Mic v. DI

[The Golden Boy]

What we're trying to tell you is that it's a bad idea to give the sound man a signal he's not comfortable working with

by mic'ing up my rig my signal, the way I like to hear it, is the only signal Available to the soundman fer chrissakes.

troll

Apparently so...

 

[JimmyM]

BTW, it's not a bad idea to take a soundman's advice once in a while, especially if you're new to gigging, but even if you're a veteran. The good ones know way more about sound than musicians. They have to. Musicians are selfish. They only care about themselves sounding good. As they should, because it's their job. But if a soundman thinks I'm going to accomplish my goal in a way that I'm comfortable with that works better than what I'm doing, I will always listen. If I think they're off base, I will tell them why I do things my way, but if what they suggest works, I've just found a great new way to accomplish a goal.

So don't dig your heels in and pout and cry and whine when a soundman tells you something. He may tell you something that completely changes your whole perception of music for the better. Or he might turn you onto a piece of gear you can't live without.

And when you discuss your tone with the soundman and he doesn't like what you're doing, never say, "But that's how Timmy C does it." You ain't Timmy C. Back before he was Timmy C, he was taking advice from soundmen.

 

[The Golden Boy]

OK, you didn't say "douchebag" but that was the intent. But that is SO not the experience I have. I will get that occasionally, but when I pull out my Heil PR 40 and Z Bar, they usually back off. Also, very few soundmen will complain when I ask for a mic on the road. Some do if it's a big show with limited channels, or if they're lazy, but more often than not, they list off their available mics and ask me which one I want to use.

Of course, I'm not playing originals with 6 different bands using the same PA and demanding completely different everything, so I can see where a soundman might not want to go dig for a mic and stand in those circumstances. More often than not, we're the only band or the headlining band, so I guess I'm spoiled by the ability to boss soundmen around most of the time And the network of soundmen I work with regularly who I don't have any power over love everything I do so they never question it. But the soundman on multi-band gigs has to make set changes quick or they lose precious alcohol income, so they may just not have enough time to make you 100% happy. So you should bring your own and plug the DI line into it. And really, the soundman should have a bass mic available as well as a DI, but there are other extenuating factors that go into them not being as willing to accomodate you.

This is where having a winning personality has a LOT to do with how the soundman treats you. But just like everyone else who replied, I'm not feeling the warm fuzzies in anything you're saying, so why would we assume you're any different on a gig?

BTW, it's not a bad idea to take a soundman's advice once in a while, especially if you're new to gigging, but even if you're a veteran. The good ones know way more about sound than musicians. They have to. Musicians are selfish. They only care about themselves sounding good. As they should, because it's their job. But if a soundman thinks I'm going to accomplish my goal in a way that I'm comfortable with that works better than what I'm doing, I will always listen. If I think they're off base, I will tell them why I do things my way, but if what they suggest works, I've just found a great new way to accomplish a goal.

So don't dig your heels in and pout and cry and whine when a soundman tells you something. He may tell you something that completely changes your whole perception of music for the better. Or he might turn you onto a piece of gear you can't live without.

And when you discuss your tone with the soundman and he doesn't like what you're doing, never say, "But that's how Timmy C does it." You ain't Timmy C. Back before he was Timmy C, he was taking advice from soundmen.

I realize you've played many more venues and worked with many more soundmen than I have. I also realize that working for a "name" guy (as you do) gets you a better quality of service than the average bear. Most of the venues I currently play I've been playing at for over 15 years. Most of the venues I play are dedicated music venues with either an owned or contracted permanent PA. I'm roughly familiar with how various rooms sound and the PAs in those rooms. There's even a chance that I've probably spent more time in those rooms than some of the soundmen working there.

Oddly enough, the most courteous and accomodating soundmen I've run across are the guys at the big festivals. Whether it's an hour and a half set or a 4 hour set. Why is that? My guess is that these are the "A" guys working on the $100,000 PA rigs for several thousand people. I know most of those guys- and a lot of them I've known for years and years.

I'd also guess that a lot of those "A" list guys aren't the ones that are sitting behind a board in a smoky bar for 6 hours and less than $180 a night.

A majority of the soundguys that I've known and worked with are or were musicians. Mostly guitar players- not that it matters. Some have good ears, some don't. An overwhelming majority of the guys that have been soundguys in the bars here over the past 20 years are no longer sound guys.

If you'd like to go through my 10 other posts in this thread and tell me where I'm being unreasonable about saying "I have put a lot of thought, effort and money in my rig and I'd like it to be heard."

And if you'd like to go through my other 10 posts in this thread where I've made veiled or outright insults towards other posters, please point them out. There's a link that says "Search this Thread," go to "Advanced Search" and type in my username.

If what you're construing as a lack of 'warm fuzzies,' 'digging in my heels,' 'pouting,' 'crying,' and 'whining' as me disagreeing with and not backing off anyone saying that some hypothetical "compositie soundguy" magically knows everything about me, my band, the sound of my band, the sound I would like to achieve as a musician as well as audio engineering because he's behind a board- well, I would disagree with that.