Venue Frustration

[Tallicaman1979]

Hey Guys,

Just seeing if this has happened to anyone else, if so what happened? how did you deal with it?

Firstly...gear.

Basses: 2 x Sadowsky M5-24
Rack: Furman power conditioner, BBE sonic maximiser, Ampeg SVT-7pro
No pedals.....yet

My band has just started gigging here in Melbourne, Australia. Our first gig was entry to a battle of the bands competition. First gig was on 7 June and we blew them away. on this occasion I was not happy as the sound guy decided to blame me for no bass coming through the PA. During the 3rd song my bass cut out. I had changed nothing, was not using pedals. He came up on stage to check things during the song, said in my ear my bass had cut out. I told him it wasn't me. he disappeared back to the desk and wait...the sound came back. I know we shouldn't bash sound guys...but seriously?

Second was yesterday 19 July, Semi finals again we rocked and are through to the finals. We receive an email stating all the gear the venue supplies. this includes bass cab. they state do not bring your cabs as there is no storage for them. The first gig had an ashdown 4x10 on stage. get to the venue and the sound guy says there is no bass cab. first reaction....***. secondly he will DI me...fair enough. thirdly...I have no fold back...again ***. so I played the gig, with no sound at all to hear myself. no cab, no fold back, but on the good side we rocked and apparently the FOH was amazing.

Finals I am taking my entire rig and if they have a problem then stiff.

anyone else had problems like this where venues have not supplied gear when stating they will?

on another note..I am legally blind (some vision in right eye) and I said to the lighting guy...no red lights can't see anything at all in that. any other colour is fine. had mostly red light on me the whole gig. one nightmare to another.

 

[Gearhead17]

In the US, "Battle of the Bands" setups are typically a mess. Sometimes you get lucky and get a good group of people taking care of the show. On too many occasions, it's a bunch of people who do not want to work or have no clue what is happening. I did a Battle of the Bands setup ONCE and ended up having an Eden WT800, 410xlt, and 212xlt as my stage rig. The guitarists got Solid state 30 watt amps which sounded like garbage. I am pretty sure my rig was about 10x more expensive than theirs. Perhaps a frustrated bass player organized this event????? My rig sounded amazing, was set Post EQ (all of my tone changes came right to the sound guy!), and the PA was rumbling to the very end. We won the competition, but my guitar players never stopped complaining about their rigs when the story came up. I felt their pain, but was too busy grinning ear to ear about my experience at the event

#1. I suggest you purchase a Radial JDI Direct Box (active bass suitable) or a Radial J48 (Passive bass suitable). This will assure you have a good tone for the sound guys at ALL shows.

#2. Bring your entire rig to every show no matter what. It's obvious you need to cover yourself.

#3. And this is nitpicky and based on my experience. Get rid of the BBE Sonix Maximizer. No matter what you think it does for your tone, it does not translate well in a live setting. For recording, yes, this unit will kick butt. Live, it will reduce some of the midrange of your tone and make the low end/high end slightly clearer. As soon as your guitar players and drummers kick in, those benefits quickly disappear. If you like the unit, keep using it. But I dare you to not turn it on for a few shows and see if you notice the difference. I don't think you will.

 

[Tallicaman1979]

I was using my own Head and DI through that. The battle of the bands here are alright. sponsored by PRS and Dean. just the guy working had no idea and didn't seem too care.

Problem with taking my entire rig is that there is no secure place to park the car and I have to leave it in there as there is no room to store gear at venue. and venue location is in a bad neighbourhood.

As for the BBE, I only have it on a bit in the mix to clear up the lows as often the Drop A# variant tuning gets muddy.

 

[Geri O]

The main group I play with just did a battle of the bands. Supposedly all backline provided, all production needs provided and geared toward a fair competition for all bands (which I've come to realize, means the lowest common denominator).

I gave my bandmates and my artist the same advice I give when I see a not-so-good production situation (which I'm happy to say, is not very often)..."Nothing is going to work or sound right. Hope for the best, but prepare for the worse. We have to get up there, smile, play and sing our asses off, and look like things couldn't be better. It is what it is (I'm so sick of that line, I could throw up everytime I hear it, but, hey...). We have two songs to make or break us (It was three, but because of some silliness, we were all cut down to two songs) and we can't look stressed out onstage."

And we did. Nothing but vocals blaring at us. The band likes to hear bass, so I turned the bass rig toward the middle of the stage (the casters were the only decent thing about this rig), cracked it up, and got right beside and in front of the drums. And if I say so, we did a good job. We'll find out the results of the contest next week (EDIT: We didn't win). The other bands did well, but everyone was complaining bitterly about the stage sound, but we were smiling and high-five'ing because we had gotten all of that out of the way and actually had a blast doing our set.

I don't know if this will help anyone else, but it's the only way I know to approach a situation like that. Good luck on the next one.

 

[BazzTard]

Most Battle of the Bands are predetermined for the promotors band to win it.

I hope yours isn't one of these. The others are won by the band with the most paying punters.

They are never pleasant to be a part of imho.

Like you, I don't like leaving gear in cars at any time,let alone at night.

Just take your bass and your own DI. MAYBE a micro head if you have one.

 

[s0c9]

#3. And this is nitpicky and based on my experience. Get rid of the BBE Sonix Maximizer. No matter what you think it does for your tone, it does not translate well in a live setting. For recording, yes, this unit will kick butt. Live, it will reduce some of the midrange of your tone and make the low end/high end slightly clearer. As soon as your guitar players and drummers kick in, those benefits quickly disappear. If you like the unit, keep using it. But I dare you to not turn it on for a few shows and see if you notice the difference. I don't think you will.

+1000 - for live use, they are worthless and often cause more issues than not.

I know guitar players who like them and put them in their rig - and some folks who put them in their PA/FOH rack between console and DSP, then auto-rta the room from the DSP and wonder why their PA sounds like poo (with weird artifacts happening) when they turn it all on!!! Seriously??

Seriously, tho'.. there's nothing in a BBE that you can't get from a well-configured rig.

 

[gearhead1972]

#3. And this is nitpicky and based on my experience. Get rid of the BBE Sonix Maximizer. No matter what you think it does for your tone, it does not translate well in a live setting. For recording, yes, this unit will kick butt. Live, it will reduce some of the midrange of your tone and make the low end/high end slightly clearer. As soon as your guitar players and drummers kick in, those benefits quickly disappear. If you like the unit, keep using it. But I dare you to not turn it on for a few shows and see if you notice the difference. I don't think you will.