pull the plug 20 minutes into your 30 minute set? Yeah, it sucks..
Anyone else have interesting 'sound guy' experiences?
Anyone else have interesting 'sound guy' experiences?
Ever have the sound guy...
- Thread starter ForgotenWarrior6
- Start date
To be honest I've found they're pretty much wankers in general, they have unrealistic demands and they tend to have this code that states, 'if you sound shit, i'll fuck you over', or 'if we don't get on, i'll fuck you over', even though it's their job. IT'S NOT ABOUT RAPPORT! ARGGHGHG! JUST DO YOUR FUCKING JOB! O and the classic 'DFAF - Do fuck all fader', where a sound guy actually just pretends to make the changes you ask for.
Notuern
Bloody vaginal belch
- Oct 20, 2007
- 3,625
- 0
- 36
My personal experiences with sound guys suck..
First bad experience(Apart from previous guys doing a shitty job.), involved the sound guy coming up on stage, and asking where the powered line out was on my guitar amp.. because apparently they didnt have anything but a passive monitor for the drums that they "used to hook up to the guitarists amp".
Second bad experience was when i had just ran over the stage and setup all the amps for our band to play(Since no-one else knew shit about sound, i had to do it.).. next thing i see is the sound guy running up on the stage, turning all the mids down on everything and cranking the bass and treble.. when i confronted him he told me that too much mids would cause feedback! Yeah, he was serious about it.. i didnt know if i should have cried or laughed.
Third bad experience involved a broken JCM800.. i plugged my guitar in(It had really high output pickups btw.), cranked the gain, hit a chord and only heard a dark flubby undistorted sound.. so i thought i had the volume on the guitar almost all the way down or something, but no!
So i checked the amp and noticed that one of the preamp tubes was shot, so i called the sound guy up on stage, and he claimed "thats how JCM800's sound, you should have brought a distortion pedal dude!".. i was so close to punching the guy in the face that im actually a bit proud that i didnt(We ended up having to get my dad to drive back to our house to get my shitty Randall ss-amp.. so we didnt get our soundcheck.).
Fourth bad experience involved a stage monitor stuffed with a wet mattress, because it had been filled with water the day before(Rainy festival.).. it gave all these weird crackling noises from time to time, and when we asked the tech's to pull it off stage(Because we didnt want to get electrocuted.) they just ignored us completely.
First bad experience(Apart from previous guys doing a shitty job.), involved the sound guy coming up on stage, and asking where the powered line out was on my guitar amp.. because apparently they didnt have anything but a passive monitor for the drums that they "used to hook up to the guitarists amp".
Second bad experience was when i had just ran over the stage and setup all the amps for our band to play(Since no-one else knew shit about sound, i had to do it.).. next thing i see is the sound guy running up on the stage, turning all the mids down on everything and cranking the bass and treble.. when i confronted him he told me that too much mids would cause feedback! Yeah, he was serious about it.. i didnt know if i should have cried or laughed.
Third bad experience involved a broken JCM800.. i plugged my guitar in(It had really high output pickups btw.), cranked the gain, hit a chord and only heard a dark flubby undistorted sound.. so i thought i had the volume on the guitar almost all the way down or something, but no!
So i checked the amp and noticed that one of the preamp tubes was shot, so i called the sound guy up on stage, and he claimed "thats how JCM800's sound, you should have brought a distortion pedal dude!".. i was so close to punching the guy in the face that im actually a bit proud that i didnt(We ended up having to get my dad to drive back to our house to get my shitty Randall ss-amp.. so we didnt get our soundcheck.).
Fourth bad experience involved a stage monitor stuffed with a wet mattress, because it had been filled with water the day before(Rainy festival.).. it gave all these weird crackling noises from time to time, and when we asked the tech's to pull it off stage(Because we didnt want to get electrocuted.) they just ignored us completely.
joelplagues
Member
I know of plenty of instances where the sound guy has pulled the plug.
but usually for a good reason. what was his?
most are usually because the venue's have deadlines. If a band takes to long to get on or off the stage you're just eating away at your playing time. if your on late you get a shorter set. you know when your supposed to finish and that's that. Riverstage in Brisbane ,Australia(massive outdoor venue) can receive something like $20,000 (or $200,000-I should really ask them again) fine for a show going past 10pm on a weeknight and I know the stage manager there Isn't afraid to pull the plug unless the band is going to pay for that fine.
bands have to be realistic themselves.
think about why the sound guy asked you to point your cabs to the back wall of the venue? obviously its too loud for the place and your not going to turn down so bam to the backwall they go with a mic delivering your sound through the p.a and F.O.H(this usually means a better sound for the audience too)
Im not putting this all on the bands, as I know of plenty of shit sound guys. its just unfortunate that they give the rest of us a bad wrap.
but usually for a good reason. what was his?
most are usually because the venue's have deadlines. If a band takes to long to get on or off the stage you're just eating away at your playing time. if your on late you get a shorter set. you know when your supposed to finish and that's that. Riverstage in Brisbane ,Australia(massive outdoor venue) can receive something like $20,000 (or $200,000-I should really ask them again) fine for a show going past 10pm on a weeknight and I know the stage manager there Isn't afraid to pull the plug unless the band is going to pay for that fine.
bands have to be realistic themselves.
think about why the sound guy asked you to point your cabs to the back wall of the venue? obviously its too loud for the place and your not going to turn down so bam to the backwall they go with a mic delivering your sound through the p.a and F.O.H(this usually means a better sound for the audience too)
Im not putting this all on the bands, as I know of plenty of shit sound guys. its just unfortunate that they give the rest of us a bad wrap.
Russtopher
Member
We got booked for a 2 hour slot at an outdoor festival, 90 minutes in the sound guy came over the PA and said "you guys are done, pack it up". Our singer replied "we're getting paid for 2 hours, we're gonna play for 2 hours" so we kept playing. As soon as we were done the soundguy came onstage, swearing his head off at us about how we "fucked the whole schedule".
Know what the next act was?
A fucking police K9 dog exhibition in front of the stage. Yeah, he TOTALLY needed to set up a monitor mix for THAT.
We told the organizer what happened when he came by to pay us, and he then promptly told the sound guy he was sick of his shit and he'd get someone else to do sound the next day. Apparently the sound guy had been a dick to everyone throughout the day, we weren't the first to complain.
Not my experience, but my friend's band was booked as part of a larger bill on a Veteran's Day benefit show here in the States (my bud is an Iraq War Air Force vet, so the gig meant a lot to him). 1 band in, the manager of the club climbs onstage and literally starts messing with everyone's volumes, this was after yelling at the sound guy to turn down the PA. When the first song was completed, the club shut the entire show down, with 7 more bands there ready to play. The manager thought it was "way too loud for the regulars". Um, you booked an 8 band metal show as a benefit for US veterans groups and thought it was TOO LOUD?
Know what the next act was?
A fucking police K9 dog exhibition in front of the stage. Yeah, he TOTALLY needed to set up a monitor mix for THAT.
We told the organizer what happened when he came by to pay us, and he then promptly told the sound guy he was sick of his shit and he'd get someone else to do sound the next day. Apparently the sound guy had been a dick to everyone throughout the day, we weren't the first to complain.
Not my experience, but my friend's band was booked as part of a larger bill on a Veteran's Day benefit show here in the States (my bud is an Iraq War Air Force vet, so the gig meant a lot to him). 1 band in, the manager of the club climbs onstage and literally starts messing with everyone's volumes, this was after yelling at the sound guy to turn down the PA. When the first song was completed, the club shut the entire show down, with 7 more bands there ready to play. The manager thought it was "way too loud for the regulars". Um, you booked an 8 band metal show as a benefit for US veterans groups and thought it was TOO LOUD?
ive turned off bands or acts before when theyve gone over time and been warned, ive also cut a band before for calling me a cunt to the entire crowd because id pulled him up earlier for snorting coke backstage when he was supposed to be soundshecking
He said we were way over our time, when we were suppose to have 30 minutes to play.. (That's what it said on the contract, 30 minutes play time, nothing about setup breakdown) Bet again, the idiots that booked this, booked 14 acts for one night opening at 6PM..... Doors were suppose to open at 6.. The sound guy told us to start playing at 6 and we asked, "are you going to let people in?" to which he said "Just play."
They didn't start letting people in till half way through our first song.
I wouldn't of been pissed off at this sound guy so much if he didn't give the band after us an ENCORE of like an addition 7-10 minutes.. When this asshole cut us off 10 minutes early...
Holy fuck man, stuff like all that makes me think that every band should have their own "sound guy"
drew_drummer
Dancefap
Not had too many bad experiences with sound guys... but we played a gig a while back at a London pub venue. The night was billed as a metal night - let me repeat... a METAL NIGHT. I don't mean a fucking suit of armour either.
So we are the first band there, rest of the bands turned up late. After umming and ahhing about whether to soundcheck us, we finally got a souncheck - bands turned up late like I said, we weren't headlining, but it made no sense to stand around and do fuck all.
So we start soundchecking. Let me tell you - we are not a band who just turn everything up to 11 because we are fucking br00talz or whatever. We know our shit. We turn up to the drummer... just enough so that we can hear ourselves, and get the tone that we want.
Manager of the bar comes running in, ranting and raving. 'Turn it fucking down!!' he says. It was not loud at all, standard levels for a metal night. I turn it down some... 'No. More!!' ... so I turn it down a bit more. This happens three times or so, until I am so low that I can not hear myself over the drums.
Monitors could not handle any signals - the PA was probably powerful enough for an acoustic guitar and a vocal, but not for two metal guitarists and a bassist, plus a kick drum and snare. Why the fuck the sound-guy decided to mic up the kick drum and snare when the bar manager had already had a go at us, I don't fucking know. Needless to say... it was a shit gig. Couldn't hear any of the nuances of my playing, just this reef of noise and a pounding kick drum.
Guy was a joke. I don't do live sound really, but even I could have done better.
So we are the first band there, rest of the bands turned up late. After umming and ahhing about whether to soundcheck us, we finally got a souncheck - bands turned up late like I said, we weren't headlining, but it made no sense to stand around and do fuck all.
So we start soundchecking. Let me tell you - we are not a band who just turn everything up to 11 because we are fucking br00talz or whatever. We know our shit. We turn up to the drummer... just enough so that we can hear ourselves, and get the tone that we want.
Manager of the bar comes running in, ranting and raving. 'Turn it fucking down!!' he says. It was not loud at all, standard levels for a metal night. I turn it down some... 'No. More!!' ... so I turn it down a bit more. This happens three times or so, until I am so low that I can not hear myself over the drums.
Monitors could not handle any signals - the PA was probably powerful enough for an acoustic guitar and a vocal, but not for two metal guitarists and a bassist, plus a kick drum and snare. Why the fuck the sound-guy decided to mic up the kick drum and snare when the bar manager had already had a go at us, I don't fucking know. Needless to say... it was a shit gig. Couldn't hear any of the nuances of my playing, just this reef of noise and a pounding kick drum.
Guy was a joke. I don't do live sound really, but even I could have done better.
ItsAFugazzi
boat is boat.
That exact thing happened to me the other day. Got our 30 minute set cut short to 20 minutes. So I took my guitar off and said "right, well we'll go home and take our equipment with us" We had been booked for 2 months as headliners but due to another band kicking up a fuss about headlining a CHARITY gig we said fine & let them have the top slot. We got to the venue and the promoter who wasn't actually a promoter, just a girl who decided she wanted to be a promoter came round and said "would you mind if your set was just 20 minutes?" (all the bands including headline were supposed to have 30 each) to which I replied "Yes, we do mind... if we don't get 30 minutes we'll go home now" - Now it sounds a bit harsh to say that but we'd paid over 100 quid to play that gig in rehearsals, replacing a broken pedal, buying new strings, petrol money (we were the only band from out of town).
So the promoter was like "ooh ok then you can play your full set but don't waste too much time between songs" - which we didn't. We were playing when about 20 minutes in the sound guy comes up and says "last song" to which I tried to get the crown on my side. Everyone started chanting "2 more songs, 2 more songs" I looked at the soundguy and he said "1!" So i was like fuck you then. My guitarist talked me down onstage quickly and I barely performed the last song. Kinda stupidly. I regret the incident but we had borrowed the band before us and the headline band our equipment to use, we'd been there on time before any other band, we had stated BEFORE we went on we wanted our full set otherwise we would leave and yet we still got fucked. Funnily enough, the headline guys got about 50 minutes and didn't get cut short.. Even were allowed a 10 minute soundcheck - we weren't even allowed a line check! We were totally fucking screwed over.
Because of bad reaction we got banned from the venue & the soundguy refused to ever work with us again.
I've noticed in the past, you can not say ANYTHING about how you want your sound or the soundguy gets pissed with you. I once asked for delay on my vocals cause I wanted my vocals to sound open and big... He fucking CAKED it, it was so ridiculous & THEN he cut us short by two songs.
Another sound guy had a problem with me because the microphone stand I was using kept failing, so he held me personally responsible & now has a problem with me.
The list goes on. They should just do the fucking job they're paid for & not let there snotty little egos get in the way.
So the promoter was like "ooh ok then you can play your full set but don't waste too much time between songs" - which we didn't. We were playing when about 20 minutes in the sound guy comes up and says "last song" to which I tried to get the crown on my side. Everyone started chanting "2 more songs, 2 more songs" I looked at the soundguy and he said "1!" So i was like fuck you then. My guitarist talked me down onstage quickly and I barely performed the last song. Kinda stupidly. I regret the incident but we had borrowed the band before us and the headline band our equipment to use, we'd been there on time before any other band, we had stated BEFORE we went on we wanted our full set otherwise we would leave and yet we still got fucked. Funnily enough, the headline guys got about 50 minutes and didn't get cut short.. Even were allowed a 10 minute soundcheck - we weren't even allowed a line check! We were totally fucking screwed over.
Because of bad reaction we got banned from the venue & the soundguy refused to ever work with us again.
I've noticed in the past, you can not say ANYTHING about how you want your sound or the soundguy gets pissed with you. I once asked for delay on my vocals cause I wanted my vocals to sound open and big... He fucking CAKED it, it was so ridiculous & THEN he cut us short by two songs.
Another sound guy had a problem with me because the microphone stand I was using kept failing, so he held me personally responsible & now has a problem with me.
The list goes on. They should just do the fucking job they're paid for & not let there snotty little egos get in the way.
drew_drummer
Dancefap
Now, I'm not saying anything here negatively, just sharing some thoughts.
Let them have their little ego trip. They're doing live sound because they failed at being a musician, so let them have their little power trip.
Keep your cool. Stay professional. Chances are, a few people left that gig that night thinking you were a bit of a wanker, and wrote your band off for good.
If you need to blow steam, come to the Sneap forum and do it - don't do it on stage, it's just not professional dude.
imho
Furthermore... it's no secret that most promoters are fucking shills. They usually don't give a shit about the music, and only want to get door money and keep the venue sweet - that's why so many bands end up playing with other bands they have nothing in common with.. just to fill the venue and sell more beer.
If I had a choice, I wouldn't deal with any promoters - well actually, I can think of one who is really good, and has helped us out a lot. But he's a mate of the band, so it's a bit different. But pretty much across the board (in London at least) promoters are shit and deserve to go hungry. I literally mean that... they should be the people outside tube stations with no shoes, begging for your left over chips.
ItsAFugazzi
boat is boat.
Now, I'm not saying anything here negatively, just sharing some thoughts.
Let them have their little ego trip. They're doing live sound because they failed at being a musician, so let them have their little power trip.
Keep your cool. Stay professional. Chances are, a few people left that gig that night thinking you were a bit of a wanker, and wrote your band off for good.
If you need to blow steam, come to the Sneap forum and do it - don't do it on stage, it's just no professional dude.
imho
I realise that now.
Professionals get paid. If it was a paid gig I probably wouldn't have reacted in such a way. But then again if it was a paid gig it wouldn't of been organised so poorly - probably. But no excuses. Somebody could have filmed me losing my temper and posted it online & I wouldn't have been able to do a thing. Could have had a really bad effect on the band. So I'm completely aware of keeping it to myself from now.
SentencedToBurn
Dubbs
the first time (and only time) i saw misery signals they were only allowed to play their intro and one song (off malice cause thats the only cd they had out then). We all knew they had been fucked over cause the singer said "what a fucking joke" and threw the mic down. The rest of the band had smiles on their face because of his reaction.
Harry Hughes
âââ¬â¬
- Apr 25, 2009
- 4,353
- 0
- 36
I just suddenly feel even LESS motivated to get a band going after reading all these horror stories.
arv_foh
Brian K
No shit? It was the headliner. It's their show! Maybe you need to check YOUR ego instead of telling us to check ours. Were you timing your set? How do you know you weren't 25 minutes in when he told you one more? Most bands have no fucking idea how much time they eat up in between songs. I personally love it when I get bands that have backing tracks and they tell me "our set is 32 minutes, exactly, is that ok?" Or bands that have their sets timed out and let me know "hey our set usually runs 32 or 33 minutes. cool?" and usually it is.
The only time I ever cut bands short is if they took forever to set up.. at my venue we do 15 min set changes, and it usually takes the last band 5 minutes to get their gear off the stage, so if you take more than 10 mins to set up and line check, you're getting cut short. Especially if it's a national tour with local opening acts. Local shows I could really care less if the show runs 5-10 minutes behind, but tours get PISSED if the band was supposed to end at 8:30 and it's now 8:31 and they're finishing up their last song. I always let bands know when they have 5 minutes left in their set.
But I will say for every good sound engineer, there are a ton of shitty ones with bad attitudes, which is probably why I end up getting so much work, because I do a good job, I listen to what people want, and I'm easy to work with. Sorry you guys have had shitty experiences but not everyone is like that.
fenders
Member
- Jun 28, 2009
- 189
- 0
- 16
xFkx
gain induction
well, there are shitty sound guys and shitty bands in vast quantities. ladida
I play with bands, and I also do sound from time to time as I hired gun, and it's really funny to hear the bands ramble on about sound guys, and the sound guys ramble on about bands
I play with bands, and I also do sound from time to time as I hired gun, and it's really funny to hear the bands ramble on about sound guys, and the sound guys ramble on about bands
@ XFkx
True true..
Granted most local bands probably aren't good. The gig I played, doors opened at 6 and the bands were suppose to start playing at 7. The forced us to play at 6, when most my friends showed up for the last song.. That's just not right. I wasted my friends time and money and feel horrible about it..
I consider my band one of the better "we have our shit together" guys. We always show up hours before load it. Have all our gear ready to be dragged on stage, so it takes literally minutes.. and we got shafted and the band after us got an encore...
Has anyone ever had a problem with keyboards not being mixed properly live? Like.. every show Ive played, you can barely hear them.
True true..
Granted most local bands probably aren't good. The gig I played, doors opened at 6 and the bands were suppose to start playing at 7. The forced us to play at 6, when most my friends showed up for the last song.. That's just not right. I wasted my friends time and money and feel horrible about it..
I consider my band one of the better "we have our shit together" guys. We always show up hours before load it. Have all our gear ready to be dragged on stage, so it takes literally minutes.. and we got shafted and the band after us got an encore...
Has anyone ever had a problem with keyboards not being mixed properly live? Like.. every show Ive played, you can barely hear them.
