mikeh Posted July 22, 2007 Share Posted July 22, 2007 I went to see a few bands last night in the local pubs, ended up at the Stag in Orrell Nr Wigan and there was a band on, I wont mention the name. But the front of house sound was simply the worst I've heard. Everything was through the PA, and the only thing you could hear really was the vocals and drums, everything else was just a much of imense low end. It was so painful to listen to we left and went else where. Heres a question for all you gigging bassists. If you had an aweful front of house sound would you want to know about it?? The crazy thing was they seemed like they'd be a good band, if it wasnt for the sound!!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
s_u_y_* Posted July 22, 2007 Share Posted July 22, 2007 (edited) Bad FOH sounds is something I've become accustomed too, and it can be pot luck if you get a good or bad sound engineer. The thing is, I've also heard awful sounds because a musician decided he knew what was best and didn't go through FOH. If he was too loud, levels were impossible to balance. I personally take the view if the sound messes up, at least it wasn't my fault. I also use as little backline as possible to help the soundguy get a good FOH mix and also give him a flat EQ signal from my active DI. Your position on stage isn't right to judge what's best for the mix, and ultimately you have to place a lot of trust on your sound guy for better or worse. But hey, at least you could hear something. One gig, this soundguy forgot to turn us on. As a result, the bass and vocals were really low. From what I hear around the London circuit, he is known for forgetting to turn things on. Edited July 22, 2007 by s_u_y_* Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stewblack Posted July 22, 2007 Share Posted July 22, 2007 [quote name='mikeh' post='35519' date='Jul 22 2007, 12:56 PM']Heres a question for all you gigging bassists. If you had an aweful front of house sound would you want to know about it??[/quote] I'd think - "Well what can i do about it?" it would spoil the night to be told the sound was awful. I guess the person to tell would be the venue owner who is responsible for booking the sound engineer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NJW Posted July 22, 2007 Share Posted July 22, 2007 Sound engineers cant polish a turd. Something many people forget. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sugden Posted July 22, 2007 Share Posted July 22, 2007 [quote name='NJW' post='35527' date='Jul 22 2007, 01:12 PM']Sound engineers cant polish a turd. Something many people forget.[/quote] Id be quite intrested in knowing how people you know who could polish a turd. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikeh Posted July 22, 2007 Author Share Posted July 22, 2007 They where controlling the sound themselves. Non of the pubs bars round here provide PA and sound guy... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
barneythedog Posted July 22, 2007 Share Posted July 22, 2007 You have to know if you sound crap. jees ... if you don't know, you cant do anything about it. As you say they seemed a good band, so they deserve to know they buggering it up FOH. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikeh Posted July 22, 2007 Author Share Posted July 22, 2007 Thats what I thought, I'd certainly want to know. We always have someone out front during soundcheck, or I'll go out on wireless so we if it sounds ok. They're the second band in as many weeks I've seen that are good bands but ruined by poor FOH. The last one all you could hear was vocals and bass!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stingrayfan Posted July 22, 2007 Share Posted July 22, 2007 (edited) [quote name='mikeh' post='35519' date='Jul 22 2007, 12:56 PM']Everything was through the PA, and the only thing you could hear really was the vocals and drums, everything else was just a much of imense low end.[/quote] I saw a similar band the other day. A tribute band (obviously used to bigger venues) playing a small bar locally. Everything through the PA and overhead mics on the drums. The soundcheck was *really* loud. They were on in-ears, so didn't have a clue! Classic case of not really thinking about where you're playing. Small bars don't need stadium sound! Edited July 22, 2007 by stingrayfan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slaphappygarry Posted July 22, 2007 Share Posted July 22, 2007 [quote]Sound engineers cant polish a turd. Something many people forget.[/quote] Thats a bit of an imature statement. The differences between good and bad sound engineers are the same between good and bad bass players. There are some brilliant engineers i work with on a regular basis and the difference they make is huge. You tend to find that the good engineers dont work in rubbish venues that often..... G Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
markytbass Posted July 22, 2007 Share Posted July 22, 2007 I would like to be told if the sound was cack. Ive played at venues where the sound engineer actually took time in sorting the sound out, made suggestions etc. Ive also played a gig where I was expected to play through the head lining bands rig which was an old keyboard amp and it didn't matter what I did it was distorted. After I threw all my toys out of the pram and a few huff's and puff's from the sound engineer they found a space for my combo. I too have been to a gig where a band used a full sized pa rig in a bar which was about 12 feet by 18 feet. We went outside to listen as it was far too loud and I didn't want to damage my hearing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ShergoldSnickers Posted July 22, 2007 Share Posted July 22, 2007 [quote name='Sugden' post='35535' date='Jul 22 2007, 01:40 PM']Id be quite intrested in knowing how people you know who could polish a turd.[/quote] I heard a rumour that a certain ship, that used to be a part of a certain titled family's life, had it's plumbing temporarily tampered with. One turd, interception, for the uses of. Encased in plastic I'm told, and, I would hope, kept nicely polished. So there you are, whilst I don't know them personally, I am aware of a possible turd polisher. Not just any old turd either. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tinman Posted July 22, 2007 Share Posted July 22, 2007 [quote name='ShergoldSnickers' post='35617' date='Jul 22 2007, 05:33 PM']I heard a rumour that a certain ship, that used to be a part of a certain titled family's life, had it's plumbing temporarily tampered with. One turd, interception, for the uses of. Encased in plastic I'm told, and, I would hope, kept nicely polished. So there you are, whilst I don't know them personally, I am aware of a possible turd polisher. Not just any old turd either.[/quote] Reminds me of a time when I was at a 'certain' RAF base. A 'certain' squadron with whom a 'certain' titled family used to always fly, kept a 'certain' part of the contents of the aircrafts plumbing. I know this for a fact 'cos I was there at the time. It's amazing what squaddies will do when they're bored. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NJW Posted July 22, 2007 Share Posted July 22, 2007 [quote name='slaphappygarry' post='35607' date='Jul 22 2007, 05:02 PM']Thats a bit of an imature statement. The differences between good and bad sound engineers are the same between good and bad bass players. There are some brilliant engineers i work with on a regular basis and the difference they make is huge. You tend to find that the good engineers dont work in rubbish venues that often..... G[/quote] The reason behind the statement is that the majority of the gig going public don't realise that a band with bad equipment may sound bad for that reason. A colleague of mine (who is a fantastic engineer) was actually assaulted by a punter who punched him on the nose, because the guitars weren't audible. Fact was that the guitarist was using a horrendous crate amp and kept turning the amp up and down mid song. A good band, in contrast, is NOT hard for ANYONE to do sound for. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ShergoldSnickers Posted July 22, 2007 Share Posted July 22, 2007 [quote name='Tinman' post='35623' date='Jul 22 2007, 05:44 PM']Reminds me of a time when I was at a 'certain' RAF base. A 'certain' squadron with whom a 'certain' titled family used to always fly, kept a 'certain' part of the contents of the aircrafts plumbing. I know this for a fact 'cos I was there at the time. It's amazing what squaddies will do when they're bored.[/quote] Inter-service rivalry knows no bounds! I always wondered what The Tower looks like on the inside. We might be finding out soon Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slaphappygarry Posted July 22, 2007 Share Posted July 22, 2007 [quote]The reason behind the statement is that the majority of the gig going public don't realise that a band with bad equipment may sound bad for that reason. A colleague of mine (who is a fantastic engineer) was actually assaulted by a punter who punched him on the nose, because the guitars weren't audible. Fact was that the guitarist was using a horrendous crate amp and kept turning the amp up and down mid song. A good band, in contrast, is NOT hard for ANYONE to do sound for.[/quote] I disagree a good engineer with a bad desk/pa/band will sound good. A bad engineer with all the best gear and bands wont. Just my opinion. G Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tinman Posted July 22, 2007 Share Posted July 22, 2007 [quote name='ShergoldSnickers' post='35631' date='Jul 22 2007, 05:53 PM']Inter-service rivalry knows no bounds! I always wondered what The Tower looks like on the inside. We might be finding out soon [/quote] It's alright, I've never used my head for much anyway Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bass_ferret Posted July 22, 2007 Share Posted July 22, 2007 There is a difference between wanting to know and like being told. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Funk Posted July 22, 2007 Share Posted July 22, 2007 Yeah, I always hate being told but I'm always grateful because I want to know. It's amazing how none of the toilet circuit venues in London we've played have a decent engineer - or safe electrics. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MythSte Posted July 22, 2007 Share Posted July 22, 2007 We have one or two guys that follow us to every gig ang go through soundcheck with the sound engineer. They arnt experts, but they know what our sound is, and how to achieve it. sometimes its fine and they dont need to do a thing, other times just a quick word with the soundguy and a few knobs a'twiddled and we're at worst better than we were to start with! Id be interested to hear what is going wrong, purely in the interest of making a point of it not happening in future Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Funk Posted July 22, 2007 Share Posted July 22, 2007 Well, once we've got past the initial nonsense, the engineer normally manages to get a good sound that we're all happy with. We go off thinking it's been a great soundcheck, then all the support bands have their soundchecks, then they all go on and play their sets, then we come back on to do our thing. The sound is never anywhere near the sound we had by the end of soundcheck - clearly they didn't mark anything during soundcheck. And then the sound just gets worse and worse throughout the set. We always give the engineer the benefit of the doubt and assume that FOH must be sounding pretty decent. It's only when our musician/engineer friends in the crowd tell us afterwards that the engineer was a disgrace that we realise we've been shafted yet again by an engineer who chose: 1. not to make any note of any of the settings during soundcheck - rendering the whole thing pointless 2. to spend the entire day drinking so that he was in no fit state to do anything by the time the headline band took to the stage. Apart from the awful sound, the ones we've had will also forget to turn on the singer's mic. Completely inexcusable. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MythSte Posted July 22, 2007 Share Posted July 22, 2007 This is true, Come the actual slot the monitor mix never seems to be the same. So we've purchased an Art headphone Pre-Amp and our guitarist, Drummer and sample triggerer all have Drums and samples going through headphones. Its not easy, but it works. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Bald Eagle Posted July 22, 2007 Share Posted July 22, 2007 I'm not in a band at the moment but go to plenty of gigs and pretty well all the bands we get to speak to after the first thing they usually ask is 'How did we sound?' that tells me that most bands do want an honest opinion, I know I would. I have been to gigs where the sound man has been verbally abused by the punters, I think it's par for the course unfortunately there's always some punter who thinks he's Phil Spector after a few drinks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Funk Posted July 22, 2007 Share Posted July 22, 2007 My sound engineering skills (and gunmanship skills) are a bit like Phil Spector after a few drinks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Bald Eagle Posted July 22, 2007 Share Posted July 22, 2007 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.