I just gotta rant about the gig i went on this weekend. I am a BE for a freinds band. They rent a system for a gig from a guy down the street who supposedly has a real nice system. they rent it for $400. Well I was skeptical at first that a $400 system could cover an outside gig for 600-1000 people. So the day of the gig gets here and its raining so the gig has been moved into the high school gym from the football stadium. Well we all know how much fun a gym is!! So we get there to meet the guy bringing the system. The high school setup the portable stage facing long ways down the gym. We don't have enough time to move the stage so we just deal with it. The sound system shows up and here is what the guy has brought, remember he didn't know that we had moved inside yet, it was sun shinny where he was.
2 A&H Gl2200's 1 FOH/1 Mon
4 Sonic double 15 cabs EV loaded
2 sonic 18" horn loaded subs
2 sonic 18" horn loaded subs, not quite the same as the other 2 above.
2 AB amplifiers powering the subs
2 QSC PLX 3002's for tops
Well needless to say the bottom end sounded like crap cause of mismatched subs. He sets the tops on top of the subs, which puts the horns at just an inch or so above head level. I ask him if he thinks that that will cause a throw issue with the highs, cause I thought there would be, he says "nah, its a gym." WTF does that have to do with it. So i'm finishing micing the guitar cabs and such like I like and just making sure everything on stage is neat and tidy and the guy starts my soundcheck for me. Didn't ask just up and started to soundcheck, and he started setting eq's for everything. I got pissed at the lack of respect shown by this. I have been doing this type of work for 6 years, and never hava i been disrespected like that. I thought anyone who has ever worked sound in a gym realized that trying to eq the instruments and everything before the people fill it up would be a waste of time.
All this guy was supposed to do was set up the system and tear it down again. He wasn't even gonna be there for the gig, left his young apprentice to make sure I didn't blow anything up. So during the show the highs almost dissapear at the mix position because of all the heads blocking the horns and the bottom end sounded like crap cause of the subs not being synced up. The guy actually set up a reverb on the effects processor for the vocals, before I got back to the board. I couldn't believe that anyone would use a Reverb on vocals in a gym, am I wrong here? Thank god the band uses all in-ears so that we didn't have any floor wedges adding to the mud in the room.
I understand his setting up the system and testing it. He didn't really tune the system at all. In fact he set the house eq on a driverack pa by playing a George Strait Cd, the band i mix for plays rock!? This is what they paid $400 for and it was originally supposed to cover 600-1000 people outside? Not on my life would it have done that. Am I wrong in thinking that they didn't get their moneys worth out of the system. I just let the guy finish HIS soundcheck and then i reset the eq's when he left and used the first song to re-eq and I never used the verb that he was using, in fact i used no effects on vocals that night, it was hard enough to make them intelligible as it was.
Thanks for the chance to vent.
Stephen "I Hate Gyms" Greene
P.s. The guy who brought the system has "been doing this for 20 years!"