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David_Dovey:
Dear JohnnyC,

I too have been frustrated about poor mixes at bands that I have really anticipated seeing in my concert-going career. I have railed against the obvious incompetence of soundmen and their lackadaisical approach to mixing these bands that we love, whose music, given a good mix, has the potential to lift us above the clouds, and given a bad mix, will just leave us feeling empty and frustrated.

But I'd like to point out that as I've been learning how to engineer sound myself, and have thus started paying more attention to what is going on behind the console, and I've got to say, live engineers cop it way harder than they deserve, an awful lot of the time.

Lets' get this clear: Nobody really cares about the sound engineer. If you know how sound waves work (and I'm assuming you have some knowledge of this), you'll know that the way something sounds, particularly in regards to the balance of frequencies, can differ wildly based on where you stand in a room, particularly if that room is an odd shape, or has, say, a ceiling with varying heights. You'd think a venue owner, interested in making sure his space has as good a sound as possible, would have a vested interest in making sure that the sound engineer is given a good place in the room to mix, a place where the sound he hears will be a reasonable approximation of the sound throughout the room.

This is rarely true. In almost every venue I've been to, the sound engineer has been tucked away in some little corner, a place where the stage is obscured by large poles, or he has a bulkhead or balcony overhead (an absolute nightmare in terms of sound), or some little alcove where not only is it almost impossible to move, but where the standing reflections from the surrounding walls will ruin any possible chance our intrepid soundfellow will have of ever actually interpreting properly what anybody else is hearing. Did you move around at all during the show? Have you talked to other people who were there? Was it consensus that this was a poorly mixed set?

Not to mention that the incompetent sound engineer in question was more likely than not, not a touring FOH man, hired by the band and carted around the country, mixing the band every night. He was more likely a local guy, perhaps someone who had no idea about who A Place To Bury Strangers are, and was simply trying his best to deal with what was undoubtedly some very hot levels coming down his console. To put it this way: Imagine being given an instrument that is not entirely unlike a guitar, but different enough to be confusing, and then told to produce an interesting and cohesive set of music right away. This is something what it is like trying to mix a band "cold."

Of course, I wasn't there so I'm really just giving you possible reasons that might make you a bit more sympathetic to the tribulations of the live engineer. He could've just been a shitty engineer.

Yours,
DD

Johnny C:
He's by no means incompetent, which is why the APTBS thing was so baffling. What upsets me more than bad soundmen is decent soundmen doing poor jobs for no readily apparent reason. The consensus is actually that the sound was kind of bad. I talked to people who were at varying spots in the venue. As well, the mixing station at the venue in question is located in a direct, clear line from the stage. I want to say it's about fifteen to twenty metres from the stage but that is basically just a guesstimate. Normally I'm willing to give soundmen a lot more credit but at that particular venue they typically can't fall back on blaming the venue's piss-poor design, because it's actually a pretty great design.

As well, he is more used to working with metal bands more than anything else, so the tones coming into the board are usually hot to start with for him.

I have some understanding for the dude, but as a performer and concertgoer I give a shit about the soundman. When he does a good job I have a habit of congratulating him; when he doesn't, I have a habit of becoming irritated.

p.s. soundmen can be ladies too

David_Dovey:
Well yeah, sometimes people just ass up. Dang tragedy. I think Battles would've won a lot more fans at the Big Day Out in my town if they had decent sound.

Aceandcups:
Just a quick note on the sound engineers job in shitty environments:

I've been to places where the venues were basically bowling alleys, abandoned warehouses and rec centers. I remember at one show, in Echo Park, CA the band Deer Hunter had about 3/4 of a set ruined, because the sound booth couldn't get vocals right. So for the entire set people in the audience were screaming "WE CAN'T HERE YOU!" and the band didn't know what to do. Finally, two songs before the show was over BOOM voice comes back and the audience gets a reason to attack the sound booth.

And those other times, where the setting was shit, I've heard bands perfectly - they compensated for everything they could think of. So, it would be cheap to blame a venue when a sound person can't keep up with what's going on.

David_Dovey:
Well, as my post directly above yours states, it's true, sometimes people just fuck up, and the only reason is because they're incompetent. But I figured it was worth mentioning the things I did, because a lot of people want to automatically blame the sound engineer, no matter what.

I wasn't saying that it's always the venue or environment, but I thought it'd be interesting and useful for people to maybe think twice about the circumstances of the shitty sound before jumping all over the  engineer.

By the way; You may want to get rid of the pic in your signature, they're generally frowned upon here.

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