Tired of these tingy guys

[Jevil]

50 €? WTF? I thought slavery was eradicated many years ago.

We pay 150 € to our FOH tech, and of course food, hotel and everything he needs.

 

[ahjteam]

Anybody know what an FOH soundman in a professional touring party earns?

Depends on the country. Atleast in Finland the guys who tour with the big names are on monthly salary. And they gig like 200-300 days a year and also do some other gigs than just band stuff, like company xmas parties etc.

 

[::XeS::]

50 €? WTF? I thought slavery was eradicated many years ago.

We pay 150 € to our FOH tech, and of course food, hotel and everything he needs.

C'mon....we're speaking about 19years old guys (students), not bands doing 4 gigs/week...I'm not in a tour bus or in an hotel, it was only a little live show in my city.
They paid 60€ and 60€ is the pay of a guy that works in an office here in Italy.
Of course, if I do a little tour, with lot of trips, the thing becomes more serious and the I would raise the rate (with food and hotel paid by the band).

 

[arv_foh]

When I am only mixing one band outside of my house venue, I charge according to the length of the set. $100/hr. $50 for a 30 min set, $100 for a 60 min set, and if they aren't willing to pay then fuck them! I've got plenty of bands that are willing!

 

[theRev]

C'mon....we're speaking about 19years old guys (students), not bands doing 4 gigs/week...I'm not in a tour bus or in an hotel, it was only a little live show in my city.
They paid 60€ and 60€ is the pay of a guy that works in an office here in Italy.
Of course, if I do a little tour, with lot of trips, the thing becomes more serious and the I would raise the rate (with food and hotel paid by the band).

Well, I know a band that thinks "160 euro to book a studio for one day, to do a drum recordin session (5 songs) it's too much". And we are talking about a Studio that it's not that bad (is the guy who produced Stormlord stuff, you should know the band)...

They asked me to find someone who can record drums for 5 songs for even LESS than 160 euro per day (and btw, they ask for ONE day, even if I prepared them by telling the band "you know, even if you have the best drummer in the world, if half of first day would be 'wasted' to setup the drums, mics, levels etc you probably should consider that 2 days are the minimum requirment to record 5 songs". Obviously their reply was "we do not have money, we record in one day,"... and I "yea, but what if at the end of the day you do not have your 5 songs, because the drummer can have problems playing on metronome, because he needs some time to get acquainted with the recording stuff, because at the end of the day song 4 and 5 sounds crap because he is tired"... them.. "uh...eh... no, everything would be ok" )...

I find the idea quite strange, I have no clue if they can find a poor soul that can do a relatively professional recording with such a low budget...

At one point I even said to them (in sarcastically way) "well, bring me some Jameson's whiskey bottles, and I can place piezo triggers on my bed cushions, and re sample the "hits" with SSD..." ... And they looked at me with a straight face, like they were to the point of sayin "OMG that would be awesome"...


The problem it's not global financial crisis, it's that most of young, student guys, are totally unaware of some concepts... Like "I do not have money, that doesn't mean I can ask professionals to do me the job for nothing". It's a matter of respect and learn how life works.

(ps: dai dai, non bisticciate per qualche verbo messo male )

 

[::XeS::]

You're totally right.
The point is that FOH it's not my favourite work, so I do it because my clients ask me to do their live sounds...and I charge the same that the residential FOH takes (but I do only "my bands").
Anyway I don't like this job very much, because in the same venue, one night you can get a killer sound and another night you can get every possible technical problem (like last friday) and you can loose all your reputation for something you can't fix.
The problem nowadays is that people asks very low rates to stole the work from other people.
If I record a band I ask 250€/song (with mix and master). It's not too much but it's the rate of my "studio" level. The trick in my opinion is to ask initially the same money of the other guys, but offering a little more.
Some months ago some 19yrs old guys opened a new little studio (of course, 19yrs old guys can build a studio with parquet, audio treatments, lot of amps,etc... I'm 30 and I've not enough money....but these kids nowadays have everything they want.....) and they have the lower rates of the city,every 6 months they record a single song for free, etc.... I mean, they spent lot of money for the studio, for the equipment,etc....they have to split the money in 2 parts and they also record for free sometimes.
Of course, the bands of kids are very appealed by this package and they go there.
It seems that these kids don't bother too much about how they can earn, or about the right price of their work. They do it because nowadays is cool, but they don't understand that charging 2 cent, they are ruining the whole market (they become slaves of their little rates and the other studios are forced to lower their rates....).
It's like here on the forum.....when someone offer 100€ for a mix, immediately there is someone saying "hey, I'll do it for free!".....I don't understand the sense of this thought

 

[HeadCrusher]

Depends on the country. Atleast in Finland the guys who tour with the big names are on monthly salary. And they gig like 200-300 days a year and also do some other gigs than just band stuff, like company xmas parties etc.

And who pays that monthly salary? The way I got it a band hires a soundman to go on tour with them and pays him per show which need not be every day of the tour of course.

 

[kaomao]

(ps: dai dai, non bisticciate per qualche verbo messo male )

eheeh si si qua sono mazzate che volano
No michele(XES) sa che non l'ho detto per essere stronzo

 

[ahjteam]

is the guy who produced Stormlord stuff, you should know the band

Never heard of them

And who pays that monthly salary?

The monthly salary guys travel with the equipment and company that owns the equipment pays their salary.

 

[HeadCrusher]

Ah, ok, I see your point. Still I can't imagine a band would want a dude from a company they rented their let's say guitar cabs or outboard rack for that tour from...

 

[Eschatologist]

In the bands I play and have played in, we pay for our preferred FOH engineer whenever possible. Its always worth it for the compliments we get for the sound after the show.

 

[ahjteam]

Still I can't imagine a band would want a dude from a company they rented their let's say guitar cabs or outboard rack for that tour from...

I don't get your logic in that statement. That is the same as saying you rented a studio to record an album and you don't want their guy to engineer the equipment, but to pay extra for another guy to come and do the engineering.

Most of the professionals work in some audio production related company (live/studio) and most of the guys have been the FOH/monitor/light engineer for the same band for many many years and the bands have formed a friendship during the years, and usually stay loyal and hire them (unless they fucked up during the years), and the soundguys bring their PA-systems with them, usually with a slight discount. Same with for example Iron Maiden, who has used the same technical staff for like 20 years.

 

[HeadCrusher]

maybe it's because all the touring parties that i have an insight to don't bring their own PAs and stuff. I mean you have to be really big to afford that. so the settings i was talking about is a middle sized band in a van or a nightliner that plays to 200-400 people a night and just hires a soundman to go on tour with them. hence why i was kinda surprised to hear of monthly salaries.

 

[ahjteam]

maybe it's because all the touring parties that i have an insight to don't bring their own PAs and stuff. I mean you have to be really big to afford that.

Well, if you would have read my post:

Depends on the country. Atleast in Finland the guys who tour with the big names are on monthly salary.

 

[theRev]

Never heard of them

Yea, that was for the italian guys who are lurking the thread... Stormlord are italian guys...

 

[HeadCrusher]

I have read your post. However "big names" for me are the ones in a nightliner. The "really big ones" get to bring their own PA.