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Finally got a sound man to admit it...


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Played drums a couple weeks back at a club in a college town. I made a rookie mistake by trusting the owner when I called and was told there was a "house drum kit." (I had played at the hard rock in Memphis two days prior, and the house drum kit was incredible...after that my hopes were far too high...) After riding 45 minutes with the guitarist to get there, the sound man showed me the "house drum kit." It was a kick drum with no resonant head and a duct tape-repaired resonant head. He then proceeded to tell me the snare drum had "disappeared", which was then followed by the news that the rack tom arms were broken and the floor tom had two legs...let's hear it for the house kit everybody... :smiley-angry019:

 

So, I call a friend and have her pretty much break into my house, and in craling through a window, she breaks a beloved vase..a family heirloom. She puts my keys outside with my drums still loaded from the night before and the singer drove my drums up...crisis averted.

 

Now to the sound guy part...He was a bald middle aged fella...seemed kinda jaded and frustrated that he never had his chance to play much, and he told me all about his music gear before picking up our set list and telling us "I see you guys play Grey Street...I hate Dave Matthews...also..Slow Dancing in a Burning Room? Yeah John Mayer is awful...really not a big Tracy Chapman fan either..." and now for the kicker....he looks at me...and I swear...he says "Are y'all gonna play any Thin Lizzy?" THIN LIZZY...because what college kid doesn't go out thinking they'd really love to hear a cover of The Boys are Back in Town? I had no response. I tried to act like I had to tune my snare or something. 

 

This guy ripped on our whole set list...which we had specifically catered to our crowd...and then started making requests. In the end we were fully justified though. The place was packed and everybody loved it. Booked three more shows but I had to move to college. I was talking to a sound engineer friend of mine and he admitted that "most soundmen are unqualified musicians who wish they were on stage"...which to me was the equivalent of getting politicians to just admit they're corrupt. 

 

Any other good sound man stories?

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Just did the math. I bring over $25k worth of gear to do a bar gig (over $40k if you include the lights & trailer). I play in 2 bands, so I'm not wishing i was up there.

 

I stand by my mixes and get lots of compliments. I do understand there are crappy sound guys out there and I feel for ya regarding the "House kit". But lets not paint all the sound guys with the same brush. There's lots of crappy cover bands out there as well.

 

That being said, I'd never criticize a bands set list. Song decision is their job. My job is to help them sound great.

 

;)

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Yeah I hear ya. Haha I'm against sterotypes generally so that's why I said most sound guys. That's just been my experience more often than not. Frankly, I wish more musicians would get involved as sound men. I worked with a sound company for three years and loved it when the musical talent was there. I really enjoy it! We know what we want to hear.

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modulusman wrote:

 

 

 Two of the best soundmen around here are musicians that can probably outplay most of the guys that post on this forum. They also have Pa systems worth 6 figures. My band doesn't play loser bar gigs with crap PA rigs.

 

 

LOL..WTF?

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The best 3 compliments I ever received where these.

 

One band has opened for groups like Barenaked Ladies, Reba McIntyre etc, and their manager said it was one of their best shows for sound.

 

A year later they had opened for CCR (without Fogherty, but still) the night before and my monitor mic sounded better than the night before.

 

I always ask the band between sets how everything is going, and how it sounds on stage. One bass player said "it sounds freaking amazing up there, just like a CD, but it's us!"

 

 

So that's some good compliments. Being a musician, I have a pretty good idea of what works and what doesn't, plus I always have enough rig for the gig. There's enough a-holes in the world, so instead, I'm easy to work with.

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fenderbender9 wrote:

Played drums a couple weeks back at a club in a college town. I made a rookie mistake by trusting the owner when I called and was told there was a "house drum kit." (I had played at the hard rock in Memphis two days prior, and the house drum kit was incredible...after that my hopes were far too high...) After riding 45 minutes with the guitarist to get there, the sound man showed me the "house drum kit." It was a kick drum with no resonant head and a duct tape-repaired resonant head. He then proceeded to tell me the snare drum had "disappeared", which was then followed by the news that the rack tom arms were broken and the floor tom had two legs...let's hear it for the house kit everybody... 
:smiley-angry019:

 

So, I call a friend and have her pretty much break into my house, and in craling through a window, she breaks a beloved vase..a family heirloom. She puts my keys outside with my drums still loaded from the night before and the singer drove my drums up...crisis averted.

 

Now to the sound guy part...He was a bald middle aged fella...seemed kinda jaded and frustrated that he never had his chance to play much, and he told me all about his music gear before picking up our set list and telling us "I see you guys play Grey Street...I hate Dave Matthews...also..Slow Dancing in a Burning Room? Yeah John Mayer is awful...really not a big Tracy Chapman fan either..." and now for the kicker....he looks at me...and I swear...he says "Are y'all gonna play any Thin Lizzy?" THIN LIZZY...because what college kid doesn't go out thinking they'd really love to hear a cover of The Boys are Back in Town? I had no response. I tried to act like I had to tune my snare or something. 

 

This guy ripped on our whole set list...which we had specifically catered to our crowd...and then started making requests. In the end we were fully justified though. The place was packed and everybody loved it. Booked three more shows but I had to move to college. I was talking to a sound engineer friend of mine and he admitted that "most soundmen are unqualified musicians who wish they were on stage"...which to me was the equivalent of getting politicians to just admit they're corrupt. 

 

Any other good sound man stories?

Something I'm not getting out of your story, Did this soundman ultimately do his job?. I'm guessing he did because you say everybody loved the show. There is a difference between the soundman being a jack-ass (which it sounds like he was) and the soundman being incompetent. Which was it?

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modulusman wrote:

 

 

 Two of the best soundmen around here are musicians that can probably outplay most of the guys that post on this forum. They also have Pa systems worth 6 figures. My band doesn't play loser bar gigs with crap PA rigs.

 

 You don't say!

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Tomm Williams wrote:


fenderbender9 wrote:

Played drums a couple weeks back at a club in a college town. I made a rookie mistake by trusting the owner when I called and was told there was a "house drum kit." (I had played at the hard rock in Memphis two days prior, and the house drum kit was incredible...after that my hopes were far too high...) After riding 45 minutes with the guitarist to get there, the sound man showed me the "house drum kit." It was a kick drum with no resonant head and a duct tape-repaired resonant head. He then proceeded to tell me the snare drum had "disappeared", which was then followed by the news that the rack tom arms were broken and the floor tom had two legs...let's hear it for the house kit everybody... 
:smiley-angry019:

 

So, I call a friend and have her pretty much break into my house, and in craling through a window, she breaks a beloved vase..a family heirloom. She puts my keys outside with my drums still loaded from the night before and the singer drove my drums up...crisis averted.

 

Now to the sound guy part...He was a bald middle aged fella...seemed kinda jaded and frustrated that he never had his chance to play much, and he told me all about his music gear before picking up our set list and telling us "I see you guys play Grey Street...I hate Dave Matthews...also..Slow Dancing in a Burning Room? Yeah John Mayer is awful...really not a big Tracy Chapman fan either..." and now for the kicker....he looks at me...and I swear...he says "Are y'all gonna play any Thin Lizzy?" THIN LIZZY...because what college kid doesn't go out thinking they'd really love to hear a cover of The Boys are Back in Town? I had no response. I tried to act like I had to tune my snare or something. 

 

This guy ripped on our whole set list...which we had specifically catered to our crowd...and then started making requests. In the end we were fully justified though. The place was packed and everybody loved it. Booked three more shows but I had to move to college. I was talking to a sound engineer friend of mine and he admitted that "most soundmen are unqualified musicians who wish they were on stage"...which to me was the equivalent of getting politicians to just admit they're corrupt. 

 

Any other good sound man stories?

Something I'm not getting out of your story, Did this soundman ultimately do his job?. I'm guessing he did because you say everybody loved the show. There is a difference between the soundman being a jack-ass (which it sounds like he was) and the soundman being incompetent. Which was it?

People did love the show...and we did sound decent, but I could've done without the feedback around 5k halfway through every song. Other than that the sound was good. He had my kick really thumping both in the house and in the monitors. Good tone. But preventing feedback problems wasn't at all his strong suit...other than that he was a decent soundman but a bit of a jackass human being I believe. 

 

And in regards to Modulus's jab at me, I did say "most soundmen wish they were on stage"..actually I didn't even say it...it was said to me...BY ANOTHER SOUNDMAN...so...there's that :smiley-cool15:

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