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My freindly advice to Soundtechs

#41
I feel that the original poster hasn't got the faintest idea how incredibly full on it is doing multi band sound shows. Stuff is going wrong left and centre, bad cables, guitars with no batteries , people waiting, various musicians asking for personalized treatment in various esoteric situations all under the general pall of extreme time pressure , high noodling noise/ background music at full whack and usually after many hours of lugging gear and technical set up issues.
Yeah , pop up on stage and exchange some ego massaging chat with the bands who've just rolled up with their bad leads and gormless expressions.....
 
#43
gareth dunster said:
I feel that the original poster hasn't got the faintest idea how incredibly full on it is doing multi band sound shows. Stuff is going wrong left and centre, bad cables, guitars with no batteries , people waiting, various musicians asking for personalized treatment in various esoteric situations all under the general pall of extreme time pressure , high noodling noise/ background music at full whack and usually after many hours of lugging gear and technical set up issues.
Yeah , pop up on stage and exchange some ego massaging chat with the bands who've just rolled up with their bad leads and gormless expressions.....
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kein scheize
 
#44
From a sound engineers perspective,, I like the bass players that run pre DI but use IEM's and have no mids and highs coming from their amp. Only the lowest bass, that way they feel it on stage. Makes for a great FOH and IEM mix.
 
#48
I understand audiences. Most audiences aren't audiophiles.

I typically only play in church, so I have the same sound guy every week, but the band can vary from week to week (I'm the only bass player, so I'm there every week). I run direct from my SansAmp BDDI. If I'm using an active bass, I typically turn off the BDDI preamp and set my controls flat. I let the sound guy, who's standing in the house, do what he thinks sounds best. It might not be how I would like it to sound...but honestly...people don't notice.

I played one Sunday and the bass tone was awful. Boomy on some notes and absent with others. I kept thinking to myself, "Are the subs out of phase?". The next week I walked up to the subs and looked. Yep...out of phase. I put them back in phase and shook the room. Not a single soul noticed but me.
 
#51
Rooster009 said:
Wasn't a joke at all. It works amazingly well. If you ever work FOH with this setup, you'll understand very quickly what I'm talking about.
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Classic. I figured as much but most players have never used IEM. My own foray into it was subpar but I can see how it could work just as you say.

A noisy chunk of TB is blindsided by huge stage volumes with giant rigs, backed up by guys with huge rigs played relatively quietly. Don't mind the noise :D
 
#54
fastplant said:
Nothing irritates me more than sound guys that roll off all high and mid requencies on the bass because "hey, it's a BASS." Then because the bass is "too loud" they turn it down. So you either get a muffled mess or no sound at all from the bass. The frightening part is how often I see this.
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This drives me insane. We played last Friday, The sound was great except for all my mids were gone. I could feel what I was playing but heard nothing.
 
#55
will33 said:
There are a lot of soundmen who would be doing a lot of bands a favor by not accurately reproducing their crap tones.
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+1

In a world full of guitarists with smilie-face EQs and too much gain (extra points if it's some low-end solid-state piece of junk through a $300 4x12 cab) and bass players who boost 80 - 100hz as high as it will go and nothing else with round wounds that haven't been changed in years, you have to feel bad for the engineers who are expected to somehow make that sound like something that's remotely listenable. Every once in a while, I think about how much I'd like to make a serious go at doing pro-sound. Then I think about all of the dues I'd have to pay, running bands whose big egos don't match their small talents, and I think, "On second thought, nah!"

BTW, while the contracted production companies are usually pretty busy, pre-gig, I've chatted with many house engineers over the years. I just stay out of their way when they're micing drums 'n such. I've learned a lot of things from them. Perhaps many of the musicians who cry and complain about sound engineers should actually spend some time talking to them. Maybe they'd learn something along the way.
 
#56
LiquidMidnight said:
+1

In a world full of guitarists with smilie-face EQs and too much gain (extra points if it's some low-end solid-state piece of junk through a $300 4x12 cab) and bass players who boost 80 - 100hz as high as it will go and nothing else with round wounds that haven't been changed in years, you have to feel bad for the engineers who are expected to somehow make that sound like something that's remotely listenable. Every once in a while, I think about how much I'd like to make a serious go at doing pro-sound. Then I think about all of the dues I'd have to pay, running bands whose big egos don't match their small talents, and I think, "On second thought, nah!"

BTW, while the contracted production companies are usually pretty busy, pre-gig, I've chatted with many house engineers over the years. I just stay out of their way when they're micing drums 'n such. I've learned a lot of things from them. Perhaps many of the musicians who cry and complain about sound engineers should actually spend some time talking to them. Maybe they'd learn something along the way.
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This is true of competent sound guys. But in my experience there aren't too many of them working at your average local bar/club. So you get a guy who THINKS he knows best, adjusting all your gear until it sounds the way he wants it. And almost always it's horrible. It's become such a joy when we do get someone who knows what they're doing, and I'll gladly let them adjust anything. But I've seen too many soundguys take a great sounding band and make them unlistenable.
 
#57
Itzayana said:
I am super nice to sound techs. I usually start by saying, "Hey buddy (they like being called buddy) fetch me a beer would you? And on your way back grab my amp out of the car. And hurry up, I don't have all day".
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Haha! I actually knew a guy who treated every person who worked for the place we were playing at like that. Needless to say, he didn't last long. Lol
 

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