ProSoundWeb Community

Please login or register.

Login with username, password and session length
Advanced search  

Pages: 1 [2] 3 4 5   Go Down

Author Topic: RFC: Step-by-step method running proper sound check w musicians band  (Read 12874 times)

Cailen Waddell

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 1428
Re: RFC: Step-by-step method running proper sound check w musicians band
« Reply #10 on: October 23, 2014, 07:22:44 PM »

If you edit out the sarcasm and bitterness you appear to feel towards how you are treated, you might have something useable.  Otherwise it is just a rant from a disenfranchised technician who didn't get everything he wanted. 

Approaches vary depending on circumstances - in one of our spaces, setting a monitor level is useless without having sound in the main pa first. 

A guide would be useful, but it should be done in a way that is collaborative, and helpful.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Logged

Dave Neale

  • Jr. Member
  • **
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 69
Re: RFC: Step-by-step method running proper sound check w musicians band
« Reply #11 on: October 23, 2014, 10:12:15 PM »

FWIW, the noodling time can be used to get your line checks done
Logged

Robert Piascik

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 732
  • Westerville, OH (near Columbus)
Re: RFC: Step-by-step method running proper sound check w musicians band
« Reply #12 on: October 23, 2014, 10:53:49 PM »

So many things here are so completely unrealistic....

Sound man with more power, and more PAY than the worship leader? Get real!

No noodling, no yapping? When you figure out how to achieve that (especially with church musicians (read: amateurs)) let us all know.

Tim's got some good points that I have encountered as well: church musicians who have no other outlet for playing who see playing in the church band as their own personal Woodstock

Real world things that help it go smoother: Get everyone on stage and at their monitor position.

I also agree with Scott: get some instruments checked before they even know it.

The best pro bands I've worked with followed this procedure:
EVERYONE at monitor positions with instruments at the ready
Drummer started thump, thump on the kick, added snare, hi-hat, toms, full kit beat
They had one particular song that they played starting with drums, add bass, add keys, add guitars
Everyone gives the universal finger up or finger down for each instrument in their monitor
(NOBODY speaks into the mic "I need more this or that")
Adjust vocal mics one by one (with same finger up/down technique)
Play a portion of a song/make adjustments, repeat as necessary

But these are pros, training amateurs to do this is like herding kittens
Logged
Pi Entertainment Services
Midas M32R / MR18
Behringer X32R
Danley SH50 / SM80 / TH118 / TH115
Fulcrum Acoustic fa22ac
RCF NX 12SMA
Yamaha DSR112 / DZR10
Powersoft X4 / M50Q
Crown iT8k

Erik Jerde

  • Classic LAB
  • Hero Member
  • *
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 1397
Re: RFC: Step-by-step method running proper sound check w musicians band
« Reply #13 on: October 23, 2014, 11:21:55 PM »

TL;DR on the first message, but I get the gist from the replies.  What Robert said, spot on.
Logged

Steve M Smith

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 3381
  • Isle of Wight - England
Re: RFC: Step-by-step method running proper sound check w musicians band
« Reply #14 on: October 24, 2014, 02:51:52 AM »

FWIW, the noodling time can be used to get your line checks done

And sometimes that's all you get.  That is your sound check!


Steve.
Logged

Nils Erickson

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 280
  • San Francisco
Re: RFC: Step-by-step method running proper sound check w musicians band
« Reply #15 on: October 24, 2014, 04:59:23 AM »

The sound checks I have been to that worked well, as musician or as a sound person, are based on mutual respect and a common goal to make a good show happen.  There are plenty of ways to do it, but they all start with those two things. 

Don't forget, without your "lowly musicians", there is no show... unless you want to lecture to the audience about your favorite compressor settings.

Good luck,
Nils
Logged

Bob Leonard

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 6807
  • Boston, MA USA
Re: RFC: Step-by-step method running proper sound check w musicians band
« Reply #16 on: October 24, 2014, 08:53:49 AM »

When I first saw the post I was thinking sermon, too much information, poor attitude. I'm still thinking those same thoughts and suggest the OP take a more friendly approach to obtaining his goal. Maybe it's because of my background on both sides of the board, but I've never had an issue working with a band or musician of any type as long as I approached that band, that person, that group in a friendly professional manner. I'm not saying life has been a bowl of cherries, far from it, and there have been a number of times even the best approach has failed to produce results ending with the obligatory go fuck yourself.

The approach needs to be simplified. Meet with the band/performer, ask pertinent questions, try to accommodate all parties if possible. If not possible then try again. Use whatever opportunities you have to meet yours and the performers specified goals. And the OP's first goal should be to educate himself, becoming intimate with the venue and hardware available to do the job. It's a 2 way street OP, learn to drive in both directions.
Logged
BOSTON STRONG........
Proud Vietnam Veteran

I did a gig for Otis Elevator once. Like every job, it had it's ups and downs.

Robert Piascik

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 732
  • Westerville, OH (near Columbus)
Re: RFC: Step-by-step method running proper sound check w musicians band
« Reply #17 on: October 24, 2014, 09:09:35 AM »



1.  First hire a professional sound man with a strong personality.

3.  All the musicians and singers show-up, set-up, shut-up, stop noodling, and do what they are told by the sound techs.

-- One of the two sound technicians is the most powerful person in the room.  He was hired prior to the hiring of the worship leader.  He may make more money.  He shows up earlier, stays later, and more often.  He is more important than the worship leader at this point in the operation.  He is more powerful.  He has control.  Everybody bows down to the sound man and does what he says.

-- The musicians do not ask for more of this and less of that yet.  The musicians keep their mouths shut.  The musicians do not speak until they are spoken to.  The Stage Sound Tech is the Czar of the Room, and everybody watches and listens to him.



Just as there are 'hobbyist' musicians who see playing in church as their only outlet to be in the rock 'n' roll world I have also encountered 'sound guys' who have the same attitude. Except that they can't play an instrument.

I am as frustrated by that guy as I am by the $9/hr 'security guard' or 'parking lot attendant' -- that person who has no other place in their life where they can assert control over people so they always seem to take it out on YOU.

They can't get anyone to listen to them through their expertise at anything so they search for an outlet where they CAN have control. And then get frustrated when STILL no one listens to them...

The BEST sound people I have ever seen or worked with are EASY to work with because they know their gear and have a manner in dealing with people that gets everything done with a minimum of time and effort expended. They DON'T spend a bunch of time writing a document detailing how they feel sound check should be conducted (and then submitting it for comment by REAL professionals) presumably so that they can then throw it in the faces of the people they want to control and say, SEE? I TOLD you my way is the way to do it, so everybody listen to ME!

Certainly I'm projecting here but it sure FEELS like this is the point here.

As we so often find, it's not a TECHNICAL problem, it's a PEOPLE problem. MY two rules for the OP for sound check are these:
1) Know your shit
2) Don't be a dick





Logged
Pi Entertainment Services
Midas M32R / MR18
Behringer X32R
Danley SH50 / SM80 / TH118 / TH115
Fulcrum Acoustic fa22ac
RCF NX 12SMA
Yamaha DSR112 / DZR10
Powersoft X4 / M50Q
Crown iT8k

Chuck Simon

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 1139
  • Pittsburgh, Pa.
Re: RFC: Step-by-step method running proper sound check w musicians band
« Reply #18 on: October 24, 2014, 09:58:22 AM »

"You're not making Christianity any better, you're just making Rock and Roll worse!"
Hank Hill
Logged

Steven Barnes

  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 232
    • SBTS Inc.
Re: RFC: Step-by-step method running proper sound check w musicians band
« Reply #19 on: October 24, 2014, 11:11:33 AM »

When I first saw the post I was thinking sermon, too much information, poor attitude. I'm still thinking those same thoughts and suggest the OP take a more friendly approach to obtaining his goal. Maybe it's because of my background on both sides of the board, but I've never had an issue working with a band or musician of any type as long as I approached that band, that person, that group in a friendly professional manner. I'm not saying life has been a bowl of cherries, far from it, and there have been a number of times even the best approach has failed to produce results ending with the obligatory go fuck yourself.

The approach needs to be simplified. Meet with the band/performer, ask pertinent questions, try to accommodate all parties if possible. If not possible then try again. Use whatever opportunities you have to meet yours and the performers specified goals. And the OP's first goal should be to educate himself, becoming intimate with the venue and hardware available to do the job. It's a 2 way street OP, learn to drive in both directions.


X2,

You are thinking way too much into this. I had a long post about this, but just read the above again it has everything you need.
Logged
Audio Engineering, Design, Consulting
SBTS Inc.
www.sbts-inc.com

ProSoundWeb Community

Re: RFC: Step-by-step method running proper sound check w musicians band
« Reply #19 on: October 24, 2014, 11:11:33 AM »


Pages: 1 [2] 3 4 5   Go Up
 



Site Hosted By Ashdown Technologies, Inc.

Page created in 0.041 seconds with 25 queries.