Re: DON'T TRUST THE SOUND MAN

[Mark Sottilaro <sine@zerocrossing.net>]

While we're on the subject, WHAT THE HELL IS THE DEAL WITH ENGINEERS THAT 
FEEL THEY
NEED TO DRIVE THE SYSTEM TO THE POINT OF DISTORTION?!  I know I'm not a 
spring
chicken, but even in my youth I found it nessacery to wear some form of ear
protection to many shows.  I left a Beck show because all I could  hear 
was a
barely sonic rumble and an annoying hiss.  The fault of the venue?  NOT.  
The
opening band sounded fine.  Who does the sound person think they are 
helping when
they go for volume at the expence of sound quality?

I had a funny experience once, as a sales person in a home audio store.  
The
owner/engineer of a local recording studio, Pyramid Sound in Ithaca NY, 
was in
looking at some higher end speakers.  As I took him around our selection, 
he
immediatly perked up WHEN I PLAYED HIM THE BRIGHTEST SPEAKERS WITH THE 
HARSHEST
HIGH END WE HAD!  The speakers, IMOP, sounded horrible.  They were some 
lame "3d"
deal.  Totally lacking any clear midrange.  Anyway, as he was enjoying the 
sound,
along came in one of the local heavy metal guitarists!  He immediatly 
said, "yeah,
I love these speakers too!" and they bonded with their common lack of high
frequency hearing.

So there you have it.  Maybe the engineer thinks you sound GREAT and that 
they're
doing a really swell job.  There is no accounting for taste.  The hearing 
impared
have just as much right to enjoy music as the rest of us.

Mark

Mark wrote:

> Most PA setups don't do stereo for the reason that (especially outside) 
>you've
> got people all over the place that want to hear the full mix.  If you've 
>got a
> lot of stereo information going out, you risk that people on one side 
>are pretty
> much not going to hear half the mix.  Aside from my webcasts and small 
>cafes, I
> always go mono in larger clubs.
>
> Mark
>
> whiteoakstudios wrote:
>
> > I just give the sound man a stereo feed and use my own in-ear 
>monitoring -
> > at least then it sounds good to me and I just tell the sound man/woman 
>to
> > pan hard right and left, with no eq.
> > It takes a real idiot to mess up those instructions - though last time 
>I
> > played out of doors and followed the above I came down from stage and 
>asked
> > a freind how it went and he said"fine but I though you could have done 
>more
> > with stereo placement". I replied that the sound was bouncing all over 
>the
> > place - turns out the PA man runs it all in mono!!
> >
> > Gareth
> >
> > 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