snare mic picking up mostly hi-hats??

[xtremedb]

Dear Ed,

Truer words have never been spoken. Tell me if this sounds familiar:

The more experienced, pro level players compromise on ninety percent of the stuff you mention... the novice players argue as if being stubborn would make me think they're "professional"

How do I make my drums sound bigger? Answer: Softer cymbals... "No, you don't need an overhead... the cymbals are already bleeding through all six vocal mics, including the one I set up your your guitar player, who doesn't sing, but HAD to have a mic so the chicks wouldn't think he was the only guy who didn't sing"

Hey bass players... we don't fall for the trick where you ACT like you're turning down on stage... we used the same trick when your drunk girlfriend said there were "too many highs in the mix"...SIDENOTE: It's fun to label the front of the light tubes on your power supply. I used to label one "high" and the other "low" for drunks who felt the need to comment on the overall mix eq (when they were standing two inches in front of the speaker or in a corner)

Speaking of drunk girlfriends, how many times have you had the singer's girlfriend push her way back to FOH just to tell you that she couldn't tell what her boyfriend was saying "in the front". "Hey blondie! Yer standin in FRONT of the mains!"

Anyway, the good bands I do end up sounding like champs... <AD>and at a reasonable price</AD> ;-)

The guys who don't want to compromise (usually the younger less experienced guys)... Well, I'd be lying/stupid/poor if I said I didn't want their business. So what do I do? I make them happy. Moral of the story... you pay the same price for high quality sound reinforcement or "Ego-Boosters-R-Us".

What do you want?

Brad

 

[sonusman]

Hey Brad, funny post!

I once had a bass player, who of COURSE was WAY too loud, tell me after the soundcheck song that the only thing he could hear was himself. Someone in the crowd yelled "That's all we can hear too!"..... He turned down a lot......

I am mean to girlfriends. I tell them I don't like their boyfriend so I turned his mic off!

Ed

 

[tonyA]

MONITOR MIX

I seldom have any problems with musicians in the studio. My solution is to give each individual a different monitor mix on their headphones with the instrument they play as the loudest one.

Problems comes during mix down, well I have my mix already on CD. I let them fight it out amongst themselves and take their mix on CD home with my own mix, they normally come back deciding to go with mine.

I am not sure how effective this during live situations. This would be good if you have a separate monitor for each player and they are not really standing right next to each other.

You don't have to spend a lot on a monitor/mixer also. You can use those cheap mixers, as long as you have the number of bus you need for the number of outputs(musicians) you require.
You need a lot of monitor amp channels and cables though.

 

[xtremedb]

Nice try Tony

Live sound is a totally different animal than the safe, warm confines of the studio. I’ll let you get away with saying that you can use a cheap mixer for a monitor console. But you also need a split snake to run this setup… and another console… a case for that console… another rack for monitor EQ, etc (unless you integrate them in your amp rack if you never break the system up)

Do I have all this stuff? Yes. Do I want to bring it out for smaller gigs? No. Do bands want to pay for all this stuff at smaller shows? No. Will they still complain about monitors? Yes.

The problem isn’t big shows and it isn’t with the big guys. I’m more than happy to run a couple more mixes and a separate console if I am being adequately compensated. The problem is we all have to pay our bills and this sometimes means working for smaller acts.

On these stages, it doesn’t matter if I run six monitor mixes, a huge drumfill, and massive sidefills. It all becomes the same mush because the stage is so small. In these small clubs, I sometimes have the monitors competing with the mains… and I’m running close to 120 dB at FOH in these little rooms. BTW, most of these guys don’t wear ear plugs--- OUCH!!! Even with an unlimited budget, there are times, when you just can’t give people what they want… Not that I don’t have the equipment or the knowledge… just that what they want simply defies the laws of physics.

If you want a great mix and you don’t want to spend a fortune on sound, get some in-ears. I gladly hook these up for any musician that brings them to a show. I think they’re a very worthwhile investment.

My 2 cents.

Brad Gallagher
http://www.just-for-musicians.com/