvious, but. It's very common. Uh, and it's, not for a lack of caring about it. I think it's mostly just a lack of noticing it It may be in your rehearsal space. It's always loud and always noisy. And those kinds of things are just buried. You don't notice them, but then it's just you on stage and you go, Oh boy, this sounds terrible. This is really a problem. first question I have for you, and maybe it's a tough one to answer, but How does somebody figure out what is a real problem to deal with and what isn't? Johnny: That is a good question. Stephen: Because there is noise. There's noise from amps, there's noise from guitar pickups, there's [00:33:00] stuff like that. But then there's like ground hum and other issues that are like, that needs to be solved. That Johnny: Yeah, and some of that is just going to come with experience and your familiarity with your particular gear. So if you have this, this setup and you know it really well, Stephen: Well, I think that's part of the problem too, is that if somebody starts with gear, that's a little bit faulty, they've never heard it clean until somebody says, that's a problem. I've never bothered me, you know? And so. I've sympathy for that so what I would suggest is obviously you should aim for the quietest possible setup. And one of the things you can start with, and this really applies to guitar players, bass players, I guess anybody that's using pedals and cables and that sort of thing is do a little bit of just a B testing on your own. Buy one nice chord. Buy one nice chord that you know is perfect. What does your amp sound like when you plug your guitar right into your amp? Hear what that [00:34:00] sounds like. Take note of it. Then, plug it into a pedal. One pedal. And then into your amp. What does that sound like? Johnny: And I would add to that both on and off because even when the effect is turned off, it's quite possibly going to affect how your guitar Stephen: Good point. Good point. And continue down this by this path of adding one piece of gear in. Does that add a significant amount of noise? Is it a problem? Does this add a significant amount of noise? Some things are going to a distortion pedals going to add noise. That's what it's meant to do. You just have to make sure like, is that an acceptable amount of noise underneath this, how loud you're playing, you know, but that will help you kind of determine if like, Oh, whoa, this one, something weird is going on when I plug this one in. And the only way to sort of get to the bottom of it is to isolate one thing at a time. So just doing that on your own can really help you understand what noise everything is contributing now. Johnny: Right. Yep. that's also a good rule of thumb and a [00:35:00] good procedure for when you're trying to troubleshoot an issue. So say you are rehearsing, you get to a gig, you set up your rig and all of a sudden there's a unusual noise of some kind coming from it. And now you're tasked with trying to troubleshoot it quickly. Start, like you said at the beginning, and go right into the amp and then just one by one introduce pedals, cable, that kind of thing. And that's probably the quickest, most effective way that you're going to isolate where the problem is originating. Stephen: see a lot of that where people might just be chasing their tail. So to speak of thinking, well, I think it's this thing. I think that sometimes, unless you, if you already had a problem with that and you can go, I'm pretty sure I know what this is then sure, but if you don't know where to begin, you have to isolate the variables. So if you've got. five pedals plugged in or 10 pedals plugged in, you've got to start isolating and taking nine of them out of the equation. It's the only way to find out which one is the [00:36:00] problem. Now to add to this process, one of the things is let's say at step number one, where you plug your guitar into the amp and it's like, yeah, that's pretty noisy. Okay. Well then what it could be your guitar. It could be the amp. Then it comes down to, Try another amp. What does your guitar sound like through another amp? What does your guitar sound like through, if your amp has more than one input through a different input of Johnny: And if possible, I would even try it at another physical location because, uh, that's the other wild card is the electricity source from your rehearsal space, the bar you're playing at, your house, wherever, and that can make a huge difference. Stephen: And that one you can't do much about. Is there anything you can do if you plug into something and you go, Oh man, I'm getting quite a ground hum Johnny: I would suggest if you're at a venue, if there's another outlet you can try because you have to understand too, there's so many things at a venue, you know, sometimes you're playing in these buildings that are quite old and you don't know the age and condition of the [00:37:00] electricity that's coming into that building. But also you've got things like. Whatever else is in the venue, the, the lighting, the 10 TVs they have on the wall, the, all the restaurant equipment, and those are things that can introduce noise into the electricity that you're pulling from to power your gear. And that, like you said, is something you have no control over, but I, a good starting point would be maybe try another outlet, which, you know, hopefully would be on a different circuit and that might, you know, eliminate the problem. Maybe something that was on that circuit along with the, the AMP that you're plugging into is probably To me it's kind of a last resort because that's not a safe way to operate an amplifier. Once you eliminate that path to ground, you can potentially make it unsafe. So, I would not [00:38:00] recommend that as like the starting point, but sometimes it is a solution depending on what the problem Stephen: Yep. Yeah. But be careful. is there anything else that people can do outside of switching circuits, hunting down stuff for noise? Have you had any sort of tricks over the years of, you know, how to solve those kinds of issues? Johnny: No, I think, I think we, we covered some good starting points. if it's a problem that's just becoming increasingly challenging and elusive, then it might be time to bring it to, you know, if it's, if you've narrowed it down to maybe an issue with your guitar or your amp, there's. You know, specialists you can bring it to. And I, and I think, especially in the case of amplifiers, if you don't know what you're doing, you should not be opening up an amplifier and digging around in there because there are lethal voltages in many amps that could actually cause you some harm. Stephen: Certainly. yeah, But if you can diagnose that, Hey, I know the problem is the amp at this point, then, then you're, [00:39:00] then you know what to do next. You can find somebody that works on amps. If you know the problem is your guitar, it's just too noisy. Then you can. take it to somebody that can work on those things and you can decide what you need to do. So, okay, that's great. There's the technical stuff on that. The next thing is cause it's so closely related when it comes to your instrument, making sure that instrument is set up. Well, You know, things with the pickups, if the pickups are too noisy or the knobs don't work or whatever. I have a lot of people coming into the studio where, you know, we'll go to be recording something and sometimes they don't know what the knobs are doing, you know, especially if there's more than two, like I'm not entirely sure, you know, spend time to figure that out. It will drastically affect your ability to craft your tone. If you, if you know that for certain what exactly each knob is doing. And that way, if one stops working, you'll actually know, because there are times when people plug in instruments and like, yeah, that. You said that that's switching between the pickups, but it's not, it's not, you might think it is, but [00:40:00] it's not, we can hear it. Nothing's changing. And so just being aware of those things and taking time to actually test your stuff. And then once in a while, you have to get your instrument set up. It's going to need maintenance from obviously changing strings to getting the intonation checked maybe. Resetting the neck somewhat. There can be a lot of different things. Take care of your instruments. Johnny: And any of that preventative stuff you can do ahead of time, whether you're playing a live gig or going into the studio each one of those scenarios poses its own set of challenges. And, you know, the last thing you want to do is be in a studio where you're paying, you know, money for studio time. And you're. Spending the time troubleshooting your gear, or in the case of a live gig where you've got a set time and you're about to start in 10 minutes and you're doing the same thing, troubleshooting gear, neither scenario is ideal. So anything you can do to, you know, like we said, prepare and take care of that maintenance [00:41:00] stuff ahead of time is, Worth the investment. Stephen: is, and it just obviously by lowering your anxiety about it, because there's nothing worse than being like, Oh man, I, am I going to be able to play this? Or, you know, how much time am I wasting Johnny: And, and I share that anxiety as the, as the sound guy is like, I want your gig to go well, I want you to sound as, as best as you can. And there's nothing more frustrating from, from my perspective of, you know, having a real buzzy guitar that I'm trying to, you know, figure out what to do with in the Stephen: Yeah. And then there are always just the ghosts, the things that you're like, I don't know. This worked perfectly yesterday. I have no idea what's going on for those scenarios. That's why you bring backups. always have extra chords available, have a pack of strings available, have, if you can bring an extra guitar, you know, if you own a second one, cause for one, if you break a string, it might just be easier to switch instruments than to change a string. But two, sometimes [00:42:00] that's what I'm talking about with ghosts where you're just like, I don't know, this has never happened before. And that can be really, really stressful. So just if you, if you have the ability to bring backups of those things, it's, it's so much helpful and it helps out the troubleshooting too. Johnny: absolutely. And you know, some venues may have. Some gear available in an emergency situation. I wouldn't assume that that's probably best to inquire before your, the date of your gig. But if you can bring, you know, there's so many options these days, you know, there's pedals that can function as kind of a guitar preamp in a pinch. And, you know, even if it was just, you know, in an emergency scenario, plugging into one of those, and then that would, you know, go to the, the PA system. That's great. That's a solution. You know, it's not ideal, but it will get the gig done plan. Yeah. and it doesn't require a lot of extra space as, as far as like, transporting your gear or anything like that. It's something you could throw [00:43:00] in a backpack or a Stephen: Yeah, absolutely. All right. Another thing that comes to mind on the sort of technical side of things is DIs. Talk a little bit about what they are, why they're important, why that's a common term because there are, I feel first several gigs I played, I was, it was a little bit of a mystery of like, what is this thing and why am I using it? Johnny: Yeah. And we don't need to fall down like too big of a technical hole with this, but if you play an instrument like an acoustic guitar, Keyboards Something where they're not inherently like, going into some kind of an amplifier themselves, you're going to need a way to connect that to a mixing board or a PA system. And so a DI stands for direct injection or direct input. And it's basically just like a little box that converts um, your unbalanced high impedance signal that's coming out of your guitar or keyboard into a balanced low impedance signal Such as that, that would [00:44:00] come from like a microphone that you're plugging in. But it just, it just matches the signal levels go into the PA system. if you play an acoustic guitar, you play a bass or a keyboard, you're probably going to need one of those as kind of an interface between the two. Most venues will have some available. Some bass amplifiers will have. built in DI that you just plug a cable into and that goes to the mixing board. But some way you're going to need to convert that signal. So that's, that's the main thing to understand. And if you gig regularly, I would say it's a good investment to purchase one of your own that you can bring to the venue. They don't. Cost a lot of money, but they do vary in quality and you can spend anywhere from, you know, 40 or 50 up to several hundred for one. But it's a worthwhile investment, especially if you're like I said, like a keyboard player or acoustic guitar player, and you're playing a lot of live Stephen: [00:45:00] Yeah. Cause you can get DIs that will have additional functionalities in them where they are doing the balance or the, the signal matching for you. But then they might also give you some tone shaping and maybe a little preamp built into it and things like that. Johnny: Yeah, especially with acoustic guitar players, there's so many options available and most of the time that someone shows up at a gig and they have one of those preamps that they can plug their acoustic guitar into and do some, you know, kind of basic EQing and stuff. It's a delight. I'm, I will never complain when I have one of those, because it just makes my job a lot easier that they've put that thought and preparation, you know, ahead of time into like having this available and it makes my job really easy because then all I have to do is just grab a signal Stephen: Yeah. Yeah. Totally. I thought of one thing that I want to circle back to really quick. Which is bring extra batteries for your pedals, because in that conversation for electricity problems and stuff, sometimes if your pedals [00:46:00] don't need to be plugged in on that circuit with your amp, if they can all run on battery, that can solve problems Johnny: Absolutely. Cause that is an isolated power source. So therefore you're not sharing it with. Stephen: Yeah, so that's another tip that I just feel like we need to bring that in is Obviously you don't want to necessarily run your pedals on batteries all the time It's a lot of batteries, but having that as a backup option can really be a lifesaver if you're having electricity problems. Johnny: And there's even little cables where you can attach to the nine volt battery and just plug it right into where you would normally plug like a DC power source. So it's not even like you have to take the pedal apart or remove the bottom plate, like there are ways around, you know, simple, Stephen: I have not seen those that's Yeah. Yeah. And I would add to that list, you know, bring a few extra cables, patch cables and instrument cable, you know, obviously like things like strings, picks, it's surprising to me how often it happens where people arrive at a gig and they have to borrow an instrument cable or [00:47:00] like you said, a nine volt battery or something. Johnny: And those are just the things where it really helps to just be prepared ahead of time and, and make sure you have those on hand in the event that you need Stephen: Yeah. A few episodes ago we had Mike Hallenbeck on and one of his tips was that you should just have like a, a pack list essentially. while it seems all obvious and like, yeah, of course I always have extra picks. Well then at some point you run out and you forgot to restock. And that of course would be the gig when you needed it. And so by having these lists and just making that a part of your, routine, if you're going to go to a gig, do I have these things in my gig bag? it's always when you run out that the problems happen. So, it'll really just help make sure that everything goes off without a hitch. Johnny: I have a gig bag that I bring to all of my shows that I mix, you know, regardless of what venue it's at. And most of that stuff I never touch. But that one time that I need it, whether it's a cable tester or, you know, some adapter to, you know, plug someone's laptop into the PA [00:48:00] system, it's been invaluable for those Stephen: Yeah. Let's actually get to that the adapters and other random things that people need to plug in whether it's their phone or something odd, like, how do you like that handled for Johnny: This, this happens pretty, pretty commonly. This happens pretty frequently. And if you do anything that's going to require prerecorded tracks, samples you know, you're using a phone or a laptop or a tablet to play something that's prerecorded, or maybe you're syncing it with the music that you're going to be playing on stage, know in advance How that's going to be connected to the PA system at the venue, you know, cause Stephen: Yeah. Don't just expect them to be able to accommodate everything. Johnny: yeah, and there's so many different variables, you know, the type of connector that's coming out of your phone or your laptop, make sure that you have A way of easily getting that into the PA system. There's even direct [00:49:00] boxes that we were talking about previously that are designed specifically for like AV use. And so they have a variety of different types of connectors. And I would seriously recommend investing in one of those. If you do a lot of this type of music where you're going to be. Traveling with a laptop or a phone or something like that. And don't assume that the, the sound person is going to have what you need. And certainly don't assume that they're going to be tasked with hitting some kind of cues or something and hitting play on something at a specific time. You should have all that stuff planned out in Stephen: Yes, absolutely. Well, there is another technical thing that comes to mind. That's not electronic, but it is a technicality. It's a, skill to be learned, which is Mike technique. Johnny: Yes. Stephen: I'm going to let you take away on this one. Cause I'm sure you've had a lot more experience with this than, than me. Johnny: Oh, you're being modest. You run a recording studio. Stephen: but, but mic technique in a recording studio is a lot more forgiving than it is with dynamic mics live. Johnny: That's true. main thing to [00:50:00] understand is that having proper mic technique and knowing how to sing into a mic can greatly affect how it sounds. So mostly this will be vocalists that are performing, but you know, if you. Place your mouth as close as you can to the microphone. Yeah. So if I'm right up on the microphone here with, you know, basically my, my lips resting against the the pop filter, you get this pronounced like base. It's called a proximity effect and you get this, you know, pronounced based and it's, it's a lot more you know, volume wise, even just a louder signal versus if I pull my head back, like I am now about a foot from the mic. You get less space a little more kind of, I don't know how you would describe it, like more like more room Stephen: Well, and you're going to lose level, you're going to lose level. That's the main thing that people are going to really hear in the audience. Now, in this [00:51:00] podcast, that's going to probably get auto leveled out a little bit, but you probably will be, if you're listening to this, particularly in headphones or something, you're going to hear that this sounds closer and bassier. And this sounds farther away and less bassy. So that's that proximity effect, but you're also, the big thing is going to be just change in level. mic technique is about being consistent, not changing that all the time, unless you intend to, if you're going into a belt and you need to back off the mic a little bit, you can do that. Of course, that's part of having good mic techniques so that the live sound engineer is not trying to chase and predict what's going to happen with crazy level changes. Johnny: And you're working within the limitations of whatever system and gear that the venue has. And so, if you are singing really far away from the mic and maybe you're not a very loud singer, so you're singing at a lower volume away from the mic, they're going to have to. Turn up the gain to try and amplify your voice and get it above, you know, the music that's happening [00:52:00] on stage. And sometimes that's a challenge, especially if it's a louder band, but they have a quieter singer. And that's when you can potentially have issues with like feedback on the stage and stuff, because you're just trying to crank this signal. That's not very loud to begin with. And there is a limit to how much you can do that. Stephen: You know, one thing that I've seen happen is sometimes people will start in close and then it's just way too loud for them. So they back off. Right. But you know, hold your ground and stay in close. And then if you have too much coming into your monitors, ask for the monitors to be turned down. Don't self correct by using distance from the Johnny: Yeah. And please, we can always turn stuff down. That's very easy. Turning stuff up is where the challenge comes Stephen: Correct. Yeah. Mike technique is huge. The only other part of that that comes to mind is how to hold the mic. If you are holding the Johnny: If they're holding it. Yes. if you are holding it. That introduces its own set of challenges because any of those uh, handling noises could potentially be amplified. Also [00:53:00] if you kind of grip the mic close up to where you're speaking into that's going to change how it sounds as well. And You see that a lot with, if, if people are holding the mic, it happens a lot with like hip hop artists and stuff, cause they want to, you know, get right up on the mic and, and like they wrap their hand around it and it's, and it's like right up in there and it's going to change how the mic sounds and, and behaves, Stephen: And as long as you sound check that way and you're okay with it, you can continue on, but just know that you are changing how it sounds. So I think that's probably more of a, an important note in small intimate venues where that might be more noticeable, Johnny: Yeah. It can really make a difference how the performance Stephen: yeah, cool. All right. We've covered a lot of great technical things. Before we wrap up this episode, I want to give you the ability to just list out a few other things that you see commonly. We don't have to go as in depth on these. We did another [00:54:00] episode, I think it was episode 18 with Joey Vesuvius, which was Insider Tips on Improving Your Stage Sound, where we, we went over A lot of this stuff too, but go ahead and rattle off some stuff that you see commonly from a mix engineer standpoint. Johnny: Yeah, yeah. And this will just be kind of from my experience um, at, at different venues around town, I would say whenever possible try and communicate ahead of time, your stage plot. Input list, production needs. So some of the stuff we've already covered, but you know, if you're going to need a DI, you're going to be maybe bringing your own microphone that you like to use if you're going to be sharing a drum kit with the opening band, like these are all good, important things to pass along to whoever's mixing the show ahead of time, because then when they arrive, they're Be able to be prepared and, anticipate your arrival and know what, what the needs are. But like we said, if you're doing any kind of electronic based music, it's definitely helpful to know ahead of time, like how. You're going to be able to interface these pre [00:55:00] recorded tracks, samples, turntables, whatever you have with the PA system. Um, no surprises, so the more that you can do to, you know, help out ahead of time, it's just going to mean for a successful gig. couple of things that kind of go hand in hand would be your stage volume. The most guilty parties on this are usually guitarists and drummers. If you're in a small venue in particular, it's really important to keep the sound level coming off the stage at a reasonable, appropriate level for that stage, so if you're playing a small venue, like I mix at the Astor Cafe several times a week and. It's a small venue, you get a hundred people in there and it's, it's packed and it's, it's a good crowd. If you show up with a full Marshall stack and expect to turn that onto 12 for your performance, it's not the right gear for that space. And it's going to cause [00:56:00] problems for the, the performance and, and just trying to compete with that. Along with that. Protecting your hearing is so important. And this is not only for yourself, but the audience, your fellow band members, the staff at the club, no one wants to be present at a performance that's at like 110, 120 DBs. That is just insanely loud. And it, it poses some real, uh, risks to your hearing. So keep the volume reasonable. There's, there's earplugs you can invest in that are probably a step up from like the orange ones that everyone's used to stuffing in their ears. You can even, if you want to go next level, you can even get fitted for your own, you know, Custom earplugs, and they can make them in varying degrees of noise reduction. So that, whether you want a little bit more or less noise reduced in your, in your ears, you can, you can swap out different earplugs, it's an important consideration and [00:57:00] one that I don't think is discussed as often as it should be. Stephen: I agree. Yeah until it's too late. Yeah, that's usually when it starts to get more attention is when you're suffering from tinnitus and That no one wants that. Yeah You know, I feel like we've covered quite a bit and just for the sake of keeping everything nice and tidy Um, let's just wrap this up, I think. All right. So, all of these tips have been great. Thank you so much. I'm glad we focused on sort of the technical stuff. I do think that there's a lot of mystery around that and like, and just a lot of denial of like, I don't want to deal with this because repairs can be costly and it's just confusing. And sometimes you go down a rabbit hole trying to figure stuff out and you're not getting anywhere with it. So it can just be really frustrating. But. All super helpful. I hope people found something to take away from this. As you've, in the music world from, from being a record store owner, mixing live sounds, having studied music and been in and out of studios.[00:58:00] You know, one thing I've been asking people a lot is at the end of all these episodes is, you know, what is the secret to the scene from your perspective? What has been something that you would really like to turn around and tell your, your former self, your younger self. Johnny: I would think. You just need to find your particular niche and that's, that requires, you know, taking a good evaluation of your particular skills, you know, and, and what, what you enjoy and finding a way to, to make maybe that, you know, Passion your profession. So for instance, I've done a lot of things in, in my life, but in my adult years the common thread has always been being involved in music in some way. So, you know, like you said, whether that was owning record stores or creating music myself, or, you know, Helping others create music. Once we started alchemy, I, the, the landscape is littered [00:59:00] with different pedal builders. And the last thing that someone probably needs from me is another fuzz pedal out in the marketplace. But what I discovered pretty early on was there weren't a lot of people. repairing those pedals when they broke, when they broke and they always break. And so we really carved out a niche for ourselves of, you know, we're going to repair these, we're going to make the sensible modifications and upgrades. And I figured, you know, early on I might not be skilled enough to be that guitar player that. You know, plays in Lucinda Williams band, but I can fix the pedals for that guy that does. And so I, I think there's so many different paths you can take if you're passionate about a particular thing. And it's just a matter of figuring out where you fit into that. And, you know, because there's so many different ways you can go with it. You know, just even if, if you're a musician, you know, What can I do with that? It doesn't have to involve being in a band and touring around the country in a [01:00:00] van. Stephen: Yeah. And don't be afraid to explore different interests. You never know what you might settle on or, and a lot of these things are symbiotic. They will help you out. If you dip your toe into learning a little bit more about gear and repairs and stuff. Well, now you might be able to handle more of your own in the future. Even if it's a path that you end up not getting into as much, or if you have some interest in being a live sound tech, Gaining experience and insight on a lot of different sides of the music industry will make, if you, even if you eventually come back to being a musician, a better Johnny: Right. You never know where the next opportunity might come Stephen: Yeah. Cool. Well, if people want to reach out and connect with you or send you a pedal, how should they go about doing that? Johnny: We are at alchemy hyphen audio. com. We're on all the socials at alchemy audio. Stephen: Great. I will include those links in the show notes and Johnny, thank you for doing this, man. Johnny: Oh, thanks for having me. This has been a real, real pleasure. Stephen: Pleasure is all ours. And to any listeners out there, thank you for listening and [01:01:00] feel free to reach out if you've got suggestions for more episodes, other guests, other businesses you would like to see highlighted in the twin cities here, and we will hopefully be able to get them on the show. Thanks for listening. Till next time.