[Dixielandjazz] sound gripes

[Ministry of Jazz]

Shalom Jazz Fans,

At the risk of stating the obvious, I could never figure out why a brass
band needs to be amplified at all, in most circumstances that most of us
perform in. My Doctor Jazz band does nearly all of our performances
unplugged, with only a battery operated portable amp to boost the vocals. We
have performed in this configuration for as many as 300 people, even
outdoors, with no problem. On the rare occasions (so far anyhow) where we
perform in a larger venue, the venue has their own system, and sometimes
even has someone who knows how to run it. On several occasions we have had
sound system problems during  setup or even during a show, and "have had to"
play (in my book, we "got to play") acoustic, and invariably the audience
expressed enthusiastic appreciation for our sound, saying it was better
without the PA system. And I repeat, I have almost NEVER had a gig that
involved a sound system without having problems either with the system or
the people who run it.

Two specific problems I run into frequently with amplification (besides when
it doesn't work!):

1) I find it drives me crazy when a sound guy fiddles with my volume while
I'm playing. When I hear changes in my volume or tone, I instinctively try
to compensate. Volume goes up, I move farther from the mic and/or play
softer, and vice versa. So rather than working together, the sound guy and I
are fighting each other, and the audience suffers for it. I was once miked
so loud that every little move I made reverberated through the outdoor
venue. The sound guy was G-d knows where after setting up and it was time to
go on (fortunately it was just a solo gig), so I moved several feet back
from the microphone until I felt the sound was tolerable.

As someone pointed out, monitors usually prevent you from hearing what the
audience hears. I'm sorry, but I don't trust ANY sound man enough to leave
my performance to a large crowd in his fidgety little hands. Somehow, I need
to hear the mix that is going out into the room, or I will not use the
system. Period. If it means not using monitors, so be it. In my limited
experience, if you're miked properly, you can hear all the instruments and
the balance as it goes out into the room. If I can't hear everyone without a
monitor, I wonder what the audience hears! [Note: the way I taught my
players to play balanced is, when they complained to me that we need a sound
system because they couldn't hear this or that instrument or voice, I would
tell them, "Do you know what that means? It means YOU are playing too loud.
Play so you can hear everyone else, and then we will work on raising the
overall volume when we need to."]

2) I often sit in with a friend's band that uses an electronic keyboard. The
players are Russian, conservatory trained, and excellent musicians. My
problem is, and maybe it's the onset of old age or maybe it's raw prejudice,
I have trouble hearing accurately what the keyboard player is doing. In an
acoustic band, I can usually hear chords and bass with no problem, and fit
myself into the mix. But with the synthesized sound, I find it much more
difficult to discern chords and bass. Unless I am well familiar with the
song(s) being played, I often cannot find my place in the mix, and so I play
much less accompaniment than I normally would, and stick with melody when
it's my turn. Or one of them will complain that I am playing different
chords from the keyboard. (It certainly is possible that I would use
different chords, but I can usually hear it and either make the correction
or lay out.) What bothers me is that I feel less able to hear accurately
when playing in the electrified audio soup.

About sound men who turn microphones off and don't pay attention to when
they need to be on, you don't want to get me started. The day this ever
happens to me during a show when I am leading the band, I will personally
unplug every @#&#@ mic on the stage and do the rest of the show unplugged.
And if I have any say in the matter, that sound person will be saying "Would
you like fries with that?" in his next job.

Elazar "call me a fanatic" Brandt
Doctor Jazz Dixieland Band
Tekiya Brass Ensemble
Jerusalem, Israel
www.israel.net/ministry-of-jazz
+972-2-679-2537