A couple of weeks ago I had to fire our soundman for some personal reasons.
Last night was our first show without him.
Oddly we never sounded better. One of my playing friends has seen us a few times over the past couple of years and said we were cleaner and sounded tighter than ever.
I guess what happens is a sound man thinks he has to mess with the board all night and by the end of the night his ears are shot and he just mushes up the sound. Its funny I eqed the room with our DBX unit. Then I didnt really do a sound check just checked to make sure the mics where working. I kind of leveled out the gains and levels on the board with out listening, we took off on our first song. I went out front and the only thing that didnt sound good was my guitar, not quite loud enough. Thats hard to belienve cause Im ussually the one that is too loud. But I walked the room and it sounded great everywhere. Our bassist ran the room and he thought it sounded great and our singer is always roaming the room and he thought it was great. In the last set i went back to the pool area where a guitarist friend of mine was, and asked him what he thought of the sound. He said man you are as crisp and clear as the first set. We had the level set a reasonable level to where if you were in the back you could talk comfortable to the person besides you. The dance floor was loud enough to get that gut feeling you like for dancing. The lady that runs the place said you guys sound better than any of the bands that come in here. Of course she was one of those hostess's who maybe drinks too much.
It was cracking me up, cause ussually by the end of the night it sounds muddy. Also our sound guy was always changing so much stuff that our monitor mix would change. I asked the guys on stage particurlary our drummer if he was cool, we made a couple of adjustments early in the night and he said it was better than ever where he sits.
I like having someone handling it especially rolling up the cords at the end of the night, but for once everyone helped and we had everything back in the trailer in about 40 minutes, its ussually an hr or better.
I got done playing at 1, started tearing down around 1:15, had to drive about 40 minutes home and walked into my door at 2:33. Not bad, except that my daughter was sitting up waiting for me. She got sent straight to bed. I said Suzie you need to get in bed! Now. She says Dad I was just waiting up to make sure you made it home OK. Gotta love your kids, they are the greatest thing we have or leave behind when we are gone. It wont be long til I will be waiting up on her Im sure.
C-YA
Last night was our first show without him.
Oddly we never sounded better. One of my playing friends has seen us a few times over the past couple of years and said we were cleaner and sounded tighter than ever.
I guess what happens is a sound man thinks he has to mess with the board all night and by the end of the night his ears are shot and he just mushes up the sound. Its funny I eqed the room with our DBX unit. Then I didnt really do a sound check just checked to make sure the mics where working. I kind of leveled out the gains and levels on the board with out listening, we took off on our first song. I went out front and the only thing that didnt sound good was my guitar, not quite loud enough. Thats hard to belienve cause Im ussually the one that is too loud. But I walked the room and it sounded great everywhere. Our bassist ran the room and he thought it sounded great and our singer is always roaming the room and he thought it was great. In the last set i went back to the pool area where a guitarist friend of mine was, and asked him what he thought of the sound. He said man you are as crisp and clear as the first set. We had the level set a reasonable level to where if you were in the back you could talk comfortable to the person besides you. The dance floor was loud enough to get that gut feeling you like for dancing. The lady that runs the place said you guys sound better than any of the bands that come in here. Of course she was one of those hostess's who maybe drinks too much.
It was cracking me up, cause ussually by the end of the night it sounds muddy. Also our sound guy was always changing so much stuff that our monitor mix would change. I asked the guys on stage particurlary our drummer if he was cool, we made a couple of adjustments early in the night and he said it was better than ever where he sits.
I like having someone handling it especially rolling up the cords at the end of the night, but for once everyone helped and we had everything back in the trailer in about 40 minutes, its ussually an hr or better.
I got done playing at 1, started tearing down around 1:15, had to drive about 40 minutes home and walked into my door at 2:33. Not bad, except that my daughter was sitting up waiting for me. She got sent straight to bed. I said Suzie you need to get in bed! Now. She says Dad I was just waiting up to make sure you made it home OK. Gotta love your kids, they are the greatest thing we have or leave behind when we are gone. It wont be long til I will be waiting up on her Im sure.
C-YA
"A winks as good as nod to a blind man"