The Ultimate Dep Pack - the benchmark for prepping your deps

There's a new benchmark to meet for prepping your Dep.
Prepping your Dep

From the outset, I will say I'm not a fan of using deps! I've met too many who are just there to collect the money and obviously have little care or regard for the quality of the band they're playing with.

For me, a band is the sum of its parts and the sound and feel will dramatically change with the change of a player, and I don't want that for my bands or my shows. I want the consistently high quality sound and performance that my colleague provide so that my audiences always receive the same experience in return for the trust it took for them to buy the tickets.

Let me tell you about my experience with a couple of deps:

We've had a keyboard player who turned up to the show not know literally half of the set, including piano led songs. And this was with 6 months of lead time. Luckily, I had an inkling and I prepared backing tracks for the show with our piano player's parts in there, just in case. It took three days, but it turns out it was worth it. We needed them for two immediate shows when it was revealed he hadn't learnt the set.

We've had a guitar player who also turned up not knowing half the set, read through it from a huge directors stand playing everything wrong and just sounding awful. We had the FOH Engineer cut him in the FOH, but we still had him in our ears.

And before you ask 'were you paying enough?', these guys quote industry appropriate fees similar to players whose work is right on point.

Both of these players were found in the community, and even recommended by others - another reason I don't take recommendations into account.

But, equally, I've also been lucky enough to bring in some amazing guys who have done a fantastic job.

What about when I dep?

So when I dep, which is rarely to be fair - my years are usually fully booked, I make sure I know the set, it sounds right, and can be played without having to think about it too much. I know how much the band means to the show owner, and I'll make sure that their trust in me is justified.

Ideally, I'll want to 'play the gig' about 15 times before I get to the show. If the band can provide multi-tracks, that's the ideal solution - I can insert myself into the band as I'd hear it in my IEMs. Some times I'll get desk recordings. Sometimes I've had nothing and I have to trust that the structures are the same and singles!!

In fact, this is why I added recording multi-tracks to the my standard package in Prestige. It's important for the band to have them.

I'll spend my time:

• learning the chord structure
• sound designing the patches required for either Keys or Guitar
• learning the lyrics, if I'm singing lead, or BV's if I'm not.
• performing the gig in the order of the set, usually in Pro Tools, in my IEMs

I want to get to the gig and have played it about 15 times already as if I was with them.

One of the things that's apparent when either booking deps or being a dep is that there's a huge amount of prep involved if you're going to do it properly and do right by the band and their audience. And we know that we're doing it for the gig fee.

So when it comes to me prepping 'my' dep, I'm very respectful of the time investment, and I do my best to mitigate as much of prep time as possible, and also maximise the number of shows so that the time investment is worth it.

I care deeply about the sound of my band, and I'm aware that, as the keys player for Seriously Collins, my role is quintessential to how the band sounds. So when it came time to find a dep, whether it was for time off or so that SCB could work while DSUK or 50 Years of Fender were playing, I committed to making sure that nothing changed for the band and, crucially, it mitigated the worry from the show runner.

I also wanted to mitigate any additional travel expenses, and the way to do that was to provide my equipment.

So here's what I did and what my Dep pack contains. And, frankly, this should be the standard:

• Set up instructions
for my Keys rig, which consists of 3 keyboards and Gig performer
• Notated charts of each song, marked up with chord, instructions and the structures
• A compatible version of my MainStage/Gig Performer profile
• Overhead videos of performing the songs
• A multi-track of the show
• Stereo versions of each of the songs

Screenshot 2024-03-13 at 16.27.23

…. all hosted in a shared iCloud folder so I can make and deliver updates.


• The setup instructions

If I'm providing my equipment, I've got images of the setup so it's easy to put together. I use 3 keyboards and traditional MIDI, so the what's plugged into what is crucial for the MIDI to merge correctly. Everything is colour coded and labelled.

IMG_2865

• Notated charts of each song.

Screenshot 2024-03-13 at 16.35.40Screenshot 2024-03-13 at 16.35.25

The notation is important for the inversions - it's so frustrating when players play inversions for song wrong, it changes them, so the notation is important to see the inversions. The chord charts are quintessential so that the player knows exactly what to play, and doesn't need to spend time either learning, transcribing, for trawling through internet charts - most of which are wrong and/or made for simple players.

There's a stave for each keyboards and shows exactly what to play.

There's lots of instructions of things to consider including backing track triggering, chord trigger notes, CC controls for introducing layers, etc.

• A compatible version of the programming

To mitigate all of the required sound design, or to protect against someone coming in with basic or and incorrect sounds, my dep uses my Gig performer profile. But I use a lot of 3rd party synths that are accurate to the original players and have very specific sounds to the songs. Using a Nord, for example, wouldn't cut it. But it does mean that they'd need to practice where things are played - especially when it comes to chord trigger stuff and in the face of left/right hand parts. So I have a 'basic' version of my programming using native MainStage instruments. Partially for compatibility and partially because my sounds are my IP and I don't want them out in the world.

• Overhead videos of me playing

Screenshot 2024-03-13 at 16.43.09

To go along with my programming, I think it's important to show where parts are played. So I captured video of each of the songs from the top so that the player can see exactly what I'm doing. Combined with the programming file, it should be easy to prep each of the songs.

• Multi-tracks of the show

The multi-tracks are a desk capture of each individual track that the player can load into a DAW, mix, and practice too. They can hear my parts, and they can get rid of them and play along with the band. This is literally the closest a dep could get to rehearsing with a band without actually rehearsing
with the band. This is exactly why capturing multi-track is important. If they play with the multi-tracks each day for a month or so, they'll have played the gig a number of times.

They also get to hear the click instructions and how the vocalist brings in each of the songs - exactly as it would be in their ears at a show.

(The files are actually delivered as MP3s. The conversion to wav is still enough quality to practice with)

• Stereos of the songs

For people who don't use DAWs, which is a key skill to miss out today, there are stereos of each of the songs. It's not as elegant as practicing to the multitracks, but it's better than nothing.



There's no doubt it took a long time to prep, but it was worth it. And the player is given around 14 shows for this year, and will likely be given more next year, and probably booked by August/September this year.

Too often do I hear "I didn't get given anything from the other player(s)", which is awful. Do they not care about their show? Do they not care about the person who probably spent thousands setting up and marketing the band that pays them their income? Or do they not have any respect for their colleague and their time? It's really not acceptable to book someone into your show and then not give them any kind of clue, and expect them to do the kind of prep that you did for your band. It's not fair on them for a limited number of shows and it's not respectful of their time.

Hopefully this blog will give people an idea on how to prep a dep in a way that it's easy for them, and it maintains the quality of the band for the band owner and the audience.

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