Further to Tim Pullen posting about the terrible sound at a wedding he attended, a friend suggested I repost something that I wrote in SA Music Chat last year.....so here it is: Dear Mr. Front of House sound engineer...... I posted on Facebook about my dissatisfaction with the audio at a show that I recently attended. It seems that my posting caused you and some of your friends a lot of anguish and anger. Sorry about that, but I have a bad habit of telling like I experience it. One of your friends named Cavin ( wont give me his surname ) took it upon himself to call me ( three times now ) and berate me for my posting. Seems that he and a few of his friends are studying live sound engineering at one of the colleges that offers this course. Good for them ! I have my reservations though. You see, in my opinion, you can study all the theory that you you want, but actually getting out there in the field is a different ball-game altogether. No course - even the most expensive course that you can study here or overseas will ever teach you to have ears ! I think what irritated all of you even more is the fact that so many musicians agreed with me. On behalf of all of them - and without their permission - I would like to point out a few things that the musicians require of you, and what they expect you to be and do. 1. Always remember that audiences have come to listen to the musos - not you and your engineering skills ! 2. YOU are the interface between the musos and the audience, and just like a computer interface, you are in final control of what the audience hears. Just like a good or bad interface, YOU are the deciding factor in what gets reproduced sonically. A good interface will reproduce faithfully what is received at its input (the music being performed) at its output (the front of house system ). A poor interface can change a performance from the input to the output drastically. We dont want that, do we ? 3. We understand that venue and the equipment you are supplied with is hardly ever conducive to producing great audio - however, the one thing a good engineer can do at all times is ADAPT. If the sound system is below par, explain this to the musos, and suggest how they can help by possibly adapting their performance on stage to give you a better chance of making them sound good. We are very understanding people, us musos ( most of the time, anyway.) 4. So many of you think that running an FOH system is purely a case of making everything louder than everything else. Volume IS NOT the answer, unfortunately. We understand that the room plays a big part in the final output, and that sometimes you have to contend with slapback echoes, bass booms, carpets, curtains and a myriad of other things that dont help in producing good audio. Learn how to compensate, adapt....thats part of your job. 5. KNOW YOUR EQUIPMENT !! We know ours. Your friend Cavin didnt understand the difference between a graphic equaliser with boost and cut capabilities, and one that can only cut frequencies. Let me explain. In all major touring rigs the final graphics before the amp racks is usually cut only graphics. Why ? Well, always remember this....IF A FREQUENCY DOESNT EXIST, YOU CANT MAKE IT LOUDER ! If the sound system doesnt have enough tops to provide enough cut thru so the vocals are intelligible, no amount of boosting 5kHz to 12Khz is going to help. All you are doing is adding noise and distortion to the final output. Try cutting frequencies that are masking the highs, and they will miraculously sound louder. Not ideal, I know, but it is a work around. 6. Before you start pushing up faders on the mixing desk, ask the band to play their loudest and softest numbers - without vocals. Walk around the stage and listen to each musicians amplifier, the tone, the volume of solos and backing parts. That is what musos are comfortable with, have rehearsed, and wish the audience to hear.You may not like the sound of the guitar solo, but that does not give you permission to try and alter it at the mixing desk. Try - at all times - NOT to use the equalisers on the FOH desk. They are a tool that should only be used in desperation. Your gain controls and volume faders are your primary tools. Try and use them only at first. 7. When you are confident that you are re-producing as closely as possible the bands on stage sound, ask each of them to come out-front - if possible - to hear if they are satisfied. Most likely every single one of them will have something different to say. Thats the way we are...sorry......but communicate the difficulties that you are encountering, and Im sure you will find them to be understanding. 8. Surprisingly, people like to hear vocalists ! Make sure they can, please. When you watch a show such as the one that I complained about, I could tell the singers and harmonies were good. The words, however, were unintelligible. All I could hear was drums ! The energy of the singers was lost on the audience, who quickly became restless and lost interest in the show. You could tell that by the loud talking of the audience. Suggestion: put the backing instruments on a sub-group and the vocals on another if you have that luxury. That way you can quickly pull the backing down sufficiently for the the vocals to stand out. 9. When youre sure that you are getting the best out of the system, check your levels. Make sure that you have headroom...please !! The venue filled with people is going to sound a lot different to the empty room that you did the soundcheck in. Do the soundcheck always keeping in mind that you may need more volume when the venue is full. 10. When youre doing sound in a small venue, and the lead guitarist has a 100watt double stack 1 meter behind him and the lead vocalist, is it REALY necessary to mic the amp stack up ? The same goes for cymbals...those buggers will, in close proximity to ANY mic on the stage, bleed thru and cause havoc with your mix. Think, listen carefully, and throw the rule book out the window if necessary. 11. The musos may hate this one. We perform music because we love doing it. We are, in a sense, controlled by the feedback that we get from an audience. Soundchecks are a pain in the butt...but they are necessary. Suddenly, on the night, the audience is feeding off our on-stage vibe, resoponding to it, and we respond - usually - by turning up and playing faster. Its like a gigantic feedback loop. YOU need to understand that this might happen, and be prepared to compensate for the musos frenzied volume increase. Its human nature. Drummers and guitarists are the worst culprits. BE PREPARED. Only the really hardened pros will not give you that problem. 12. Finally, your friend suggested that you were having a bad night. DONT - youre not allowed to, unfortunately, thats just the nature of your job. Since you have been doing that same show every night for 6 weeks, you should have got it right by now, and should really be able to run the show virtually on auto-pilot. You got it wrong. Your friends attempt at questioning my credentials was pathetic. I have done sound in some of the best - and worst - venues in South Africa. I learned a lot from the late Barry Newman at Sun City. He had worked with Def Leppard, Shirley Bassey, Diana Ross and a host of other very well known stars. I assisted him at shows like Elton John, Rod Stewart, Queen, Chicago, Barry Manilow, and a host of others. I learned a lot from him, but the most important thing is that my ego MEANT NOTHING ! My job was to give the audience the best of what the artist had to offer - nothing else - and if I couldnt do that, I wasnt worthy of the job.
Posted on: Mon, 11 Aug 2014 09:43:56 +0000
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