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[duane massey]

To clarify: I am on these gigs as a keyboardist, NOT a sound person, and I learned a long time ago that unsolicited advice is rarely appreciated, especially from a "hired gun". I suspect it is caused by a complete lack of knowledge and/or experience, but I figured I would ask here just to be certain I wasn't missing something.
I will be (hopefully) putting together my own project and will be using an XR18, and plan is to use the preset abilities to simplify and speed up the process. Rarely enough in the budget around here (Houston) to hire a sound person (much less a sound company), so we will be running sound from the stage until the budget will allow the step up.

[James Paul]

Someone please educate on this. What am I missing?

No definitive answer here, however reminds me of a similar curiosity as to why do people set an alarm clock and hit the snooze button for an hour every 5 minutes or never even.
Seriously, possibly self imposed discipline in order to wash, rinse & repeat for knowledge and skill retention, though is rather more probably due to lack of existing knowledge and skill.
I know of some `ACME Sound' types that do not, can not, WiFi remote operate their `ZXY Digital' board due to inability to successfully connect any off the shelf wireless router/AP.

[Tom Bourke]

Recently had a band here in las Vegas that was surprised we, the house guys, didn't save their file.  We told them flat out that most likely if they come back things will be different.  Different ops, gear, console, band members, stage, clients.  For us it's much faster to rebuild from scratch than try to remember or figure out what we did last year for them.

On the other hand we also use to have a sound guy that could not mix with out his presets.  He had no clue how to EQ a mic or some other basics.  He had had some one MUCH better than him build some presets.  He kept telling every one how great his ears were.  Boy did he look bad when the consoles got factory reset by the new guy!

In my situation every gig is different and each of the house sound guys tend to set routing different.  That doesn't even take into account the outside opps.  More than once we have gotten a console with some strange routing or setup.  It's faster to just factory reset to a known point and move on.  Having said that, I may build a show file that has my preferred routing in place.   I will still do all my EQ gig by gig.

[duane massey]

Keep in mind that this is NOT a situation where there are different bands, different set-ups, etc. The same band, same set-up in most cases, and the same musicians. AND the same mixer, mics, etc.

[Tim McCulloch]

Keep in mind that this is NOT a situation where there are different bands, different set-ups, etc. The same band, same set-up in most cases, and the same musicians. AND the same mixer, mics, etc.

And the same neurosis.

[Geert Friedhof]

There is of course a big difference in room acoustics, and how the room changes when filling up with audience. This also dictates for a big part how musicians adjust all their knobs, which in turn dictates how i adjust all my knobs.

I usually just turn off my console after the gig, and turn it on the next, null the monitors and go from there. I have stored 1 (one) scene i update every few gigs or so, just in case. This is with different venues and bands, same PA.

[Scott Bower]

Someone please educate on this. Is there any reason why a band that uses the same mixer with the same basic musicians/gear doesn't have at least a basic mix stored as a scene, and start with that at the beginning?
I've worked with several bands over the past 2+ years, and all are using digital consoles, some mix from stage, some have a FOH person. It seems that every single one starts from scratch at every gig, and no one has anything stored.
What am I missing?

I save scenes for all bands and venues , including the band I play in. It gives me a good starting point and saves time. I can't imagine not using this great feature of digital boards.
My biggest problem is musicians now expect sound check to be 20 seconds as we check to make sure there are no major changes since the last show. Their first question on arrival is "you got a scene saved for this place?"

[duane massey]

Thanks, guys. This just confirmed what I believed, but it is good to hear from those of you have been using them for a while. I'll let you know in a few months how it works out.

[Tim McCulloch]

My contribution -

I keep a couple of different templates, "band in 16" and "band in 24" on our Avid SC48.  If the band doesn't have a Mixerperson I'll use whatever is appropriate.  The templates have my plug-ins already inserted, the i/o routing done (I use matrices to drive L/R/S/FF/Balc), voicing EQ is done, and the FX I like are installed.

I'll usually save a Snapshot if the band *might* be back in the next 6 months or so, but whether or not that saved info is useful later is an open question.  Bands change members, get new back line stuff, or I've changed plug-ins or my workflow so starting from scratch still happens.

My monitor guys tend to load a show, scene or snapshot template of mix EQ and i/o routing that accommodates their workflow, then saving as we go through the sound checks.

That's from the standpoint of a system provider; if I were working for the same band or 2, I'd certainly use saved shows/scenes/snapshots and also avail myself of any "virtual soundcheck" capabilities.

[ProSoundWeb Community]