The sound guy (or gal) is the most important component of your show that most bands don’t really think about. He (going with he for this piece out of ease – and most are men) can break your set (few sound guys can actually MAKE your set if you suck).
So, you have to know how to approach sound guys right and get them on your team for the short amount of time that you have with them.
3 comments:
This article makes a lot of good points and I think it can be applied to every "house" person you are working with at a venue. A little respect goes a long way, not just for musicians but also for other techs/designers working in a new space with new people. The few times I mixed sound at my high school nothing pissed me off more than when I was having trouble getting something to sound right or when equipment didn't work and some random person came up to the board and asked if I had everything under control. They might have meant well but all it did was piss me off more. I think every band that is just starting out and playing their first gigs should have to read this and take it to heart.
Ok, let me summarize this article for you. Respect your sound technician. Does this count as a comment?
In all seriousness, though. This is a great resource for disrespectful musicians. Heads up dudes, all technicians know each other, and if you're rude to them, each and every sound technician will know. Good luck getting a gig after that.
I couldn't agree with this article more. As a young sound guy I can say that i have only had to deal with this few times but when I have it gave me a pretty good understanding to what this author is saying. To start off I have to say that I agree with Philip that this can be applied for any "house" person. In the few times that I have had this problem I would have to say that 4 out of every 5 times the problem hasn't even been with musicians. I think however that it is often the worst when you see some young band acting like they're the Led Zeppelin of the 2000s. They walk in thinking that you know nothing about what you're getting paid to do and treat you like so. One group of people that may be even worse than a bigheaded musician is the friends and family of the talent. One memory of this was when I was mixing a Battle of the Bands event. For this particular show we only had one day to rehearse 20+ bands. With a rehearsal schedule like this i was left doing a lot of fine tuning for the show and I can honestly say that within the first 30 seconds of every set I would get some mother, father, boyfriend, girlfriend, etc. come up and ask if I could turn up their respective friend. Its times like those that really make me angry. can't these people just wait 1 damn minute before making uneducated requests on how I should mix the show.
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