Question for the P.A guys

[Petebass]

Just a bit of fun.....Before you soundcheck the instruments, do you play recorded music through your PA to EQ the system?

If so what song do you use and why?

My Guitarist uses "Weather with you" by Crowded house. He says it's because he knows it very well and it's mellow enough not to freak out any patrons who are already in the room.

I use "Seven" by Prince for the same reason, except I'm more concerned about freaking our management than patrons. Plus it's got a long intro which is vocal harmonies only. It lets me get the mids right before the band kicks in with the other frequencies.

Your turn.

[Passinwind]

Originally Posted by Petebass

Just a bit of fun.....Before you soundcheck the instruments, do you play recorded music through your PA to EQ the system?

If so what song do you use and why?

My Guitarist uses "Weather with you" by Crowded house. He says it's because he knows it very well and it's mellow enough not to freak out any patrons who are already in the room.

I use "Seven" by Prince for the same reason, except I'm more concerned about freaking our management than patrons. Plus it's got a long intro which is vocal harmonies only. It lets me get the mids right before the band kicks in with the other frequencies.

Your turn.

I mostly mix in the same couple of rooms, with the house systems. I pretty much know the house EQ curves that work for me, but sometimes I need to match extra monitors, and so on. I typically use Drop Kick by Steve Coleman, A Go Go by John Scofield, or Kind Of Blue by Miles Davis, depending on what sort of show I'm preparing for. It doesn't matter that much what I use, as long as things are matched decently when I'm done. Note that none of these have vocals. I prefer to have the vocal mikes open and hot while I do all this, and both monitors and FOH firing at the same time. It's a lot more realistic way of ringing things out, for me at least.

[Ryan L.]

Our soundguy runs a couple different songs through there, but I can't remember for the life of me what they are.

[Wireking1]

A Go Go is definately a great choice for "walk in /walk out"

Originally Posted by Passinwind

A Go Go by John Scofield. .

[Joe P]

Back in the early eighties, when I was audio tech for E.W. Porter Jr., I always used the same tune-up song for doing final EQing, and walking the room for the final check. It was Ride Across The River, by Dire Straights.

Joe

[Joe P]

Originally Posted by Passinwind

...ringing things out...

...That's a whole 'nuther subject, isn't it?

When I toured as a soundman, I had compression on everything, and when I'd 'squeek the room' I'd turn the thresholds WAY down, and very quickly and efficiently and quietly do a feedback check (back in those days I didn't have to search for sliders - I instantly knew which of thirty-one bands a howl was in). Also, being that these weren't tiny rooms, mains-feedback would well-up slowly, and I'd easily squash'em before they really 'sang' at all.

Nontheless, it seems like every time I'd have people freaking out - holding their ears and making faces like I was tearing their heads off, and giving dirty looks and all. drove me nuts.

Joe

[Passinwind]

Originally Posted by Joe P

...That's a whole 'nuther subject, isn't it?

When I toured as a soundman, I had compression on everything, and when I'd 'squeek the room' I'd turn the thresholds WAY down, and very quickly and efficiently and quietly do a feedback check (back in those days I didn't have to search for sliders - I instantly knew which of thirty-one bands a howl was in). Also, being that these weren't tiny rooms, mains-feedback would well-up slowly, and I'd easily squash'em before they really 'sang' at all.

Nontheless, it seems like every time I'd have people freaking out - holding their ears and making faces like I was tearing their heads off, and giving dirty looks and all. drove me nuts.

I've been there. The worst was ringing out church installs. We'd spend 2-3 days in there sometimes, EQ'ing the room and dialing everything in with a spectrum analyzer. These were multi-zone systems a lot of the time, and every time you'd change a delay tap time, it was back to square one. Needless to say, many nerves would become frazzled. I have a big, booming mike voice, so I got tapped to read a lotta scripture from the pulpit.

My favorite on-topic story concerns testing a school PA, the bus call / announcement flavor. We put on some Grateful Dead, I think it was Workingman's Dead, definitely something really mellow. The Assistant Principal called us into his office, literally, and proceeded to read us out about putting that music over "his" PA. We reminded him of our rather high hourly rate for service calls, and offered to go back to the shop (on the clock, of course) to find something more suitable. Game over...

[RicPlaya]

Well it all depends. We use a two way system (2 15 mains and 2 18 subs with active crossover) or sometimes we just bring out the 15's and run it normally or full range. But I like dialing in with motown tunes. No effects, bass is good in the mix. But if I am not running my bass through the PA it really doesn't matter, IMO as long as the vocals cut and guitars are ripping it's all good. Really high's and mids a little eq accomplishes that. Dialing in a bass on PA is the most difficult IMO, but I only do that when we have the subs.

[bill h]

Start with a "white noise" cd...then use a godsmack cd...

[whatsinaname]

a tune I've found very useful is "t.b.d." by Live off their Throwing Copper CD. The opening bass passage is nice and mellow, so you won't scare anyone...I have used it on church installs. The bass tone is clean and un-effected and will expose any low-end weakness in the set-up. When the guitar comes in it is also very clean and helps when tweaking the mids and highs. Anyone else use this tune?

[Eric Moesle]

Originally Posted by Joe P

When I toured as a soundman, I had compression on everything, and when I'd 'squeek the room' . . . and very quickly and efficiently and quietly do a feedback check . . .

The soundman my band regularly uses NEVER gets feedback during a show, and NEVER causes any during soundcheck. On the other hand, one sub we used several months ago spent about 5 minuted "ringing the monitors" of feedback as his standard M.O. during soundcheck. Considering that there are always patrons in the bars when we soundcheck, this was totally unacceptible, and if others can get a great no-feedback mix without doing it, he should learn how as well.

[Petebass]

Originally Posted by Eric Moesle

The soundman my band regularly uses NEVER gets feedback during a show, and NEVER causes any during soundcheck. On the other hand, one sub we used several months ago spent about 5 minuted "ringing the monitors" of feedback as his standard M.O. during soundcheck. Considering that there are always patrons in the bars when we soundcheck, this was totally unacceptible, and if others can get a great no-feedback mix without doing it, he should learn how as well.

I do all my ringing out before the band arrive. I'd say that's what your regular guy is doing.

[Minger]

Well, I'm the sound guy at my church; they seem to get everything settled even before I get there in the mornings, so no music here...