My band organises a small outdoor festival once a year. For the last 10 years I did the stage sound during the festival, and it's been a great learning experience.
It's a festival by musicians for musicians and the performing bands range from teenage Nivana cover acts to seasoned internatiional jazz pro's. Everyone plays for food and drinks and the oportunity to meet and see fellow musicans. It's been great fun all this time. The sound system is elemental, with very limited monitoring, unamplified drums and a backline that's not patched through to the pa.
One thing I've learned is, there's two kinds of musician you meet as a sound guy:
There's the kind that informs you how they want you to connect your stuff, puts up with whatever microphone you set up in front of them and ask you: "I think I'm a bit to loud on the monitor, but how do things sound up front?". They answer with a smile when you tell them the sound up front is ok.
The other kind demands a individual monitor, turn up their guitar amp way to high and complain they can't hear themselves sing and want me to change this.
Almost always the first kind gigs several times a week, the second kind several times a year. Experienced musicians worry about hearing the rest of the band (but it's ok as long as the sound up front is good), inexperienced musicians only worry about hearing themselves.
Something else I want to share: as on this stage I tell them I might have to signal them they are to loud or to soft in the mix. almost all bassplayers start out to soft and happily turn up when I singal them. About half of the guitar players never see mee signal them when they are too loud, as they never look up from their pedal board.
Some clichés really hold up in real life and are not limited to a specific genre.
And even more interesting observations: a whole lot of bass-players used my new DIY 2*(12*6) rig. 3 of them used a jazzbass: a Squier, a newish MIM and a drop dead gorgeous aged white 60's original. The MIM sounded best, but only just a bit compared to the Squier. The amazing vintage bass sounded like any bass would with aged flats. Why use such an instrument and throw a blanket over the sound? It might be functional for certain types of music, but any bass would do.
i rofl'd!
