Mixing Bands Live

[Fishmed]

I was curious how many people have ever mixed bands for live show, and if so, what is the strangest situation you had to mix in.
I had two situations that made mixing a challenge. Once I had to mix a band in a room with a tin roof. Another time I had to mix the same band at a college. They had us set up in this one hall, I swear the foor and walls were marble. These guys were very loud to begin with. Talk about ear piercing.

 

[jal]

hey fishman,
i always get conned into doing live sound, which i hate. anyways, i once had to mix this band i a tunnel, boy was that fun. NOT
Jal

 

[sonusman]

I was hired to mix sound for a bridge re-opening. We were to set up at the east end of the bridge. The stage was at the end of the structure, the sound booth about 5 yards farther east of that. Sounds okay right?

One little problem.

I wound up right smack dab underneath a Interstate 5 ramp. It was a Saturday, and traffic was heavy. I could hear the diesels better than the bands.

One other little problem with this.

All of the bands that played were acoustic. One band had a electric bass and guitar. But they also had 5 singers, 3 horns, and a percussionist.

Had a bluegrass band that wanted to share 1 AT-4033 on stage.

Has a 9 piece band that included 7 Marimba's, and a percussionist.

Had a grade school choir. 2nd graders if I recall.

This was a gig that was not destined to sound good.....

Another doozy was when I mixed Steve Smith on a boat with 7 ft. ceilings. That is the same Steve Smith that used to play with Journey. He plays LOUD. Had 2 horns, guitar, bass, Hammond. All glass around me. Metal ceiling. Very small room, and nice little Peavey SP 2's for mains. Nice......

Ed

 

[Dark Fader]

I mix a live band twice a week for my youth group (I'm 16) and my church's worship band. I do some other live stuff, too. I had to mix my youth group's band with a little EV entertainer in this really reverberant room once with 2 really bad speakers. The whole place sounded like mush. Also, I mixed a band in a teeny store once. All the amps and the soundboard and everything else in the store were all running off the single power cicuit the store had. I really thought we were going to blow power then.