[Dixielandjazz] Sound guys

Sun Jun 4 12:12:28 PDT 2006

Best way for almost any OKOM BAnd to avoid this situation is simply to 
go shop and find your won reliable  inexpensive sound system that will 
adequately handle almost any situation up to about 500 people in a room 
or range.   Most of you do not play at high volume levels and do not 
need all that power in the first place.

Major outdoor events, with large audiences can often require a larger 
system, but unless it is a professional and highly experienced sound 
company they can often be just as bad as Larry describes.  ANYBOY can 
buy or Steal a bunch of old sound gear and mix and match and piece it 
together to crank up volume.   That does not make them professional 
sound men so the best thing to do is check them out at other venues and 
events for yourself and then either bring your own which you can charge 
extra for and your own operator (schlepper) who can also set up and 
sell your CDs, hand out your cards etc.   well worth the money you pay 
them if your band is any good, and you want it to sound good to get you 
repeat and future bookings form those who may be in attendance and like 
what they hear.

Even if you can't get the extra money for the sound, take it and use it 
anyway for the integrity of your show, for which YOU are responsible 
for, and have only yourself to blame if you sound bad up there.   But 
if your band is known as "The Pretty Good Boys"  then you may be 
relegated to doing everything on the cheap and not putting your best 
sound and professionalism forward to increase demand for your act and 
higher pay checks that come with it.

Professional acts won't settle for mediocrity it simply is not worth it 
in the long run.

Will there be an occasional exception, yes, but YOU can go a long ways 
to preventing train wrecks if you take care of business.
The event organizers lack of integrity or lack of professional 
knowledge should not stop you from making YOUR show solid and 
professional,  if it does shame on you,  If you are a Good Boy Scout 
and always GO PREPARED  you can avoid many train wrecks, and sound very 
good using your own gear rather than sounding bad using theirs,  If 
their sound for the other acts is bad simply refuse to use it and tell 
them you will use your Own if they don't agree go home, better than 
putting on a bad sounding show and having to complain and make excuses 
for how bad your band sounded.  The audience rarely knows why you sound 
so bad, only that you did and they will talk about or even worse yet 
get up and leave without staying to listen.

I have more than once asked that the sound be turned Off in venues that 
I have played because it and or the acoustics were simply 
uncontrollable for either the engineer or the band with electrical 
reinforcement.   Some venues were simply not meant for electronic sound 
systems no matter who's brother in law is getting a pay check to rent 
it and run it.

I have also been fortunate to play some 3000 year old  wonderful 
outdoor amphitheaters where no Sound system was needed at all and 
nobody had trouble hearing every note of the show and or the talking.   
How did they figure all that out that long ago without electricity and 
5000 watts of power.

Cheers,

Tom Wiggins

-----Original Message-----
From: Larry Walton Entertainment - St. Louis <larrys.bands at charter.net>
To: Butch Thompson <butte1 at mac.com>; djml 
<dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com>
Sent: Sun, 4 Jun 2006 11:55:04 -0500
Subject: Re: [Dixielandjazz] Sound  guys

    We played a gig at an up scale nursing home the Sunday before Fat 
Tuesday. They usually put the band in an atrium kind of area. There are 
three areas that radiate off of the atrium. All have lower ceilings 
than the stage in the atrium. The band's sitting eye level is just 
below the ceiling of the rooms which are very long and narrow. The 
guests are placed in these long low ceiling rooms. 

  As you can imagine the sound is pretty bad especially since we are 
more or less an acoustic group. 

 This year the recreation director decided to hire a sound crew. 

  I would have welcomed the hard rock cafe guys. These bozos looked like 
they had just been fired from a bluegrass festival. They were complete 
with bib overalls and beards that went down to their chests. 

  Their equipment looked like it had been through one too many rock 
concerts and the cabinets were huge. They brought in 7 of the biggest 
speaker cabinets I had ever seen and strung wires all over the place. 

  The microphones were placed on ordinary weighted mike stands with 
booms. If you extend these booms very far that kind of stand becomes 
unstable. They had all the mikes on those booms. Well I tipped one over 
going up the steps to the stage and they had a fit about screwing up 
their equipment. If the guy hadn't put it on a step that wasn't very 
stable and narrow with the boom extended it never would have happened. 

  The mikes cut in and out and while some people think of soprano saxes 
as mass weapons of destruction, with their help it became a reality. 
While I was basking in my new found power the guy playing banjo and 
singing couldn't be heard. He wouldn't touch the mike because they had 
yelled at me. I got up to wiggle the cord and see if the thing was 
turned on and guess what. My mike went over again. 

  It got pretty exciting around there for a few seconds while the blast 
from the mike explosion died down. 

  I'm looking forward to next year and the reunion concert with these 
clowns. 
 Larry 
 St. Louis 
 ----- Original Message ----- From: "Butch Thompson" <butte1 at mac.com> 
 To: "djml" <dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com> 
 Sent: Saturday, June 03, 2006 2:18 PM 
 Subject: [Dixielandjazz] Sound guys 

 > 
 > 
  >> I remember Hary Epp used to say "When you see a sound tech wearing 
a T >> shirt 
 >> that says "Hard Rock Cafe", beware." He was right 
 > 
 > Does anybody remember who put it this way: 
 > 
  > "My confidence in any sound man is inversely proportional to the 
length > of 
 > his ponytail." 
 > 
 > Butch Thompson 
 > 
 > 
 > _______________________________________________ 
 > Dixielandjazz mailing list 
 > Dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com 
 > http://ml.islandnet.com/mailman/listinfo/dixielandjazz 
 >  
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