Jon Chaojicek is technical manager at the High Noon Saloon in Madison, WI, and he told us all about it...
How long have you been running sound? How did you get into it?
I’ve been a musician basically my whole life. I started recording around 1993. Did a lot of local recordings in Madison. That led to me wanting to do live sound because I thought I had a good ear for it. My first live sound gig was at Ocayz Corral around 1997 or something.
How did you get hooked up with High Noon?
I knew Cathy Dethmers from Ocayz. She hired me on when she opened the High Noon.
Any particular highlights? Which bands have been the best to work with?
I’ve done sound for thousands of bands. It's hard to pick out any one thing. A really fun show was Gene Ween. I knew Ween’s music and he was super cool and let me go absolutely crazy on effects. Things I wouldn’t use and haven’t since. The Melvins were really fun to mix they had two amazing drummers. The Handsome Family was one of the best sounding bands I’ve ever mixed. And of course, Daikaiju. They light the cymbals and guitars on fire. The band goes into the audience and has everyone hoist the drummer and his kit into the air. Meanwhile, the guitar player is above the bar crawling up whatever he could.
How would you describe the acoustics/layout at High Noon?
It’s a 400 capacity room with a lot of wood a brick giving it a rustic feel. We did a lot of sound treatment so it’s in my opinion one of the best sounding rooms in Madison. Most venues don’t invest room treatment, and they really should.
What gear do you use?
I’ve worked on Avid, Allen & Heath, Yamaha, Digico, Midas, you name it. The Avid cconsoles are my favoriite to work on. But really, I’m not all that fussy about gear. I use Sony headphones , which are industry standard. I really like optical noise gates which use infrared to sense proximity to the microphone. You can use them on vocals.
For more information, visit high-noon.com.
