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Author Topic: The Sound Guy is always the last to know...  (Read 15042 times)

Frank DeWitt

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Re: The Sound Guy is always the last to know...
« Reply #10 on: December 21, 2013, 11:38:29 PM »

The church band I mix for is always like oh yeah(5 minutes before we start, no sound check), we're going to use *insert odd instrument* today for 30 seconds during one song.... Is that a problem?


We have two rules that are never broken on Sunday morning.  We Pray first.   No new stuff on Sunday morning. EVER.  If you have a new instrument, that's great, I cant wait to see it at next weeks practice.  You will be challenged.  Hook up the new something and if your lucky like I was, it won't work.  One less guitar this morning, We will figure it out at practice.  No problems after that.
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Stephen Swaffer

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Re: The Sound Guy is always the last to know...
« Reply #11 on: December 22, 2013, 01:14:34 PM »

Mike Sokol's Live Sound Rule #2: It's always the Sound Guy's fault...

For our production we usually use 10-15 cordless mics and due to budget they are often shared and there is no way for me to physically manage the mics during the performance so to combat rule number 2 a few years ago I started using a wire label maker and put each vocalists name on the mic and a duplicate label on the mixer-and I tell the vocalists if they walk on stage with a mic without their name on it it will not be on-period.  Last year a young vocalist with just a bit of "I'm the talent" attitude grabbed her and her sister's mics at the last second before a full dress rehearsal.  As you might guess, when she stepped out for her solo part on a song no mic-signal LEDs on the board told me she had the wrong mic on, so when all eyes came my way I simply said she has the wrong mic on.  As she protested and fumbled under her costume for her mic I decided to bring up the mic she had on so rehearsal could continue.  Unfortunately, (fortunately  ;D???) it came up just in time for her to announce to all present, "Oh no, I have (sisters name)'s mic on" .  Confession must be good for the soul because it never happened again!
« Last Edit: December 22, 2013, 02:08:38 PM by Mike Sokol »
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Steve Swaffer

Tommy Peel

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Re: The Sound Guy is always the last to know...
« Reply #12 on: December 22, 2013, 03:13:10 PM »

We have two rules that are never broken on Sunday morning.  We Pray first.   No new stuff on Sunday morning. EVER.  If you have a new instrument, that's great, I cant wait to see it at next weeks practice.  You will be challenged.  Hook up the new something and if your lucky like I was, it won't work.  One less guitar this morning, We will figure it out at practice.  No problems after that.

O how I wish we were that organized.... It should be noted that this is for a Tuesday night youth service and we run between 40 and 100 in attendance. The normal practice is for everyone to show up 6(which tends to mean closer to 6:30...) for a practice before the service which starts at 7:30(people are getting there by or before 7 though). On rare weeks we'll meet on Monday nights and have a longer practice.

For our production we usually use 10-15 cordless mics and due to budget they are often shared and there is no way for me to physically manage the mics during the performance so to combat rule number 2 a few years ago I started using a wire label maker and put each vocalists name on the mic and a duplicate label on the mixer-and I tell the vocalists if they walk on stage with a mic without their name on it it will not be on-period.  Last year a young vocalist with just a bit of "I'm the talent" attitude grabbed her and her sister's mics at the last second before a full dress rehearsal.  As you might guess, when she stepped out for her solo part on a song no mic-signal LEDs on the board told me she had the wrong mic on, so when all eyes came my way I simply said she has the wrong mic on.  As she protested and fumbled under her costume for her mic I decided to bring up the mic she had on so rehearsal could continue.  Unfortunately, (fortunately  ;D???) it came up just in time for her to announce to all present, "Oh no, I have (sisters name)'s mic on" .  Confession must be good for the soul because it never happened again!

LOL!!

I'm glad I don't have that many vocal mics to deal with... We normally have 3 and sometimes have 4. It took a lot of convincing on my part for the band to understand that each person who's singing NEEDS their own mic(we're all Analog and can't just recall the channel/dynamics settings at the push of a button between songs). Sometimes they'll have someone who's not singing harmony sing lead on one song; for a while they'd want to just let him/her use someone else's mic, now they know to tell me so I can setup another mic and channel.
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Tommy Peel

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Re: The Sound Guy is always the last to know...
« Reply #13 on: December 22, 2013, 03:17:45 PM »

Mike Sokol's Live Sound Rules

#1: The Sound Guy is always the last to know...

#2)   It’s always the Sound Guy’s fault

#3)   Murphy was an optimist… i.e. at a live gig the toast will land butter side down, then burst into flames

#4)   All sound jobs take longer than you quoted

#5)   An artist’s ego is inversely proportional to their actual talent

#6)  You will need X+1 XLR cables for a gig, X being the number of cables you have with you


Mike Sokol (Just a live sound guy)

I gotta print this out and attach it to my mixer case somewhere.....
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Lyle Williams

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Re: The Sound Guy is always the last to know...
« Reply #14 on: December 22, 2013, 09:31:06 PM »

#3)   Murphy was an optimist… i.e. at a live gig the toast will land butter side down, then burst into flames

It is possible to view Murphy's law in a positive light.  You need to design failure out of the system.  If things can be plugged in the wrong way, someday they will be.
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g'bye, Dick Rees

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Re: The Sound Guy is always the last to know...
« Reply #15 on: December 22, 2013, 09:38:20 PM »

  You need to design failure out of the system. 

So you've found an antidote for entropy???
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Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain...

Lyle Williams

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Re: The Sound Guy is always the last to know...
« Reply #16 on: December 23, 2013, 03:16:47 AM »

The accelerometers that were the source of murphy's law had a rectangular flange with a bolt hole in each corner.  They all got bolted in back to front, so there was no test data from a critical test.  A different bolt pattern (eg trapezoid) would have prevented the installation error.

The popular version of murphy's law says "ha ha ha, we are soooo screwed."

The better version says "any mechanism for failure that we can imagine can be designed out of the system."

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Lyle Williams

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Re: The Sound Guy is always the last to know...
« Reply #17 on: December 23, 2013, 03:22:56 AM »

... but not necessarily cost effectively!   :-)
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Frank DeWitt

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Re: The Sound Guy is always the last to know...
« Reply #18 on: December 23, 2013, 08:03:44 AM »

Anything that can go wrong will, at the worst possible moment.
or
And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.

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Tim McCulloch

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Re: The Sound Guy is always the last to know...
« Reply #19 on: December 23, 2013, 09:47:13 AM »

Anything that can go wrong will, at the worst possible moment.
or
And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.

Without intending to open a theological debate, I offer up the baptismal electrocutions to support the first premise and negate the second...

Which means that we, as technicians and support staff, have to be on our game 110% where life safety is a concern.  We should never accept "good enough" when "correct" is required.  If the Big Guy wants someone electrocuted I think lightning is the biblical favorite.  Other forms of electrocution are, unfortunately, on US.
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ProSoundWeb Community

Re: The Sound Guy is always the last to know...
« Reply #19 on: December 23, 2013, 09:47:13 AM »


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