What's your biggest bottleneck or hurdle in your game?

[Unalaska]

With all the talk of tablet based digital mixers and powered speakers things should be smooth and easy for sound guys right? For those of you who do mobile stuff (mainly what I do) or even for the installed systems, what seems to be the thing that takes the longest or most challenging consistently? Example: lights, even though Ive got a simple and effective setup that's scalable it seems like I can cut 20min off my setup time not having them. That includes unload as well. Not horrible, but annoying.

[wesg]

Taping the snake.

 

Man, I can't wait to go tablet.

[agedhorse]

Getting answers from the client, getting confirmations and getting paid,

[the_big_e]

I like to busk but I am amplified (keys) which means I am pretty much prohibited from playing in public spaces almost everywhere around here that there are actually people even though I play REALLY quietly so as not to disturb anyone.

So for me, finding places to play is the main challenge.

[rangerkarlos]

I like to busk but I am amplified (keys) which means I am pretty much prohibited from playing in public spaces almost everywhere around here that there are actually people even though I play REALLY quietly so as not to disturb anyone. So for me, finding places to play is the main challenge.

Yep, just getting gigs. One semi regular joint has horrible noisy power so I can't even use my good stuff (qsc k's) and I plug into the {censored}ty house peavey mains. No one cares.

[WynnD]

Wired microphones. Taping when I do it. Be doing a panel discussion tomorrow that will involve about all my mics.

[abzurd]

Well timed thread.... Long standing annoyance with me has been lighting. I've always wanted some production quality, but just never got there. We don't play to click tracks so can't coordinate a "light show". We run lights and sound ourselves so that means one of us would have to be able to handle whatever we're doing. For a long time it was the keyboard player, but that just amounted to basically turning on and off an LED effect light and a laser and 2-3 wash patterns. The end result was forgetting to turn on the dance lights at all or leaving them on solid the entire set.

 

With that in mind, a few weeks ago a set out to finally get something in place that is efficient to set up, manageable to run, and actually effective as providing some sort of production quality. It's 3 bar type "combo" fixtures controlled by a midi foot switch.

 

Maybe I'll start a thread with what I did. I did a test run last night at a gig and was pretty happy with it.

 

 

[Audiopile]

My biggest hurtle seems to be the growing shortage of quality "time".

 

What technology gives, technology seems to take away plus interest. It seems like everyone is tight scheduled all the time.

 

I think the intake of "the options" is difficult for some or seeming many to self regulate... hard for folks to draw the line.

[agedhorse]

I find that folks who are always checking their smart phones seem to also always be late even though they "know" the correct time.

[Unalaska]

Waiting for band members... Drummer is late, someone is late. It seems I get a really soundcheck about 1 of 4 times. And these are on the fly, wedding or corporate gigs where you kinda want {censored} to go right. Today this happened. No big deal. But the reason was the loading dock wasn't opened up when he got there. Even I ran 30min late getting tho the gig (3.5hr window, I did this on purpose). The loading dock was occupied, and when I did get the truck parked there was still an 18" difference in height between the dock and the box truck. Oh, and it's slanted left and forward too. And I can't leave it there. Well, because.

[Unalaska]

Today's band: 8pc Jewish wedding. No advance, no stage plot, 3 horns, 4 rhythm. That's all I know. Line check but no soundcheck. But all went quite well, I know half the guys in the band (didn't know they were hired) and things are smooth. When is dinner again?

[Unalaska]

Just a thought for today. Besides the bad load in, I have too many small things loose to hook up: laptop, wireless router, lighting board, iPad charger, all need a standard power strip which I didnt have one in the cable trunk. Oh well.

[mikekars]

From the sound / light provider standpoint it seems like there are 3 things that regularly cause the setup time to run longer than expected.

 

1- Power: This seems like it is an issue at least half the time. Even if there is enough power of good enough quality, outlets are often located somewhere that require awkward cable routing. The time it takes to figure this out each time somewhere new always surprises me. To some extent I mitigate this by bringing the smallest system I can get by with and still sound "good enough". If I can run the whole thing on one outlet it eliminates a lot of setup and prep time. And in reality, years of "over providing" at the low end have only resulted in more low end jobs. Not because I don't do a good job, but because this market is tiny and almost all jobs are low budget.

 

2- No crowd control: Other than some of the larger outdoor shows, most of my gigs are at a level where there are no barriers between general public and the stage area or mixing station. The FOH problem has largely been solved by doing more iPad mixing and basically minimizing my FOH footprint. The main PA setup is still an issue. The problem is how to set up speaker or light tripods and cable runs where people won't trip on them. Also, the subs and main stacks regularly get used ad drink tables or seats. Trying to figure out how to set up safely and neatly while also providing some protection for the gear is very time consuming and often the final result is still unsatisfactory.

 

3- Stage plot "re-do": Ideally I try to get everything setup so the musos can just show up and plug in. Sadly this often results in a time consuming re-do when they show up with a configuration different from the stage plot. Now it just seems faster, and certainly less annoying, to just set some basics like monitors, stage snake boxes, and a couple of pre-wired mics in likely spots. The rest gets set up when the band shows up.

[wesg]

Mike Kars - I have the same problem with my Leslie speaker cabinet as you do with your subs. I have been thinking about coming up with a steep triangular "lid" for the Leslie, so that it is impossible to put a drink on it.

[Shaster]

Biggest hurdle; getting paid what my gear and time is worth, at least according to my calculations

 

As I've mentioned in the past, I live within a ten to thirty minute drive of at least six Long & Mcquades.(okay one might be forty minutes). They arguably have the lowest PA rental rates in Canada and the United States, so I typically have to charge even less than they do. This essentially means I now confine my rentals to bands I am already in as a guitarist. The small sum I get for PA is at least made more palatable by the fact that I would be on the gig anyway.

 

The other bane of my existance is tying in to house systems - actually house systems in general. I don't know how venues can spend so much money on house PA's and get so little value. Sure they sometimes get quality, but in the cases I've seen, rarely do they get good value for their dollars spent.

 

I just used a system that was $100k installed. Didn't sound all that great and the blasted house iPad in the DL1608 kept trying to do all these updates in the middle of the show; really annoying! But to be fair, it was a beautiful install job, complete with white speakers to match the white house piano, which is all the management cared about - how it looked.

[DanCostello]

I've been mostly out of the live sound game for about 6-8 months now (though I might get back into some occasional church stuff in the next few months), but the biggest thing holding me back at the time depended on which venue or type of show I was working in.

 

If I was doing cover bands at the bar, the biggest hurdle was the talent of the bands and to a lesser extent, the limited amount of processing available. I'm better at mixing than most of those musicians were at playing (though there were a handful who smoked) and you can only polish the mix so much when you're not given great material to work with. Likewise, it's tough to get a highly-polished modern pop/rock sound with only 4 channels of Behringer comp/gate and a TC M-One.

 

If I was doing musical theater, it was the lack of tech time for audio. Those musicians were almost all great, but with those sorts of shows being so dynamic and with so much of the tech rehearsal time being devoted to lighting, it was nearly impossible to develop a polished mix for opening night. It typically wasn't until the 2nd weekend that I'd start to have things really dialed in.

 

In both cases, the small size of the venues was something of a crutch - by allowing the audience to hear sound coming off the stage, it smoothed over some of the difficulties with crafting a good, even mix for the audience, but also hindered me from being able to hear and refine those more subtle flaws in my mix.

 

For my day-to-day sound design work, I'd say that my biggest hurdle is myself - namely my imagination and some of my technical skills regarding sound manipulation and synthesis. I no longer have to be just the straight-forward technician taking sounds made by others and figuring out how to make them louder; I have to be an abstract storyteller and create/inspire emotions from what are often random and seemingly unrelated elements. I've never been a songwriter, so this is rather new territory for me. Technically, I'll often have a sound in my head and struggle to figure out how to create it. Synthesis in particular is a challenge, because of the number of different parts that can interact in very subtle, yet complex ways.

[Dogoth]

Getting answers from the client, getting confirmations and getting paid,

 

Well Said!

 

I think this is endemic in most industries these days (see the next paragraph).

 

No one cares.

 

Exactly my current problem. The new management of the company I've worked for, for years (Is that correct grammar? Two for's in a row? :-) seems to just not care a bit about entertainment (or it seems the customer). After spending exorbitant amounts of money building a venue incorrectly (paid absolutely no attention to our suggestions before construction - or since), that loss is showing up as cuts in the entertainment budget and the lack of interest in even buying needed supplies (forget trying to correct issues or make it better in any way). Mediocrity seems to be the word of the day. I understand compromise but have never seen it get this bad. Is the economy getting better? The Government says it is. Maybe it is but where I work it is so mismanaged that their internal economy is on a downhill slide. I'm questioning if I want to sink with the ship or set sail for a better climate. I've worked there so long that I'm economically tied to that regular paycheck (although it's dwindling by the month). IMHO it's a degrading (personally & economically) situation and I'm trying to distance myself from it. This means a pretty major lifestyle change that I'm not looking forward to. I guess the one thing you can always count on in life is change.

 

Rant off - Thanks.

 

To the OP. It's not about gear or knowledge but rather people who seem to be the biggest stumbling block.

[agedhorse]

Well JR, you know I have gone down this road myself at my house gig... glad I jumped ship as there was no other viable option regarding the new owners. It's gotten worse than we could have possibly expected too... serving rodents to customers (and being ok with it) is not the kind of business that I want to be associated with.

[Two of Seven]

My biggest hurdle is my bad attitude. Classic rock cover bands – bars, beer tents, private party fund raisers, winter luaus, employee picnics. Mostly what I've been providing for many many years and mostly as a hobby. It finally seems to have run it's course (past it's course) around here. Zombies everywhere. Dead, dead, dead-ski. No life left in it what-so-ever. Does anyone even have fun at these anymore?

Diminishing crowds, diminishing pay, fewer venues. Yet seems there is a huge unending over supply of crappy old fart lame bands still trying to “party” and willing to play for beer. Everybody and their dog has a band now with some sad little harbinger pa and a lousy led christmas tree light show.

If I have to watch one more mediocre bored band of old bald guys staring at their fingers and pedal boards slogging thru Mustang Sally and reminding the “crowd” that it's Saturday night I'm going to...to...to...I don't know. And nothing against old bald guys – I'm both.

I guess I have finally reached the burn out point....new year is here.....time for a new passion.

 

[DanCostello]

My biggest hurdle is my bad attitude. Classic rock cover bands – bars, beer tents, private party fund raisers, winter luaus, employee picnics. Mostly what I've been providing for many many years and mostly as a hobby. It finally seems to have run it's course (past it's course) around here. Zombies everywhere. Dead, dead, dead-ski. No life left in it what-so-ever. Does anyone even have fun at these anymore?

Diminishing crowds, diminishing pay, fewer venues. Yet seems there is a huge unending over supply of crappy old fart lame bands still trying to “party” and willing to play for beer. Everybody and their dog has a band now with some sad little harbinger pa and a lousy led christmas tree light show.

If I have to watch one more mediocre bored band of old bald guys staring at their fingers and pedal boards slogging thru Mustang Sally and reminding the “crowd” that it's Saturday night I'm going to...to...to...I don't know. And nothing against old bald guys – I'm both.

I guess I have finally reached the burn out point....new year is here.....time for a new passion.

 

That's why I'd never want to own my own rig - because I'm confident I would never be able to handle growing big enough to handle anything beyond this, and I'd hate every second of it. I can barely stand "briefcase" gigs like that.

 

Are there any decent original bandsd (or funkier/more interesting cover/tribute bands you could hook up with?

 

(OT: wtf happened to the forums and the broken editing? It was broken, then it was fixed, and now it's broken again)

 

-Dan.

[Two of Seven]

 

 

 

Are there any decent original bands (or funkier/more interesting cover/tribute bands you could hook up with?

 

 

-Dan.

 

Good idea, thanks.

[monthlymixcd]

My biggest bottleneck currently (and I'm sure that I'm mostly to blame for this) is people wanting me to donate my time and gear for "good" causes. I've done a lot of this in the past (usually me offering, because it seemed like a "good cause" to me personally) but now it's become expected that I do this for the same or similar causes/events. Then when you have to say "no" or offer them a very reasonable price for time and trouble... they make you feel like an ass for doing so... sigh.

 

Happily, I've recently made some headway on my previous major hurdle with the 12-piece that I work with predominantly. This band has been together for 10 years and most of the gear was owned by only 4 of the members. The horn section and lead vocalists contributed VERY little to increase the production value of the show... mostly just show up and play/sing. Within the last year I've convinced all of the individuals in the horn section to make modest investments <$200/ea. to improve their part of the sound. Bell mics, monitoring gear, etc. and each investment solved a problem (or potential problem) and simplified setup and teardown for the rest of us that do the majority of that. The exception is still the lead female vocalist that uses a nice AT wireless set that the keyboardist bought for her (and for his MC duties) several years ago. It never fails... the batteries go dead and she scowls at him and/or me. While I always provide a wired mic with a switch on a stand near the vocalists that use wireless that is always live on the board end so they can grab it and carry on... and to give me time to change the batteries... she has NEVER bought batteries for that mic. Never. She's a great vocalist, but her diva attitude is her Achilles heel. She also does next to nothing to help with setup/teardown. There are two other women in the band and they do more than their share for teardown typically so it's not a gender thing... just attitude.