Siren Fest... worst sound ever.

[JohnDavisNYC]

the stillwell ave stage at siren had the worst sound i think i've ever heard.... ever. the sound guy should be shot. what the fuck. i loved hearing the floor tom feeding back whenever the bassist played an A... that was hot.... also, it would have been great if i could have heard ANYTHING over the shitty sounding drums.... WHY WHY WHY WHY must live sound guys mix the drums louder than everything else? and why can't they use the overheads... i mean, they're fucking KM184s, TURN DOWN THE TOM MICS. i wish i could have heard the guitars or vocals for Blonde Redhead and Death Cab for Cutie, but instead, i got to hear a really shit drum mix. awesome.

anyone else check that shit out?

j

[b3groover]

I love live soundguys! I recently had a dumbass get all hot with me because I wanted two mics on my Leslie cabinet. Yes, Einstein... two mics... one for the low rotor and one for the high rotor.

Then the dumbass put the CAD M179 mic on the high rotor BACKWARDS, so it was facing the audience instead of the speaker. And he can't figure out why everytime the drummer hits his bass drum it sounds like a fuckin' 808!!!! Uh, maybe because you had to crank the gain so high on that Leslie mic...

Gotta love 'em!

[Cellotron]

I got to the Stillwell Ave. stage a little bit after Mission of Burma started playing - and was a bit in the back - and could barely see or hear them! Instead I heard the race way ride next to me! The PA system they had there was simply way way underpowered to fill out the space that people were crowded into - plus - as you say - drums were way over what was audible in the rest of the mix. As much as I love them - I had seen them 3 times in the past few years at Irving Plaza where sight and sound are both fantastic - so after a few songs of frustration I left with my friend who was in no mood to try to push our way more up and instead more anxious to get a beer and ride the Cyclone. oh well - whaddaya want for free. Had a nice day out anyway.

Got to open the other band Roger Miller is in, Alloy Orchestra, on Thursday at Celebrate Brooklyn in Prospect Park when they played a live soundtrack to Buster Keaton's "The General" and the sound and playing was awesome. Definitely highly recommended to check them out if they play in your area.

Pere Ubu is going to be there next week playing to "The Man With X-Ray Eyes" - should be fun.

Best regards,
Steve Berson

[thunderboy]

Hey, b3 -

We aren't ALL like that, you know...

jt

[b3groover]

Oh, I know! A good soundman is hard to find, but they are a true blessing! We've had some great live sound experiences, for sure.

But man, when you have a bad one, it just ruins everything!

[b3groover]

For instace... the first anecdote I told was for my jazz trio. This next one happened to my five-piece R&B band...

We're playing this outdoor concert sponsored by the local classic rock station in the middle of the day. It's called the Brown Bag Lunch series, right?

So we get there and set up and they (the radio station) got these total fools running sound. All shitty Behringer gear, home-made speakers and shit... just hilarious.

But whatever, we just want to play. As we're setting up the soundguy asks our guitarist if he has a direct-out on his amp. He says that yes he does, but he would rather have the amp mic'd. The soundman says that he wants to run it direct, it'll be better. "I'd really rather you mic the cabinet," our guitarist says. "The speaker is really part of the sound."

After a back and forth about this for 5 minutes or so, the soundguy finally agrees to mic the cabinet. So he goes and gets a 57, puts it in front of the amp, and our guitarist says thank you.

Well, as he is tuning, he drops his pick behind the amp. He goes to pick it up and, lo and behold, there is an XLR coming out of his direct line-out in the back of the amp! Before saying anything, he follows the mic cable from the 57 in front of his cabinet back to... NOTHING! The guy put the mic there as a prop!!!!

Fuckin' ridiculous! So the guitarist goes up to the guy and say, "Man, I don't know what you're problem is but I know what you're trying to do. Do not use the direct out on my amp. Mic the cabinet. The direct line does not sound the same."

Then the soundman says the most hilarious thing I've ever heard a soundman say.

He says: "What do you care? You won't hear it anyway?"


EXCUSE ME!??! It's my fuckin' tone, man! I care about how people hear my instrument, which is why I spend money on good amps and good strings and good guitars and tuning and cables!!!

Oh it gets better. So we start playing, the cabinet is mic'd, we are doing our thing. We do an instrumental and then we bring up our lead singer. He sings a tune, everything is going great. Then we do a tune with backing vocals which consists of me, the bassist, and the guitarist. The guitarist goes to sing his part and... no vocal. His mic isn't turn up. He tries to get the soundguy's attention. No dice. So we finish the song. Our lead singer says, "Can you please turn up the guitarist's mic?"

We start the next tune. Still no mic. So our guitarist starts singing into our bassist's mic. AND THE SOUNDMAN TURNS THAT ONE DOWN TOO!!!!

It was too much, man! Fuckin' hilarious! So we all stop, the audience is getting restless. We explain over the mic what the problem is and the audience start booing the soundman!!!

Long story short, he wouldn't do his job and actually run sound and said if the guitarist tried to sing in anybody's mic he'd turn it down. So we told him to fuck off, pack up his shit, and get out of there before we beat his ass and did the rest of the gig with everybody singing through my keyboard amp!

As he left the audience cheered and threw stuff at him. CLASSIC!

True story. Unbelievable but true.

Now obviously he wasn't a professional. But they come in all shapes and sizes!!!

[Scodiddly]

Great silly story about the Brown Bag show... usually if there's sound there at all, it's the cheapest possible idiots.

[NewAndImprov]

My favorite stupid soundguy story:

I was at a gig by a really great avant jazz band, in a club in Eugene, OR. The club will remain unnamed because they eventually got thier act together.

During the soundcheck, the alto player in the band was playing through the range of his instrument, and noticed that one low note was causing feedback. So he kept playing that note, assuming the soundguy was dialing in the eq to get rid of the feedback. He plays that note over and over for about a minute. Finally, the soundguy leaves his booth and walks up to the stage. The sax player looks up and asks him what's happening, soundguy says, "Nothin' much, sounds great!."

Sax Player: "Didn't you hear that note feeding back"

Soundguy: "Yeah, man maybe you shouldn't play it."

[trashy]

Sax Player: "Didn't you hear that note feeding back"

Soundguy: "Yeah, man maybe you shouldn't play it."

Ha Ha!
Doc, it hurts when I do this...

[Punkity]

Worst live sound ever. Primus at the Boathouse in Virginia Beach. Nothing above 200 Hz. I mean nothing! The entire point of that band was the popin' and slappin' on the bass, the twerg guitar lines, and goofball vocals, not "rumble d mumble, thud." The sorriest part was that the FOH guy was Primus's touring engineer!

My worst while performing was in Chapel Hill a few years ago. We set up and before I play a note the sound guy is twiddling with my tone knobs. Asking what the hell is going on, he says that it will make my sound better. What did he do you may ask? He dialed out all the mid and turned up the distortion...of course. This story is super sad because the FOH guy had been the touring engineer of 6 years for Southern Culture on the Skids! WTF!! We had a buddy tape that show for us and the sound was, er, dynamic. The dude never let a fader just sit there. He was riding them like he was on a mechanical bull. My favorite was when he faded out a solo of mine, then half-way through it turned it all the way up over top of everything. Er, dude? That is what I have this little FUCKING BOOST PETAL FOR!

Of course I used to do live sound, and I'm sure people have complained about me (though I did get some thanks from bands). What a thankless job.

[darjama]

Actually, if you were close enough to the Stillwell stage, the sound wasn't that bad. I thought the main stage was much worse. Death Cab for Cutie's guitars were barely audible, the mix was all kick & bass. I think the bass must have been hard limited. Blonde Redhead was mostly inaudible.

I dug TV on the radio much more in person than I have their records. Ditto the Constantines. And Mission of Burma gives this pushing 30 indie rocker motivation to struggle on.

Plus I got to see Coney Island, something I managed to neglect doing in the 6 years I lived in nyc. My brother used to hang out with some of the people in the freak show, and told me some interesting stories. But that's a posting for another time and another messageboard.

[JohnDavisNYC]

OH... i must have meant the mainstage... i thought Blonde Redhead and Death Cab were on the stillwell one... got mixed up.... yeah... it was shite.

j

[MoreSpaceEcho]

well, since we're ranting i'll share my last bad soundperson experience. my singer and i played a low key duo show a month ago. we were first on the bill. seeing that the second band was finished with their soundcheck i approach the stage to see what's up. exchange pleasantries with the soundgirl, who then asks if i'm cool with playing the other bands drums. i reply as politely as possible that no, i'll be playing my drums. she hems and haws about how there's not much room onstage, i ask myself why that matters to her, she's not the one up there...i say that i'm not trying to be difficult, she relents and says "fine....."

super.

so while i'm setting up my drums, she comes over and says "the only mic i have left for you is an overhead." and proceeds to aim a 58 right at my ride cymbal.

amazing. i realize that suggesting she actually MOVE A MIC OR TWO is going to be way too much for her to handle, so i politely say "well, if you're only going to give me one mic, why don't we use it on the kick?" she scrunches up her nose and says "well this mic doesn't really have a lot of low end." i resist urge to say "it would take all of ten seconds to pull the d112 off the other kit and use that." she shrugs shoulders and says "whatever." and aims 58 in general direction of kick.

excellent. now we are talking.

she tried to take direct outs from my singers amps too. what is up with this? how could anyone possibly consider themselves a "soundperson" of any stripe if they don't realize that...um...yeah...the speaker in a guitar amp actually has just a little to do with the tone? and maybe the microphone too? and how is it any easier? you still have to run the same amount of lines. i can't imagine bleed is too much of an issue with a 57 right up on the speaker. argh.

so anyway, before we play we're outside smoking, soundgirl comes out and says "we're ready for you guys." we say "excellent." and walk right in. my singer was playing the first song herself. she gets up, turns her amps on, tunes her guitar, walks up to mic. a cd is still playing through the PA. she stands around for a bit then politely asks if the cd could be turned off. nothing. she asks again. nothing. the song finishes. another starts. my singer shrugs her shoulders and starts soloing over it. which was pretty endearing, but by this point people are looking up towards the sound booth wondering what's up. i go up there figuring i'll just turn the damn cd off myself. right as i get there, soundgirl beats me into the booth and scowls at me as she turns off the cd.

argh.

i hope i don't sound petty here...it was just really frustrating to have to deal with her. and i've done live sound before, i know how much of a pain in the ass it is. i have several friends who are live sound geniuses, and they have my utmost respect, because besides knowing what they're doing they actually CARE. so again, no disrespect intended toward any live sound folks reading this...

[ape32]

Great stories! I moonlight as a soundman at a very decent small-medium club that does quite a bit of different music including touring acts like Bobby Bare, John Doe.

Soundpeople like these make me seem a sterling pro by comparason, I talk to all the bands when they first come in, get their tech needs, micing preferences, monitor requirements - I do whetever I can to make them comfortable and when the set is on I stay at the board and pay attention (when not walking the house to check the sound - our board is in the worst acoustic space imaginable). We don't have the best gear around but all the soundmen who work there are personable and professional and I swear, this makes such a difference in the band's experiences.

Not too much of a point here, but it is surprising how many musicians expect poor treatment from the person who is there to work FOR THEM.

[Jason Molinari]

toaster...et al...

funny you say this about the sound... my friend, a non soundnerd, layperson, went over to that stage and said she had to leave because is sounded '...very off...' as she put it during tv/radio and death cab but just chalked it up to not knowing the music. yet, she didn't know much of tail of dead or constantines and said it was great.

she called me up during the constantines and i have to say it sounded pretty good 425 miles away through a phone. but then again, anything beats work and a rainy day..

jason