Reply posted by Randy Gartner on August 23, 2002

Right on Kevin ! There's a lot of so called pro's who mix for national acts, that complain because the local provider doesn't have a Midas or a 4K, but it wouldn't matter because they can't mix anyways.

If you're a good soundguy, you should be able to get a good mix out of any decent system. While I like to hear that thump from a kick drum, some guys think that's all there is to a good mix. My first priority is to make sure the vocals sound good, then build the rest of the mix around that.

As to why a lot of the openers sound so lousy, many times the main act or their managers want it that way. We sure couldn't have the opener sound better than the main act, couldn't we ? Also sometimes the main act’s engineers don't want the opener’s sound guy touching the EQ or anything other than the faders.

In my opinion, the only reason for a bad mix is when you have a room that is too reverberant, like a gymnasium or similar type of room, or when the band plays louder than the PA.


Reply posted by David B. Little on August 23, 2002

This is supposed to be humor. It is not derived from experience with any individual BE, it is derived from a LOT of experiences with a LOT of BE’s from nationals on down. ;-)

(1) They don't show up at the mix riser until the band is on stage and has already hit the first note.

(2) They show up at downbeat with flashier "stage" attire and hairstyle than the band.

(3) They tune the system with a CDR containing a board tape of "their" mix from when they "used to mix the big board" for a national hair band that sounds like it was recorded on a cassette boombox at +20 and played back with all the Dolby buttons engaged.

(4) When they are finished "EQing" a well tuned rig the graph looks like a picket fence with alternating 15dB boosts and cuts.

(5) They don't notice the 150Hz howl from the acoustic guitar in the mains because they are too busy with their headphones plugged into their minidisc/DAT/cassette recorder, dicking with the exact same FOH house mix they are feeding to said recorder.

(6) They are more interested in scoring some coke/weed/anything illegal than what the rig is or how they want the dynamics patched - they didn't send a plot or return your repeated advance calls - they took a wrong turn and drove 150 miles the wrong way and it is 30 minutes to showtime.

(7) The band is halfway throught the first song, and they are merrily mixing away, oblivious to the fact that the desk is still muted - until you step up and make all those red lights turn green.

(8) They furiously fiddle with every knob, fader, button, switch or navigation/parameter pad on any given piece of commonly supplied gear until finally giving up in a fit of rage - unaware that they either had the fader turned down, weren't sending signal to it, or had it in bypass mode.

(9) While looking at any peice of gear with a furrowed brow and pensively touching the controls, they assure you they have not one, but two - in their other rack/at "the studio"/in their rig and they have had for at least 3 years before the manufacturer ever released the first model.

(10) Somehow, without the aid of a pen, pencil or other pointed object they have either engaged or disengaged all or most of the miniature recessed switches on a console or erased all the programmed mutes while banging switches trying to make something work whose controls are clearly and obviously labeled.

(11) They run up to FOH and offers to make the house announcements while the support strikes at a club gig. Halfway through you realize the guy must have lots of experience as a DJ at a strip club.