You know it's going to be a good night recording when...

[NorseHorse]

You know it's going to be a good night recording when...

The director asks you to get an extra mic and says "Let's get a little back-and-forth going. Just improv during the show..."

[NorseHorse]

You know it's going to be a good night recording when...

The director throws her baton aside to conduct with a lightsaber.

You get to make lightsaber-fight noises over the PA system.

The director slays one of the ensemble members in time with the music.

You get to finally showcase that Chewbacca impression you've been honing since you were twelve years old.

[Thomas W. Bethe]

You know it's going to be a good night recording when...

When the director of the Brass Guild shows up, goes on stage and promptly falls off the podium because he has just consumed more than a quarter bottle of vodka.

When the conductor of the orchestra cannot find her music and has to send one her assistants back to her apartment to get it.

When the conductor of an ensemble starts conducting the wrong piece because he forgot the show order.

When the conductor of the band has a clown come up and throw a pie in his face while he is doing the announcements at an outdoor concert.

When the pianist has such a case of stage fright that she urinates on the piano bench and you have to have a stage crew person go out and clean it up between pieces.

When the soprano has on such a tight dress that she cannot walk out to the stage to begin singing with the orchestra.

When the whole riser section that the percussion is standing on collapses and, although no one was hurt, they have to play the rest of the concert from behind the risers.

When the truck carrying the equipment to an off site concert gets lost and there is no percussion equipment, no double basses and no harp so the first half of the concert is played sans harp. bass and percussion. Turns out the driver made a wrong turn down a one way street did not know how to get back to the venue.

When the whole orchestra gets rained on during a concert when the sprinkler system malfunctions and goes off showering the orchestra, their instruments and the stage floor.

When half way though an opera the fire alarm goes off clearing the hall.

When at a piano concert, done in a converted boat house, the venue loses its lights when a couple of the local kids steal the fuses half way though the fist piece. The pianist never misses a beat and when the fuses are replaced the lights come back on and he finishes the concert he gets a a 10 minute standing ovation.

When the concert mistress faints about five minutes into the fist piece and falls on the floor. Her stand partner makes a wild grab for her violin and so she does not fall on it. He goes on to finish the concert as the concert master and gets a five minute standing ovation.

When the childrens choir is halfway through their program and one of the children faints from standing too long with his knees locked. The program comes to a halt he is taken off the stage and later another young man also faints.

When at a outdoor concert the orchestra is playing the 1812 Overture and at the end of the piece mother nature provides the thunder and lightening almost as if it had been pre planned.

When in the middle of the concert a bird, who had flown into the building, decides to attack the conductor. When the music stops the bird flys away but when it starts up again back comes the bird attacking the conductor. The piece they are playing is Stravinsky's The Fire Bird.

Oh well enough for now. All true - all witnessed by yours truly.

[loujudson]

Originally Posted by Thomas W. Bethe

You know it's going to be a good night recording when...
edited.
When at a outdoor concert the orchestra is playing the 1812 Overture and at the end of the piece mother nature provides the thunder and lightening almost as if it had been pre planned.

Oh well enough for now. All true - all witnessed by yours truly.

Wow, the first laugh-out-loud-to-tears post in a while! Thanks! More, please.

But really, was the 1812 recorded? I would actually pay for a copy of that.

Lou

[Thomas W. Bethe]

It was recorded by me and the tape belongs to the Cleveland Orchestra. It was done at Blossom Music Center in the 70's. I do not have a copy of it.

[loujudson]

Originally Posted by Thomas W. Bethe

It was recorded by me and the tape belongs to the Cleveland Orchestra. It was done at Blossom Music Center in the 70's. I do not have a copy of it.

But what a memory...

L

[Paul_Jolstead]

Norsehorse,

How did you record this? What was the signal chain?

Thanks

[NorseHorse]

Thanks for the interest. The mic stand was about 15ft back from the conductor and the mic about 15ft up.

Crown SASS --> Great River MP-2M --> Edirol R-44 at 24/44.1 --> SONAR (some reverb added)

I've attached a picture of the auditorium. The Wind Symphony sets up where all those chairs are at the bottom, and the percussion is onstage. The sound of the hall is "meh", but they performed in sync with video, so it was a lot of fun.

Anyone else know when it's going to be a good night...? (Sarcastic remarks welcome.)

PS. Thomas, your stories are hilarious. I once was at an outdoor group piano recital and at least two of the students ran away during the middle of their pieces because of ants.

[iluvatar]

Originally Posted by Thomas W. Bethe

When the pianist has such a case of stage fright that she urinates on the piano bench and you have to have a stage crew person go out and clean it up between pieces.

How do you do that discreetly?

-Dan.

[Thomas W. Bethe]

The stage crew person was sent out with a dust cloth. He dusted the keys, the pedals and the bench and the floor under the bench and tried to make it look like it was planned. He did a great job and when he walked off stage he had the rag in his upstage hand so no one could see it was dripping wet with urine. I took him out for a beer after the concert. The pianist was so shaken she almost canceled the rest of the concert but she went out and played the second half and did a great job under less than ideal circumstances. She never performed again in public it was just too traumatic and she was just to nervous. She had to change gowns in between songs so no one would see her urine soaked dress. Luckily she had a spare in her studio. I don't think the audience caught on to what was happening. It was a good save.

[NorseHorse]

You know it's going to be a good morning recording when...

You wake up on a Saturday to an email asking you to record an 11AM solo piano recital... and it's already 10:15AM.

No problem though. I hopped out of bed, booked it over to the hall, introduced myself to the family of the performer, and set-up with 15 minutes to spare. Once I had levels adequately set, I went to breakfast. Om nom nom. I probably still had my PJs on.

[JonesH]

Originally Posted by NorseHorse

You wake up on a Saturday to an email asking you to record an 11AM solo piano recital... and it's already 10:15AM.

Ha! Loves that... I also love when you get to work, have the morning all planned out and a dancer comes into the tech dept and says "we'd like a cd player in the concert hall for a child performance".

Dept head: Well, sure. Talk to that guy (me).
Me: Hi, when do you need it?
Dancer: Well, the show's starting in three minutes.
Me: Oh, okay.

(Followed by very speedy rigging)

[rumleymusic]

You know it's going to be a good night recording when...

The conductor is pissed at a violist and fires him a couple days before the concert. The violist shows up anyway the conductor refuses to start the concert until the violist is removed.

You are setting up for a recording, see the lights flicker and look over at the control booth, which is on fire.

You realized you forgot to validate your parking which in the end costs $38

[chris319]

You know it's going to be a good night recording when...

All members of the orchestra have the same concept of what pitch C should be (and A, B, D, etc.).

[Teddy Ray]

When 5 minutes before the baton drops, some kid on the balcony unplugs your equipment and all your gear goes black.

[loujudson]

Originally Posted by Teddy Ray

When 5 minutes before the baton drops, some kid on the balcony unplugs your equipment and all your gear goes black.

I really don't want to chastise YOU, but this is one reason I have trained myself and all my assistants to securely tape all power plugs if they are at all vulnerable to the public oir musicians... this as a warning to newbies this is preventable!

I began the practice when the performer stepped on the power cable and pulled it out at the end of set 2 - killing the Masterlink I was recording on before the file got saved, Gone forever! ouch.

L

[Teddy Ray]

Originally Posted by loujudson

I really don't want to chastise YOU, but this is one reason I have trained myself and all my assistants to securely tape all power plugs if they are at all vulnerable to the public oir musicians... this as a warning to newbies this is preventable!

I began the practice when the performer stepped on the power cable and pulled it out at the end of set 2 - killing the Masterlink I was recording on before the file got saved, Gone forever! ouch.

L

this was my very first recording, Mozart Requiem , several years ago. It was taped down! Kid ripped up the tape while his parent sat there and did nothing. I was on the floor level so I could do nothing.

[Corran]

You know it's going to be a good night recording when...

You forget to push record on your fiancee's recital.

[odeon]

You know it's going to be a good night recording when...


six people desperately search for the chirping cicada in an opera house for hours.

[mixedupsteve]

You get to do a recording a Christmas medley that is described as very bad, almost unrecognizable!

This was for a local production of A Tuna Christmas I did the sound design for. Beginning of Act 2, Tuna High School Band.

[Remoteness]

Man, I want to use that medley as my ringtone!

Originally Posted by mixedupsteve

You get to do a recording a Christmas medley that is described as very bad, almost unrecognizable!

This was for a local production of A Tuna Christmas I did the sound design for. Beginning of Act 2, Tuna High School Band.

[Chrislpp]

The guitarist's(solo act) ego gets in the way and he decides to pull out the jack and play unplugged.

[rumleymusic]

Originally Posted by mixedupsteve

You get to do a recording a Christmas medley that is described as very bad, almost unrecognizable!

This was for a local production of A Tuna Christmas I did the sound design for. Beginning of Act 2, Tuna High School Band.

Find a happy place! Find a happy place! Find a happy place!.......

[5flagsaudio]

Originally Posted by mixedupsteve

You get to do a recording a Christmas medley that is described as very bad, almost unrecognizable!

This was for a local production of A Tuna Christmas I did the sound design for. Beginning of Act 2, Tuna High School Band.

You can always tell when tuna is past it's prime by the bad smell.

[NorseHorse]

You know it's going to be a good night recording (and running live sound)...

When one of the band members hands you a tomato before their set, and says, "Here, you're going to need this." Talk about audience plants!

[7rojo7]

Originally Posted by NorseHorse

You know it's going to be a good night recording (and running live sound)...

When one of the band members hands you a tomato before their set, and says, "Here, you're going to need this." Talk about audience plants!

This is priceless


When your waiting for your custom 8 channel mic splitter with LK25 in and 3 LK25 outs that you ordered specially for this gig arrives from DHL an hour before the performance and you arrive at the gig late and the service guy already has his mics up and checked, you have to ditch the splitter idea because stupid you fogot to bring sex changers for one of your stage boxes and it wasn't possible anyway (looking at someone 25 years younger than you with a male XLR in his hand and asking me where he can put it) but put your mics up (thank god it was an accordeon and his mics were all attached) and you're given an award 5 years later for best recorded jazz album but haven't used the splitter since.

[jude]

you know its going to be a good festival recording...

when none of the other sound engineers show up for the first night, meaning you do an 18 hour stint on the FOH desk as well as recording

when you finally take a break you come back to find your mics thrown upstage and landing in a rather large pool of water

and on the next day i took a break, and none of the DATs were labled when i got back... not looking forward to sorting this out!!!

[NorseHorse]

When this is your recording station. The director and I played a few rounds before the show.

Much better than the bathroom I used at their last gig.

[rumleymusic]

When this is your recording station. The director and I played a few rounds before the show.

There should be another thread: Post your ugliest view during a live session.

[DannyL]

This was a live broadcast:

You know it's going to be a good day when you show up at 4:00am at MSG and all the doors are locked and it is minus 15 degrees Farenheit.
Apparently no one alerted the security people that we would be there to broadcast the NHL ALL STAR GAME!!! Man it was cold!!

All of the Effects mics (ice level game sounds) were powered, preamped and distributed at ice level. The racks were plugged in, taped and tie-wrapped into place, under and behind the stands with Day Glo gaffer's tape labels saying "DO NOT TOUCH." The player introductions were accompanied by a laser show. Midway through the first period of play a stagehand unplugged everything, INCLUDING our rack of audio gear!!! His response was "How was I supposed to know?" Great, just great. Luckily I was able to reconnect in an instant. NBC, CBC and all international feeds with no game sounds for what seemed like forever.

Regards;
Danny

Originally Posted by loujudson

I really don't want to chastise YOU, but this is one reason I have trained myself and all my assistants to securely tape all power plugs if they are at all vulnerable to the public oir musicians... this as a warning to newbies this is preventable!

I began the practice when the performer stepped on the power cable and pulled it out at the end of set 2 - killing the Masterlink I was recording on before the file got saved, Gone forever! ouch.

L