We work with a great soundman fairly often on our local gigs, and he ran monitors for us on Monday night's gig. The FOH guy on that gig told me he thought Gary Puckett's bassist (great jazz/funk influenced player...Woody Lingle from Nashville) had a better sound than I did. He used a 5-string Dean Sledgehammer that looks like a Warwick Thumb and has a MM style pickup in the usual position, and sounds much like a Stingray. I used an SX P with flats. He used my SVT but DI'd full range into FOH and I mic'ed. I thought the FOH guy was nuts to tell me that because I thought I sounded absolutely fantastic 
And he's one of those guys who likes all that smooth jazz twang on the high end, so you can't go by what they say.
So I asked my buddy at tonight's gig where he ran FOH if all soundmen hate my tone, and though he was nice about it, the insinuation was that yes, they do. Apparently they're not big fans of the 125-200 hz range I like to boost slightly, and they're not big fans of the SVT low end rolloff at around 55 hz. He likes having access to those freqs so he can make the sound bigger, and he claims I'm overwhelming the rest of the band with too much midbass that he can't dial out when needed, and I'm making it sound a little boxy with too many upper mids. I definitely like an accented midbass just because it makes for a fatter Cliff Williams low end and enables me to sound really heavy, and I like the so-called boxy freqs so I can hear each note.
But he's a great soundman and has the best interests of the band at heart, so I took his advice and flattened out the bass knob (but not quite) and backed off ever so slightly from the mids, and when I listened to it in the crowd, I thought I had a near-perfect sound during the show which was better than the sound out there at soundcheck. I kind of missed the midbass onstage, but he was right...it was overwhelming the mix. And reducing the upper mids a little prettied it up without getting lost in the mix. That's a real fine line, though, so we'll have to take it on a case by case basis. He's still not entirely happy so Friday he's doing another gig with us at the same joint, so we'll run 2 lines and I'm going to try his idea with the low end, though my experiences with too much low have not been good.
So you see...those of you who think I just run roughshod over soundmen and make their lives a living hell are quite wrong. I am a sweetheart
If a soundman has a problem, I'm always willing to hear them out and act accordingly. I'm the final judge, but I'll hear them out.
And he's one of those guys who likes all that smooth jazz twang on the high end, so you can't go by what they say.So I asked my buddy at tonight's gig where he ran FOH if all soundmen hate my tone, and though he was nice about it, the insinuation was that yes, they do. Apparently they're not big fans of the 125-200 hz range I like to boost slightly, and they're not big fans of the SVT low end rolloff at around 55 hz. He likes having access to those freqs so he can make the sound bigger, and he claims I'm overwhelming the rest of the band with too much midbass that he can't dial out when needed, and I'm making it sound a little boxy with too many upper mids. I definitely like an accented midbass just because it makes for a fatter Cliff Williams low end and enables me to sound really heavy, and I like the so-called boxy freqs so I can hear each note.
But he's a great soundman and has the best interests of the band at heart, so I took his advice and flattened out the bass knob (but not quite) and backed off ever so slightly from the mids, and when I listened to it in the crowd, I thought I had a near-perfect sound during the show which was better than the sound out there at soundcheck. I kind of missed the midbass onstage, but he was right...it was overwhelming the mix. And reducing the upper mids a little prettied it up without getting lost in the mix. That's a real fine line, though, so we'll have to take it on a case by case basis. He's still not entirely happy so Friday he's doing another gig with us at the same joint, so we'll run 2 lines and I'm going to try his idea with the low end, though my experiences with too much low have not been good.
So you see...those of you who think I just run roughshod over soundmen and make their lives a living hell are quite wrong. I am a sweetheart
If a soundman has a problem, I'm always willing to hear them out and act accordingly. I'm the final judge, but I'll hear them out.
Then go to post #7 where he says my sound is almost always awesome. 
