Thankfully both the band and the sound guy were delightful to work with; in fact, they seemed to be kids at play, so happy to be doing what they were doing. But I found myself questioning the sound guy’s competence.
I tried many times to explain the left/center/right configuration of the system, how the aux fed subs worked, how to patch the compressors and effects… And the whole time he smiled and nodded his head and then proceeded to do something that made it appear as if he had no clue as to what I’d just told him.
During sound check, I had other responsibilities and so left him to his ways, thinking, “oh boy. this is going to be interesting.”
At show time, as the band prepared to come out on stage, I looked at the console and noted – of all things – he had the kick drum feeding into one of the effects units. Scanning the effects unit that was patched to that feed, I saw that there was a reverb with about 2.5 seconds of decay on the kick drum.
I thought he must have meant to turn the feed of the aux fed sub up and just twisted the wrong knob, and quickly tried to bring this to his attention. He just smiled and nodded his head…
Once again I was surprised – from the first note, the band sounded great! They have a very different style and sound than most of the contemporary Christian bands that have come through the facility, but it worked very well for them.
Now, would I recommend reverb on a kick drum? No! (At least not under normal circumstances.)
Did it work for this band? Yes! I found myself wondering if the sound guy really knew what he was doing or if he just got lucky.
After the show I had time to talk with him, and found out he’s a very accomplished musician, owns a tricked-out Pro Tools rig, and was only on the tour doing sound because his own band was on a break and he needed to earn some cash (I surmised that it was to feed his Pro Tools obsession).
I also found out that he had a fascinating mix of technical aptitude intertwined with incredible musical and creative skills. As it turns out, I do think he understood most of what I was telling him. The nod and smile were his nice way of saying “thank you, but I am going to try some different things.”
This experience brought to mind one of my favorite sayings: “Audio is the art that everyone thinks is a science, and audio is the science that everyone thinks is art.”
It also totally affirmed to me that when you can both understand and mix science and art together, the results can bring sound to life!