The bass was waaaaaaay too loud. Pro sound company with a really nice setup. We had plenty of sound check. I had my Zoom H1 at the sound desk. I just got home and downloaded the file. Awful.
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Wow! FOH was bad tonight!
- Thread starter Stinsok
- Start date
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Stinsok said:
Direct from the soundboard or live room mic? FOH direct isn't necessarily indicative of what the audience is actually hearing.
My old band had a soundman that was terrible. He was almost deaf so everything was loud to the point that people would hold their ears. One night I asked him to turn us down because people were covering their ears due to the fact that we were so loud. I pointed to a girl and said "look at her". He responded by describing her using the "C" word. Wrong thing to do since she was my girlfriend. I put my bass down and physically picked him up and threw him out. He never worked with us again. A sound person can make or break you.
- Jun 3, 2009
- 3,330
- 398
- Disclosures
- Bassgearu, Music Industry Consulting and Sales. Tech 21, NBE Corp, Sonosphere.
Pro sound guys set the sound the way they like it, not the way you think it should sound. Unless you were sitting at the board during sound check you would never know.
In the future I would put my H1 at the board DURING sound check and then listen after a song or two, then talk to sound dude about it.
Unless the sound guy is old as crap (and me) none of them really know sound. They haven't been raised with HiFi (just WiFi - LOL!). I have yet to find a sound guy under the age of 35 who knows how to actually mix. Most of them are used to listening to an iPod, and the over compressed sound and poor quality ear phones are NOT like my good stereo or even a very good car radio/stereo. Most of them don't even actually listen to a radio station.
I have found lately that "pro sound" just means "I own gear and rent it. I work the board so I can get in free and pretend I'm with the band."
Last year at Warped Tour I was listening to one of the opening bands on a small side stage and it sounded like crap. I walked over to the guy on the board, pissed him off a little and he said, "if you are so good, you do it! So I did. I made about seven tweaks during a song. Then I put the sound guy in front of the stage (he was probably 21 or 22). He said, "Wow!" I said, "Son, I've been your age but you've never been mine. I am just trying to help YOU be the best YOU can be."
One other thing I have found is that many sound guys don't understand how to change the mix between a sound check, where there is no one in the club, and when there are actually people there. It is amazing how what wasn't boomy when the club is empty is now mud when there are bodies in front of the stage.
Either way, unless someone told you it was crap, don't sweat it.
In the future I would put my H1 at the board DURING sound check and then listen after a song or two, then talk to sound dude about it.
Unless the sound guy is old as crap (and me) none of them really know sound. They haven't been raised with HiFi (just WiFi - LOL!). I have yet to find a sound guy under the age of 35 who knows how to actually mix. Most of them are used to listening to an iPod, and the over compressed sound and poor quality ear phones are NOT like my good stereo or even a very good car radio/stereo. Most of them don't even actually listen to a radio station.
I have found lately that "pro sound" just means "I own gear and rent it. I work the board so I can get in free and pretend I'm with the band."
Last year at Warped Tour I was listening to one of the opening bands on a small side stage and it sounded like crap. I walked over to the guy on the board, pissed him off a little and he said, "if you are so good, you do it! So I did. I made about seven tweaks during a song. Then I put the sound guy in front of the stage (he was probably 21 or 22). He said, "Wow!" I said, "Son, I've been your age but you've never been mine. I am just trying to help YOU be the best YOU can be."
One other thing I have found is that many sound guys don't understand how to change the mix between a sound check, where there is no one in the club, and when there are actually people there. It is amazing how what wasn't boomy when the club is empty is now mud when there are bodies in front of the stage.
Either way, unless someone told you it was crap, don't sweat it.
Does that H1 have a feature where you can run a mix from the board to the unit via an 1/8" or RCA or something? That's the only way you're going to get a good cut. I used to have one of these units when I was doing three piece improv jamming a few years ago, and we would set up in a circle then check each level as the device interpreted it. Just something to think about.
if you get the signal directly from the board you are getting what the speakers are getting..not what comes out of them and interacts with the room/environment so it isn't a good indication on how you were heard by the audience
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Or in my band's case the inverse is true, seeing as how we clear crowds fairly effectively.
Not defending the sound guy, but that seems to be how things are mixed these days, even huge national shows; it’s a shame if you ask me.
They want everything to sound like a friggin’ DJ or something.
And, recording directly from the sound board often doesn’t work well, as often someone is too loud on stage, like the guitar for instance is beaming out front, so the sound guy has to turn him down on the console to balance out the overall sound.
Now if everyone on stage is balanced with appropriate stage volume, that’s a different story.
They want everything to sound like a friggin’ DJ or something.
And, recording directly from the sound board often doesn’t work well, as often someone is too loud on stage, like the guitar for instance is beaming out front, so the sound guy has to turn him down on the console to balance out the overall sound.
Now if everyone on stage is balanced with appropriate stage volume, that’s a different story.
I have no idea about the size of the room you were playing, or what you were playing, but is it possible that you were too loud on stage and that affected the sound?
In the last ten years everybody with a computer and an SM57 calls themselves a sound engineer.
Been playing music for longer than I could count without a calculator and I've maybe come across six or seven good soundmen.
I try to forget about sound when someone else is on the board. If the monitor mix isn't right I will try to correct it, but beyond that I just concentrate on the performance and hope the sound isn't terrible.
Been playing music for longer than I could count without a calculator and I've maybe come across six or seven good soundmen.
I try to forget about sound when someone else is on the board. If the monitor mix isn't right I will try to correct it, but beyond that I just concentrate on the performance and hope the sound isn't terrible.
Exactly. The room's characteristics are part of the audience's aural experience, but the line from the board has none of that.
This. By and large, live recordings made straight out of the FOH board are pretty much worthless... for this exact reason.
And for this same exact reason, why I never trust a FOH engineer who's mixing the whole show through a set of headphones.
