technical question, live

[opacity]

it's often the case that bands bring their own engineer on tour to mix the live-sound.


fact is, i often experience bad sound when international bands are performing, but not so often when national bands play.

my question is more of a general kind: do venue-owners or venue-engineers not tell their collegue (foreign engineer on tour) how the specific sound-system works? do they just put them in front of the mixing table and let them starve there?

I mean, it can't be that the soundsystem itself is good and can evidently produce great sound, but anytime a foreign band plays it's in most cases mediocre (often even less than that).
it's no fun when you're expecting a fave band and after the gig regret to have payed money

 

[George]

Well I think it differs for each band. Bringing an extra person on the tour means having to spend more money. If the label doesn't give the band the money then they wont be able to have a sound engineer with them.

At the clubs I go to it seems as though the venue has their own sound engineer and all the bands go through him. Most of the time the sound is good, but there have been a few bad mixes.

 

[opacity]

when there's no own sound engineer, the band is dependent on the venue's engineer's mood if he doesn't like the band or is indifferent, the sound is in most cases bad again.

 

[DragonKeeper]

here, the venues usually have their own sound engineers and/or equipment...which can suck sometimes.
a common problem that i see is that they tend to make the bass too loud and kill the vocals.

 

[Eleria]

a common problem that i see is that they tend to make the bass too loud and kill the vocals.

That's a common problem here too.
Most times here though the venues don't own PA's so the person they hire the PA off is often the engineer.
It can really kill a good band if the sound sucks.

We had an engineer once that kept playing with the master volume for the front of house and then kept changing the volumes for the foldbacks. The crowd didn't know what was going on.
It was probably the most frustrating gig I've played!

 

[DragonKeeper]

ya that is weird...
haha or the lighting guy gets a little too happy and play around with the lights. it really hurts your eyes after a while

 

[Eleria]

ya that is weird...
haha or the lighting guy gets a little too happy and play around with the lights. it really hurts your eyes after a while

Or makes you sweat buckets!
I swear I feel sunburnt after most gigs :Spin:

 

[DragonKeeper]

that too....

 

[opacity]

haha or the lighting guy gets a little too happy and play around with the lights. it really hurts your eyes after a while

especially when they turn on those insane 2x6-spot floodlights