I’ve heard it said many times, in many different situations, that we tend to think we don’t have time to do something right, but then somehow, have time to fix everything that goes wrong as a result.
We all know Mr. Murphy and his law about things tending to go wrong if there is any possibility for them to do so. But what can we do about it?
For starters, correct that first part - the thing about making sure things are set up and tested before they need to be used. If there isn’t have time, somehow we still have to make time.
Here are some classic examples drawn from many years of personal experience, in rough order of how they fit into a typical job.
1) Is the rider current? Sometimes it’s a miracle to get the darned thing in the first place. Nevertheless, it’s in our best interest to talk to someone, hopefully a knowledgeable person with the band, about how accurate or correct the rider is that we have in our hot little hand.
Murphy: If you don’t check, it will turn out that the rider is three years old and everything important has changed.
2) Who’s in charge of the local crew? If you’re not sure, it’s easy to assume that the guy acting like the boss is the boss. On a job, just like the military, the chain of command is important to recognize and respect.
Murphy: The guy to whom we’re giving important instructions is just a low-level crew person and won’t pass along critical bits to the other guys. Meanwhile, the actual boss gets ticked off.
3) Is the power and grounding adequate and correct? I keep one of those little yellow plastic AC power testers in my bag for a quick check before I plug anything in. This is a start, but it’s also a good idea to have a conversation with someone in the venue that knows about the house power. Still, check it yourself. The more we know about power, the better.
Murphy: If we don’t check it, hot and neutral will be reversed, or there won’t be a good solid ground. Either way, equipment might be destroyed or far worse, someone might die.
4) What is the condition of the XLR cables? This is something that if we’re not checking regularly, we should be. All manner of things can go wrong: intermittent connection due to fraying wires or fatigued solder joints; one leg can be dropped so the cable passes audio but sounds like ass; polarity can be reversed; etc.
Murphy: If we don’t check the cables regularly and before the gig, embarrassing moments in audio history can result.
5) Are all loudspeaker cabinets and/or drivers in the correct phase/polarity? Ever notice that a particular cabinet just doesn’t sound right, but all drivers seem to be working, sound comes out, etc? It’s possible one of the drivers is hooked up with the wires reversed. Or, the cable isn’t wired right so one of the cabinets is out of polarity altogether.
Getting used to this sound and the reason for it can speed up your troubleshooting.
Murphy: The sound won’t be right, but the reason won’t be obvious.
An in-depth yet easy-to-understand discussion of wireless systems, how they operate, issues that can plague performance, and solutions that do the trick in the vast majority of situations.
