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Our Volume wary keyboardist-another story

rodl2005

rodl2005

Jun 1, 2005
19,567
15,063
Tasmania, Australia
www.facebook.com
#1
I've posted threads re our senile/OCD/plain mad- but lovely guy & good keys player B4- here's a quick rundown of what we've to put up with.
We are a 8 piece funk/soul/disco band-Bacharach, to Parliament, James Brown, Kool & Gang, Micheal J & Jacksons, to Beyonce etc... Our's is a Small city in an Island state-so not big population-not many good keyboardists either :rolleyes:. Our keys player -the oldest member(approx. 53????)- HATES us playing too loud. By too loud I mean- we play at the volume of our drummer(who's loud, but NOT John Bonham loud :ninja:) Drums are never monitored for stage-unless we're on a HUGE stage-rare!! Mostly we're on stages designed for a 5 pice band at most.
And he:-
1. Cannot be too close to his speaker-sure I'd like this too but I'm usually almost up against my rig!
2. cannot have anything touch his keyboards(they aint vintage or collectable- just reg. gigging keys)-I MEAN ANYTHING.. once a person was doing a speech at a wedding gig, &they put the piece of paper the speech was written on -ON his keyboard...our keyboardist ran up & 'kindly' lifted the paper OFF his keys & handed it back to the bewildered talker!!:eyebrow:
3.No lights can point at his keys- one-they get in his eyes, 2- they MAY warm up his keys!!! :D
4.... ahhhh I aint got time there's too many

This -below is a recount of last Sat's club gig. We play there regularly & ALWAYS get a packed house which goes OFF!!! It begins with a note to another thread re a smaller bass rig/& or spkr stand etc.. al to lessen the VOLUME for our 'poor threatened keyboardist'.


I DON'T want or need to get anything at my ears, just I know one senile keyboardist who'd be VERY happy to see me turn up to a gig with ONE GS112 Not that I'm likely to- not with this band- 8 ppl onstage simply do generate a lotta dB's .
On 'another' side note- we had a fill in drummer last Sat. at a club gig-actually the club where the Keys player dislikes the most outta ALL the venues we play-coz we're all jammed in & the drums are only about 6' away from him(3' away from ME- but I don't seem to mind ) - Anyway this fill in drummer is a young guy-only just 18 y.o. & VERY talented, & VERY keen & VERY happy to do this gig with us. AND he enjoyed it immensly-so much so that in our last song-which that night was Kiss's 'I was Made for Loving You',- he was BASHING the drums in SUCH an excited state(if it was earlier on in the gig I would've told him to 'tame' it a little , but it was our last song, crowd going OFF!!! etc..... So on the choruses he was hitting the snare on every beat( as a version of the original does do- but we don't usually do this) , bashing a cymbal too & the kick drum(disco!!!!!) MAN he was loud!!! But it was funny!! Anyway he actually managed to drive the keyboardist OFF STAGE!!!! To my surprise-he came back on, during the 2nd verse, left during next chorus, on for M8 & solo, off for last choruses!!!! We'd secretly been trying to do this for years-NOT by turning UP at all- just by his own intolerance of modern day PA's & volumes.
Remember-we only play as loud as our acoustic drumma!
Sorry to rave on, just needed to get this off me chest.
Might put it in the correct forum also!
Cheers,
Rod

So there U have it. an account of an eve where we actually forced him offstage!!!! :D:hiding: in a previous thread- I asked ppl what we should do about him....SO any suggestions would be appreciated....
BTW he can't/won't use earplugs-"can't play" Or I.E.M's - same reason.
Some earlier suggestions were- Shoot him ;) sack him, talk to him- we did all 3!! ;)
 
#3
Now I don't know WHERE you got his photo from, but THATS HIM!!! And, NOW we know that the curly orange(GRAY now) locks are just a wig!!! Damn you Talkbass-ists are a sneaky lot!! ;-) Anderbass SOMEHOW managed to sneak over here & stole MY rig for a photo shoot & now you Munji, have come up with THE BEST pic of "Sir Whinge" -Whinger for short- I've EVER seen! THANKS. I'll definately download & print this out to show the rest of the band!- & MAYBE even confront "Sir" on his 'wig-dom' !
Thanks Munjibunga!!!
 
#7
It sounds like he needs to invest in an IEM system. I don't like it too loud either, so that's what I did. Plus, I wear -15db musician's ear plugs during rehearsal. No need to make the whole band cater to me and my sensitive ears.
 
#9
+100 to the earplugs.
If it bothers him.......get the plugs.
If his OWN speakers bother him.......get his ears checked.
Man..... 6 feet of space between him and another instrument? Half the time there's two of playing in that space :eyebrow:
Drums are way too loud for my sensitive ears, so when we have drummer in go the earplugs. Sad part is......I started out playing crash cymbals and love em......but for some reason the sound isn't as loud behind em :). And am a percussionist....so have banged on just about everything at loud volumes.
What you really need to do is stick a trumpet player behind him and tell said trumpet player to play in the highest octave they can....keys will hush after that :)
 
#10
If all else fails, have him get a drum shield to go completely around himself and his keys.
(I made my own for my drummer/Plexiglas-hinges)
This would give him some real sonic relief and an actual physical barrier between his precious keys and the rest of the gear/band.
Get a darkly tinted one w/a roof and those lights wont bug him so much. (judging from Mungi's pic, the audience would prolly appreciate extra darkly tinted anyway...)

Check these out:
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&...t=result&cd=1&q=drum+shield+Australia&spell=1
 
#11
Thanx Anders... Good suggestion re the shield!!! And tinted!! Ha- I like it! Thanx for the other replies too.
Re- the senility- that was meant to be a joke. As Ithink I said in OP, we Love the guy, he's a nice guy, sharp wit & good player, reliable, on time etc....but he's WAY too precious about his gear-an example- a week or two ago we were doing a wedding. Set up was in early afternoon(could put 'arvo' but that wouldn't be good english ;)) My wife-who manages the band- & I got there at a pre-arranged time to find the Keys player arguing with the function centre manager AND the MC for the wedding party - saying that our band needed the Whole area(about 25 yards X 7 yards) to set up!!! :rollno: When my wife walked in-& to his credit- the Function centre manager(who we've worked with many many times, loves our bands & treats us well- dinner, drinks, comfortable band room etc) said " right Kalo's(my wife) the band Manager, Mike(wedding MC) is the wedding manager & I am the centre manager-everyone else please leave us alone so we can work this out!"
Which it was- amicably- & in about 5 mins. AND we had PLENTY of room in our usual amount of requested space.
But even then the Keys player made us all set up 3 x as he couldn't decide which side of the stage would be best for him :bawl::scowl::atoz: The Functions manager later told us he was nearly gonna go drop a damn bed on top of the keyboards-as the keyboardist was being so unreasonable, pedantic & silly. :D
Please tell me someone- if ANYONE knows what harm a sheet of A4 paper can do to a Nord keyboard???

Other replies:- Earplugs- he won't wear 'em. Says he can't play with them in.
:- I.E.M.'s can't use them. Says he can't play with them in......
I TOTALLY understand re volume & earplugs-I'n not suggesting for one minute to damage anyones hearing...... but often-also- He is the loudest instrument-everyone else says they can hear him all too well, but he says he can't hear himself to play!!!??????????????? :help:

I really think we're gonna have to get someone else-as that incident I just described - is not an isolated one. They're getting more common & are to the detriment of the band-which is going well, been together for 10 yrs & has been successful for 10yrs too!!! BUT- finding good keyboardists in this small city is HARD!!!!!!

Thanks again for all replies.
Rod
 
#14
Thorough hearing test is TOTALLY NEEDED!!!!!! He won't go 4 it tho. As I said we DON'T play that loud. Even when I use my SVT2(which is rarely- I usually use the V4BH) the volume is only on 2-3 ( 7-8 oclock) !!!! When I tell him re other keyboardists around the world & in other parts of Australia who ALL play at this level he says-"no they don't" even tho I tell him I've either personally seen/heard them or talked/emailed to them about it! He simply says either "NO they don't" or "they're mad then" When we ALL know WHO's the MAD one! ;-(
 
#15
Hmmm... thats rough. But I'm sure the guy must answer to someone in your band organization, like a Band Leader? Perhaps a meeting of all concerned or just maybe the KB player and the leader? You guys need to make your KB player see the seriousness of the situation. Let us know what happens too. The old guy sounds like he doesn't want to deal with his physical issues.
 
#16
Well I appreciate your reply. I'm the band leader/music director.... but he wont even admit HE has a problem- he thinks it's everyones elses problem- ie- we ALL need to turn down. Play quieter-even the FOH PA needs to be quieter-he thinks Keyboard players simply cannot(read IMPOSSIBLE) play in this kind of volume! Even tho we explain to him that Audiences don't think we're too loud & that with modern sound systems- clubs are a bit louder & with FAR better quality sound than they were yrs ago! Says that keys players of yesteryear didn't play at this volume........????????????? Then I see a pic of James Brown's band-w/ Bootsy on bass, & they have a WALL of SVT's & 810's behind 'em. probly 8 of em - all behind the band!! Now they MUST've been louder than US!! They were using SVT's for bass, Guitar, Keys....everything AFAI can tell.
 
#18
rodl2005 said:
Well I appreciate your reply. I'm the band leader/music director.... but he wont even admit HE has a problem- he thinks it's everyones elses problem- ie- we ALL need to turn down. Play quieter-even the FOH PA needs to be quieter-he thinks Keyboard players simply cannot(read IMPOSSIBLE) play in this kind of volume! Even tho we explain to him that Audiences don't think we're too loud & that with modern sound systems- clubs are a bit louder & with FAR better quality sound than they were yrs ago! Says that keys players of yesteryear didn't play at this volume........????????????? Then I see a pic of James Brown's band-w/ Bootsy on bass, & they have a WALL of SVT's & 810's behind 'em. probly 8 of em - all behind the band!! Now they MUST've been louder than US!! They were using SVT's for bass, Guitar, Keys....everything AFAI can tell.
Click to expand...
I'm gonna have to agree with your take on the 'stage volumes' of "yesteryear". Back in the day, stage volumes were indeed murderous!! Stacks were the norm.. and yet somehow everyone just put up with it. Definitely.. overall, FOH sounds these days are still loud, but probably much cleaner than 25 years ago. This KB player seems to think stage volumes are "louder" now? I can't see that.. I sure liked the "earplugs" and even the "shield" ideas alot. Too bad he is kinda in denial about whats going on within the band, and not wanting to take some decisive action to lower his discomfort.
 
#20
rodl2005 said:
Now I don't know WHERE you got his photo from, but THATS HIM!!! And, NOW we know that the curly orange(GRAY now) locks are just a wig!!! Damn you Talkbass-ists are a sneaky lot!! ;-) Anderbass SOMEHOW managed to sneak over here & stole MY rig for a photo shoot & now you Munji, have come up with THE BEST pic of "Sir Whinge" -Whinger for short- I've EVER seen! THANKS. I'll definately download & print this out to show the rest of the band!- & MAYBE even confront "Sir" on his 'wig-dom' !
Thanks Munjibunga!!!
Click to expand...

Well, that might really be him. The guy in the picture is wearing a skull cap and makeup.
 

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