Soundmen...Ugh

CaseOfAce

True story:
A few years ago took the missus to see the delightful Beverley Craven and band at a small venue.
Gig started.
The right side PA column is out - the sound was only coming out of the left hand side for the first half.
I thought..I can't be the only chap noticing this ... I mean c'mon ?!?!

At half time went to the desk at the rear of theatre and told him ... you're right hand sound is out... thanks man - I'll fix it...

Which he did - second half - full sound in the venue... ah..splendid.

Funny thing is as I was taking my seat for second half I mentioned to the chap sat next to me did you notice there was no sound out of the right PA column? - he looked at me like I'd just said the craziest thing he'd ever heard in his life.

Cirrus

I've clearly been out of the game too long, did my first club gig in 2 years last weekend and during soundcheck the sound engineer told me to turn my ac30 up 

They're alright, these soundmen.

Emp_Fab

I can only speak from my experience of pub gigs where either you do it yourself or there's someone completely unqualified on the house mixer.  I think it's a man thing..  there's something about a mixing console with all those knobs and buttons that attracts guys who think they know what they're doing but in reality have the most minimal knowledge.  Anything beyond moving the channel faders and they're stuck.

I've had a couple of those - from the landlord himself to 'the pub sound guy'.  The landlord guy liked the sound of my guitar so would always keep pushing my channel up to the point it was drowning out everything else - I can only turn it down my end so far.

crunchman

CaseOfAce said:

True story:
A few years ago took the missus to see the delightful Beverley Craven and band at a small venue.
Gig started.
The right side PA column is out - the sound was only coming out of the left hand side for the first half.
I thought..I can't be the only chap noticing this ... I mean c'mon ?!?!

At half time went to the desk at the rear of theatre and told him ... you're right hand sound is out... thanks man - I'll fix it...

Which he did - second half - full sound in the venue... ah..splendid.

Funny thing is as I was taking my seat for second half I mentioned to the chap sat next to me did you notice there was no sound out of the right PA column? - he looked at me like I'd just said the craziest thing he'd ever heard in his life.

Went to see Jethro Tull at the Shepherd's Bush Empire a few months back.  We were up the top in the cheaper seats, and the sound in the first half was really muffled.  I'm pretty sure top tier of FOH speakers weren't actually on. It got a lot better after the interval.

I've played with a lot of volunteer sound engineers at churches.  I've known one or two who have been through a whole service with the front of house amps not turned on!

Legionreturns

RobDavies said:

One of the small venues local to me, uses students from the uni to man the desk.  They mean well, and they’re obviously still learning but are mainly clueless. 

When attending gigs there, I’ve been called over by the bands I know during to stand front and centre and give advice to the sound students as to what sounds good, and what doesn’t.  

I may not have the techy knowledge, but I do know what a gig should sound like.   I think I missed my calling in life, as I’d love to have done more of this stuff. 

I have a few student sound guys that come with me to occasional gigs for some real world experience (as opposed to the pie in the sky belief that they'll walk out of college / uni with their shiny new qualification, and instantly be working on state of the art, full size digital desks at Arenas!) 

One of the things this brings home to me is how different a 17 / 18 year olds hearing is to mine. They'll often set the high frequency stuff like guitar amps much lower than me, because they can hear them better. 

As a result, I now tend to use a proper analyser and also take into account the average age of the punters when setting a final mix.