Soundman no show

bassist_25 · Post by **bassist_25** » Monday Jan 30, 2006

So what did you guys do?

BDR · Post by **BDR** » Monday Jan 30, 2006

Jones wrote:Angelo was a no show Saturday night for a show booked in Clearfield at Mojos. No phone call to say he wasn't going, no answering his phone the night of the gig. Not cool at all man.

Unless he or an immediate family is dead or he is in jail, that sounds like a soundman I would fire.

You make the phone call at the very least.

r:>)

cruseaudio · Post by **cruseaudio** » Monday Jan 30, 2006

Everyone shopped at walmart cause it is cheaper, the service and products were at best marginal, but at the time they were cheaper and nobody gave a shit about the consiquences. Then when there are no quality places left to shop, and no more jobs, the consumer complains, and wonders why.

Let me be blunt. This guy's reputation has known by all who play music. Yes he is cheap, cheap enough to take work away from guys who actually know what they are doing.

Now it looks like walmart is the only store left!

Good luck

Jones · Post by **Jones** » Monday Jan 30, 2006

Well I got the phone call at 8 from a pretty desperate guy needing production in two hours.....unfortunately I couldn't help them out, but they did find someone. I just thought maybe y'all would like a heads up.......ya get what ya pay for I guess.

no surrender · Post by **no surrender** » Monday Jan 30, 2006

out of curiosity..

what does a sound guy do?

and why can't the muscisinas themselves do it?

drums=life · Post by **drums=life** » Monday Jan 30, 2006

there is only one way to fix that problem. get your own PA so you wont have to pay all that cake, works for us

FedUP

ToonaRockGuy · Post by **ToonaRockGuy** » Monday Jan 30, 2006

no surrender wrote:out of curiosity..

what does a sound guy do?

and why can't the muscisinas themselves do it?

You have GOT to be kidding me...

I don't know whether to answer this one, or just go cry out of pity for the sheer stupidity of the question...

***thinks***

Okay, I'll be nice one last time and answer.

When a band hires a soundman, the soundman is responsible for running the band's sound system, lights, and monitors.

Some bands have their own "vocal" PA, which consists of microphones for singing, an amplifier, monitor speakers, and "main" speakers that are used so the patrons can hear what is being sung. You'll find this in smaller places like The Hitching Post, Jack & Georges, The Bar, and places like that.

For a large show (for example, a SCREAM show), the list of stuff is much more extensive, adding in micrphones for guitar and bass amps, drums, and vocal effects processing. Not to mention lights. The soundman stands behind the soundboard and makes the band sound good. (in a nutshell) The band can't do it, because we're onstage playing, and each song may require slight tweaks to the overall sound.

Please don't ask such a self-explanatory question again.

cruseaudio · Post by **cruseaudio** » Monday Jan 30, 2006

A sound guy shows up hours before the band and pushes junk around the bar for a couple of hours, indures hours of endless bitching frrom strangers who are too drunk to understand how annoying they are being, then at the end of the night - it is his/her sole responsabilty to dispence moronic sarcasm that nobody else gets

I hope this was helpfull

By the way we are the thickest-skinned people you will ever find, and yes NS I will hit a girl

no surrender · Post by **no surrender** » Monday Jan 30, 2006

cruseaudio wrote:A sound guy shows up hours before the band and pushes junk around the bar for a couple of hours, indures hours of endless bitching frrom strangers who are too drunk to understand how annoying they are being, then at the end of the night - it is his/her sole responsabilty to dispence moronic sarcasm that nobody else gets

I hope this was helpfull

By the way we are the thickest-skinned people you will ever find, and yes NS I will hit a girl

lol, ok , that 'splains it lucy

ToonaRockGuy · Post by **ToonaRockGuy** » Monday Jan 30, 2006

....Or what Doug said...

no surrender · Post by **no surrender** » Monday Jan 30, 2006

ToonaRockGuy wrote:....Or what Doug said...

what is meaning of "junk" ?

are sound guys the ones in back with all the tubes, nobs and lights?

ToonaRockGuy · Post by **ToonaRockGuy** » Monday Jan 30, 2006

Junk in Soundman Speak:

Speakers
Monitors
Lights
Cables
Microphones
Mic Stands
Light Trusses
Amplifiers
Crossovers
Noise Gates
Limiters
Effect Racks
Dimmer Packs
LAZERS
EN_ER_GY

and anything else required for the show. And yes, the soundguy is the guy in the back with all the knobs and lights.

Jones · Post by **Jones** » Monday Jan 30, 2006

cruseaudio wrote:A sound guy shows up hours before the band and pushes junk around the bar for a couple of hours, indures hours of endless bitching frrom strangers who are too drunk to understand how annoying they are being, then at the end of the night - it is his/her sole responsabilty to dispence moronic sarcasm that nobody else gets.

ha ha ha ha, too damn funny. you got shows up hours before the band.....but left out, stays hours after the band has gone home.

no surrender · Post by **no surrender** » Monday Jan 30, 2006

most bands nowadys don't have "soundman".. am i right?

Hannibal · Post by **Hannibal** » Monday Jan 30, 2006

Not showing up for a gig is a bad deal for everybody. The phone call should have been made. That's inexcusable. As a sound guy, my problem is everybody thinks we sound guys charge too much. I can't pay what I spend for my equipment with what the average bar band can afford to pay me for a night, so I don't do bar gigs anymore. You want to buy your own sound rig? Go ahead. That's fine with me. Find someone who can run it properly for you, and pay him or her a decent cut. Try not to hire someone who never ran sound before to operate your fancy system. That's a receipe for trouble. Ask them to go to a rehearsal once in a while to learn the music. If you do covers, get them a CD or tape of the version of the materials you will be performing so they can gat familiar with the vocal sounds, the guitar solos, etc. If you do originals, get them a good recording of the material. Have them work the system at a rehearsal to get familiar with the nuances of the equipment. Take them out on a smaller gig for the experience. If you can, find an experienced sound guy to mentor the newbie for a while, it will be money well spent. When I was starting to do pro sound for bands a number of years ago, there were a couple of sound guys around whose work I liked. On a couple of occasions, one of them would stop at a gig of mine. If they had a suggestions, it was always made VERY politely. I wanted to hear what they had to say, and it paid off. Spend a few bucks more and get a quality product. Cheap price gets you what you pay for. Consistency and quality in your sound will pay in the long haul. [getting fire extinguisher ready for the flames now] Thanks.

ToonaRockGuy · Post by **ToonaRockGuy** » Monday Jan 30, 2006

no surrender wrote:most bands nowadys don't have "soundman".. am i right?

It all depends on the band, the venue, and the money. SCREAM always has a soundman, but we don't book the smaller rooms. That's just the way we operate. So no, you're not right. There is no right or wrong, it's all subjective to the surrounding environment and the variables involved. (God, I'm sounding like FutureBobby now.)

cruseaudio · Post by **cruseaudio** » Monday Jan 30, 2006

Most bands are smart enough to understand that quality entertainment requires dedicated personell to help them circumvent the the pitfalls of the laws of physics, there are a few who think alls ya gotsta do is plug n a mic.

But it really comes down to how much you appreciate having and keeping an audience. Most places around here are small enough to git away with minimal equip, and in most cases- less is more.(shocking statement from a sound guy huh) The downfall of ths though, is turning up stage volumes to the point the bleedthrough you get into the vocal mic is causing everyone to hear everything twice. We are talking milliseconds in this instance. The delayed aproach of said cabinets into said mic usually culminates in a smear-effect when combined with the audience distance, of coarse creating either a lobing effect, (at least) if not a more detrimental phase smearing and cancelation effect. This is the effect that makes a $5000.00 guitar rig sound like an old crate amp. We can go over boundry effect, advantages, and disadvantages later.

Not to mention that your average audience thinks the band with the most equipment and biggest light show MUST be the best band out there.

cruseaudio · Post by **cruseaudio** » Monday Jan 30, 2006

Hannibal is right, I knew the basics about sound when I started, but was NO expert. You need to have someone who is willing to learn from others. I learned 90 percent of the things I know from (old pros) and about 200 pages a month of reading.

If you hire a guy who said he (knows everything) better watch your equipment, cause chances are he will either clear the bar for you or even worse, break somethin.

no surrender · Post by **no surrender** » Monday Jan 30, 2006

cruseaudio wrote:Hannibal is right, I knew the basics about sound when I started, but was NO expert. You need to have someone who is willing to learn from others. I learned 90 percent of the things I know from (old pros) and about 200 pages a month of reading.

If you hire a guy who said he (knows everything) better watch your equipment, cause chances are he will either clear the bar for you or even worse, break somethin.

please, don't mean to butt in or be a pain just curious..

what are you guys doing back there twisting nobs all night?

what are you listening for and doing??

bassist_25 · Post by **bassist_25** » Monday Jan 30, 2006

Soundmen also have to contend with people on stage who don't know how to properly operate their own equipment. I was just mentioning this at the meeting last night, but I feel bad for all of the sound guys who have to deal with guitar players who scoop their mids. Scooped mids are one of my biggest pet peeves, and I'm not afriad to tell someone to find the damn mids knob on their amp. It might sound cool in your basement, but I can assure you that it sounds like mud at the front of house and your solos aren't cutting through the mix. I've heard bands sound like crap with excellent guys behind the desk, because the bands in question weren't professional enough to know how to operate things at the input level. It all starts with what is happening up on stage.

P.s. Guitar players aren't the only offenders. There's nothing worse than the "boom, boom" bass sound too.

cruseaudio · Post by **cruseaudio** » Monday Jan 30, 2006

Think of an anoying noise, (or look in the mirror), now how do you get rid of it? In the case of the noise you use the knobs and button dohickies and gadgets to irradicate it. In your case think of the gadgets as a clean terrycloth towel that you might polish something(like a turd) with to irradicate it from the general publics ear, if it doesn't work try a grinder.

cruseaudio · Post by **cruseaudio** » Monday Jan 30, 2006

I am glad b25 brought that up. Ifn you plag guitar 99% of the meat is in the mids.

bsaller · Post by **bsaller** » Monday Jan 30, 2006

cruseaudio wrote:A sound guy shows up hours before the band and pushes junk around the bar for a couple of hours, indures hours of endless bitching frrom strangers who are too drunk to understand how annoying they are being, then at the end of the night - it is his/her sole responsabilty to dispence moronic sarcasm that nobody else gets

I hope this was helpfull

By the way we are the thickest-skinned people you will ever find, and yes NS I will hit a girl

Hey are you talkin bout me again

Seriously! great job at Burgi's Sat.

onetooloud · Post by **onetooloud** » Monday Jan 30, 2006

Yeah they called me about three times looking for sound that night also before getting me. The first time was around 7:30 I'm guessing.

As I understood it the band called and verified the date several times with him. At least one time they where told they didn't have to call. They where told once its in the book its in the book.

I was told they( the band) called the bar where they where later told he (the sound company) was to play that night.

Could this have simpily been a mixup on his part (the sound company).

I've worked with the band in question in the past and they are pretty damn organized in their show schedules.

I'm not sure how that turned out they where to call me and fill me in futher. Anybody know?

ROCKPAGE

Soundman no show

Soundman no show

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