Scary gig experience

Karl Houseknecht

Power User
Sound check didn't go well for me last night, for the first time ever. Huge buzzing and hum from the direct out, it seemed. Tried other cables, ground lift, 3 different DI boxes used with both the balanced and unbalanced outs...no dice. 20 minutes later, I feared I wouldn't be able to go on, and hadn't brought my backup rig.

Turns out it was a bad channel in the house snake. Whew! :shock:
 
Occam's razor. Happens all the time; I've run around like a chicken with its head cut off scrambling before gigs because of some issue and then heard, "Oh, nevermind... my bad..." from the sound guy more than once. ;) :D
 
Scott Peterson said:
Occam's razor. Happens all the time; I've run around like a chicken with its head cut off scrambling before gigs because of some issue and then heard, "Oh, nevermind... my bad..." from the sound guy more than once. ;) :D

+ 1

My general practice in the event of a problem is to check my input lights and make sure my signal is getting to the Axe-FX, and then check to make sure a cable is plugged into the output. I then ask them to double check their console settings. If they say that's good, I ask for another channnel and another cable for the output.

I've been through the frantically checking my own rig thing too many times now. The Axe-FX has been rock solid for me ever since I got it, and every problem I've ever had live was with the house equipment. I don't even worry about the Axe anymore.

D
 
Remember this saying: "99% of the time the problem is a cable or connector".

For some reason people always assume it's a gear problem. Back when I designed sonar I was always getting calls and the customer claiming the system was defective. I'd repeat the above saying to them and they'd argue a bit and I'd repeat it again. Without fail a couple hours later they'd call back and say they found a bad cable.
 
:lol: I played a show in Italy once during a tour and when the lights switched on stage you could hear it through my rig ! My guitar tech tried everything in the book, cranked the Hush to max and everything...nothing worked and you can't really play a show in the dark...so we just got on with it and hoped that the lights would at least change in rhythm :lol:
 
" and the conclusion thereof, that the simplest solution is usually the correct one."

Seems to me like it applies perfectly well.
 
I've had the exact same experience. Tons of running around, trying different cables, bypassing gear, etc., and it was either a bad channel on the snake or the board itself. Our 48 channel Allen & Heath board started going bad a few years back, that made for all kinds of fun. We finally had to break down and buy a new one because we just couldn't afford the constant gremlins.

Glad you got it figured out!
 
FractalAudio said:
Remember this saying: "99% of the time the problem is a cable or connector".

This man speaketh the truth. Cables is definitely the top of the usual suspects list, along with batteries, grounding, things not plugged into right places, channels muted... Actual gear failure is way at the bottom of the list.

But for your amusement, one of our recent sound checks went like this:

Soundman: "Are you guys good? We need to get this show going."
Drummer: "Guys, I need a feed for my IEM."
Soundman: "I already gave it to you - it's that cable there, and it's plugged in to your mixer."
Drummer: "Dude, I'm telling you, I'm not getting anything."

[Five minutes of frantic fiddling at sound board later...]

Soundman: "...wait. Is your headphone plugged in?"

[Drummer checks his headphone.]

Drummer (with a big smile): "...uh, never mind. I'm good now."

Mike
 
Maybe it would be wise to carry around some headphones and plug into one of the o/p's and make sure you hear the sounds? Then it has to be the cable or the mixing board. ;)
 
FractalAudio said:
Remember this saying: "99% of the time the problem is a cable or connector".

For some reason people always assume it's a gear problem.

Well, it WAS a gear problem. Just not MY gear. :D I was pretty sure the hum wasn't coming from my rig, because my monitoring setup connected to output 2 was working great, no hum. In retrospect, it was kinda funny to hear the sound guy's crew offering alternatives to DI..."we could mic it". Really? How exactly?
 
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