Mixing an open-air concert with 35,000 people

[Thomas W. Bethe]

In my 26 years doing concert sound I have had my share of real pros and real duds.

We were doing sound for the Roches. The "sound engineer" was one of the girl's current boy friends and what he did not know about concert sound or audio would fill a lot of books. But he was the boyfriend and as such they hung on every word of that he said even if it was completely wrong or he was giving them a lot of bogus information. It was not a good event and as the sound check proved he did not know much about what he was doing because it was feedback city for most of the soundcheck.

We also did concert sound for a lot of British, Scottish and Irish folk groups like Boys of the Lough, Silly Wizard, Clannad and they always seem to have great engineers who not only knew what they were doing but had a good sense of humor while doing it.

Some groups we did multiple times and it was interesting to see how they evolved. Many of them came in station wagons the first time, vans the second and tour buses the final time I worked with them. When they were just starting out they were great to work with and fun to be around. When they were back the second time they had more demands and spent less time joking or talking and when the came back the final time they were all business and usually provide their own "sound guy or girl" for the event. Sometimes these "sound" people were real pros but sometimes they were jerks and the only reason they were the "sound" person was because they were sleeping with the lead singer and they wanted some reason to have him or her on the tour.

Concert sound is fun to do and you meet amazing people and learn a lot in the process from watching the guest engineer and talking to them over dinner or a beer after the show. It was fun while it lasted but in real terms the great engineers were overshadowed by the bad ones and I remember very vividly the bad ones and tend to forget the really good ones.

I hope that the OP has nothing but good luck doing the sound and has a very memorable concert in a good way and not in a bad way.

[memphisindie]

Been there done that Thomas.
I see we've worked with some of the same acts, Clannad, Roches. I used to have to acommodate guest engineers fairly frequently at The Bottom Line. Simply Red's engineer in the '89/'90 time period stands out as one of my favorites. He was so different than most of the guys yet totally excellent, full of knowledge of British Style eq techniques. I got to learn a little from him, Bill Raimey was LOUD but excellent and super fun, Some guys I knew I could turn it right over to no prob. Some, like Michael Franks manager who insisted on mixing, were absolute horrors.
After leaving that gig, I went to touring and became "the guest engineer". I told house guys that had attitude that I was looking for someone to handle gigs for me and that if they were good I would shoot what ever I couldn't get to to them, which was very true, usually, they got out of the way. I had one guy, a sound company guy on he cocker tour who was hell bent on screwing the opening act and me in the process, he would turn the amps on and off for sections of the PA during the show, turn off the monitors mid song, Kevin at SunSound I'll never forget that guy, he kept saying "tour hijynx!", I wasn't laughing. They went out of business. Once, one of the Sound company mags came out to interview the tech crew and they got him, he told them to F••• off, go to hell, screw you, go bother someone else.
That's when I learned:
Incompetence is out to kill competence!
I had another guy, Bryce something or other, worked for a southern regional company run by two brothers, who would break out into spontaneous fist fights in the shop. He couldn't put his rig together and make it work. All he had to do was assemble monitors, but, he only knew part of how to do it one way and he was a raging alcoholic. We show up at the gig, just barely because he was drunk, playing stupid driver on the highway and almost tipped over a fully loaded 24' truck on cars on the highway while playing swervey driver for his friend, had it on two wheels at one point.
We unload, I set up FOH in a half hour and tested it, no problems, he's not even close with monitors so I go over to help, get it set up in 30 mins and test it, he can't figure it out (It was set up standard channel layout with monitors as you see them) and calls the owner, says I set it up wrong, I get on the phone and tell him what's up and he says, "reset it and show Bryce how to set it up". I'm thinking, we have 3 hours and have to patch in the auditorium's existing wireless and their crew is not there, no problem. So, I did, he still didn't understand, he's drunk, so, I blew it off after that. I should have just patched monitors to open auxes at FOH and not said anything, but, I just set them correctly and went back to FOH. Finished with the local crew, got through the show, load-out, back to the shop, GOT FIRED(thank God), apparently Bryce was a pathological liar and a DUI multiple offender, but owner "sluggo #1" believed whatever story he concocted and I was out.
I had to go get my stuff from the back, when Bryce saw me he RAN to his truck at a dead run and peeled outta there, he had a drunk driving accident too. He hated guest engineers though he had no clue himself.CPX, gone.
I've seen some real winners. That company went outta business too. Thank God. The owner us to show up on gigs where everything was running smoothly and screw something up just so he could fix it in front of the client. WHAT an idiot. Hated guest engineers.
That was the only two incidences I've had in many years.
There are all kinds out there.
By the same token and in TOTAL contrast, I worked at the same time for a company in the same region called MP, they grew, they listened the crew was great, Ragus and Keg were excellent. Always a good show with them and they are huge now and swallowed the other company.
There was another company in the region, and their owner liked to argue with the state safety people and venue people. I dreaded their gigs. You never know what you're going to have to work with because owners of sound companies rarely check references, do background checks, or, have to pass one either.

[Jim vanBergen]

Originally Posted by Thomas W. Bethe

We were doing sound for the Roches.

Tom, maybe you will enjoy this. When I still owned my remote truck, I was hired to do a a live album of a multi-act event that the Roches were headlining, or maybe Suzzy Roche was also singing with two other acts, something like that.

The event producer was my final client, sitting with me and my asst. eng in the truck, when in comes some dude who says, "I'm the Roche's engineer to make sure this sounds good" and the producer said, 'this is MY show, it sounds the way I want it, and HE's mixing this. Go mix FOH, you're not coming in here" & threw him out on his ear.



I felt really bad for the guy at the time. But now, thanks to your post, I don't.

[memphisindie]

Originally Posted by Jim vanBergen

Tom, maybe you will enjoy this. When I still owned my remote truck, I was hired to do a a live album of a multi-act event that the Roches were headlining, or maybe Suzzy Roche was also singing with two other acts, something like that.

The event producer was my final client, sitting with me and my asst. eng in the truck, when in comes some dude who says, "I'm the Roche's engineer to make sure this sounds good" and the producer said, 'this is MY show, it sounds the way I want it, and HE's mixing this. Go mix FOH, you're not coming in here" & threw him out on his ear.



I felt really bad for the guy at the time. But now, thanks to your post, I don't.

I'm appreciating that one!! ha ha. What a doof! Was it "Rover"?

[Thomas W. Bethe]

Originally Posted by Jim vanBergen

Tom, maybe you will enjoy this. When I still owned my remote truck, I was hired to do a a live album of a multi-act event that the Roches were headlining, or maybe Suzzy Roche was also singing with two other acts, something like that.

The event producer was my final client, sitting with me and my asst. eng in the truck, when in comes some dude who says, "I'm the Roche's engineer to make sure this sounds good" and the producer said, 'this is MY show, it sounds the way I want it, and HE's mixing this. Go mix FOH, you're not coming in here" & threw him out on his ear.



I felt really bad for the guy at the time. But now, thanks to your post, I don't.

LOL

If it is the same guy I would not let him within 10 feet of any kind of quality audio gear. He was a real PITA. Good to see than not everyone was impressed with his "credentials" which basically were sleeping with one of the sisters and was made their "audio engineer" so he could travel along.

Thanks! you made my day...

[Jim vanBergen]

Originally Posted by memphisindie

I'm appreciating that one!! ha ha. What a doof! Was it "Rover"?

Didn't catch the name, I'm sorry to say. My asst called him "Naga" after the Office Space joke, "Naga..Naga... (shrug) 'Naga' be working here anymore!"