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"You're TOO LOUD !!!" "You guys are the GREATEST..."

#21
Profania_bass said:
Once at a gig, a friend of the band (with no musical inclinations) came up to the stage and told me "The bass sounds like crap!" So I told him to go talk to the sound guy, nothing to do with me. Left me feeling like crap for the rest of the set though, I was rockin' it before that. :(
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You did not have to feel this way afterward just had to say this gay ( like i always say ) -"Here is the bass and here is my rig,over there is sound gay.Try cope with (altogether) and get a better sound." or "If you do not like it - just go away".
Believe me or not but i think that most of these peoples asking of are not musicians and if they are,they are mostly drunk,rude or both and they deserve be treated like that despite been your audience.May be i am not right 100% but what i am thinking about.
 
#22
Jools4001 said:
Last night, during the band break, the unofficial, self appointed bar room sound engineer was telling me about the EQ, compression and levels I needed to tweak the lead vocals. I nodded, told him I would fix it and waved my hands over the desk....got the thumbs up from him at the start of the second set...I hadn't done a goddam thing.
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That reminds me of a singer I use to play with. During the first song he would always, without fail, tell the soundman to change something in his monitor - usually he wanted more treble. He would do this through the PA while we were playing. Since 90% of our gigs we used our own soundman I know for a fact the soundman did the same thing. Pretended to turn some knobs, the singer would give him a thumbs up, and we would continue playing.

I always wondered if he really thought that there was a problem with the monitor, or if it was just him acting like a rock star to impress the audience.
 
#24
fhm555 said:
9 out of 10 times if someone tells the bass player they are too loud, they need to dial back their mids.

Nine times out of ten if someone tells the bass player they are too loud it's because they can actually hear the individual notes the bass player is playing and this sounds weird to them, so they perceive it as being "too loud." They're used to hearing bass as an indistinct boom boom boom. To me, it means the bass player's mids are just where they should be, although it might not hurt to turn down the overall volume.
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#26
Luckily, playing in an originals band, i don't have too many bar gigs and usually only play venues that are labeled as 'concert'. When playing smaller joints, there is, to my knowledge only one way to adjust the volume: Let the drummer set up his rig and then tune the electrical instruments to match his volume - you can't turn down the drums (well, actually there are a few drummers out there that can play with less volume without sacrificing too much of the vibe, but these are rare and mostly so good that they play in professional arrangements) and the drums are the loudest unamplified instrument. So if you turn down anything else, the drums get too loud.

When stepping off the stage after a mediocre gig, and knowing that everyone in the band will share the perception that this gig was mediocre, these 'you're the best' guys feel kind of weird. After a good gig i don't mind someone telling me i did good.

The nicest partial compliment i ever got after playing a gig with a band that was not at it's best (one guitard was so nervous being on stage he wasn't able to count to 4 ;) )
where i kept playing big fills to announce the changes between parts was :"You cannot argue about taste, but, alas, you can argue about craftsmanship. And you, sir, showed a lot tonight."
That left me kind of inflated after a deflating gig.
 
#28
interp said:
Nine times out of ten if someone tells the bass player they are too loud it's because they can actually hear the individual notes the bass player is playing and this sounds weird to them, so they perceive it as being "too loud." They're used to hearing bass as an indistinct boom boom boom. To me, it means the bass player's mids are just where they should be, although it might not hurt to turn down the overall volume.
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Related story: Not the crowd, but the guitarist in my old band. He was BL, and one day at practice suggested we should figure out my EQ. I decided to be humble and let him adjust it till we got a bass sound he liked. So he fiddled with the EQ knobs and wound up basically scooping my mids, heavily. Next gig I set up with the settings he had chosen and we launched into the first song. Immediately he starts calling out to me, "Turn down, turn down! You're too loud!" I said back, "Too loud? I've only got the volume at 4!" He answers, "It's too loud, it sounds really... boomy!"

Boomy, I think.. huh. So I go to my eq and put my settings back where they had been before he changed it, and left the volume where it was - put the bass about 7 instead of 9, treble back to about 4, dialed the mids from 2 up to 7. "How's that sound? Still too loud?"

"That's great, perfect!"
 
#29
OK but here's a question: Why do bands have to play so loud in any given venue that you have to scream at someone next to you to be heard? I can understand this if you're JUST there to see the band. But if it's in a bar or other small venue where there's more going on than just listening to music, why the hell DOES it have to be so loud?
 
#30
Ironbar said:
OK but here's a question: Why do bands have to play so loud in any given venue that you have to scream at someone next to you to be heard? I can understand this if you're JUST there to see the band. But if it's in a bar or other small venue where there's more going on than just listening to music, why the hell DOES it have to be so loud?
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Exactly, it's common sense: what is the venue? If you're playing a showcase set or concert it should probably be pretty loud. But if you're playing a bar, not so much. Each venue is different.
 
#31
Ironbar said:
OK but here's a question: Why do bands have to play so loud in any given venue that you have to scream at someone next to you to be heard? I can understand this if you're JUST there to see the band. But if it's in a bar or other small venue where there's more going on than just listening to music, why the hell DOES it have to be so loud?
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From my experience in bars it is a often a matter of keeping the drummer under control. When the drummer plays too loud the rest of the band usually follows. A lot of drummers have trouble playing at low volume - and they don't have a volume knob.
 
#32
Just about every non-professional band I've ever seen play in a bar has been too loud. I think it's a combo of inexperience, being unfamiliar with the room, and if they have a sound guy, usually they just met the band an hour before the show and have never worked together. And then there's that ideal that rock bands have to be loud to be energetic. But ideally, if every band just played a notch above what you'd set your home stereo at if you had a party at your house, everyone would have more fun.. you'd be able to hear the parts everyone is playing and the band could hear eachother.

I hate to say it, but I feel like 98% of non-pro bands out there perform without being able to hear all of the other instruments in the band.. and even a large number of professional bands fail in this area. Basically, it means everybody is just listening to themselves and just trying to keep time with the drums - but NOT exactly communicating with eachother.. which is THE point of it all. It's rare that you see a band in which everyone is at a good level and you can hear what everyone in the band is playing. But when you do come across a band that has their sound really dialed in, it's undeniable how much better they seem to play together too - because they are listening to one another! Funny that the one thing they should be focusing on more than anything just gets completely forgotten so often.
 
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#33
thebrian said:
Just about every non-professional band I've ever seen play in a bar has been too loud. I think it's a combo of inexperience, being unfamiliar with the room, and if they have a sound guy, usually they just met the band an hour before the show and have never worked together. And then there's that ideal that rock bands have to be loud to be energetic. But ideally, if every band just played a notch above what you'd set your home stereo at if you had a party at your house, everyone would have more fun.. you'd be able to hear the parts everyone is playing and the band could hear eachother.

I hate to say it, but I feel like 98% of non-pro bands out there perform without being able to hear all of the other instruments in the band.. and even a large number of professional bands fail in this area. Basically, it means everybody is just listening to themselves and just trying to keep time with the drums - but NOT exactly communicating with eachother.. which is THE point of it all. It's rare that you see a band in which everyone is at a good level and you can hear what everyone in the band is playing. But when you do come across a band that has their sound really dialed in, it's undeniable how much better they seem to play together too - because they are listening to one another! Funny that the one thing they should be focusing on more than anything just gets completely forgotten so often.
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I agree with everything you said except the part about "non-professional band". If they are playing in a bar getting paid they are a professional band by definition.

Some of the best musicians I have ever seen were playing in those bar bands that you think are non-professional.
 
#35
Showdown said:
I agree with everything you said except the part about "non-professional band". If they are playing in a bar getting paid they are a professional band by definition.

Some of the best musicians I have ever seen were playing in those bar bands that you think are non-professional.
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True that. I should have said "unsigned" or bands without "other financial backing/promotion". I agree if someone's getting paid, then they're technically a pro, regardless of whether or not their skills are at a high level or not. I was just talking about your everyday bands made up of guys that have day jobs and that kind of thing.
 
#38
Its kind of nice when you are having one of those nights where no matter how hard you try the band just can't get it together to have people come up afterward and say you were good. It kind of reminds you that the audience isn't as critical as you are and things aren't as bad as they seem. And as long as the people had fun does it really matter if you think you sucked?
 
#39
Yes we were playing a function and was asked by someone to turn down - they were sat at the table right underneath the PA speaker!

I felt like saying - you sat at the wrong table. I smiled and tweaked a little (as in microscopically) as no-one else was asking.

Comments on how good we were are taken by me with a pinch of salt - always. But people who see us regularly get a bit more credence. My own internal critic works overtime anyway.
 
#40
As for the "you're the greatest band since sliced bread" type comments at the end of the gig, that's just peeps trying to tell you that they had a good time. You may remember each and every mistake but, does that really matter?
There's really a lot of value in helping people to loosen up and have a good time. If you and your band did that, it's all good.
 

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