NZGuitars.com

Some great points in here! My theory has always been if you sound good as a band overall in a rehearsal type situation, then stepping in to a fully miced/mixed environment you're going to sound great with a good engineer. I think it's something that really sets the top bands apart! Radiohead spring to mind. There's a hell of a lot going on at times and they sounded amazing, in Vector no less!
Since we're sharing bad/funny soundman stories. I was playing keys for a friend mine who was doing very well within NZ at one stage. He got booked for an A&R showcase, along with Holly Smith (who was amazing!). Talk about pressure gigs. There were about 50/60 people in Backbeat. All pretty much from record labels, or other industry parts that could pretty much make or break him. Anyway, we were told to let them know what we needed for backline, and they said they'd got a Roland RD700 stage piano all good. There was a 10 minute change over and I go to check the keys and there's no sustain pedal. Which is like being given a guitar without strings... I ask the soundy where it is and he basically says "it wasn't on the rider so deal with it". Haha! It started getting very heated, before someone said I could use Hollie's Fender Rhodes. Sounded great, but a bit weird when the piano sound was needed. Anyway, he was pretty harsh in my opinion, however it taught me a very valuable lesson. Sometimes more info is better!

SimonHirst wrote:Some great points in here! My theory has always been if you sound good as a band overall in a rehearsal type situation, then stepping in to a fully miced/mixed environment you're going to sound great with a good engineer.

Nothing beats playing with a bunch of people who understand their own dynamics within the context of the band before anything else.

GrantB wrote:

SimonHirst wrote:Some great points in here! My theory has always been if you sound good as a band overall in a rehearsal type situation, then stepping in to a fully miced/mixed environment you're going to sound great with a good engineer.

Nothing beats playing with a bunch of people who understand their own dynamics within the context of the band before anything else.

Absolutely. Band context is everything!!

I always thought it was unfair when your watching even someone big ,but when they're doing the opening set for say an international act and they 're using the same desk PA etc as its all setup for the stadium but their sound is just at least half as good as the main act, its like the poor buggers are deliberately sabotaged so as not to overshadow the main act, they want those first few bars to just stand out and make everyone take notice that hey the main act is awesome and this is going to be good
happens every time and it really ruins the preshow for me

Thats why my rider is very explicit. Right down to the mango in a rainforest.

Capt. Black wrote:

MogwaiBoy wrote: One of my other favs was the inhouse engineer at the King's Arms - I forget his name, but his presence was seamless... he was so efficient and the sound there was always fantastic on stage and off.

You’re thinking of Mark Peterson. He was fantastic and one of the coolest guys. He’s resident sound guy at Whammy bar now which is making that venue a lot more popular to play at.

It cracked me up a few years ago when Mark was suddenly in the news getting inducted into the NZ music hall of fame. None of us had realised he was ex-Straitjacket Fits!

I think I know who that threatening asshole sound guy might be too. He’s actually pretty good at his job but not a “people person”

By day he's the CEO of the NZX
Amazing guy!

kwhelan wrote:I always thought it was unfair when your watching even someone big ,but when they're doing the opening set for say an international act and they 're using the same desk PA etc as its all setup for the stadium but their sound is just at least half as good as the main act, its like the poor buggers are deliberately sabotaged so as not to overshadow the main act, they want those first few bars to just stand out and make everyone take notice that hey the main act is awesome and this is going to be good
happens every time and it really ruins the preshow for me

Not fair on folks that have paid their money. Reminds me of the time Sharon Osbourne tried to sabotage Iron Maiden's sound. Couldn't have given two bucks for the thousands of people looking forward to seeing them.

kwhelan wrote:I always thought it was unfair when your watching even someone big ,but when they're doing the opening set for say an international act and they 're using the same desk PA etc as its all setup for the stadium but their sound is just at least half as good as the main act, its like the poor buggers are deliberately sabotaged so as not to overshadow the main act, they want those first few bars to just stand out and make everyone take notice that hey the main act is awesome and this is going to be good
happens every time and it really ruins the preshow for me

Yeah, sad, but very commonplace! It's a strange thing. My thoughts are, if you're the headliner then 90% of people are there especially for you because they know and love your music. If you need to disable parts of the PA/gear to hold your own against an opening act most won't have heard of, then I would firmly suggest the problem may lie elsewhere...

Terexgeek wrote: Your definition of "Good dude" and mine are different.

haha. a poor choice of words on my part. perhaps it would be better to say he INTENDS to be a good dude, but is so utterly lacking in normal relational skills that he's a right quim.

kwhelan wrote:I always thought it was unfair when your watching even someone big ,but when they're doing the opening set for say an international act and they 're using the same desk PA etc as its all setup for the stadium but their sound is just at least half as good as the main act, its like the poor buggers are deliberately sabotaged so as not to overshadow the main act, they want those first few bars to just stand out and make everyone take notice that hey the main act is awesome and this is going to be good
happens every time and it really ruins the preshow for me

Experienced this a few times... Worst was mixing a support band for Supergroove. The sound check went well and all smiles...then before the gig started their tech tool 18dB off the system gain at the Graphics. First song Im like WTF!. It wasn't a huge room so stage sound from amps was quite loud, but I struggled to get the vocals clean above the band. I found the problem but the Engineer was watching me and stopped me from fixing it...

Mixing at Western Springs with Knightshade I had a more subtle attempt...the main act stayed close to time at soundcheck, then the Aussies middle act did theirs....than the Singer insisted on walking around the stadium for 30 minutes while the band jammed ":to check the system sounded good". I ended top with the system shut off for pre gate security checks after 2 minutes of our check. Fortunately that one ended up sounding pretty good in the end!

On there other hand I had a band I played in do a debut gig at Mainstreet supporting The Flowers (IceHouse) back in 1980. Howard Page from Jands was their FOH guy and he gave us everything - it was a lesson in how to be a professional!

I get that here's often a kind of gain-staging happening, like if you have a dance music event with a bunch of DJs and you want to slowly build up to the headliner without peaking too early, etc etc - but deliberate sabotage of an opening bands' sound is unethical in my opinion.

Lawrence wrote:

kwhelan wrote:I always thought it was unfair when your watching even someone big ,but when they're doing the opening set for say an international act and they 're using the same desk PA etc as its all setup for the stadium but their sound is just at least half as good as the main act, its like the poor buggers are deliberately sabotaged so as not to overshadow the main act, they want those first few bars to just stand out and make everyone take notice that hey the main act is awesome and this is going to be good
happens every time and it really ruins the preshow for me

Experienced this a few times... Worst was mixing a support band for Supergroove. The sound check went well and all smiles...then before the gig started their tech tool 18dB off the system gain at the Graphics. First song Im like WTF!. It wasn't a huge room so stage sound from amps was quite loud, but I struggled to get the vocals clean above the band. I found the problem but the Engineer was watching me and stopped me from fixing it...

Mixing at Western Springs with Knightshade I had a more subtle attempt...the main act stayed close to time at soundcheck, then the Aussies middle act did theirs....than the Singer insisted on walking around the stadium for 30 minutes while the band jammed ":to check the system sounded good". I ended top with the system shut off for pre gate security checks after 2 minutes of our check. Fortunately that one ended up sounding pretty good in the end!

On there other hand I had a band I played in do a debut gig at Mainstreet supporting The Flowers (IceHouse) back in 1980. Howard Page from Jands was their FOH guy and he gave us everything - it was a lesson in how to be a professional!

Another sound guy who treated all bands with the same level of respect was Greg Carroll (RIP). Used to play at Mainstreet a lot eons ago and every time Greg mixed the bands he was totally focused on getting it right for every band.

We had a really good gig with Michelle from The Rock Factory in Auckland looking after sound for us. Bloody grateful too because sound check sounded great but there was no sound when we kicked off. We wouldn't even have known where to start but she sorted it straight away.

YES! Greg was a true gentleman.

StratMatt wrote:We had a really good gig with Michelle from The Rock Factory in Auckland looking after sound for us. Bloody grateful too because sound check sounded great but there was no sound when we kicked off. We wouldn't even have known where to start but she sorted it straight away.

she's awesome.