Droolbucket
September 8th, 2007, 12:37 AM
Spoke to my brother yesterday. He's the FOH guy for a popular regional band. My brother is quiet, level-headed and congenial. He was as mad yesterday as I've ever heard him.
His band played last sunday as part of a 3-band, all-afternoon music event. They were booked to go on second, and all the fliers and newsletters had them in the second time slot. When they got to the venue, they were told the schedule had changed, and they were to go on first. No problem, they're all professionals, no ego wars. First band starts at 4pm.
At 4:10, the PA is still being hooked up. At 4:15, the PA provider plugs in a CD, and.... nothing. He goes behind the stage, comes back out, and has 1 side. And a hum. He goes back to the stage, and now he has both sides. And a hum.
By this time, the crowd is getting restless.... they're ready for some music! The PA provider tells my brother he's good to go. The band asks for a sound check, or at least a line check. The provider calls out for each instrument, runs the fader up to be sure he's got signal, then backs the faders back down again. The band is about 45 minutes late at this point.
The band starts, and my brother is working like a fiend to try to dial in a mix on the fly... setting gains, adjusting EQ's, finding levels. When he gets a reasonable mix, he makes a quick walk of the room. When he gets to the PA stack on the far side, it sounds awful. Harsh and thin. He goes back to the board, and tells the provider that one side isn't working correctly. The provider says, "I've got both sides set exactly the same."
My brother is frantically tweaking EQ's to try to get a good sound.... 2 songs later, the provider goes to the stage, comes back, and says, "I forgot to turn on the power amp to the mid cab."
Now, my brother figures he can finally get things dialed in. The more he works, the worse it sounds, until he realizes the provider has plugged in his laptop and is adjusting crossover settings and EQ curves. Talk about shooting at a moving target!
The provider finally notices the hum, reaches across my brother's shoulder, and starts muting the channels until he gets to the hum problem. Kick drum. "Hmmm," he says, "Must have my gate set wrong." He pulls the gate from the channel insert, hum is finally gone.
On stage, one of the vocalists grabs a wireless mic and launches into a rock number. As my brother tweaks the gain on the wireless channel, the provider says, "He's hitting that pretty hard... I'll patch in a compressor."
Apparently, he patched into the side chain input, because every time the vocalist sang, the ENTIRE BAND VOLUME decreased by about half, then swelled back up again between vocal lines. When the provider didn't seem to think anything was amiss, my brother pulled the compressor out of the channel insert.
My brother finally got things sounding decent with about 2 songs left in the set. Several groups of people showed up at the door, ready for the second band to start, only to find that they were just finishing up.
My brother called up the venue the next morning, and said do NOT hire this provider ever again! He asked who the provider was, and was given a name and town. Coincidentally, the provider was from the same town as the last (headlining) band! A quick Google search confirmed that this provider worked exclusively with the band in question. I was also told that the same provider had the same PA problems the previous year at the same show.
Now, these aren't national acts, and they're not competing for fame, fortune and recording contracts. They're all just good regional bands. All the bands have their own following, and their own regional 'stomping ground', if you will. Why would this provider feel the need to sabotage the other bands? I have to believe it was deliberate, because he would be out of business if he really was that incompetent.
Does anyone else have problems with 'competition' like this?
:Mad: :Mad: :Mad: :Mad: :Mad:
Droolbucket
His band played last sunday as part of a 3-band, all-afternoon music event. They were booked to go on second, and all the fliers and newsletters had them in the second time slot. When they got to the venue, they were told the schedule had changed, and they were to go on first. No problem, they're all professionals, no ego wars. First band starts at 4pm.
At 4:10, the PA is still being hooked up. At 4:15, the PA provider plugs in a CD, and.... nothing. He goes behind the stage, comes back out, and has 1 side. And a hum. He goes back to the stage, and now he has both sides. And a hum.
By this time, the crowd is getting restless.... they're ready for some music! The PA provider tells my brother he's good to go. The band asks for a sound check, or at least a line check. The provider calls out for each instrument, runs the fader up to be sure he's got signal, then backs the faders back down again. The band is about 45 minutes late at this point.
The band starts, and my brother is working like a fiend to try to dial in a mix on the fly... setting gains, adjusting EQ's, finding levels. When he gets a reasonable mix, he makes a quick walk of the room. When he gets to the PA stack on the far side, it sounds awful. Harsh and thin. He goes back to the board, and tells the provider that one side isn't working correctly. The provider says, "I've got both sides set exactly the same."
My brother is frantically tweaking EQ's to try to get a good sound.... 2 songs later, the provider goes to the stage, comes back, and says, "I forgot to turn on the power amp to the mid cab."
Now, my brother figures he can finally get things dialed in. The more he works, the worse it sounds, until he realizes the provider has plugged in his laptop and is adjusting crossover settings and EQ curves. Talk about shooting at a moving target!
The provider finally notices the hum, reaches across my brother's shoulder, and starts muting the channels until he gets to the hum problem. Kick drum. "Hmmm," he says, "Must have my gate set wrong." He pulls the gate from the channel insert, hum is finally gone.
On stage, one of the vocalists grabs a wireless mic and launches into a rock number. As my brother tweaks the gain on the wireless channel, the provider says, "He's hitting that pretty hard... I'll patch in a compressor."
Apparently, he patched into the side chain input, because every time the vocalist sang, the ENTIRE BAND VOLUME decreased by about half, then swelled back up again between vocal lines. When the provider didn't seem to think anything was amiss, my brother pulled the compressor out of the channel insert.
My brother finally got things sounding decent with about 2 songs left in the set. Several groups of people showed up at the door, ready for the second band to start, only to find that they were just finishing up.
My brother called up the venue the next morning, and said do NOT hire this provider ever again! He asked who the provider was, and was given a name and town. Coincidentally, the provider was from the same town as the last (headlining) band! A quick Google search confirmed that this provider worked exclusively with the band in question. I was also told that the same provider had the same PA problems the previous year at the same show.
Now, these aren't national acts, and they're not competing for fame, fortune and recording contracts. They're all just good regional bands. All the bands have their own following, and their own regional 'stomping ground', if you will. Why would this provider feel the need to sabotage the other bands? I have to believe it was deliberate, because he would be out of business if he really was that incompetent.
Does anyone else have problems with 'competition' like this?
:Mad: :Mad: :Mad: :Mad: :Mad:
Droolbucket