Re: DON'T TRUST THE SOUND MAN

[Mark <sine@zerocrossing.net>]

heh, that sounds like an out door gig where I found out that the output
of my guitar synth was only in my monitor mix.  After the hot and sweaty
summer show, people came up to me and said, "Nice air guitar."  Don't be
so fast to judge though, although I've found that 95% of "pro" audio
engineers SUCK. I've also found some good ones.  It's like a hair cut,
sometimes you've got to be REALLY specific about what you want.  My band
used to play a club (Robbie Acteo I'm sure knows this one) where they
had massive subwoofers mounted in the stage!  It sounded like HELL.
Every bass note would rattle the drums.  It was like playing with a fog
horn (not that that's a bad thing in the right contex)  I almost got
into a fist fight when I demanded (after being ignored) that the subs be
OFF.  The "engineer" was being paid by the band (club rules regardless
of if you had your own gear/engineer) but basically had the "I don't
care what you want, this is the way I do it" attitude.  He finally
agreed to kill the subs, but then turned them back on during the
performance.  I left the stage and got in his face, and he turned it
back off.  BOY!

Mark

Nemoguitt@aol.com wrote:

> just got in from my gig opening for SUGAR DADDY AND THE BIG BONED
> GALS.....went in 2 hours early for a sound check....."we supply all
> the
> speakers etc.".....the sound guy took all my inputs and rearranged
> them in my
> mixer and sent it out to his console.....for about 2 mins this sounded
> ok
> (total sound check) but i was worried and not quite happy.....i am not
> a
> great or even good player, but i do pride myself in "my
> sound".....WELL, 8:00
> o'clock comes and the first note i hit sounds like *shit* and i begin
> to get
> worried.....this is nothing like what we had set up and his
> configuration
> totally freaked me, things were not where they should have
> been.....where was
> the sound guy, NOWHERE TO BE FOUND.....yikes, the show must go on and
> no one
> wants to see a 53 year old man cry, although i was sweating like a pig
> in the
> sahara, so thankfully they could not see my tears.....IT WAS AWFUL, i
> had no
> control of anything, boy does that make you feel like being
> adventuresome.....then after cutting it about 10 mins. short everyone
> comes
> up and says "wow that was cool " and LIES to that
> effect.....thankfully the
> WILD TURKEY (sorry no scotch) kicked in and i did not burn my guitar
> and
> rang.....i will never play through someone elses system again.....in
> fact,
> this solo thing is getting to weird, i need other warm bodies to help
> the
> tunes out.....sorry for such a goofy post but if i cant share this
> with you
> all who can i share it with.....:(m