The Biggest Problem In Live Sound
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 23 ก.ย. 2024
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The biggest problem in live audio is always people
Gear can be tempremental but I’ve never felt belittled by a mixer when it glitches out
It’s a job that we should love but some people just love to make it suck
Here’s 3 toxic behaviours you need to watch out for if you work in live audio.
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I just finished a 14 hour show at a 3000 seat venue as the only engineer for the show and now I’m watching this sitting in my kitchen after midnight. I only yelled at myself twice for the whole show.
Wow! Hope you had time for a lunch break at least. 😮
Passive Aggressive behavior is a problem in most workplaces unfortunately its hard to please everyone in live sound if you can get a good sound they should be thankful
I love this channel! Not only because as a starting pa tech I find this channel super useful, but also because of videos like this. Everything he said is true and I've seen these behaviors on the job
Perhaps I’m out of line here, but there seems to be a majority of men in the industry - men who are competing on a predominantly freelance market. Gear and tech also seem to attract certain ”personality types” that can make cooperation difficult. I won’t speculate more into this but I have heard some interesting theories on audio podcasts. I salute a future where its ok for an engineer to not know and be best at everything. ❤
I really feel like we're going there. Me and my colleagues, among some who work on a very high level, have often talked about how we would fire someone instantly for not admitting to not know something. On the other hand being eager to learn (while communicating about what you don't know) is a giant green flag. I feel like once the boomers are out, we're way closer to that goal
If someone tried telling me, "Just put a knot in the cable." I'd kindly say, "that's an industry standard way of telling that a cable is faulty." 😊
And if it's not faulty, it will be shortly.
@@jerrymckenzie1858 Absolutely 💯
I would've assumed it's bad a thrown it out, or cut the end off....
Thanks so much for several great tips and opinions. I find that one difficulty is getting the sound of high volume instruments down to the same level as the quieter ones. Another is half-deaf and stubborn musicians who of course always know best.
But to be honest, most musicians are very good, knowledgeable and helpful.
Oh thank you. I was mostly just ranting so I'm very happy you found some value in it 😁
@@OffshoreAudio I got a lot of joy out of it. A live performance is often like a war with several unexpected twists and turns. Being calm but awake and alert is probably a must. Experience is invaluable and as you say a willingness and desire to learn.
Sometimes it’s about choosing your battles. Tell musicians that their stage volume is overpowering the vocals and leave it up to them to ruin their show. Speaking about low-stakes gigs here. If a great mix is very important, then find ways to aim the sound somewhere else.
@@joshdemarco4308 Thanks.
I really appreciate your mentality of just owning a mistake. I need to get better at that. Thanks for the honesty 🤘
Man all the facts in this video are on point. Keep it up, bro!
Thank you!
Some time ago I decided that mistakes are awesome. We are all going to make them from time to time. But everytime I make a mistake or figure out why something malfunctioned I think of it as a win. There is now another thing I can put in my bag of experience of things to not do or how to fix things.
Totally this. It's intimidating to mess up and it's never easy, but it's certainly a good way to learn.
I’m stopping in to go off topic and say: what I’ve experienced far too many times, is everything just being far far too loud. Like… that’s all you need to do to make it a good gig. No! It’s not!! Ok, I’m finished venting. Thanks for the video!
As I once had the chance to be part of one of the top live teams in our country over a three-day project, the biggest takeaway from that experience was their problem solving-oriented attitude with no egos involved whatsoever. It's incredible what you can achieve, and how quickly, in such an environment! 💪✨
-Eero
Had a women who was insanely rude and PA just last night at my Venue. From stage volume, the temperature, even the photographers. Just gotta remind myself these people are miserable. Disassociate and carry on. Most people are nice
I've met several people like that over the years. Like you, I disassociate and carry on.
In this industry everyone makes mistakes, small or large. The important thing is how we react in these situations to try to resolve or deal with the issues and try to understand what we can do to improve in the future. Sometimes things just happen and you just need to move on or laugh it off
Thanks for the great video. I can relate to dealing with (or being) difficult people in live sound. Your videos show you're good at working with others and staying positive. I've been doing this for 20 years, and I still learn from you. Your video about rebooted the stage box? That was helpful. I sometimes get too focused on finishing on time and forget to relax and check the basics. Problems are part of the job and keep it interesting.
Thank you for watching! I'm honoured that you've got so much experience and can still learn something from me. I hope to be as open to learning in another 10 years. I guess we're all learning from each other no matter where we are in our journey.
Speakers who tap the mic, lean in very close and say is this working, can you hear me at the back. Why do you think I haven't tested the coverage of the speakers? And often, why do you think something's changed between the last speaker sitting down and you standing up?
All good advice across the board. A knot in a cable, who does that? I've worked with Broadway level sound designers who have offered suggestions, but if they weren't familiar with the specific equipment, stayed out of the way.
Great advice! You and I would get along!
“The biggest problem in LIFE is people”…
But yes mate, I couldn’t agree more.
I engineered a festival last weekend and the nob head from the council who was walking around with a decibel reader actually tried to tell me how to run front of house. After 30 years in the industry I no longer have any patience so he was told to f*ck off and then I had security ban him from within 10 meters of FOH.
Spot on video
Don’t be afraid to laugh at yourself. I had a decent screw up on show 43 of 48 of the summer tour because I was trying stream line the talk back mic. I didn’t make a big deal out of it so it didn’t become a big deal. I tell this story to house techs to let them know it happens to the best of us. It wasn’t a show stopper type of thing but the first song was questionable. 😂
Having worked in the industry for 20 years I've come to the conclusion the majority of the industry is on the Autism Spectrum, myself included, and that bad attitide is a masking technique. Nearly every day some road tech comes to FoH to educated our PM/A1 on how to mix. She's got a Grammy. We both hold off till the end of the night where it gets subtly
mentioned.
I do live sound/recording. I hate when sometimes people will try getting me to do things that make no sense. They sometimes want me to do the very thing the last person screwed up doing. I had people who said they been doing sound for years stand over me or talk to me but their actions didn't match their so called knowledge which kind of showed their intimidation. I know what I know but I never try making people feel bad. It's things I have learned from others and they somewhat learned from me. I even get upset sometimes seeing how people wrap cables wrong bolllllll but usually I be like hey do it this way and they feel respected and be like thanks for help. I been here before with uncomfortable situations but I try being down to earth and friendly so I can be rehired which happens time to time!!!
there are always 1 or 2 people in a crew you've never met who introduce themselves, those are your guys that evening
Houses have an attitude that the touring group has owneship of the venue on that particular day. I work years a House Lighting Designer and I was told that I was assigned to take all of the complaints from the traveling techs. I was screamed at and even physically assaulted by Tour Managers. Most touring techs always acted like the were better than me. Most of the time their skills were limited and they're performances were stock.
yeah you're so right you've got to admit to your mistakes to learn but there's nothing like a big argument to heighten your senses and produce an amazing Mix. This is happened to me
It's a very hard thing to do. I've definitely got a ways to go with admitting mistakes myself. Just gotta keep improving!
@@OffshoreAudio Yeah You can't live in denial and in the end it is the philosophy that makes a great show not just technical mixing if the band is happy they can play good music which you can then mix 🙂
@@Hipyon Couldn't agree more. That's a very astute point that the philosophy makes a great show. I'll take that with me.
Biggest problem in live sound (or visuals, or lighting fixtures etc.) is the people who walk around as if they are 100% involved with the equipment's whole life which is false. You did not design that mixer, you did not do its r&d and a concerningly large chunk of us didn't even see a resistor in their lives before. What we do is, mostly, push some buttons and adjust levels and effects. Sure it's not a simple job but anyone can become properly good at it after a year, 6 months with ambition. Most of the toxic attitude is good old gatekeeping.
If you are new to this and some douchebag scared you away, don't be afraid. It's not that difficult! Modern equipment made the job a thousand times easier too, go ahead and dive in. And no, modern equipment doesn't suck.
I do sound in a mid-sized club, basically for fun. Can anyone here comment on vocalists insisting on using various little digital vocal processors and inserting them between the mic and the stage box?? Then changing gain, clipping their vocals, tripping over/unplugging wall warts, or drenching themselves in reverb? Oh, and then at the end of the set, unplugging the mic cables and leaving them who knows where on the floor right before the next band is ready to line check? I have tried to politely talk vocalists out out of using these devices. To me, they never sound better than what we can present in the monitors and to the audience. I like to let artists do what they want, but the use of these devices is perhaps my biggest pet peeve!
After 40 years in the industry most at the FOH, prefer the A2 or even labor as a gym therapy, moving off the industry that wear most every hat, working now in the healing freq field, too much - vibes and egos in the Corp 🌎, love the direction of your channel. 👍
Things to remember in this industry. 1 - You're only as good as your last gig. 2 - know your place in the pecking order and stay in your lane. Humility will get you further than braggardocio. 3 - Learn to recognize true experience and talent in sound pro's, and be willing to learn from them. These ones usually quiet and humble and like to share knowledge with those they see as genuinely keen to learn. 4 - Don't be a dick. He/she/they/them are the ones nobody wants to work around. And finally the big one 5 - The biggest problem in live sound, is the abuse and overuse of Subs. So often great performances are marred by too much Sub.
You should write them on stone
great video
I have loved all these videos and they have been really helpful in my development.
Here is a topic I don’t see a lot of and I wonder how you would tackle it.
I want to practice live sound but I do not have the resources to go out to a local church or club and work with them. How can I practice at home? Or does that defeat the purpose of live sound reinforcement?
get out there very often systems are put up by engineers who think the gigs are way below them they should be mixing Pink Floyd Genesis. Work your way to the mixer desk and get a go I've done it often had great fun and the audience get so much better mix😊
You can do a lot at home. You can practice mixing (EQ and compression etc) on a laptop. A good mix is a good mix. Whether it is on a laptop with multitracks or in a venue. If you could get your hands on a speaker and a microphone you could practice eleminating some feedback or EQ'ing the speaker (you would need something like a 31 band EQ for this).
You could train your ear with feedback apps or programs on your computer. Learning to indentify frequencies.
I'm so glad they've helped you. My question is what resources do you not have?
All you need is the willingness to learn. If you're in a city then get in touch with pa rental companies, ask if you can Shadow or pack cases. If there's nothing like that around you then start a band or make friends with a local band. Ask if you can try and mix their rehearsals. There's a crazy amount of info on TH-cam. Though I might just be misunderstanding your situation
Real shit
OMG!!!!! just happened to me in a show where the headliner team just thought they were discovering America again!!! after 2 hours yeah! 2 F$%%ing hours they tried something that I suggested and voila problem solved. Did any of that team say thank you to me? you guess it hahaha
Passive aggressive behaviour is nothing compared to the level of jealousy I’ve encountered. And some of the bitching I’ve heard about me from live sound ‘professionals’ I’ve never met! From a fellow Scot!
GREAT CONTENT!🔥
Wtf, the 3rd one was literally someone I had an arugment last week. He insist on not doing something that I genuinely think worth of try which complicate a fricking 10 minutes worthless debate. Then finally, he tries to listen and voila, it could've been done for like a minute or less 😔😔😤
Oh, hang on. let me flip the phase on the left channel for you !!!!
Thr Smartest person is the one who admits that they dont know everything....
you can only get people not to deflect and blame shift when production management teams don't penalise people for their mistakes
if you don't have an environment where people feel safe to make mistakes no one will take responsibility for them
One word "never" 😜
Why don't you use colour code for each lead
because the colours you chose for left and right could be different to what I use. Simple, concise labeling just makes life easier.
I was gonna just leave a"Yes!" and not even watch the video lol
I didn't though, cos i'm not the asshole...
Try being a woman in that industry
id rather work at home depot than go back to live sound. its inhumane.
I just don't wnat the entire mix drowned in kick drum and sub sludge. Do live sound engineers even listen to their mix? It's almost always ASS.
DJs 😞
You have too much common sense. Get out of the sound business!!! 😂
Excellent advice
“I’m still fairly young compared to some people still in the industry.” The word still makes that sentence passive aggressive, no?