"Sound guy, what is your ****ING problem?"

Ale · #1 11-28-2006, 11:32 AM

So this was Skels idea , all creds to him.

Tell us your worst soundguy-experience , i know you guys have a lot of stories

My worst ,
Soundguy starts the PA , then wents home with girlfriend.

BassChuck · #2 11-28-2006, 11:37 AM

I don't have any horror stories to post here. But.... There have been way too many times I've had people say to me after a gig that they loved the way the bass sounded, but I could bearly hear my sound on stage.

There are a lot of different ways to EQ and mix etc etc... but stage monitoring has to addressed as #1 concern.

fullrangebass · #3 11-28-2006, 11:41 AM

Sound guy shows up in the morning, throws a mixer and 2 self powered speakers, "see you tomorrow morning" and leaves. "The rest were the band's responsibility to bring"!!!!.

Thank God were are always few steps ahead in planning to face the inevitable and we always have our own stuff with us!!!

invader3k · #4 11-28-2006, 11:42 AM

We've had the standard "Sound person sets up, turns on the system, and disappears." A couple gigs ago, our guitarist's vocal mic never even got turned on for a 45 minute set, and we couldn't find the person who was supposed to be running sound. They wouldn't let anyone else run the board, either.

Our last show, we had a really great sound guy, so it does vary depending who you work with and where you're playing.

Skel · #5 11-28-2006, 12:32 PM

Ha ha! My worst "sound guy" experience was simply watching him NOT bump up the slider on my channel during the guitar solo's I worked SO HARD on. I normally couldn't hear myself and played by sight, but anything for a good mains mix is worth it - all I wanted to do is to stand by the mains during solos just to hear them, but nope. Now that I think back, I should have offered to pay him $5.00 for each solo he gave me mercy on.

Experiencing a great sound guy is cruel because it will end and you'll be more frustrated, but I'll take it when I can, I guess. I also wish sound guys would learn that just because you have sub-woofers doesn't mean you have to go berserk with them and give everybody migranes.

JoshC · #6 11-28-2006, 04:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ale

My worst ,
Soundguy starts the PA , then wents home with girlfriend.

With your girlfriend or his?

Ale · #7 11-28-2006, 10:36 PM

Haha LOL ,
His ...

cutthroatmolloy · #8 11-28-2006, 11:42 PM

i guess my worst one is one gig we did where the sound guy miced everything except for my 100watt combo. he miced and line out-ed one of our guitarists amp. did nothing when i mentioned it, then did nothing again when i mentioned it seconds before we started.
i guess hes one of those people that thinks bass dosent matter.

Neb Maro · #9 11-28-2006, 11:59 PM

I used to be a soundguy for the college group at my church.
Biggest problem I had was with the drummer. Didn't know when to tone it down. It caused a war because the guitarists and bassist would turn up to be heard and the singers would battle. Used to spend the whole time at the board making adjustments trying to keep everything even.

Skel · #10 11-29-2006, 05:27 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Wanderer81

I used to be a soundguy for the college group at my church.
Biggest problem I had was with the drummer. Didn't know when to tone it down. It caused a war because the guitarists and bassist would turn up to be heard and the singers would battle. Used to spend the whole time at the board making adjustments trying to keep everything even.

That's where digital amp modeling preamps run direct make things so much more controlable. With a traditional guitar or bass amp, they will turn it down if they TRUST you, and most times they don't. It's a confidence thing, IMHO. They just want to be heard. Then you have the problem where a musician *thinks* they are not loud enough, when they actually *are*. If you could play the band a little sound check "demo", they could maybe see that they are coming through.

tlwaps · #11 11-29-2006, 07:07 AM

Not really a horror story but a shock story (at least for me). At my bands last show I brough my own Shure Beta 52 kick drum mic and asked the sound guy if we could use it instead of the Shure SM 58 (yes it was a 58) he had stuffed in the bass drum. His response was "I hate these things but I guess I can use it for you guys." I've never heard of any soundman or audio engineer saying they hate the Beta 52.

Phil Mastro · #12 11-29-2006, 09:36 AM

Playing at some outdoor show at McGill, Douchy McDouche sound guy/DJ, who's basically running his iPod through his PA, wants us to pay him to use his system. We managed to not pay, but all we could use was 2 mikes. My 100 watt amp was at 10 and distortioning the whole time.

Skel · #13 11-29-2006, 09:39 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tlwaps

Not really a horror story but a shock story (at least for me). At my bands last show I brough my own Shure Beta 52 kick drum mic and asked the sound guy if we could use it instead of the Shure SM 58 (yes it was a 58) he had stuffed in the bass drum. His response was "I hate these things but I guess I can use it for you guys." I've never heard of any soundman or audio engineer saying they hate the Beta 52.

Yea...and "why" would have pissed him off, which you're trying to avoid at all costs.

jive1 · #14 11-29-2006, 10:57 AM

As a guy who has run sound, I've had to use the "phantom knob" to appease irrational musicians. The knob didn't do anything, but I'd turn it to make someone feel better. 9 times out of 10, they commented on how much better the mix was.

Hilarious.

Neb Maro · #15 11-29-2006, 11:05 AM

I've done that. Or made the adjustment that they asked for and then surreptitiously brought it back to what I determined to be best and they commented on how good it sounded.

I can imagine it being hard for bands and sound guys to really connect when said SG's don't know the nuances of the band's music and style.

Do bands who tour hire on steady sound guys? Wouldn't that be a benefit to have your own sound guy?

kevcooke · #16 11-29-2006, 11:08 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Wanderer81

I can imagine it being hard for bands and sound guys to really connect when said SG's don't know the nuances of the band's music and style.

Do bands who tour hire on steady sound guys? Wouldn't that be a benefit to have your own sound guy?

I'd expect so yeh. I know that when The Feeling opened up for our band a while back they had their own sound guy

jive1 · #17 11-29-2006, 11:10 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Wanderer81

I can imagine it being hard for bands and sound guys to really connect when said SG's don't know the nuances of the band's music and style.

Especially when the style is comprised of excessive stage volume.

threshar · #18 11-29-2006, 11:23 AM

I love a good soundguy. It is so nice when you know that even if the mix sucks on stage, what the audience is hearing is wonderful.

However, lately we've been cursed with bad soundman-itis.
The regular soundmen (who are great) at a place we play often quit, and the guy they hired to replace them has no idea what he is doing. I show up and my first clue was when he wanted to mic my rig instead of using the DI out.
There were other problems that night... Like when he got a feedback loop going. Now normally when that happens you immediately mute the masters - right? Nah, he left it going while trying to figure out what channel was causing it. We're talking 40 seconds of ***LOUD*** feedback. It was horrible... Luckly our singer uses a wireless mic and he often walks out to make sure we sound ok. He spent the first couple tunes telling the guy what levels to put things at, etc.

a couple months later we're back there and it is the same guy again. This time setup went better, but the idiot didn't turn the mains on. So the audience got to enjoy listening to the monitor mix until he figured out how to get them on.

Another kicker - this is great - we opened for this other guy, who is fantastic. Now, the problem we ran into with the soundmen is it turns out the guy is good friends with the former members of the band I play with. After they refused to go into the studio to record our leader fired everyone (it is his band, so he can do that sort of thing). He'd used the same guys for a few years, so it wasn't a newbie thing. So there was "some" hostility towards us. They gave us a truely ****** mix. Again, our singer kept trying to persuade them with helpful tidbits of advice "Why don't you run the lead vocals through the PA?"

"The Wives" came to that show and said it was quite possibly one of hte worst mixes they'd ever heard. Even still, we had folks dancing and still sold a good amount of cds

The soundman is a mixed blessing. We have our own PA we use in various situations, but it is just much nicer not having to worry about that, plus the soundman can theoretically finesse things as you play.

Passinwind · #19 11-29-2006, 11:39 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Wanderer81

I can imagine it being hard for bands and sound guys to really connect when said SG's don't know the nuances of the band's music and style.

And when the band doesn't know the nuances of the house sound and clientele. You can all try to learn something from each other, or not, eh?

Do bands who tour hire on steady sound guys? Wouldn't that be a benefit to have your own sound guy?

I used to get a fair number of calls as the house guy where I had to set up the room to the point where a band engineer could even come in and get a good mix. As long as the band's willing to pay both of us, great. Good touring BEs have enough experience to cope with different systems and/or rooms every night, and that sort of BE is definitely a benefit. I've seen the other sort get the plug pulled quite a few times too though.

Another real benefit to using a BE is if you're a band that requires cued effects or continual gain riding for solos. I can do those things as a house engineer, but the vast majority of the acts I've worked with just want a good mix that lets them control dynamics themselves. IMHO you don't necessarily need to carry a band engineer if that's what you're looking for.

Ale · #20 11-29-2006, 12:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tlwaps

Not really a horror story but a shock story (at least for me). At my bands last show I brough my own Shure Beta 52 kick drum mic and asked the sound guy if we could use it instead of the Shure SM 58 (yes it was a 58) he had stuffed in the bass drum. His response was "I hate these things but I guess I can use it for you guys." I've never heard of any soundman or audio engineer saying they hate the Beta 52.

Ok . now thats strange.
The 52 is THE kick drum mic ,at least when comparing to a 58.
Sry , OT