what the audience hears vs what you hear...

[greenboy]

Pedro,

You need to get time under the belt rehearsing in larger spaces for the express purpose of working with the PA. Or do some time with some other bands running PA for them or assisting. People can write a tons of stuff but if you have no frame of reference to understand it with so that the light bulb has a power source, it's just not going to make lumens. There will be no "Ah ha!" moment.

Actually I think that's good advice for musicians in general.

 

[lorenk]

I think sound guys should be in a band too...forces em to learn how to adjust sounds to sound...well musical.

I've worked with a decent number of techs who knew their way around a PA system like they were married, and could get a decent mix; the best mixes always came from techies who also played in a band.

Thought food 'n stuff

 

[pedro]

Pedro,

You need to get time under the belt rehearsing in larger spaces for the express purpose of working with the PA. Or do some time with some other bands running PA for them or assisting. People can write a tons of stuff but if you have no frame of reference to understand it with so that the light bulb has a power source, it's just not going to make lumens. There will be no "Ah ha!" moment.

Actually I think that's good advice for musicians in general.

Thanks GB, as usual I’m sure you’re right though your suggestions though might be difficult to implement within the confines of the life of a weekend warrior whose most recent experience working with a PA was 1973 Kustom PA. But let me give it some thought and see if I can dream anything up.

 

[greenboy]

I think sound guys should be in a band too...forces em to learn how to adjust sounds to sound...well musical.

Anyone who's done sound and responds here at talkbass about live mixing probably has played in a band or two ; }

The other qualification that I think means something is that someone has actually studied (doesn't need to be formally in a school) acoustics and the gear stuff. Why? Because a guy at a board can sound good at one venue just out of luck and familiarity/time spent in that venue, eventually. But if he's traveling from venue to venue with your band and doing one-nighters, he better have some skills besides just knob twiddling to solve the difficult problems that often come up. They should get solved BEFORE the band is playing a set, as much as is possible.

Often the solutions have more to do with enclosure and mic placement, sizing up acoustic tendencies, etc, than they do with any particular group of settings.

 

[Stumbo]

....during soundcheck I go out into the audience seating with a wireless and listen in a few positions, and I adjust accordingly. And if I can, I'll hop down during the actual show a couple times to check it out as well. It ain't for amateurs, but it ain't brain surgery either.

+100