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Sound Reinforcement - Forums for Live Sound Professionals - Your Displayed Name Must Be Your Real Full Name To Post In The Live Sound Forums => LAB Lounge => Topic started by: Jerry Burns on April 04, 2014, 01:43:58 PM
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I'm doing a High School Talent Show today. I did a run thru last night and most of the act's brought there music on there Phone. The phones have covers and are different brands each phone started and stopped with different ways. also all of the phones would go to sleep before I got the kids going. One phone had a pass code that had to be entered if it went to sleep. Out of about 10 acts only 1 act used a CD. Also 1 of the kids got a call, all while hooked up to the PA, it was her Dad.
I'm not complying and we will make it through the night but it was a challenge, The day of the CD is leaving very quickly and the sound quality takes another hit but that's the price of convenience.
I'm really surprised how fast this has happened and the new challenges we face. Thanks Jerry :-\
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I'm doing a High School Talent Show today. I did a run thru last night and most of the act's brought there music on there Phone. The phones have covers and are different brands each phone started and stopped with different ways. also all of the phones would go to sleep before I got the kids going. One phone had a pass code that had to be entered if it went to sleep. Out of about 10 acts only 1 act used a CD. Also 1 of the kids got a call, all while hooked up to the PA, it was her Dad.
I'm not complying and we will make it through the night but it was a challenge, The day of the CD is leaving very quickly and the sound quality takes another hit but that's the price of convenience.
I'm really surprised how fast this has happened and the new challenges we face. Thanks Jerry :-\
1. In the future tell them all to bring their music on thumb drives, and load them into a computer running playback software designed for the task (My favorite is Soundboard).
2. Unless you have a damn fine sound system in that high school, you are unlikely to be able to tell the difference in quality of the files they have you play. The phones, on the other hand, probably sound completely random.
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My general policy is if you provide me with a phone for playback, you provide me with a person to push the button. All phones go on aeroplane mode, and any auto lock is switched off before being given to me!
I'll also on occasion run a pair of DIs from the stage with a 3.5 to 2x 6.5 so they can run their cellphone based tracks from there if they choose to!
It is a sad day however that seemingly cellphones are becoming a standard accepted form of playback. I tend to kick up a bit of a fuss and make a big deal when someone hands me a phone as they walk onstage... I don't like the idea to get across that it's a preferred playback device!
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I'm doing a High School Talent Show today. I did a run thru last night and most of the act's brought there music on there Phone. The phones have covers and are different brands each phone started and stopped with different ways. also all of the phones would go to sleep before I got the kids going. One phone had a pass code that had to be entered if it went to sleep. Out of about 10 acts only 1 act used a CD. Also 1 of the kids got a call, all while hooked up to the PA, it was her Dad.
I'm not complying and we will make it through the night but it was a challenge, The day of the CD is leaving very quickly and the sound quality takes another hit but that's the price of convenience.
I'm really surprised how fast this has happened and the new challenges we face. Thanks Jerry :-\
NO F***ING CONSUMER DEVICES!!!!
That's my policy and I'm sticking with it. If they can't eMail me an MP3 ahead of time or bring their track on a USB stick or CD, they don't get played. All music to be ripped into one of my computers before the show and verified viable.
No exceptions.
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I'll deal with phones on the following conditions:
- Take the case/cover off
- Put it in airplane mode. NO EXCEPTIONS.
- Write down your unlock code. Yes, it will lock on me when I'm not looking, I don't care what your passcode is or what else is on your phone.
- Cue up and show me the media to be played.
Everybody's got a phone, almost no one brings CDs these days. I can count on one hand the number of times the CD player in my rack was used by someone other than me in the last year. And a memory stick? Good luck.
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- Take the case/cover off
- Put it in airplane mode. NO EXCEPTIONS.
- Write down your unlock code.
- Cue up and show me the media to be played.
Yes! I'm making a laminated sign.
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NO F***ING CONSUMER DEVICES!!!!
That's my policy and I'm sticking with it. If they can't eMail me an MP3 ahead of time or bring their track on a USB stick or CD, they don't get played. All music to be ripped into one of my computers before the show and verified viable.
No exceptions.
While I AGREE 1000% Dick, I've done DJ work at numerous HS "banquets" over the last 6 yrs. They don't want live music anymore - unless they play The Duggie, Wobble and Cupid Shuffle, among other hip-hop/dance/trance/techno stuff.
I've requesting those formats NUMEROUS times, yet ending up with the organizer(s), attendees coming up with phones DURING the event... it's not a realistic ENFORCEABLE policy. Well, not if you want to get invited back. They look at you and question ones ability to "keep up!". You're so much COOLER when you can play all kindsa sh*t from all kindsa devices..
Last event I did, I had 3 sets of 1/8" inputs going into the mixer, plus laptop.. but like others have mentioned..
NO CASES
AIRPLANE MODE
SONG QUEUED with me there..
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While I AGREE 1000% Dick, I've done DJ work at numerous HS "banquets" over the last 6 yrs. They don't want live music anymore - unless they play The Duggie, Wobble and Cupid Shuffle, among other hip-hop/dance/trance/techno stuff.
I've requesting those formats NUMEROUS times, yet ending up with the organizer(s), attendees coming up with phones DURING the event... it's not a realistic ENFORCEABLE policy. Well, not if you want to get invited back. They look at you and question ones ability to "keep up!". You're so much COOLER when you can play all kindsa sh*t from all kindsa devices..
Last event I did, I had 3 sets of 1/8" inputs going into the mixer, plus laptop.. but like others have mentioned..
NO CASES
AIRPLANE MODE
SONG QUEUED with me there..
I usually run into this s*** when there's a "talent show" in the middle of a two or three-day fair or event. If the gig was 100% random playback stuff I'll just take a pass. I'm too old and life's too short.
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I'm doing a High School Talent Show today. I did a run thru last night and most of the act's brought there music on there Phone. The phones have covers and are different brands each phone started and stopped with different ways. also all of the phones would go to sleep before I got the kids going. One phone had a pass code that had to be entered if it went to sleep. Out of about 10 acts only 1 act used a CD. Also 1 of the kids got a call, all while hooked up to the PA, it was her Dad.
I'm not complying and we will make it through the night but it was a challenge, The day of the CD is leaving very quickly and the sound quality takes another hit but that's the price of convenience.
I'm really surprised how fast this has happened and the new challenges we face. Thanks Jerry :-\
Our policy is simple. Your device = YOU make it work. We ain't touching it. A final line check before performance, and we're just fader jockeys. Something goes wrong? YOUR problem, not mine. Heck, the i-device is usually too far away for us to touch it, anyway.
But this comes from doing 2-300 performances per day. For 5-6, you may not need to go that far.
Same with CD's, actually. Because of this:
"Which track?"
"Track 2".
"OK, give me a signal"
(signal)
(push play on track 2)
(team stands there...)
(coach comes running)
"THAT'S THE WRONG TRACK!"
"But..."
(dirty looks from entire audience, including the paying client, shoot our way)
Nu-uh. We don't play that game anymore.
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Our policy is simple. Your device = YOU make it work. We ain't touching it. A final line check before performance, and we're just fader jockeys. Something goes wrong? YOUR problem, not mine. Heck, the i-device is usually too far away for us to touch it, anyway.
But this comes from doing 2-300 performances per day. For 5-6, you may not need to go that far.
Same with CD's, actually. Because of this:
"Which track?"
"Track 2".
"OK, give me a signal"
(signal)
(push play on track 2)
(team stands there...)
(coach comes running)
"THAT'S THE WRONG TRACK!"
"But..."
(dirty looks from entire audience, including the paying client, shoot our way)
Nu-uh. We don't play that game anymore.
This.
I've encountered this many times that it's really frustrating & annoying, I've had it with people coming up to me asking to play a particular song from whatever they're handing me. I respond with the same as above "Your device = YOU make it work. We ain't touching it."
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I just went through this earlier. Youth conference setup with a quick run through of the council's opening VDO. They had a phone, too. I said "take it out of the case and hand it to someone to run. I'll plug it in and run the mixing board."
I also set up another 3.5mm on stage in case we get another phone playback or power point.
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"Which track?"
"Track 2".
"OK, give me a signal"
(signal)
(push play on track 2)
(team stands there...)
(coach comes running)
"THAT'S THE WRONG TRACK!"
"But..."
This exact thing just happened to me last month. Talent showcase for a temple. First, father of one talent comes up and hands me a CD. (I was told ahead of time all tracks would be coming out of one laptop(there were 3 actually)). Lucky for him I have CD player. I pop it in BEFORE show start, he tells me the track # and I cue it and preview it for him. He nods his head in agreement. Ok we're cool, I re-cue the track.
You guessed it, kid gets on stage, I start music (same track he agreed to) and it's the wrong song.
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This exact thing just happened to me last month. Talent showcase for a temple. First, father of one talent comes up and hands me a CD. (I was told ahead of time all tracks would be coming out of one laptop(there were 3 actually)). Lucky for him I have CD player. I pop it in BEFORE show start, he tells me the track # and I cue it and preview it for him. He nods his head in agreement. Ok we're cool, I re-cue the track.
You guessed it, kid gets on stage, I start music (same track he agreed to) and it's the wrong song.
Or you hit play and they then tell you that it needs to start at 1:34...
Or they want you to remove the vocal from the track...
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I like when the talent hands you a CD with no case. CD skips, 'it played fine at home, your CD player must be the problem', ignoring the fact that the 10 CDs previous to them played fine.
I bring a Pioneer CDJ-1000 for track shows, if that thing can't play it then the CD is probably toast.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
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I use an iPhone for break music. I have a set of song lists that I use specifically for this purpose. The quality is surprisingly good.
I do a few parties per year. For the last year or more I have consistently had requests to play music from someone's phone.
I also make them cue it up themselves, and simply fade over to their inputs when needed. I have had 3 different phones hooked up at once waiting in line to play their favorite song on the big PA.
It ends up being a big part of the party. People want to hear their favorite songs on a nice PA system. Frequently, the younger people have music that I am unaware of that everyone enjoys.
I think that this is the future of any DJ type work. Of course, different use models will have different needs, but I think it unwise to disappoint the audience as a sound provider when other providers are willing to make them happy.
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I am the sound guy for my church.
Young people give me phones.
Middle age CDs
Old people give me cassettes
The cassettes are the worst
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I'm doing a High School Talent Show today. I did a run thru last night and most of the act's brought there music on there Phone. The phones have covers and are different brands each phone started and stopped with different ways. also all of the phones would go to sleep before I got the kids going. One phone had a pass code that had to be entered if it went to sleep. Out of about 10 acts only 1 act used a CD. Also 1 of the kids got a call, all while hooked up to the PA, it was her Dad.
I'm not complying and we will make it through the night but it was a challenge, The day of the CD is leaving very quickly and the sound quality takes another hit but that's the price of convenience.
I'm really surprised how fast this has happened and the new challenges we face. Thanks Jerry :-\
I did the show Friday night and it all went well. The teacher assigned 2 kids to take care of the phones. They handled getting the phones and running the tracks I just rode the fadders. I was really just talking about the fact we have left the CD behind. Seems like another new day. Thanks
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Old people give me cassettes
Thanks for making me feel like an old timer :) !
One event I do every year is a rodeo our church does as a special event. One of the few events I actually "DJ". Problem is it is done at noon to 1 o'clock and I am usually in full sunlight. Cassettes are actually the easiest to cue and pick a song (with an assistant) in that situation-though it has been several years since I used them. Unless anybody knows of any media playback devices that are sunlight friendly!
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We have a no cassette policy...
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For outdoor shows, I've seen apple's overtemperature triangle more times than I wanted too. Black digital devices left in the sun waiting for their turn to play. Or not.
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NO F***ING CONSUMER DEVICES!!!!
That's my policy and I'm sticking with it. If they can't eMail me an MP3 ahead of time or bring their track on a USB stick or CD, they don't get played. All music to be ripped into one of my computers before the show and verified viable.
No exceptions.
This is my rule as well.
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I am the sound guy for my church.
Young people give me phones.
Middle age CDs
Old people give me cassettes
The cassettes are the worst
Then there's the time at the county fair when the square dancers showed up without their turntable...
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I'm doing a High School Talent Show today. I did a run thru last night and most of the act's brought there music on there Phone. The phones have covers and are different brands each phone started and stopped with different ways. also all of the phones would go to sleep before I got the kids going. One phone had a pass code that had to be entered if it went to sleep. Out of about 10 acts only 1 act used a CD. Also 1 of the kids got a call, all while hooked up to the PA, it was her Dad.
I'm not complying and we will make it through the night but it was a challenge, The day of the CD is leaving very quickly and the sound quality takes another hit but that's the price of convenience.
I'm really surprised how fast this has happened and the new challenges we face. Thanks Jerry :-\
I'd like to ask people to bring their tracks on a thumbdrive but then I'll have to carry a laptop with me. How long before we can't even buy blank CDs? I play in a band with some oldtimers who don't really use computers. The CD is the only way I have to give them new songs to learn.
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I'd like to ask people to bring their tracks on a thumbdrive but then I'll have to carry a laptop with me. How long before we can't even buy blank CDs? I play in a band with some oldtimers who don't really use computers. The CD is the only way I have to give them new songs to learn.
I still prefer being sent MP3's in advance. I had a young singer come in with tracks on a thumb drive...over a hundred unidentified/unlabeled tracks. She didn't know which ones...
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I still prefer being sent MP3's in advance. I had a young singer come in with tracks on a thumb drive...over a hundred unidentified/unlabeled tracks. She didn't know which ones...
I always ask for 256K or higher mp3s in advance for review. I always offer to re-purchase the tracks if they sound bad (like the 64k streams captured off a YouTube video) at my expense. If it sounds like crap the audience thinks its the engineer's or system's fault. A buck is a cheap way to remedy this. I tell them there is no guarantee I can read anything on the day of the show.
Still, I have had to deal with some people who can't seem to provide music in advance even though I am often prepping a show months in advance.
At least I haven't seen any cassettes in 6 or 7 years, when I got a strange look from some kid's mother at a dance event when she handed me a cassette and I said sorry, I simply have no way to play that. She went home and brought back a Walkman.
It's probably best to be prepared to deal with whatever. I sometimes struggle to be helpful and supportive of whatever crap happens at a gig, but it does improve your chance of getting called back, so if that's the level you work at deal with it, keep smiling, and take a moment to educate the customer on how and why their child might sound so much better next time if they would only send the music in advance. You really want their kid to sound as good as possible...
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I was cleaning in the shop last week and found a cassette player in its box. I stacked it with the VHS players :-)
Speaking of sun... I had a gig a few years ago that needed some tracks played for a dance demonstration at a town festival. By the time I needed to play, neither of my CD players, or the laptop would play. Fortunately one of the crew had a MacBook in his truck and that worked.
Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD
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I was cleaning in the shop last week and found a cassette player in its box. I stacked it with the VHS players :-)
Speaking of sun... I had a gig a few years ago that needed some tracks played for a dance demonstration at a town festival. By the time I needed to play, neither of my CD players, or the laptop would play. Fortunately one of the crew had a MacBook in his truck and that worked.
Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD
We have one State of Kansas account that still has us record their workshops and public hearings on cassette. They get used to verify the minutes reporting and put on a shelf. Technically they're public records but I don't think they've ever been requested. As long as there is a working cassette deck in the USA, those recordings will be accessible.
So, to turn the tables/spindles, what about *recording* media? If we're recording for a client we all use whatever they provide or request, but digital recordings on media of dubious storage integrity or eventual technical obsolescence? As live sound folks we can say "not my problem" I suppose, but right now I'm listening to a live recording (on cassette) I made 15 years ago. In comparison, almost none of the digital media I have from 15 years ago has a working device to read them (floppies mostly); or have had enough data loss to render them unusable (CDR, high speed tape backup).
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There have been times that the Thumb Drives may be infected with a Virus, so always run a Scan on it before activating!
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I'm doing a High School Talent Show today. I did a run thru last night and most of the act's brought there music on there Phone. The phones have covers and are different brands each phone started and stopped with different ways. also all of the phones would go to sleep before I got the kids going. One phone had a pass code that had to be entered if it went to sleep. Out of about 10 acts only 1 act used a CD. Also 1 of the kids got a call, all while hooked up to the PA, it was her Dad.
I'm not complying and we will make it through the night but it was a challenge, The day of the CD is leaving very quickly and the sound quality takes another hit but that's the price of convenience.
I'm really surprised how fast this has happened and the new challenges we face. Thanks Jerry :-\
Jerry, I do a few of these each year and for the past several years my policy is whoever is in charge of the event has to get me all of the music on either .wav file or mp3. After I have everything I put it on a thumb drive and play it back through my board. This all makes my life much easier.
Bill 8)
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This.
I've encountered this many times that it's really frustrating & annoying, I've had it with people coming up to me asking to play a particular song from whatever they're handing me. I respond with the same as above "Your device = YOU make it work. We ain't touching it."
it would likely be a different answer on a corporate gig, but for most of the street festival work I've done where people show up with dance tracks it's all moving to ipod/phones and this is IMO the best policy. I don't deal with your electronic device. If someone is going to look stupid because it's not the right track or they don't know how to work the device, it's going to be you.
Bring me a CD and I'll rip and play it off the laptop as long as you don't show 5 minutes before your set. The worst are when they show and hand you a stack of 5 cd's and want a different track off each. Hopefully in that case I've got enough advance to rip them and drop them in the playlist. I use Exact Audio Copy and if it can't rip it, then the CD wasn't going to play in anything else either.
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I don't play that game. I do an annual talent show for a HS client of mine and the organizer compiles the music onto one CD or thumb drive, and sits with me while we go through each song and name the 'artist' field to the students name. This year I was even lucky enough to get start and stop points from her.
Now for my horror story, two weeks ago I provided sound for a good friends wedding, free of charge. A friend of the bride came up last minute with the brides phone and had songs to be played for guests being seated, the processional, and the recessional. There wasn't time or the means to load the songs onto my laptop, so we were forced to use the phone. The friend began to tell me which songs to play and for how long and I politely told her it would be best if she controlled the phone and I would control the volume. She made it through the seating and processional just fine, but when she attempted to play the recessional song (walking back down the isle after getting married) the iPhone wouldn't load the music app. It crashed 3 times before it finally loaded, and at that point the bride and groom had already walked. I suspect it was because she decided to film the entire ceremony on the brides phone and it probably ate up a lot of memory and bogged it down. Either way, major fail!
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I always ask for 256K or higher mp3s in advance for review. I always offer to re-purchase the tracks if they sound bad (like the 64k streams captured off a YouTube video) at my expense. If it sounds like crap the audience thinks its the engineer's or system's fault. A buck is a cheap way to remedy this. I tell them there is no guarantee I can read anything on the day of the show.
I've done this for church stuff on multiple occasions... If I'm lucky the track is on Spotify(I have Premium, so no ADs), but sometimes I have to buy from iTunes. The problem I'll run into at church is the lack of internet in the sound booth(actually the entire auditorium); the only place with internet is in the office around a 100 yards from the main auditorium in a different building. Oh and there's no cell service there... ::)