Last week, I purchased an MP3 player for my shows and wrote about why in an earlier article, Magic of MP3 Players: Part 1. After performing several shows and using my MP3 player to provide my music, I now have some real world experience to talk about. The player delivered in the ways that I had anticipated, but I did run into some problems. I hope that based on my experience, you can avoid them.
As I discussed in my last article, I compiled all of the music in my show; transferred the songs to my MP3 player and organized them into playlists that allowed me to play a song and have it automatically stop at its conclusion. Now it was time to work the MP3 player into my act for live performances. By the way, if you’re thinking of purchasing an MP3 player, I recommend that you make sure that it supports playlists. The lower-end units do not.
Extending Oneself
To use my MP3 player in my stage show, I purchased two audio cables from Radio Shack that when connected together, gave me 14-feet of cable to work with. While most of my shows don’t require this much distance from my PA system, I felt that 14-feet would be long enough to accommodate most of my stage shows where my PA system resides on the side of the stage in the wings.
The MP3 player rests in the lid of my open trunk where it’s easy for me to grab and use. Granted, a cable that’s running on stage from the side to my trunk doesn’t look fantastic, but being on the floor, I don’t think it’s all that noticeable. And if I want to make my strongest impression, I can still fall back on the wireless system that I used before. After connecting the cables to my MP3 player and using the right 1/8" to 1/4" cable adaptors, I had no problem making the songs play through my portable PA system.
Before my first show, I practiced with my MP3 player until I thoroughly understood its menu system and could quickly access any playlist. But despite the practice, there’s still a good amount of button mashing. When I want to access a song, I have to press a button for the main menu, another to “play songs,” press the navigational/directional buttons a few times to select the correct playlist and then, click a final button to make the song play. And there’s no way to do this by feel. I have to look down at the display of the MP3 player.
And I ran into a big problem that I hadn't expected.
