Any bad sound guy stories from gigs?

[Kylemcgregor96]

I'm not saying every sound guy is bad. i'm starting to look into being a sound engineer myself. just share any funny stories you have. I have some story..

I was playing a 500 capacity venue last week with my band. The venue supplied full backline.. Thankfully it was an Ampeg SVT 8x10. I thought to myself 'Great, ill hopefully be heard now'. So we got on stage for sound check at 4pm. The sound guy was on stage helping us. He was a pleasant man. He then came out with 'The SVT cabinet isn't working, it's just for show'. I paused for a sec as I thought it may have been a joke.. He carried on setting up as I had a very puzzled look on my face. He then brought me a DI and said 'do you want to mic the head of the amp into the pa'? I though to myself it it was possible to hook the head straight to the pa.. it wont make a difference. The di looked terrible! We started our sound check. He asked for bass. I played it and compared to the guitars and drums it was pretty quiet. You could talk louder.. I asked for it up and he said the bass is nearly full volume! It must have been a very weak di signal! So we played our gig that night, I couldn't even hear myself, even when the crowd was applauding and I was playing on my own! So the end of the night came. As I walked out the sound guy came over and said 'the cab is in full working condition, we just don't like the bass to loud in here' WHY HAVE AN AMPEG 8x10 JUST FOR SHOW!?

I can have a laugh now when I look back on it. What do you guys have done?

[Kmonk]

FYI, threads bashing sound guys are no longer allowed. If you check the Live Sound forum you will see an explanation.

[Kylemcgregor96]

Sorry, I still don't know how to work some of this

[HereIGoAgain]

Actually, the thread with the rules wasn't much of an explanation. Oh well, I suppose someone can start their own internet forum with a "Sound Guy Bashing" subforum.

[acubass]

This is an Internet forum, one may not express opinions or bash anyone.

[vishuddha]

Well, a promising title. It's okay to slam drummers and guitarists all day, but giving legitimately bad sound guys some crap is a no-no. Go figure.

[Vince Klortho]

Most of the sound guys I have been around are really, really good but there was one notable exception. We called this guy, "tin-ear." His idea of "good sound" was seriously different than anyone else and I have no idea how he kept getting gigs. One time we were playing at a festival and one of the bands wanted him to mix them. My friend was running sound for everyone else because it was his system. When we heard this news we both just rolled our eyes. As soon as the band before his stopped, "tin-ear" ran up to the mixing rack and started messing with the mains' EQ. My friend and I stepped back and he said to me, "that is EQ'ing with your eyes. It is one of the worst knob crimes you can commit." Sure enough, that band sounded awful and that was unfortunate because they played pretty well.

[bootsox]

Originally Posted by Kmonk

FYI, threads bashing sound guys are no longer allowed. If you check the Live Sound forum you will see an explanation.

There's a difference between bashing sound guys and telling stories about bad experiences with sound guys. Just my two cents. As long as nobody starts shouting about sound guys having small penises I'd say we're golden

[armywalaby]

Kind of a contradictory post IMO when the mod who made the sticky has a picture of him looking like he's engineering sound....*facepalm*

[Joe Nerve]

Yeah, I don't quite understand that rule... but I'm not much into soundguy bashing anyhow. Some are great, some suck, often times I think musicians are way too hard on them. IMO, if they come with the house, you need to accept them. And do the best you can to work with them, and be happy. End of story. For me, anyhow.

[Handyman]

Originally Posted by Joe Nerve

Yeah, I don't quite understand that rule... but I'm not much into soundguy bashing anyhow. Some are great, some suck, often times I think musicians are way too hard on them. IMO, if they come with the house, you need to accept them. And do the best you can to work with them, and be happy. End of story. For me, anyhow.

That's pretty much the story with anyone you're working with. You can either try to work with them to the best of your ability, or not. I vote for the former.

[lfmn16]

Originally Posted by vishuddha

Well, a promising title. It's okay to slam drummers and guitarists all day, but giving legitimately bad sound guys some crap is a no-no. Go figure.

Kind of like that thread where sound guys got to bash bass players. That was OK for some reason

I get that a good sound person knows how to get a specific sound out of his equipment. I don't get why they think they know better than the band how the band should sound. And just to cut off a large part of the arguments, I'm not talking about lounge acts, background music, or musicians that aren't actually trying to make music. I'm talking about original bands or cover bands that have really taken time to create an individual sound.

[HereIGoAgain]

My guess is some venue's management searched the internet and approached forums about legal consequences, etc. It's also possible that whoever wanted the sticky has a "king of his own little world" mentality and decided to make the rule "just because."

I don't know about talkbass, but I've seen both happen on other internet forums.

[fokof]

"Any bad sound guy stories from gigs?"

Yes !!!!

I also have have a LOT of "bad bass players stories"

[Febs]

My band used the same sound guy for nearly 15 years. He did his last gig with us on February 4 of last year. Shortly after that, he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. He put up a hell of a fight, but ultimately passed away two weeks ago yesterday.

This isn't a story about a bad sound guy, but rather a bad story about a good guy who loved to do sound. Sorry, it's probably off topic, but I'm getting ready to go to his funeral which starts in an hour.

[lfmn16]

Originally Posted by fokof

[b][i]
I also have have a LOT of "bad bass players stories"

Then you should find a sound guy forum to post them. This forum is for bass players.

[Jason Wilson]

I played a gig many years ago when I lived in a small town in the South Island of NZ. We were at this pub and used a sound guy that was used a bit around the area. I am guessing it was because he knew people or owned some of the gear, I was pretty young at the time & didn't really care.
Anyway, we were playing and he came & told me to turn down. So I did. He came up a bit later and asked again, so again, I did. He did it again and at this stage I was really quiet, so I turned my volume knob right down to off and mimed playing. And, you guessed it, I was told I was still too loud.....

[Ubersheist]

Soundguys always run the gamut, just like guitarists, singers, drummers, coworkers, local politicians and congressmen. On the whole, most soundguys, guitarists, coworkers, local politicians and congressmen are pretty bad at what they do, but there's some stellar ones out there that are great to encounter.

Unfortunately, when you double up a terrrible sound guy with a terrible guitarist or band, the results are disasterous, with both sides complaining about the other. Also unfortunately, they're both right... The bad band is making the soundguy's job hard as hell, and the soundguy is simultanously butchering whatever is left of the band's sound.

A good band can still sound good with a so-so sound guy, so if you happen to have a whole lot of sound problems from bad sound guys, you may need to take a hard look at how your band's sounding... Just sayin'....

[ssabass]

Originally Posted by Vince Klortho

My friend and I stepped back and he said to me, "that is EQ'ing with your eyes. It is one of the worst knob crimes you can commit."

Knob crimes! Great band name.

[Dan Knowlton]

If you give the sound guy a hard time he WILL turn up the "@#$%" knob on you!

Dan K.