Music Appreciation
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ProfessorGAC
(74,435 posts)Extremely raw, too.
But, they do find a comfortable pocket most of the tome.
moniss
(8,057 posts)during much of that time and the various "venues" people played any monitors were few and far between many times. So what you had to go by was your own amp and your sense of how you sounded coming out of the PA. So much of live performance was just "whatever it was" so to speak and no real "venue rehearsal" to get sound levels and mix. A lot of it was "set it and forget it". It's one reason, among many, why one show a band would sound awful and another they would be great. I recall Queen sounding horrible in an auditorium because the PA was so over-driven and the mix itself was mushed together.
A good sound man on the board will tweak away initially and then go to a couple of points in the crowd and listen to his mix for a minute and see what tweaks he can make for the people actually paying the tab so to speak. I've heard great sound guys take bands that aren't all that good and make them sound much better. I've also heard bad sound guys take good people and make it sound awful. Many people unfamiliar with live performance don't realize how important the "behind the scenes" people are to the sound of the performance.
ProfessorGAC
(74,435 posts)...made a few "marginal at best" opening acts sound petty good.
The band was still sloppy & the playing was uninspired, but he got them sounding good.
He was the best soundman at getting keys to sound good, which is why him joining the same band as I was joining was a must.
So, I know exactly what you mean.