John Ryan Leading The Way For Live Sound In Italy

We caught up with John in order for him to "spill the beans" on his thoughts about live sound, and also the live sound scene and music in general in Italy.

John Ryan, meet the people.

AC: John you have considerable experience operating live sound in Italy, how is the competiton?

Competition is not really an issue. There are very many excellent sound men here and there are hardly any hard feelings amongst us. Naturally, to get the job you have to do a bit of tactical planning in order to get the job before or instead of a colleague, but in over 25 years it’s probably only happened twice to me to find out that someone hasn’t been fair. Fortunately there’s always an alternative job available.

AC: Where does your work come from, through agents, or through artists themselves?

After so many years I’ve become a good friend of many artists and we’ll phone each other if necessary, bypassing agencies and tour managers. It’s not really the correct way of doing business, but being recommended by the artist is always an advantage. Also, the engineer is really another member of the band, performing live as well and the artist likes to know he has someone he can trust personally. I also deal directly with sound and production companies.

AC: How do newcomers get into live sound in Italy?

I really don’t know. Although I’m an American living and working in Italy, I’ve been here a long time. I graduated here from an American high school and decided to remain here ever since. I’ve never really been a “newcomer”. On the other hand, anyone that knows how to do the job is able to get one here once he or she has fulfilled any legal matters regarding foreign citizens working abroad.

AC: Are jobs advertised for live sound in Italy?

I’ve never seen any advertisements. Normally it’s a word of mouth deal. Production and tour gencies like to have engineers they’ve worked with in the past so they can count on you with different artists within the same agency.

AC: What are the main companies for live sound in Italy?

There are many companies here. As in every other business you find too many “improvisers” that struggle through. The most acclaimed companies can be counted on two hands…maybe I’m being too selective, but that is about the truth. Just to mention a few (and others will forgive me if I don’t mention them), Madema (www.madema.it), and ABC (www.abcsrl.com) are two companies involved in live sound, but mainly for installations and TV recording. Others such as A Team (www.ateamservice.com), Agora’ (www.webaq.it/agorà), Arte Sicilia Service (www.artesicilia.it) and Live System (www.livesystem.it), are mainly orientated in live music sound reinforcement and corporate events. I’ve worked with all of these, but lately I’ve been in constant touch with Live System due to my recommendations for a massive investment in new equipment. A good list of companies can be found at www.soundlite.it.

AC: You must have some all time best gigs, what are these John?

The most rewarding not only economically, but also artistically, are definitely tours with Italian pop star Giorgia (info@dalessandroegalli.com), one of he most beautiful voices and talented female artists in the business in Italy. Michele Zarrillo (www.michelezarrillo.com) and lately Gigi D’Alessio (www.gigidalessio.com), have been very successful and rewarding tours. This past summer I was fortunate to work on the i-Tim Tour (www.timtour.net), an itinerant festival that not only included about 250 young bands and artists participating in a 44 gig tour around Italy in a music contest, but also “big timers” such as Nile Rodgers and Chic, JT Taylor (ex Kool and the Gang), KC and the Sunshine Band and other top Italian stars. The equipment for this festival was supplied by Live System and the crew was made of some of Italy’s best professionals with which I’m proud to have worked with.

AC: What would be your advice for getting into the live sound business?

This is the usual question you get from people that want to start mixing sound and it’s not an easy question to answer. Of course, as I said before, experience is a must. But, in order to gain experience you have to start somewhere. I started thanks to the love of music. I used to perform non professionally and at the same time I liked the technical aspect of it. I was lucky also to be a good friend of musicians already working with Italian artists and I was pulled in by them, quite by chance. That’s where it all started and that’s why I’m here…still! So, a bit of luck, persistence and musical taste, as well as a knack for technical issues, are all ingredients for a successful career. Schools can also help, but can also take time away from precious experience.

AC: What, in your opinion, are essential qualities for a live sound engineer?

Definitely a fine musical taste and adaptability to the many styles of music. You get to know different types of outboard and mixers on the marke tby using them and asking someone that knows better than you is as important. A good deal of patience is also indispensable for getting along with bands and artists.

John Ryan

AC: Do you ever design the rigs you use?

Yes, recently I’ve been using the Adamson Y-Axis systems and the software used to rig this system is of great importance if you want production and audience to be happy. It’s very important to know ahead of time what the show is supposed to sound like before rigging a show and for this reason I am involved also in designing the rig. I also like to involve the artist in this deal so he of she knows what the result will be since they’re always on the other side and don’t get to really hear the system. It’s also important to me to participate in planning the stage layout for making things work in a practical way for cabling, mic placement and scenery.

AC: Do you have preferred gear?

In particular I like working with equipment that won’t let me down. I give great importance to sound quality and not only volume. For this reason I am working quite closely with Live System, owner of the Adamson Y-Axis PA system (www.adamsonproaudio.com) . In a way I am thankful to them for having listened to my advice when looking for a special system and being the only Italian company to own such a massive amount (16 x Y18, 16 x Spektrix, 64 x Y10 and relative sub cabinets), bought during the past 2 years. If I have the equipment I can count on, I’m happy. Let me add something here; equipment is important, but if you don’t have an efficient crew, you haven’t won the game yet. I have a preferred crew and try to get the right men on the job as well as the equipment.

AC: What's the Italian music scene like?

When I started (so long ago), Italy was one of the world’s leading importer of foreign music. Italian music has always been popular around the world, but was still attached to historical culture. I remember as a child, that the national radio network could only broadcast foreign music in the amount of 3% of their daily song lists. When R&B, rock’n’roll and eventually disco music came about, Italian artists started writing in these styles, often going to England or Germany to get the right sounds. Sooner or later production companies and musical producers started to realize that this was getting too expensive so they started investing in recording equipment and bettering techniques. I spent 8 years of my career in a studio in my city and was lucky enough to have seen all these changes. Now it’s hard to tell between some Italian recordings and imported ones and believe me, sometimes Italian recordings sound better!

This has happened with live sound reinforcement as well. As a matter of fact, when traveling in the US or anywhere around the world, I’ve often had problems obtaining certain outboard or special mics that for me were just the usual everyday equipment. Strangely enough, I had the hardest time in Japan during a tour with Michele Zarrillo, but fortunately got through it after fixing up a few misunderstandings between myself and the promoter. Through reading music business magazines and going through web sites I’ve noticed that even though Italy’s music business is still growing compared to the US or England, it’s a lot easier to work here, and not only for equipment availability.

AC: Are there opportunities for small sized PA experiences in Italy?

I know very many small PA companies here in Italy. Most prefer to remain in that measure and not have to fight against competition, keeping their budgets affordable as well.

AC: Are there schooling opportunities for live sound in Italy?

SAE has a headquarters in Milano and there are other “minor” schools. Regional governments also promote private schools for music and sound engineering, as there is request. What I would like to see here is a school like the one I attended in 1980, The Recording Workshop in Ohio. I found this course to be very precious and helpful, especially for people like me at the time, with a bit of experience and a will to learn more. A live sound school with the same characteristics would be very important here. I occasionally give seminars and short lessons in a school in Caserta (www.accademiacaserta.com/rubriche/Tecn_Suono/Tecnico_Suono.htm), a city near Naples and the 10 students attending this 1200 hour course are hungry for practice and a bit less for theory. The main problem here is that the school can’t afford buying a small PA to allow students to “touch and hear”. This course is two years long and it’s unthinkable that during these two years these kids will probably never see a FOH mixer, but they hang on. The best I could ever do for them is invite them to a venue and really see what it’s like…and naturally their eyes pop out! All in all, the best way to learn a subject such as ours is to be there, with the equipment. Along with this, a bit of theory always helps.

AC: What's the best advice you can give to a "newbie" looking to get into live sound?

Newbies must understand that you can’t do without a bit of experience before driving a real show. I always think that too much improvisation can be counteractiveand only lead to mistakes and bad habits that are not easy to change. Experience takes time, but eventually brings recognition as in any other business. Skills are necessary and can only be acquired through years of experience. There are, of course, younger engineers that still haven’t lost enough hair to actually justify their being there and sometimes we should all recognize or own limits. It’s just part of growing up. In the end, patience and modesty pays.

AC: Are you a digital or analogue man, or does it make little difference to you?

After many years of live (and studio) mixing I still prefer analog sound quality. But, depending on the type of difficulty or quantity of material, my tendency is alas more towards digital. I am one of Italy’s first Yamaha PM1D and PM5D-RH users and I’ve gotten to know both boards pretty well. I feel confident with these two models in practically any situation, be it music, theater or simply corporate events. The idea of not having to deal with too many cables is great and set up time is reduced to almost nothing. Also, touring around the world with Italian artists means often using different mixers and requesting preferred outboard ...sounds easy, but you can’t imagine the surprises you can find . With these systems (PM1D and PM5D), all I carry is a PCMCIA card with my show on it and I’m ready in a few minutes. Availability of these systems is getting better, mainly with the PM5D which is a bit more affordable and has enough features on it for almost any show, unless you need more than 48 inputs, 24 aux sends and 8 effects, not to mention unlimited dynamics. The difference is surely audible for us, but that’s not the point. The average listener, there to shout at his star and sing his songs, will never notice and the sad part is that no matter how much effort you put into keeping the quality good, this is the truth!

AC: Do you compress and gate?

I used to say that if it’s in the rack, it’s got to be used. Well, having an unlimited amount of processors on a digital board can be great, or a nice rack full of colored flashing lights looks cool, but let’s not lose the habit of trying to reproduce what the source really sounds like, by modifying it’s nature too much. The choice of the right microphone and its placement, along with a tuned and well balanced instrument, beats any dynamics processor. After all, we’re there to mix and reproduce a performance…not to make miracles.

AC: John thank you for your time that was a highly interesting read, best of wishes for 2005!

John Ryan Links

e-mail: johnhenry.ryan@fastwebnet.it
Web: John Ryan http://johnryan.supereva.it

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