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Goin through the board?

#21
With the gig I was on last year the FOH engineer used JDX DI's for both guitarists. Sounded great. They were in conjunction with Fender Deluxe's and THD Hotplates, I'm not sure exactly how they were hooked up because they were inside 2 racks. But the guitar sounds were exactly what I'd expect from a miked up deluxe.
 
#22
M0ses said:
I never let them DI me before my amp. Fine, if they don't want to mic it up, fine. Ideally I'd want a DI and a mic blend, but soundmen are soundmen. But they simply aren't going to get my signal pre-amp. Don't tell me it isn't going to sound good in the house. Don't tell me it's easier for him to control pre-amp. I have heard myself through a PA run the way I want it, and I have heard myself with no PA support. In the house. And my EQ sounds good. I sit in the mix. Where I need to be. He doesn't need to fu** with it, and make me bland. Soundmen shouldn't be TOUCHING the individual three-band EQ on their boards. EQ the room to sound good, and leave my tone alone. Who's being paid to be a musician here?

Sorry to go on a kind of OT rant.
Click to expand...

Yeah, you are the one getting paid to be the musician and I am the one that is getting paid to make sure you guys sound good. Just because your eq sounds good in rehearsal and on stage, does not mean that it will sound good in the house mix. I touch the individual eqs all the time, I get everything to sit clearly in the room and have it so you can pick out any individual thing in the mix that you want to. Plus, I know the room and how the room reacts to certain eqs. I can make you sound amazing and in the process get you more gigs, or I can make you sound terrible and have it that you never play at that venue again. Are you still going to tell me how I should mix you? If so, you might just end up turned off the entire night.

Not saying that I am a jerk to work with, in fact I routinely get called one of the best sound guys to work with. I get your foldback sounding good, so you can hear each other on stage, then you leave me alone and I make you sound good in the house mix; even if it means eqing you differently than you like.

lowsound
 
#24
haha, true though. The soundguy does have the power to make good bands sound like crap and crap band sound half decent. Seriously go to a show (or better a festival) and watch how much attention the 'crappy local band' gets from the soundguy vs. the 'seasoned touring band'.

You can have whatever opinion you want about your sound, mic vs. di, musician vs. soundguy.... but no matter what suck it up and be nice to the soundguy or you will sound like poop. And the audience doesn't know the difference between "great musicians but the mix sucks" and "man this band sucks." They just here suck.
 
#26
It's funny. If you read the Musician's Boards, everybody is complaining about the sound engineer; If you read the Pro Audio Boards, they're all complaining about the musicians.

To me, we're all just playing different positions on the same team. We're all just trying to make the show enjoyable.

I've had some goofy sound guys screw up our mix. Like the guy that plugged my line-level direct out into his mic-level input despite me telling him it was line-level at least twice. Distorted trebly mess throughout. And instead of backing the input trim down, he merely lowered the fader so it wasn't so loud. Yuck!

But we have to remember that as many bad sound engineer episodes we've been through, they've been through as many ignorant musician episodes.

I've been on both sides of the console. I remember doing sound for a drummer that wanted to be miced from about 6' away so he could get an ambient Led Zeppelin sound. And guitarists who want to put multiple cabinets on the small stage and have each one miced individually and blended. Combo amps miced front and back. Another drummer wants absolutely every part of his kit close miced and it's never ever loud enough for him... etc etc etc

So unfortunately, while most engineers start out passionate about their job, eventually many get tired of the B.S. And, therefore, sometimes the musician will be viewed as guilty until proven innocent. Don't take it personally. Blame the countless morons before you that made his job hell. Visa versa for the sound engineers.

A little people skill goes a long way. I like to chum up to the sound guy before I hit the stage. I talk SM57s vs E609s and stuff for a bit and soon I'm inside the circle as one of them. Then, as we prepare the stage, I can make calls on how I'd like things to be done. I can explain why and sell him on how it will make his job easier. I've never had a sound guy refuse my ideas unless there has been a technical limitation with his equipment.

If he cooperates (and they all have so far), I leave him a tip and a compliment. And we're happy do be team-mates again next time around.
 

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