Members Dogoth Posted June 14, 2015 Members Share Posted June 14, 2015 Although I still run monitors for national acts occasionally, I spend most of my time mixing FOH for mediocre country acts these days. The venue I work in celebrated it's 1 year anniversary last night and sponsored a "Cowboy crawl" (bar crawl). They hired an extra band to extend the music for an extra 4 hours. The first act is a bunch I've worked with many times before, they are seasoned, good solid musicians (although really burned out from years on the road so they come off a bit lifeless and lounge lizardy). The second FEATURE band, having no sound check was set up in short order via talk back mic & a lot of hand gesturing (they self mix IEMs and I got a thumbs up that everyone could hear well). They get announced, they start to play and.............OMG (G for gosh ;-) the female front vocalist is brutally off key. After several songs, management asks me "What's wrong with the band?". Luckily for me the woman who is in charge of the room has a husband who is an excellent classical & jazz musician so she understands perfectly well "what's going on" (she got the joke about the missing talent knob). The crowd is soooo drunk they dance hoot and yell anyway (the band was OK but that front singer (cringe)). I casually ask at break "you can all hear well?". The response is "Wow this IEM system is great and it sounds awesome." I smile and mix another 3 sets of horrible out of tune screeching. Reminded me of the video someone recently posted about the girl in the studio who thought everything was wonderful while the engineer perspires profusely trying to polish this big turd. As the old 60s song goes "Oh what a night". the only people who realized anything was wrong were myself and the handful of sober staff. It all pays the same :-) WOW! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members agedhorse Posted June 14, 2015 Members Share Posted June 14, 2015 Been there - done that. Yup! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members dbMontana Posted June 14, 2015 Members Share Posted June 14, 2015 My condolences sir. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Audiopile Posted June 14, 2015 Members Share Posted June 14, 2015 Had a dandy myself a couple weekends ago. OMG describes the situation well. Somewhere around 30 to 40 feedback devices and that many or more power conditioners in the system with JBL JRX 125 FOH... Oh... and every knob on every-everything appeared to be set "straight-up" (noon)... or "in the middle". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members nchangin Posted June 15, 2015 Members Share Posted June 15, 2015 And what really happened was that band probably thought they were perfect judging by results from the drunks, funny how that happens... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members mshifflett Posted June 15, 2015 Members Share Posted June 15, 2015 And what really happened was that band probably thought they were perfect judging by results from the drunks' date=' funny how that happens...[/quote'] And the never ending people the band brings with them that tell them they are great and wonder why they haven't made it big yet. It's maddening. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Axisplayer Posted June 15, 2015 Members Share Posted June 15, 2015 And in two years they will probably have a #1 courtesy of autotune. Sorry you had to go throughout the night like that. At least management knew the deal. At some clubs, the staff looks at the sound booth with 'FIX IT!" in their eyes, and you just know that only a .30-.30 could make things better. Makes you appreciate the good nights though. ;-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Vito Corleone Posted June 15, 2015 Members Share Posted June 15, 2015 But they have so much CHEMISTRY together! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members dbMontana Posted June 15, 2015 Members Share Posted June 15, 2015 But they have so much CHEMISTRY together! Yes chemistry -- as in an ample supply of some variant of C2H6O no doubt. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Shaster Posted June 15, 2015 Members Share Posted June 15, 2015 But they have so much CHEMISTRY together! I laughed, but then I cried, 'cause it's so true. Talent is in the eyes (but not the ears) of the beholder. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CMS Author Craig Vecchione Posted June 17, 2015 CMS Author Share Posted June 17, 2015 I wonder if anyone had that singer in their IEM mix. It sounds like when I didn't have my bass in the mix, a string got way out of tune, and the rest of the band, who are using wedges, are staring at me like I'm a bigger idiot than usual... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators MarkGifford-1 Posted June 18, 2015 Moderators Share Posted June 18, 2015 I wonder if anyone had that singer in their IEM mix. It sounds like when I didn't have my bass in the mix' date=' a string got way out of tune, and the rest of the band, who are using wedges, are staring at me like I'm a bigger idiot than usual...[/quote'] At least you weren't at Coachella... The only thing I can figure is that the bass player was using a chromatic tuner, and she got one string a half step sharp and didn't have any monitoring? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Dogoth Posted June 26, 2015 Author Members Share Posted June 26, 2015 And in two years they will probably have a #1 courtesy of autotune. Ha Ha I think our part time entertainment director hired this group based on a studio CD they kept hawking (I'd guess with lots of autotune applied). They had a "producer" who kept telling me to "fix her mix" until I told him they self mix IEMs. It was obvious she was trying to hit notes out of her range. Also of the 4 sets the second two were repeats of the first two. Obviously not a regular touring group ;-). All happy now. It's long gone and probably won't come back (with our current management though, you never know :-). Cheers Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members wesg Posted June 26, 2015 Members Share Posted June 26, 2015 Maybe the kindest thing to would be to burn them a CD of their FOH mix.. "on the house" I had to endure a horribly-sung national anthem last night. At least it was just a kid and not a "pro". I just don't understand why young people think it should sound like they're constipated when they sing. And if you think The Star Spangled Banner sounds bad with American-Idol inspired vocal runs, wait 'till you hear O Canada. Even worse. At least her intonation was good. Far better than mine, sadly. Wes Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members DanCostello Posted July 6, 2015 Members Share Posted July 6, 2015 I just don't understand why young people think it should sound like they're constipated when they sing. Because that's what nearly everything on the radio sounds like. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Mogwix Posted July 13, 2015 Members Share Posted July 13, 2015 I smile and mix another 3 sets of horrible out of tune screeching. My condolences. I wish your ears and your mental health a speedy recovery. I'm in almost the exact same boat as you. I typically work for the same few bands, blues or rock, that are very solid and well seasoned musicians. Sometimes I mix bands like I saw over the weekend. Groups of musicians who are fairly decent on their own, despite not having a lot of professional experience, that get together to play a bunch of party standards (usually blues or country) for a one-off show. They show up late, missing gear, without any cables, ask me if I have any guitar strings or drum sticks ... play a bunch of drunken, poorly rehearsed versions of mustang sally and brown eyed girl ... then try to go over time because they take hour-long breaks. "but everyone's dancing! we can't stop now!" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members DanCostello Posted July 17, 2015 Members Share Posted July 17, 2015 My condolences. I wish your ears and your mental health a speedy recovery. I'm in almost the exact same boat as you. I typically work for the same few bands, blues or rock, that are very solid and well seasoned musicians. Sometimes I mix bands like I saw over the weekend. Groups of musicians who are fairly decent on their own, despite not having a lot of professional experience, that get together to play a bunch of party standards (usually blues or country) for a one-off show. They show up late, missing gear, without any cables, ask me if I have any guitar strings or drum sticks ... play a bunch of drunken, poorly rehearsed versions of mustang sally and brown eyed girl ... then try to go over time because they take hour-long breaks. "but everyone's dancing! we can't stop now!" This is why I work in an office now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members capitalist Posted July 28, 2015 Members Share Posted July 28, 2015 I hope you had earplugs. Yep, singing and driving are like sex. Most people think they are better at it than they really are. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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