5 Stage Products That Will Improve Your Performance

Gear is really fun. If you’re like me, you can spend hours perusing the Sweetwater ProGear Directory or browsing the Sweetwater website looking for and dreaming about new gear. Guitars, pedals, keyboards, microphones — I have an endless gear wish list.
While a new guitar or keyboard can greatly improve your sound, there are plenty of very affordable onstage products that don’t make a sound that will improve your performance. In this article, we’ll explore five of my favorites.
Hands-free charts
If your band uses charts live onstage, you can use a digital chart program and stop turning pages with your hands. Using an app like Music Stand, OnSong, or ChartBuilder allows you to have digital charts that help you take control of your songs easily.
To simplify it even further, you can use an AirTurn wireless Bluetooth pedal to turn pages in your chart app with a tap of your foot. Now you can keep your hands on your guitar, keyboard, or any instrument and still change pages at just the right time.
As a bonus, you can even use Ableton Live to automate your page turns. Worship leader and music director Kristian Ponsford pioneered the concept of using Ableton Live to automate OnSong. This takes “hands-free” to a whole new level!
Keep your band in time — and in sync
Modern worship music is very reliant on tempo-based effects and sounds. From guitars with rhythmic delays to arpeggiated and sidechained synths, rhythmic sounds are an integral part of the sound. That’s one reason bands turn to using a click track live. But even when you use a click with your band, you will still have to tap your tempo on your delay pedal or get a list of tempos and save presets on your keyboard.

Check out the article about Why You Should Use a Metronome When Playing Live.

In order to make life easier and improve your performance, I’m a huge fan of sending MIDI clock from Ableton Live to my delay pedal and keyboards onstage so that the tempo is always in time and in sync. Getting tempo information to everyone onstage that needs it can be tricky. That’s why I’m a fan of the mio4 from iConnectivity. You can use this alongside your audio interface to send multiple MIDI outputs from your Ableton computer. You can send multiple MIDI outputs via 5-pin all the while using RTP (Ethernet) and USB MIDI as well. Link multiple mio4’s via Ethernet to distribute MIDI over long distances, or connect via Ethernet to a PlayAudio12 to have redundant, distributed MIDI.
As an added bonus, you can send Program Changes from Ableton down those same cables to your pedals and keyboards to change presets hands-free as well. Focus on your playing and the performance and less on the tech!
What? Huh?
Using in-ears onstage is incredibly beneficial for a band. Improving transitions, having your own personal mix, and lowering stage volume are just a few of the benefits. But as soon as everyone has in-ears, communication can become a problem. This often leads to yelling across stage in attempts to hear each other.

Read this article about How to Move Your Team to In-ear Monitors.

Adding an XLR A/B switch like the Pro Co Panic Button can quickly solve that problem. As a worship leader up front, you can set up a “talkback” mic without an extra mic. Run your mic into the Panic Button, run two lines to your snake — one for the main mic and one for the talkback — and now you have a mic that your band can always hear, no matter what level they have your normal vocal set to. And best of all? It’s not in the house mix, so you can communicate critical information with the band, and no one but the band will know. Imagine being able to quickly let your band know what song you’re doing after the message or that you want to repeat a chorus without any cryptic hand signals.
Now what about those band members who don’t sing? You can give them a mic, but in order for everyone to hear them in their ears, they have to have that mic turned up loud enough. This likely isn’t a problem in rehearsal, but as soon as you get into service, you don’t want to muddy your mix with your guitar player’s off-key singing.
In this case, you can use the Panic Button as a basic mute button. Plug your mic into the Panic Button like before, but only connect one XLR to the B side. This way, when it’s in its default state (A), it’s muted until you press the footswitch.
Whether you want to use it as a mute button for a talkback mic or transform your existing mic to a talkback mic, you’ll notice your communication, confidence, and comfort all greatly improve when you step onstage with a Panic Button.
Bring the convenience of digital to your analog pedals
Why do people with digital guitar gear get to have all the fun? As I mentioned earlier, you can connect a MIDI cable from your interface to your delay pedal or a digital effects pedal and change presets and sync tempos.

For analog pedals without MIDI connectivity, this isn’t possible — unless you add in a MIDI effects switcher like the BOSS ES-5.
You can connect all your pedals individually to “loops” on the switcher. Your pedal is always “on,” but you can enable or disable that loop separately from other loops and effects. Where this really becomes powerful is when you save presets that change multiple pedals at once.
For instance, you can have a preset for a clean, compressed guitar, and with the tap of one button transition to a fuzzed out delayed lead tone. Connect a MIDI cable to your ES-5, and Ableton can make all those pedal changes for you. This allows you to focus your energy more on the performance and less on your pedals.
One pedal to rule them all
Keyboardists typically find themselves onstage with tons of gear — multiple keyboards and often a computer for additional sounds. While connecting and controlling multiple keyboards via MIDI is pretty straightforward, what do you do about audio? You could run separate outputs for each keyboard, but that depends on having enough open channels on the board and spending time to get your in-ear mix just right with the blend of those keyboards.

If you’re a keyboardist with multiple hardware keyboards and a computer, you need to check out Key Largo. It’s an all-in-one mixer for up to three keyboards, an audio interface for sounds from your plug-ins, a built-in effects loop for blending your sound with effects pedals, and a stereo XLR output. Skip the direct boxes and plug directly into Key Largo. And if you find yourself in a situation where you don’t have an in-ear mix, you can quickly create your own using the built-in monitor output.
If you’re a keyboardist and you need to simplify your onstage rig, look no further than the Key Largo.

All five of these products are incredibly affordable and will allow you to focus more on your playing and less on the tech. This means you’ll perform more confidently and have more fun while onstage. If you have any questions about these amazing pieces, call your Sweetwater Sales Engineer for help at (800) 222-4700.
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