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How do you get your Sound Guy to look up

iriegnome

iriegnome

Bassstar style
Supporting Member
Nov 23, 2001
11,263
5,577
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Kenosha, WI 53140
#1
I am not sure how many others travel and tour with their own sound guy. My band has had a sound guy now for 10 years. A couple different ones, but a guy that runs sound. We play shows where he will be 20 feet from stage or 80 feet from stage.
My question is how do you get him to give you a look if you need something (less guitar in the monitor or something)? How do you do this without yelling through the mic, announcing it between tunes or just jumping up and down until they see you??
I ask this because I designed a solution and I am hoping to see what everyone or anyone thinks about it??
So tell me, what do you do in these kinds of situations?
 
#4
Um.. yea. kind of all ready know that. However, it can get a bit boring staring at the same 6 people all the time. Distractions happen all the time. Really, they are human after all. Most certainly could be looking at someones ass or getting a drink or tying his shoe or changing the EQ or over at the side chain or adjusting the aux recorder for the show or talking to the security guards or whatever. Who really cares? When you're on stage and need to get the sound guy to pay specific attention to you?
 
#5
The obvious answer here is to ASK HIM individually what he'd like for you to do in order to get his attention. There's probably not a scenario in which you need something so emergently that it can't wait until the next time he looks up from his beer, some fine caboose or the sidechain EQ. If you then decide on a hand signal or something along those lines, you can do it. If he's worth even half what he's being paid, then he should recognize a large critical error that needs to be fixed without being flagged down by a performer.
 
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#6
I am not a fan of people on stage doing the whole hand signal jumping jack thing. Do you know if a kind of indicator light type thing is on the market? I mean, push a button on the floor and a light flashes at the board?? Is something like that out there? Yes, my answer is yes, I have designed and had one built, but I am wondering in the vastness of TB, if someone knows of one all ready out there. We have filed patent paperwork on our design and specifics, but I am still hoping to get some input
 
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#8
This is what I am saying, because you are listening, you are not always looking and it isn't because your not doing what your supposed to..
I have this system where each of the 4 people in front (we are all singers) have an indicator push button. Push the button and a tiny LED flashes back by the board. 4 singers 4 color lights. Sound guy knows instantly who to look at and figure out what they need. Simple solution for band and FOH. In our case, most everything gets worked out in the first couple of songs and the rest of the night they sit, but they certainly come in handy. No announcing it through the mic or doing arobics on stage to get FOH attention. Push a little momentary switch, light comes on back by the board and bobs your uncle, you get what you need. Attention from FOH..
 
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#10
fokof said:
When I mix , I have a tendency to look at the board just to see what I'm doin'
I don't know about you , but personaly I listen with my ears , not my eyes.....

I'll have a look from time to time at the stage but most of the time , my eyes are on the board.


Just sayin
Click to expand...
Unfortunately, you cannot clearly hear what is happening on stage. Often, FOH is loud enough to mask monitor problems.

Keeping your eyes on the performers is essential to identifying when one of them has an issue.
 
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#14
Well that is where my question in my OP was going. It really works out well for us. It is a fantastic solution again, for us. I had never heard nor seen anything like this which is why I brought it up here.
Other than the normal off topic rants as usual, I never thought about selling them, just making and using it. Again, every band is different and I am sure prefer to use different methods of talk back with the FOH. Since I am not in a huge touring act, but more of a little Mid-West kind of thing, I think it does work well for our size band. Smaller or bigger, I don't think the application would work at all. Playing the bar down the street would not call for something like this nor would playing the 55 band 4 day festival.. IMHO
 
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#17
idk.. at what point in the gig are you trying to get the BE's attention?
1st couple of songs or in the middle of the last 3 songs or last set??
When I mix, sure I'm watching the board, but I'm also looking for issues with other aspects - where those on stage might want my attention - ESPECIALLY during the first batch of songs..!!!

By the 3rd or 4th set, I'm more mixing (riding faders only) than watching the stage, but do look up there... LOL
 
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