bitflipper Posted November 29, 2023 Share Posted November 29, 2023 It was exactly the nightmare I'd expected. FoH guy talked a good talk, and had nice gear (JBL line array, Yamaha TF board). But you couldn't have made it sound worse if you tried. The room is extremely reverberant, and not at all in a nice way. But check out CraigB's light show! Blame my granddaughter for the lo-res image. I guess she's got her camera preferences set to very low resolution. But we got a lot of compliments about the background video. Thanks again, Craig! Sure, we sounded awful. But we got free food, the paycheck was substantial, and we've been asked back. 7 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kennywtelejazz Posted November 29, 2023 Share Posted November 29, 2023 Your group certainly looks pretty good there on that nice looking stage .... Glad you got invited back . Kenny Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bapu Posted November 29, 2023 Share Posted November 29, 2023 1 hour ago, bitflipper said: Sure, we sounded awful. But we got free food, the paycheck was substantial, and we've been asked back. Get Back Jojo. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grem Posted November 29, 2023 Share Posted November 29, 2023 Great news Bit. On the return trip are.you gonna let the same sound guy handle the FOH? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leadfoot Posted November 29, 2023 Share Posted November 29, 2023 (edited) 2 hours ago, bitflipper said: Sure, we sounded awful. But we got free food, the paycheck was substantial, and we've been asked back. Sounds like a good night to me. Edited November 29, 2023 by Leadfoot 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shane_B. Posted November 29, 2023 Share Posted November 29, 2023 The background Craig did looks great. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bapu Posted November 29, 2023 Share Posted November 29, 2023 13 minutes ago, Shane_B. said: The background Craig did looks great. Agreed. Whoodathunkit? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sal Sorice Posted November 29, 2023 Share Posted November 29, 2023 Your bad night probably sounds way better than anything this amateur could put together... 😁 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
craigb Posted November 29, 2023 Share Posted November 29, 2023 Glad I could help! 😊 BTW - did the video get cropped? I don't see the band URL at the bottom left... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bitflipper Posted November 30, 2023 Author Share Posted November 30, 2023 Yeh, it did get cropped. I was the only one who noticed. 2 hours ago, Grem said: On the return trip are.you gonna let the same sound guy handle the FOH? I have always wondered what would happen if I just insisted on bringing my own PA and running sound myself, because 80% of the time I'm sure I could do better. But I'm afraid that would be diplomatically impossible. We have a gig coming up where I've seen the PA that'll be used and already know it's a Frankenstein assemblage of garage-sale components, and the guy running it has no clue what he's doing. Unfortunately, he is also the promoter of the event and could have additional work for us. Whether that turns into a recurring thing depends on how well it ends up paying, as we'll be getting only ticket sales. I don't do this for the money, so the bucks have to be substantial before I'll tolerate a bad-sounding performance. Such was the case last night. There is a monetary threshold beyond which I am able to suck it up and just cash the check. 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Vere Posted November 30, 2023 Share Posted November 30, 2023 (edited) It’s a huge issue for any of us who are actually very good at live sound. Even when faced with crap gear. I go bonkers at festivals where the sound person obviously sucks. You can tell right away because all you hear is kick drum. No keyboards no guitar solos and vocals sound like mud. Good news Is the monitor guy actually knows what they are doing so it sound great on stage. We have a local guy who sucks but gets all the sound gigs because he only charges $200 for a whole day. All the bands complain. A lot of us tell the organizers that we are not interested if he’s going to be there. It’s not worth it to play and sound worse than you do in the basement. When given the option we much prefer to go to the trouble and bring our own PA. Love the backdrop. Are you actually playing Midnight Hour? In Bb Edited November 30, 2023 by John Vere 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
craigb Posted November 30, 2023 Share Posted November 30, 2023 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paulo Posted November 30, 2023 Share Posted November 30, 2023 12 hours ago, Shane_B. said: The background Craig did looks great. It's alright, but it's no white sheet with the band logo painted onto it by an aspiring artist and illuminated by three purple bulbs in a homemade light box painted with leftover black barn paint. 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bapu Posted November 30, 2023 Share Posted November 30, 2023 25 minutes ago, paulo said: It's alright, but it's no white sheet with the band logo painted onto it by an aspiring artist and illuminated by three purple bulbs in a homemade light box painted with leftover black barn paint. Show me yours and I'll show you mine, paulo. Wait, that did not come out right. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paulo Posted November 30, 2023 Share Posted November 30, 2023 1 hour ago, Bapu said: Show me yours and I'll show you mine, paulo. Wait, that did not come out right. The thing I learned from playing that game before is never go first... 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bitflipper Posted November 30, 2023 Author Share Posted November 30, 2023 16 hours ago, John Vere said: Are you actually playing Midnight Hour? No, it's the name of the band. We do cover the song, though, even though nowadays most gigs are done well before midnight. Which is OK by me. 16 hours ago, John Vere said: When given the option we much prefer to go to the trouble and bring our own PA. Same here. If you want to get a sense of how arrogant some FoH guys are, spend some time on the r/livesound subreddit. They are embarrassingly dismissive of the performers' wishes (well, to be fair, a lot of musicians ARE a-holes), e.g. telling them to set the volume to 10 on every amp and instrument and never touch those knobs, because the mix is their exclusive purview (I am not making that up). And don't dare post asking for advice if you're a singer-songwriter who plays 50-person house parties because somebody will tell you that nothing less than an L'Acoustics line array with flown subs will work. At one gig I sang an entire song with my mic muted. I could not get the FoH "engineer's" attention because he wasn't even at his desk. And to add further insult, we had to pay him out of our wages. A few weeks ago we were on a stage where half the floor monitors were shut off and only drums were coming through the other half. Our "monitor" was the echo coming off the back wall of the room 100' away (yes, that's a 200 millisecond round trip, not conducive to a tight performance). We were recently offered our choice of dates at a local brewery. They said that in winter the bands play indoors and have a sound system and engineer, but in summer they play outdoors and have to bring their own PA. We asked for a date in July. It's such a joy and relief when we luck out and get somebody who understands the equipment, knows how to mix, and pays attention to what's going on. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Vere Posted December 1, 2023 Share Posted December 1, 2023 (edited) 8 hours ago, bitflipper said: such a joy and relief when we luck out and get somebody who understands the equipment, knows how to mix, and pays attention to what's going on. Yes it’s rare to get first class sound when your bands name is in small print on the posters. They are very attentive of the headliner but if you’re lucky they actually talk to you. What has happened to me a few times is they put my backing tracks at max in the FOH and no matter how many times I ask I can’t hear them in the monitors. So I basically have my own sub mixer and monitor system all in a little box I now have a solution which is I use my Voice live Acoustic pedal to mix my voice , guitar and my laptop and it has a headphones output for my in ears. For my laptop I bought a Radial DI box that can send to FOH and my Voice live. I’m going to be performing at a Festival in March which my wife and I have gone to for a few year and the sound is really good. I asked if I could apply and they were very receptive. The sound guy is amazing as he gets something different every hour from 1 PM until midnight and he’s all by himself and he’s fast. People bring him food. Edited December 1, 2023 by John Vere Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bitflipper Posted December 1, 2023 Author Share Posted December 1, 2023 Good for you, John. As gratifying as it is to whine and moan when we're mistreated, at the end of the day we bear the responsibility for our own signal quality. You have reminded me that I cheaped out on DIs and bought - shudder - Behringer DIs for guitar and drums. Knock wood, they haven't failed us yet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Vere Posted December 1, 2023 Share Posted December 1, 2023 Radial stuff is considered one of the best. But of all the Behringer stuff that I’ve owned (that eventually broke) the little DI box has been very dependable. I think I bought it in the 90’s. I like that it can run on batteries instead phantom. I avoid phantom if I can. The Radial DI is called the Trim Two. It’s also good for keyboards. What is a great feature is it has a mono toggle. I run my laptop in stereo because I use split tracks a lot. But it the sound person wants I can just push the button and now it’s mono. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bitflipper Posted December 1, 2023 Author Share Posted December 1, 2023 1 hour ago, John Vere said: I like that it can run on batteries instead phantom. I avoid phantom if I can. I'm just the opposite. Being able to run them off phantom power was a major selling point. The bass player's sansamp runs off phantom, too. We have just one critical piece of gear that needs batteries, which is our singer's wireless mic. It has caused more than one panic 7-11 run right before showtime. I should probably buy them in bulk at Costco, but dagnabit, I supply the PA; she can be responsible for her own damn batteries. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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