When soundmen attack

keep it simple said:
A drumming friend of mine has a neat trick. He drives a 26" x 14" bass drum with full reso. His whole boooooom vibe is essential for the act. The last thing he wants is any form of head slap. To keep the uneducated sound guy types happy, he has a black dot stuck in place where a port would normally be. He tells them it's a special mic friendly sonically semi transparent material, & they just need to point the mic at it for best sound. Keeps 'em happy - bless 'em ;)
Click to expand...

HAHAHAHAHA .
 
Soundman is one of those jobs where it is a prerequisite to be grumpy, similar to computer techs and auto mechanics.

I once got reamed out by a soundman for having two bass drums. He basically bitched me out in front of the band and then went out to his van to get another mic.
After so many sound men complained about "ring" in my toms I learned to put my finger on the head when getting the drum sound over the PA.
 
It's not a soundman's job to tell you how tune your drums. It is their job to capture your sound to the best of their ability......and this is a direct quote from expert drum tech Clay Fuqua at Fork's in Nashville and he can drop plenty of big names he's worked with.

You as the performer shouldn't be asked, on the spot, to change something which can affect your performance because that will come through your performance in a negative way - you may or may not be as confident in the change and the lack of confidence can appear in how you sound.

Could you imagine the same soundman asking your lead singer, "Hey, can you sound like Steve Perry of Journey or Elvis Costello?"

The bottom line is to be flexible but state your case with confidence and also know when you're dealing with someone who really isn't as professional as they think themselves to be. Just because someone owns a PA, it does make them a sound professional.

I do have a port in my front bass drum head which is there for air release. But I also internally mic my bass drums.

Oh, and one last thing - A soundman HAS to be in front of the band, not running sound from the stage while he plays an instrument.


Mike

http://www.mikemccraw.com
http://www.dominoretroplate.com
http://www.patentcoachmike.com
http://www.youtube.com/drummermikemccraw
http://www.myspace.com/drummermikemccraw
http://www.linkedin.com/in/mikemccraw
http://twitter.com/mikemccraw
http://www.skillpages.com/mike.mccraw
 
Skitch said:
It's not a soundman's job to tell you how tune your drums. It is their job to capture your sound to the best of their ability
Click to expand...
I agree completely, when the drummer knows how to tune/present their kit such that the sound they're after FOH is achievable. In a professional setting, that's often the case, but not always. In an amateur setting, kits are frequently presented in a condition that is not conducive to getting a good sound, & in such circumstances, a good sound engineer will respectfully make suggestions as to how improvements can be made.
 
keep it simple said:
To keep the uneducated sound guy types happy, he has a black dot stuck in place where a port would normally be. He tells them it's a special mic friendly sonically semi transparent material, & they just need to point the mic at it for best sound. Keeps 'em happy - bless 'em ;)
Click to expand...

This is the best idea. I am going to do this with my gigging kit.
 
I'd take issue with it, my bass(es) aren't a simple shock wave, I have them tuned to notes. G and F and my tom snare are tuned relative to that. They have some sustain, I don't have to hit them repeatedly to get tone.

The right way to go is to have your own sound person. Could be a groupie, roadie, second string guitarist, A tech savvy mixer guy. Think like Jimi Hendrix or Dave Mathews.
 
keep it simple said:
I agree completely, when the drummer knows how to tune/present their kit such that the sound they're after FOH is achievable. In a professional setting, that's often the case, but not always. In an amateur setting, kits are frequently presented in a condition that is not conducive to getting a good sound, & in such circumstances, a good sound engineer will respectfully make suggestions as to how improvements can be made.
Click to expand...

Being a soundman isn't synonymous with being a producer; a wise soundman would realize those limitations and, being the professional, would just go with it and realize that smooth sailing never makes a good sailor.

Yup, a soundman can make suggestions and those suggestion can also be ignored due to the fact that the drummer is performing on those drums and not the soundman. To change everything that a performer is doing before that performer takes the stage is a fast and sure to never be employed ever again.

Mike

http://www.mikemccraw.com
http://www.dominoretroplate.com
http://www.patentcoachmike.com
http://www.youtube.com/drummermikemccraw
http://www.myspace.com/drummermikemccraw
http://www.linkedin.com/in/mikemccraw
http://twitter.com/mikemccraw
http://www.skillpages.com/mike.mccraw
 
I feel your rant B_HALF. There are more sound tech's out there like that than I care to think about!! Obviously he isn't a drummer and isn't a very good sound tech if he can't get a decent sound from any drum. That's like saying I can play the drums when I have a port hole cut in my drum head, but when I don't, I can't play the drums!!

Time wounds all heels. :)



B_HALF19 said:
I'm on a break at my gig right now and I'm so annoyed with this idiot that I needed to vent. It all started with the bass drum. He just couldn't believe it didn't have a hole cut in it. Told me several times that I "need" to port it. I told him I didn't need to do anything, I've never had any problems in the past and we should be able to get a decent sound for the night. Keep in mind this a fairly small room and mic'ing the drums in the first place is borderline overkill.
After the first set he told me that I "must" cut a hole in the head... He couldn't get a decent sound out of it....which brings me to my point. WHY IS THIS MY PROBLEM? His incompetence as a sound man should not affect how I set up my drums. He told me that in his "40 years of running sound" he's never seen this before. I told him he must only be working with ththe same two drummers.
Click to expand...
 
I actually had a sound tech who was an absolute pleasure to work with this past weekend. He was a sub for the normal guy, who I had heard some pretty negative stories about.

We did a share with my kit. Before the show the first thing he said that had me taken aback was

"Hey I want to get a full check with you on this thing before the other people start making a bunch of noise. If this doesn't sound badass, they wont either"

He communicated pretty much every major idea I think he had for the sound of the drums before doing them. Other choice bits that made me want to hire him for our next show

"I can totally patch the lows in through the subs the DJs normally use. Theres five of em dude."

"Your snare is a little thin in the middle of the room, cool if I just run a side of mids into the reverb?"

He even understood that he should mike the kickport a few inches outside without ever working with one before.

I'm expecting that to be the high bar of experiences for the next six months.
 
Skitch said:
Yup, a soundman can make suggestions and those suggestion can also be ignored due to the fact that the drummer is performing on those drums and not the soundman. To change everything that a performer is doing before that performer takes the stage is a fast and sure to never be employed ever again.
Click to expand...
Yes, of course those suggestions can be ignored. I'm not advocating making changes to the instrument, or tuning the kit differently in the absence of / or without agreement of the performer. If there's a glaring issue with the drum/drums that's going to profoundly affect the FOH result, I think it's incumbent on the sound engineer to offer suggestions if the engineer has the knowledge to do so. To me, that's cooperation, & is usually welcomed.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top