[Dixielandjazz] Re: Bouncing Sound - Was Monitors03

[Stephen Barbone]

> During the Turk Murphy Carneigie Hall concert in about 1988, my daughter
> Molly I sat onstage behind the band as the place was full.  We could hear
> the rhythm section in real time & the horns 1/4 second later bouncing off of
> the back wall because their backs were to us.
>
> This was in Carneigie Hall which is supposed to have superb acoustics.

Of course. Carnegie has great acoustics. Except if you are sitting on stage some distance behind the rhythm section and further behind the horns where no seats were meant to
be.

> When I mentioned it to Jim Cullum during the intermission, he gave us seats
> in his box out front.  Sitting there, the sound was great!

That's where the correct sound is supposed to be.

And yes, sitting 50 feet away from each other can give you problems. The solution to that is easy, don't do that.

But I have a further, perhaps stupid, question. How do 100 piece symphony orchestras do it?  Do they all have monitors? Or do they block out the delayed sounds, or the sound in
total and just follow the baton? How do those in the back, like percussionists, manage to come in at the right spot. The must see the baton giving the beat  slightly before the
delayed violin sounds on the beat reach them. Lordy Lordy, and they've been playing like that for hundreds of years.

Man, it must be a bitch to be a symphony player with all that mishmash bouncing around.  Plus a baton that is not on the beat. My respect for them has just increased 10 fold.
;-)

Cheers,
Steve Barbone