Re: [Harp-L] passive agressive sound guys

["Splash" <celtiac@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

----- Original Message -----
> fjm wrote:
> > So who's the customer here?  The band and the venue or the sound person?



The customers?  Them's the good folks whose butts are in the seats.  Period!

I used to do sound and really liked it.  I might do it again sometime if I
could get somebody else to lug all that heavy stuff.  I'm getting too old
and that stuff hurt my back.

My basic principle is that I am working for the folks in the house who paid
(or not, if it is an outside fr*ee event.  I did plenty of them.)

First thing I do is talk to the musicians and figure out what their "stuff"
is and get them set up the way they like.  And then I tell them that I'm not
there to battle with them.  All I want to do is make it as easy for them as
possible and to have the good folks who are here to listen to them go home
saying how good they were.  So, if I ask them to adjust something on their
stage gear, please do it for everybody's benefit.  (I keep a mic at the
sound board so I can talk to the band thru the monitors.)  There is a good
reason for the "sound check."

I usually have earphones hanging on my neck so I can periodically listen to
the mix as it comes out of the board (and into a recorder for my personal
stash =8^D) but mostly just listen to the sound in the house.  If I like the
mix in the phones but the house sound needs tweaking, I tweak.

Mic'd amps are great, and I have no problem usually, except when it's the
bass player who wants to be louder than everybody else. (and you know who
you are!)

I often get a mention from the band and a thanks from the stage as well as
kudos from folks I know who are in the house.  If it doesn't sound good in
the house I didn't do my job.

It wasn't till later that I discovered this philosophy seems rare.  I
thought it was normal to make the band sound good.

Silly me.

PEACE
Scott
Believe in Magic!