BillFitzmaurice.info

This place I mixed on Friday and Saturday last weekend annoys the hell out of me. I was the hired by the bands and mix there probably once a month. Just happened to get two in a row. The manager (who is a great guy) likes to play DJ during the breaks and after the show. And he plays all of that rap crap.....and plays it twice as loud as the bands I'm mixing....and I'm pumping it out pretty hot.

It's bad during the breaks, but makes me want to scream (of course I couldn't hear myself) while we are tearing down and one of the outfills is right above my head. I just don't get it.....and the bands were both country acts.

Oh well....rant over.....I'll go back to just being an old fart now. And by the way......

GET OFF MY LAWN!!

Bruce Weldy wrote: ↑Mon Aug 01, 2022 5:03 pm This place I mixed on Friday and Saturday last weekend annoys the hell out of me. I was the hired by the bands and mix there probably once a month. Just happened to get two in a row. The manager (who is a great guy) likes to play DJ during the breaks and after the show. And he plays all of that rap crap.....and plays it twice as loud as the bands I'm mixing....and I'm pumping it out pretty hot.

It's bad during the breaks, but makes me want to scream (of course I couldn't hear myself) while we are tearing down and one of the outfills is right above my head. I just don't get it.....and the bands were both country acts.

Oh well....rant over.....I'll go back to just being an old fart now. And by the way......

GET OFF MY LAWN!!

Not being an old fart LOL, cRAP sounds bad at any volume!

Could have been worse. You could have been mixing Cowboy Troy.

Bill Fitzmaurice wrote: ↑Thu Aug 04, 2022 9:20 am Could have been worse. You could have been mixing Cowboy Troy.

Oh my gosh.....I'd never heard of him.....and he's from Texas! That's just damned embarrassing......

I doubt he gets many gigs around here..... that Rap County ain't too popular here.

I saw him many years ago as the opening act for Big & Rich. Bizarre.

Here's a new topic to chat about....or not...

A couple of nights ago, I mixed a pretty well known singer-songwriter (in certain circles) in a interview show that airs on a radio station. I was given a warning that this guy was picky about his monitor, so I tried to prepare to be all smiles. Nice enough guy.....but showed up without a guitar cable. We're talking about a guy who's first album came out in 1972. So, he's done a few gigs, ya' know?

Anyway, I started sound checking his monitor with him and he wanted more highs on his voice and guitar, so I got up on stage with him to ring it out. It was starting to feedback a little because of all the high end, so I cupped my hand over the mice to find the frequency - it was at 5khz.....so, I pulled it down. He commented that he wasn't going to put his hand over the mic. Guess he didn't quite understand that when you put your face up to it - the same thing happens. So, anyway he suggested I add some 8k since we pulled down the 5k.

When the feedback first started, he said it was because of the FOH sound......I bit my tongue and didn't say, "no you dumbass, it's because you wanted 5k and 8k in your monitor!"

So, I'm getting him dialed in a little out front with him playing and singing. He tells me its too loud....??? Well, that's the volume we do this show at. Then he said he wanted the guitar as loud as the vocal out front. I said, "uhhh.....but, don't you want them to hear your lyrics?" I mean - he's a singer-songwriter and is known for his lyrics. He said he came up in the folk tradition, not Nashville - so he didn't want the vocals so far out front.

Moving along....the interviewer (who is a very well-know singer and songwriter) came in and got setup. He's really easy - I've done this show with him about 25 times, so his channels are saved and it's pretty much just bringing up faders. I get him dialed in quickly and the other guy (who earlier said he was too loud in FOH) calls me over and says, "hey, I want to be as loud as he is out front."

I'm glad to guy who puts this show on was smart enough to have this guy on first so we had plenty of time to get him dialed in, because the turn around between the first and second act is typically 4-5 minutes and the second act never gets there in time for a long sound check.

But, we pulled it off and nobody got hurt....although there was a lot of chuckling to myself.

Oh, and I almost forgot - he really showed me just how anal and OCD he is when he asked if I could move his monitor over a little because it wasn't lined up exactly with the front-fill speaker that's right in front of him center-stage.

Any other soundman stories out there? If you've done this very much - you're bound to have a few.

Mmmm, I'm still talking to Soundcraft to see if I can get a circuit mod to install a "talent" section in all my digital and analogue desks, routeable to mons and FOH...

Grant Bunter wrote: ↑Thu Aug 04, 2022 3:44 pm Mmmm, I'm still talking to Soundcraft to see if I can get a circuit mod to install a "talent" section in all my digital and analogue desks, routeable to mons and FOH...

I have really good relationships with the bands I mix.....but, I do remind them occasionally that I control the "suck" knob and can increase it at will, so they'd better be nice to me.

I have lot's of blow ins, flavour of the month cover band/lip syncers.
Most are great.
Some of them are a bit precious.
I try to tell them I understand, muso first, sound guy later blah blah blah. Sometimes it just doesn't help.
I've been known to say to a couple of "artists" via talkback "sorry, did you say more talent in the monitors"?

I figure a button would help...

Grant Bunter wrote: ↑Thu Aug 04, 2022 4:50 pm I have lot's of blow ins, flavour of the month cover band/lip syncers.
Most are great.
Some of them are a bit precious.
I try to tell them I understand, muso first, sound guy later blah blah blah. Sometimes it just doesn't help.
I've been known to say to a couple of "artists" via talkback "sorry, did you say more talent in the monitors"?

I figure a button would help...

It's always a little amusing when a band that is used to having one or two monitors on stage (for the whole band) getting the same mix start acting like rock stars when we give 'em their own individual mix with better monitors than the mains they usually use......everyone is trying to get the perfect mix.

And then there's the guys that ask for a change in the monitor and before you actually find the right knob say, "that's it! That's perfect.." And you haven't done a thing. Which just proves that our brain can make us hear what we want to hear.

Bruce Weldy wrote: ↑Thu Aug 04, 2022 12:14 pm
Any other soundman stories out there? If you've done this very much - you're bound to have a few.

I mixed a few times (in 2012-2013) for some self proclaimed hot act that had just cut a record in Nashville. These shows were always in the Wichita Falls, Tx/Lawron, Ok area. The lead guitar player, who claimed to be the country version of Eddie Van Halen, did NOT want to hear himself on stage. He said that he could hear every note he played in his head and that it was a direct communication between his guitar and the crowd. He said that if he could hear himself it would cause issues and that he would play differently. He called it "cutting out the middle man." The singer of this same group preferred to use a 12" vocal mon because he said that the in-ears fed back too much. Finally, the drummer required two-15" monitors (one on each side of him) so that he could "feel" the kick. What he didn't know was that I cut 50-80 hz to avoid feedback. Other than that group, most of my experiences have been positive.

Bryan Cox wrote: ↑Fri Aug 05, 2022 3:40 pm he said that the in-ears fed back too much.

Gotta' admit.....I haven't heard that one before....

So, I saw this video a while back. I had never heard of an SDR before. Being able to zoom in and see the entire 400MHz spectrum, it seems like it could be a handy tool in analyzing the radio frequency spectrum to help in choosing and managing wireless mic and IEM channels. I have had one time that I inadvertently had an IEM interfering with a Mic. Fortunately it was just my talk back rig and didn't cause any show issues. But, it did render them useless on my end for monitoring and communication on that particular show. (Sometimes I'll help the singer with songs left on the playlist kind of things. Directly into his IEM, no one's the wiser)

I just ordered one. Whatcha guys think? Possibly handy?

Not sure what to think, Seth, because I haven't dealt with wireless yet.

I've watched something similar from that Youtuber before, but, not sure exactly what.

In Australia, a few years back, there was a digital restack with the demise of analogue TV etc.
The government restacked the entire band to allow for expansion of the telco's,, consolidate the TV bands (becoming digital meant less separation between stations was required) and the available bandwidth for wireless anything in the musical/church whatever realm is now narrower, but set in concrete.

Of course, it meant lots of people had to buy new gear because using transmitters set to the "old" bands became illegal (haven't seen to many people in a van full of tracking gear with an aerial on top around western Queensland since), but in short, unless you're in a major city, near another venue, it's no longer a drama having to find vacant bands to prevent interference.

Still, it is interesting...