Corporate posh gig tonight with a band of very pro musicians. Unfortunately due corporate gigness my mix position for the show was 6ft to one side of the stage facing the audience, thats Ok did the soundcheck in the afternoon from infront so had a mix and tweeked it by running into the audience from time to time and also had a spotter at the back of the room.
Thing was I could hear more monitor mix than front of house from my show position.I was running a 4way mix and the stage was quite small and I could hear every instrument in every monitor, the keyboard player still insisted he wanted more of his vocal and guitar, and the lead vocal wanted more of him in his monitor. I suppose you had to have been there to appreciate how cloth eared these guys were or maybe it was a nerves thing. As it was I had to run front of house louder than I wanted to drown out the spill from the monitors into the audience!
I would also add every one was happy with the gig rebooked ect but did make me wonder about the state of certains indviduals hearing!
www.maltingsaudio.co.uk
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I did a festival once 12 bands in 12 hours, 15min turn rounds. only one band was a real problem, where the singer guitarist who happened to be wearing a hat that came down over his ears. Strangely enough he had a problem where his vocal was not loud enough. I had two Mackie 1400s with EV SX300 for monitors, still wasn`t loud enough, so I walked up to him, and this is the key point, I kept a smile on my face as I told him quietly that's all you are getting, maybe you should take your F***** hat off and turn your amp down or just get off the stage before I take a mic stand and show you how long and strong they are !
Needless to say he said ok. I walked back to desk and just carried on as if nothing happened. A few bands asked me what did I say to him, but I remained silent
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OK so the kid was probably being a bit of a div, but at the end of the day he may not have the experience that you have and he may not understand the complexities of sound engineering (how many band members DO?!)...maybe a few pointers about microphone technique and a few assurances that yes his guitar was loud enough out front would have worked better than threatening the guy?
We rarely have a sound man (we're a wedding band, so we do all that ourselves...we don't play venues with their own in-house man often) but I remember one occasion playing a lovely huge stage with a cracking PA and a very knowledgable sound man. He asked one of our members what he wanted in his monitor, and the reply was "Well, a bit of everything, really..." which is just about the wrongest answer he could have given!
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
Thanks ICBM, first and only time I have ever done that, never had to resort to it before, it was actually painful onstage for the other PA guy to actually move mics and stuff for the bands, and this knob kept going "is that all you got ? Jeez" and other remarks like that, not very professional at all, I walked up and said it very quietly out of everyone`s ear shot, like I said with a smile on my face so most punters had no idea.
I have had to deal with all sorts of Assholes in my time, Other sound guys have said use the old pitchshifter and delay only in his monitor mix trick, but mine worked just as well. I am sure some of the armchair PA guys could tell me what I should have done, but unfortunately they were not there at the time.
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