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DI banned by the sound guy
- Thread starter kyral210
- Start date
We played a club a lot like that one. Built-in sizable crowd of regulars who seem to really enjoy live music, upscale neighborhood, seemingly beginner soundman with a very outdated FOH system.
Our first time there, we arrived to discover that the provided "professional-quality backline" consisted of two 50 watt solid state Katana guitar combo amps, a 50 watt (I think) GK bass combo with a single 12" speaker, and a small, very basic drum kit of mix-matched drums with worn out, loose heads, a kickdrum with a ripped front head, and some warped and cracked cymbals.
The pa itself was decent medium size club gear, if it was still 1993.
Fortunately, we had brought our own guitar amps just in case of problems. I was running di right off my pedalboard, but brought a rumble 500 just in case I needed it.
Our drummer didn't bring a kit, so he duct taped the broken head and stuffed a sweater and a jacket he had in the car into the kick drum, and tuned the rest of the beat up, out of tune drums the best he could.
Sound tech guy didn't arrive until about 10 minutes before we were supposed to go on.
We had already pushed his amps to the back wall behind ours.
Everything was already setup, powered up.
His di and mic cables were already run to the stage and had labels on them, so we used our own mics and had everything plugged in and mics positioned before he got there.
He was confrontational at first, but our BL who is an experienced sound tech had a conversation with him and smoothed things over somehow. (I think alcohol was involved)
We got a rough levels check done, and then it was 15 minutes past go time.
Good thing we didn't wait for him before doing anything. We would have been starting pretty late.
After the first of our three sets, he showered us with compliments on how good we sounded, then he asked me "What's a Pedulla? Who makes that bass? Gibson?"
Oh yeah, your guy is probably a beginner. Maybe even the same guy!
Our first time there, we arrived to discover that the provided "professional-quality backline" consisted of two 50 watt solid state Katana guitar combo amps, a 50 watt (I think) GK bass combo with a single 12" speaker, and a small, very basic drum kit of mix-matched drums with worn out, loose heads, a kickdrum with a ripped front head, and some warped and cracked cymbals.
The pa itself was decent medium size club gear, if it was still 1993.
Fortunately, we had brought our own guitar amps just in case of problems. I was running di right off my pedalboard, but brought a rumble 500 just in case I needed it.
Our drummer didn't bring a kit, so he duct taped the broken head and stuffed a sweater and a jacket he had in the car into the kick drum, and tuned the rest of the beat up, out of tune drums the best he could.
Sound tech guy didn't arrive until about 10 minutes before we were supposed to go on.
We had already pushed his amps to the back wall behind ours.
Everything was already setup, powered up.
His di and mic cables were already run to the stage and had labels on them, so we used our own mics and had everything plugged in and mics positioned before he got there.
He was confrontational at first, but our BL who is an experienced sound tech had a conversation with him and smoothed things over somehow. (I think alcohol was involved)
We got a rough levels check done, and then it was 15 minutes past go time.
Good thing we didn't wait for him before doing anything. We would have been starting pretty late.
After the first of our three sets, he showered us with compliments on how good we sounded, then he asked me "What's a Pedulla? Who makes that bass? Gibson?"
Oh yeah, your guy is probably a beginner. Maybe even the same guy!
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I can't think of a reason, legitimate or rationalized. I also don't have a need to "be right" in order to play music effectively, particularly covers in the type of venue in question. It turned out the sound was ok, so it seems no harm was done. We learned that something that seemed entirely stupid worked out well enough. Would we want this scenario to become a norm? Of course not.
I basically don't trust that I will get a good sound man, so I reach out to the promoter to see if they can put me in touch with the sound company well before the show, so that there aren't any "surprises" on either end.
He sounds like a smart one. He has an expensive system under his command and has no idea what is going to come from that pedal manned by someone he doesn't know. Much better to just run a normal, dry signal than risk 20k so some bass player can have "their sound."
I mean, there's some air between a DI and a helix/processor.
I'm sorry to hear you had to deal with that BS.
I got a sansamp at the end for some speaker sim on the PA. Some "sound persons" don't like to take my XLR form the sansamp, but use their DI instead. I give them the wet instrument out, so nothing changes on my end anyway.
I got a sansamp at the end for some speaker sim on the PA. Some "sound persons" don't like to take my XLR form the sansamp, but use their DI instead. I give them the wet instrument out, so nothing changes on my end anyway.
I wish OP could have run DI to another mixer channel, so SE could hear the difference for him/herself - might have learned something.That "sound guy" is comically incompetent: he very literally had no idea what he was doing.
Whether using a DI or a mic'ed amp, he is still controlling the volume level and EQ shape of the bass signal being sent to the PA speakers
I had a head with a DI out on it, and a Cerwin Vega 1 -18" W cabinet. Sound guy said no DI and put the microphone right in the middle of the front of the cabinet. Sometimes you just gotta grin and bear it.
Then there was the sound guy who asked me if I had a DI, and if he could use his own (much better) DI box. Then he asked me where in the signal path he could put his DI box.
Then there was the sound guy who asked me if I had a DI, and if he could use his own (much better) DI box. Then he asked me where in the signal path he could put his DI box.
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It just occurred to me how different this thread would be had the title said "DJ banned by the sound guy."
It's a high risk - medium reward gamble, but on more than one occasion I have just said 'oh okay' and then taken the XLR line and plugged it into whatever I wanted to anyway. I've literally only had them notice once.
JeezyMcNuggles
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- Feb 23, 2018
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50+ gigs this year across the spectrum and not once did I get a great stage mix from the soundguy. Last month one of them fried the PA system before we even got started playing. I ALWAYS bring all my own equipment and be prepared to cover the entire room if necessary.
From a bass player's perspective, to paraphrase Chet Baker's line about drummers: "It takes one hell of a soundguy to sound better than none at all."
From a bass player's perspective, to paraphrase Chet Baker's line about drummers: "It takes one hell of a soundguy to sound better than none at all."
My next door neighbor just threw out four of these, well in actuality he paid someone to haul them off for him.
Isn't that why the suggestion to bring a Preamp next time? To use into the Keybd amp if that's what's supplied.
