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upset when my sound ain't right

#84
I personally don't care about going ampless if there's a good reason but I do get very bothered when I go ampless and then the sound guy doesn't turn on my monitor. This happened to me once at a festival after a great soundcheck with the monitor on.

I won't play in church any more, I got tired of the disconnect between quality of worship and quality of music. After the choir director's wife started beating on a tambourine on 1 and 3 I was gone :confused:
 
#85
reggie hall said:
I go to a church today with my rig and once again the sound guy didn't want me to use my rig he wanted me to plug into the di box ,i dont mind that but i still prefer to use my rig so i can get the tone i want on stage. Well i plugged in there box and i did not like it at all,the monitor near me wasnt even on so i couldn't hear myself, i kept trying to get the sound guy attention to let him know but he wast looking my way.
After service the other musicians were complaining that they couldn't hear me nor did it sound like a bass ,they was like shouldn't the bass sound more full and be shaking the stage....well thats the sound i like but the pa guy had me low and flat sounding.
I talked to him after service and told him i rather use my rig with the di box,i guess he just don't understand which im frustrated about it
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Well, that's no fun.

The only idea I can offer is to have another discussion with the sound person, in which you ask them what the issue is with the bass amp. There are some legit reasons that the sound person might be struggling with a bass amp. One that comes to mind, for example, is that the bass amps on that stage may be coupling into the stage and producing unwanted mechanical resonance in the mics, which the sound person can not mix out. You could find that out by asking the sound person. Some of those kinds of issues do have solutions which the sound person may not be aware of.

OTOH, there are sound people who either do not hear bass in the mix or dislike bass altogether. Not very common, but does happen. If that were the case, look for a different worship gig.
 
#86
FunkHead said:
I personally can not play well when I can't hear myself. I know it's possible to learn how but I refuse. I would not want your gig at all. I would use my rig and risk getting fired or just simply quit. JM2C
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Fired? Heh, more like excommunicated. OK, maybe not.

Yeah, @reggie hall - team up with your band mates. No way sound guy could disagree if the whole band is with you.
 
#87
lfmn16 said:
Talk about tangent. The OP comes in and the soundman doesn't have his monitor on, won't look at him, and when the OP talks to him, he doesn't get it. And we still have people trying to blame the OP. :rollno: He just wants to hear himself.

It's pretty easy to tell who runs sound on TB. Maybe we should start a forum for BASS players.
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Fair enough.

It's glaringly obvious you didn't read my post about this. And your reaction is EXACTLY why I quit the audio consulting. The clients, like you, didn't hear what they wanted to hear.

You'll never hear another peep out of me about audio and the related issues.
 
#88
If you have dealt with the sound guy before I have a question. Did you get there early enough to make sure you would be in the monitors, especially the monitor assigned to you and early enough to A/B the sound quality with just the monitor against the monitor plus your rig. I used to visit a church and they used monitors but I got there early and usually the house musicians want to hear bass even over the objections of the "sound guy" and I would get to use my rig (Mo'Bass & a 4x10) and their monitors. If it is your home church those issues should be worked out within a weeks time especially if your rehearsals are weekly.
 
#89
two fingers said:
Ha! Yes, sound guys can be almost as hard headed as bass players. I'm both. But it does give us some insight into the situation from both angles.

Physics is what it is. "Your sound" may stink out front. And, no, the old saying is not true. "Any GOOD sound guy can take ANY bass signal and make it sound amazing out front." It is simply not the case. `The physics of PA cabs and bass cabs are rarely similar. The physics of most stages as opposed to the whole room are usually worlds apart.

Both sides have to give a little and act like grownups. If either takes the "I am the bass player/sound guy and YOU WILL do it the way I want it done" and the whole process breaks down. You have a common interest. Act like it.

Either that, or your decades of experience mean I need to shut up.

I'm sure one of the two is true. :smug:
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I don't lord my experience over sound techs. At the same time, I don't take any crap, either. But I'm not sending out a signal that's all lows and highs, nor am I uncooperative if the sound tech thinks my sound needs a little work. But one thing I wont do is send them a signal that I don't like. Bad enough I dropped the cab mic and went to a DI. That's all the compromising I'm willing to do. I don't blame the OP for being mad about it. However, I don't know the full story, and if he's sending a bad signal, that's one thing, but if it's a good signal and the sound tech is just being a weenie, that's another.

Anyway, he does need to talk to this sound tech and work out a reasonable compromise. If they don't want amps, there's not much you can do about it, but he dang sure needs to send a good signal into the monitor so the guy can hear himself.
 
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#90
Geri O said:
Fair enough.

It's glaringly obvious you didn't read my post about this. And your reaction is EXACTLY why I quit the audio consulting. The clients, like you, didn't hear what they wanted to hear.

You'll never hear another peep out of me about audio and the related issues.
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First of all, I'm not sure why you think I was talking about your post. If you weren't blaming the OP, then I wasn't talking about you. I was talking about the specific instance that the OP brought up, not some hypothetical. He couldn't use his amp, his monitor wasn't on, he couldn't hear himself, the sound man wouldn't look at him and the soundman didn't understand the problem.

If you didn't listen to your clients any more carefully than you read my post, you've done the music community a huge service by quitting audio consulting. On behalf of all of us, thank you. :D
 
#94
JimmyM said:
I don't lord my experience over sound techs. At the same time, I don't take any crap, either. But I'm not sending out a signal that's all lows and highs, nor am I uncooperative if the sound tech thinks my sound needs a little work. But one thing I wont do is send them a signal that I don't like. Bad enough I dropped the cab mic and went to a DI. That's all the compromising I'm willing to do. I don't blame the OP for being mad about it. However, I don't know the full story, and if he's sending a bad signal, that's one thing, but if it's a good signal and the sound tech is just being a weenie, that's another.

Anyway, he does need to talk to this sound tech and work out a reasonable compromise. If they don't want amps, there's not much you can do about it, but he dang sure needs to send a good signal into the monitor so the guy can hear himself.
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Agreed on all points. I would only go one step further. If a bass player came up to me behind the board and told me how important it was for him to incorporate at least some of his sound into the performance, you bet I would bend over backwards to do so if I have the channels and the time. Hopefully most would do the same.
 
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#96
Ox Boris said:
Bit preachy. Can't it just be about the music? I love the acoustics and a singsong, but nothing supernatural attends me while I'm doing it.
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I agree, and I don't like being told that just because I'd like to hear myself when I play and I like the audience to hear me as well that I'm making it all about my own ego and not about the Lord. That's hiding behind the Lord if you ask me, and it's every bit as ego-based as anything the OP has said.
 
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#98
I don't see how that contextualises that statement to any altering effect. I think you may be replying to Jimmy's post. My comment was mainly aimed at the first part of your sentence. Church music is nothing about praise and worship to me, nor does it need to be, in order for me to play it. It's a nice tune, the acoustics are exquisite, they do toasted ham and cheese sarnies after.
 
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#99
Ox Boris said:
I don't see how that contextualises that statement to any altering effect. I think you may be replying to Jimmy's post. My comment was mainly aimed at the first part of your sentence. Church music is nothing about praise and worship to me, nor does it need to be, in order for me to play it.
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I am a religious person and go to church primarily to worship. If the music director told me to jump, I would ask "how high?" That is my personal context/background behind my earlier statements (which I intended to be supportive). I am not saying this to start an argument, just to let you know my perspective where I am coming from. I respect your agenda as well. :)
 

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