Telecaster Guitar Forum - View Single Post - Soundman sabotage

Bob Rogers · August 7th, 2004, 08:08 AM

Had to get this off my chest. I'm usually pretty good about cutting soundguys some slack, but yesterday's gig made me want to cut a few other things ... slowly ... with a dull knife.

Alice's band (I'm the music teacher/manager) opened Steppin' Out yesterday. Great day, beautiful weather. They had a big crowd. All their friends came out. One problem. The front of house sound guy butchered their vocals. :x Now I admit we aren't the easiest band to mix. Six piece. Two keyboard stations. Two lead singers, but everyone sings occasionally. And of course we were the opening act, so I guess we give the guy a chance to learn how to use the PA. Unfortunately, I was on stage during sound check helping to set up. Wrong place. The guy mixing the monitors knew what he was doing. The band sounded great on stage. Out front was close to a disaster. The worst problem was that the guy could not get any volume from Sydney's mic. Said she was singing too soft. I go to the stage and she sounds great on the monitor. I'm sure the problem is that he had so damn much compression/reverb/aural exciter crap inserted into her channel that he had just killed her channel. (Probably one of the units wasn't working right and he didn't discover it until later in the day.) After about six songs he had her up so her vocals were close to balanced with Alice's but this was after they had gone through their best harmony numbers (Day Tripper, Ticket to Ride, She Loves You). Syd has the higher voice and usually takes the melody so it was pretty bad.

Of course, most people don't notice much. We got a lot of compliments. And I think most of their best friends were right up next to the stage and heard a lot of the vocals from the monitors, so they probably heard a good show. One of the real frustrating things is that the PA was so good. The instruments sounded great. But all the vocals were over processed.

I feel like I should have done more to handle the situation and fix it. I was too concerned with helping the kids (they are all 14) work with the monitor guy. I didn't think that I'd need to worry about FOH as much. Live and learn I guess.

Anyway, sorry to rant. Just a little frustrated. This is their hometown crowd, and I feel like they gave a good performance and it didn't get out.

August 7th, 2004, 08:08 AM	#1 (permalink)
Bob Rogers Tele-Afflicted Join Date: Mar 2003 Location: Blacksburg, VA Posts: 1,710	Soundman sabotage - Aiiiiiiiieeeee Had to get this off my chest. I'm usually pretty good about cutting soundguys some slack, but yesterday's gig made me want to cut a few other things ... slowly ... with a dull knife. Alice's band (I'm the music teacher/manager) opened Steppin' Out yesterday. Great day, beautiful weather. They had a big crowd. All their friends came out. One problem. The front of house sound guy butchered their vocals. :x Now I admit we aren't the easiest band to mix. Six piece. Two keyboard stations. Two lead singers, but everyone sings occasionally. And of course we were the opening act, so I guess we give the guy a chance to learn how to use the PA. Unfortunately, I was on stage during sound check helping to set up. Wrong place. The guy mixing the monitors knew what he was doing. The band sounded great on stage. Out front was close to a disaster. The worst problem was that the guy could not get any volume from Sydney's mic. Said she was singing too soft. I go to the stage and she sounds great on the monitor. I'm sure the problem is that he had so damn much compression/reverb/aural exciter crap inserted into her channel that he had just killed her channel. (Probably one of the units wasn't working right and he didn't discover it until later in the day.) After about six songs he had her up so her vocals were close to balanced with Alice's but this was after they had gone through their best harmony numbers (Day Tripper, Ticket to Ride, She Loves You). Syd has the higher voice and usually takes the melody so it was pretty bad. Of course, most people don't notice much. We got a lot of compliments. And I think most of their best friends were right up next to the stage and heard a lot of the vocals from the monitors, so they probably heard a good show. One of the real frustrating things is that the PA was so good. The instruments sounded great. But all the vocals were over processed. I feel like I should have done more to handle the situation and fix it. I was too concerned with helping the kids (they are all 14) work with the monitor guy. I didn't think that I'd need to worry about FOH as much. Live and learn I guess. Anyway, sorry to rant. Just a little frustrated. This is their hometown crowd, and I feel like they gave a good performance and it didn't get out.