NESCom band gives sound experience

BANGOR – When can a bar band become more than an instrument of entertainment for its listeners? One answer may be when the band is composed of current and former students at the New England School of Communications and its leader is a school faculty member.

The leader is Doug Hoyt, a guitarist and lead singer for “Spilled Milk,” who also teaches audio engineering, an introductory “Pro ToolsT” course and a “Rock ‘n’ Roll” history course at NESCom.

Because of the affiliation with NESCom, the band has become an audio laboratory subject for students as well as a vehicle for personal listening pleasure.

Each semester two NESCom students majoring in audio engineering are selected as interns to make sure the sound systems all work properly at the band’s various concert sites. The interns are responsible for setting up microphones, patching in cables, assembling public address systems and ensuring sound quality in various areas of the concert site.

The internships are highly sought after, and the selection process is very strict. Students must have completed three levels of audio engineering at the school, maintained a good grade-point average in the audio program, and be at least 21 years old. The internships require 135 hours of participation and provide the student with three credit hours.

The band takes six interns per year for spring, summer and fall gigs. The interns have worked out well.

“They have been above and beyond what I expected,” said Hoyt. “All bring their own uniqueness to the job and each has risen to the task in his or her own way. I find it a win-win situation. We get help and they get experience.

“In fact, we have had patrons come up to us after an appearance and tell us that the sound of our band was the best they had ever heard,” Hoyt said. “That’s not because we played that much better, it was because the interns had done such a good job of strategically placing the sound equipment in various areas of the bar that everyone got the true sound of the various songs.”

The idea for the internships was developed by Hoyt and faculty member David MacLaughlin last summer. Both believed that there was a void in the audio program in that there was a need for practical experience in setting up and running live sound.

Interns for the spring semester are Jessica Bergman of Marshfield, Mass., and Adam Vinciguerra of South Berwick.

“Our gigs take us all over the state, but we would like to move more into the college market where we can play more of our original recordings,” Hoyt said.

Some of those gigs are more exciting than others – like the holiday weekend appearance they made at Old Orchard Beach. The van the band was traveling in lost all its brake fluid, and five members had to squeeze into a pickup truck to return to Bangor, leaving all the equipment behind.