CAPITULO 7 Live Sound Fundamentals

8/12/2019 CAPITULO 7 Live Sound Fundamentals

1/4

Lar e-Music Software

7 Its Not the Car, Its the Driver

T he mixer (also referred to as the console or desk) is almost literally the heart of the system. Everything comes in, gets swished around, and then gets pumpedback out as a finished product. The only thing left is to deliver that product tothe audience.

Todays mixing consoles bear little resemblance to the gear we were using when I gotstarted playing in bands and running sound in the mid 70s. But somehow, as consolesgot larger, with more channels and more EQ and processing, and finally entered thedigital domain, where they could do anything the most sophisticated recording consolecould do, sound at events both large and small got worse, not better. And strangelyenough, the exceptionsthat is, the good-sounding showsare often mixed by thesame people who were kludging together homemade systems in the earliest days of theperformance audio business. They may be driving the most sophisticated system outthere, but they only use the tools they need.

This chapter has nothing to do with gear or technology, yet it is very likely the mostimportant part of the book. Harsh, but true . . .

A few years back, I was fortunate enough to say yes when a friend asked me to come to asmall town in Utah to help with a festival gig. He had asked another friend, who alsosaid yes. No one at the small high school where the festival was based had any idea thatthe guy with the Aussie accent working with the orchestra in the main auditorium was aperformance audio legend. Howard Page, now the senior director of engineering forClair Global, has mixed acts as diverse as Van Halen, James Taylor, and Mariah Carey.Here is what he had to say about the current state of performance audio.

After being involved in live sound engineering for so long, I am very, very sad to seethe way it has all evolved in the last few years. When did the kick drum become thelead singer? Show after show, regardless of the style of music, ends up being just asolid wall of badly mixed, way too loud, over the top, low-end-heavy noise. I havetried to help and nurture so many young guys over the years to understand whatmixing live shows is all about, and my often-repeated sermon is to make it sound asclose as possible to the recorded material by the artist. If some artists ever came outfront at their shows and listened, Im sure they would be horrified at how theirperformance is being brutalized. True, lately, some artists set out to use the sound

49


2/4


system to deliberately beat up the audience, but those shows are way beyond anyhelp.

It comes down to really understanding your role as an audio provider. We refer to whatwe do by many names: Live sound, live audio, concert sound, and performance audioare a few. But I wish we could all get back to the term that really describes our job andfunction: sound reinforcement.

Our job is to not be noticed. We are there to help the performer communicate with theaudience. It means giving the performer the means to convey their artistic intent andemotional vision past the area where they can do so unassisted. It is never about howcool your gear is or how loud you can make it or how bitchin your kick sound is. Weshould be invisible and not affect the content of the performance in any way except tospread it further. Anything else should be considered as a failed gig.

Drew Daniels is an electro-acoustical consultant, studio musician, recording engineer

and producer, and audio technology educator based in Los Angeles. His sound re-inforcement experience includes stints with Teac, Fender, JBL, and Disney, where hefiled no fewer than five patents. On his website, he lists four reasons for lousy sound atlive events, and this is the best, most concise list I have ever seen, so I am stealing it.(Drew used the above quote from Howard Page, which originally ran in FOH maga-zine, which I edit, so I figure were even. . . . Thanks, Drew.)

The List

1. Inadequate technical education

2. Hostility between sound providers and artists

3. Inadequate music education

4. Inappropriate gear or gear being used inappropriately

This book is, hopefully, a beginning point for taking care of #1 and, with a bit of luck,using the knowledge you glean here and from other sources, you can avoid the pitfalls of #4. Though it is really outside the scope of this book, we are going to spend a little bit of time on #2 and #3.

HostilityI once talked with a good friend, a musician who spent many years touring with a well-known country act. I dont remember how it came up, but we got onto the subject of stage volumethe bane of sound providers at many gigs. When I said that keeping stagevolume under control allowed the sound guy to make it sound better in the house, hereplied, Soundmen are the enemy. And unfortunately, this kind of attitude is rampantwith bands. I have personally dealt with acts that were so loud onstage that I could not

Live Sound Fundamentals50


3/4


get the vocal up above the guitars, and the only thing still in the system was the vocal. Ihave had bands, when I asked them to keep stage volume to a minimum in order to get agood sound for the audience, tell me, Drop it. I play loud. I have seen entire localconcert series cancelled because one band was too loud and refused to turn down.

The act and the sound provider should be a team, so why the hostility? Many reasons.First, we, as pro audio providers, need to check our egos at the venue door. Remember,it is not about us; it is about the performer. Many artists have never experienced asituation in which the sound guy knew and practiced that concept. But I promise youthat every time I have worked with an artist and have been able to communicate that Iunderstand my role and am only there to make them sound good, I have gotten co-operation. Every time. There have been times when the level of distrust and hostilitywas such that I could not communicate that effectively, but I always try.

What is the cause of the hostility? Tis all opinion, so take it for what its worth, but

there are too many sound providers who started out as musicians and who are stillcarrying a chip on their shoulder about not making it, and they take it out on the actsthey work with. This is very common in local and regional clubs with a house soundguy. Take a look in the mirror and make sure this isnt you.

IncompetenceThe next reason is just flat incompetence among many house crews. I have seen somegreat house crews in my time. I have also, as a performer, had to deal with people whohad no business behind any kind of sound console, had no idea how to operate the gear,

and really didnt care. Too many venues dont put enough emphasis on their ownsound. They hire unqualified people just because they will work cheaply. If you were aperformer on tour and had to endure a string of such venues and crews, you would haveyour back up, too.

Sometimes the hostility stems purely from the fact that the artist is an egotistical jerk.But guess what? Even if that is the case, your job is to make him or her sound great.Refuse the gig the next time they come to town, but if you are there, then you need to doyour job and actually care about how it sounds.

EducationThe next item is inadequate musical education. This is a tough one. Many of the bestsound engineers I know have no formal musical education, and they approach audio asa mix of art and science. Others are very accomplished musicians and know enough of the science to do the job but really approach it as almost another member of the bandwith the sound system as their instrument. (I know this seems to directly contradict theearlier statement about being invisible, but the best way I can explain it is a quotefrom Tom Johnston, one of the founders of the Doobie Brothers. In an interview manyyears ago, he talked about the playing of his bandmate, Patrick Simmons, saying that

Chapter 7 Its Not the Car, Its the Driver 51


4/4

Documents

CAPITULO 7 Live Sound Fundamentals