[quote title=Andy Peters wrote on Mon, 10 April 2006 22:41]
Tim McCulloch wrote on Mon, 10 April 2006 19:08 |
snip
Was the system clamped down on the support bands?
That's the usual reason for support band engineers running the console into the red ... there's nothing coming out of the PA.
(Yeah, I know that running the console into clip doesn't make the PA get any louder, so it's still a BE problem, but you get my point.)
-a
|
Been there done that.
This was warming up for Night Ranger.
It is a “two step” approach.
First while setting up the headliner management comes to me and lets me know they are going to limit my volume. I say, yes I understand.
The warm up band I am working for gets its own small mixer so I ask their manger and the head guy that brought the PA to help me set a level so I have my board outputs kicking around “0” when I hit the threshold on their compressor.
So during sound check with my band we get the gain structure right and we are ready to go.
Show time, I un-mute the mains and…there does not seem to be very much volume.
Hmmm…
I go over to their drive rack and there is smiley the manager guarding the compressor which he has set even lower then we agreed on so I’m seeing as much as 12dB gain reduction with my main outputs kicking around “0”.
Nothing to do but go back and deal with it.
It so happens in this particular instance they screwed themselves.
For one thing my band did not have a vocalist. Just guitar, bass and drums
So the drums took the biggests hit, but I could really compress them without totally destroying their sound. It no longer sounded natural, more like a drum machine, but it worked.
The lead guitar was not a problem since he could make a stab at covering the remodeled movie theater with his stage amp.
The bass guitar stage rig had to cover more then I liked, but he did too many runs up in the mid range to get away with clamping him much and gain anything.
When I was done I had two visitors.
The head guy from the sound company apologized and told me he would not have allowed the manager from Night Ranger screw us so bad if he had known how good the warm up band was. I guess he figured he might have blown potential jobs in the future.
The BE for Night Ranger who happened to be a studio guy came by. He complimented me on the mix and assured me he had nothing to do with my volume problems.
As he was soon to find out they actually did me a favor.
The ancient, nasty, rotten speakers brought were owned by what was widely acknowledged as the worst sound company of its size in business in the state.
My experience is the worst drivers made can sound ok AS LONG AS YOU DON’T PUSH THEM VERY LOUD!!!
He had maybe 6dB over what I was allowed to push the system and he tried for another 12dB and more.
When leaving I told him “Good luck. You’re gonna need it” and walked out just as the PA was starting to sound REALLY painful.