Sound Guys – Sheesh! (Axe-FX content)

[GM Arts]

Just some ramblings here – saw a concert last night and I won’t mention names. It consisted of a local act (one of the guitarists had an Axe-FX) and an international act. All musicians in both bands were excellent, so I really enjoyed that aspect of the concert.

I thought the support act would be a great way to compare the Axe-FX to a very nice dual-tube-amp setup, but I was disappointed. The Axe-FX sounded REALLY good on the clean tones, while the overdriven tones were classy but rather plain & boring IMHO. I know this is just my subjective preference for tones that convey guitar character, the tone actually sat well in the mix. As for the real tube amps? Clean tones were great, overdriven character was that dirty gritty character, again just not my cup of tea :-|

I must be getting picky, the guitarists in the international act used a range of guitars and tones, some of them awful IMHO (thin buzzy bee tone) and some great IMHO (organic guitar tone).

But the main distraction for me was the mix. There were passages for both bands where the sound guys absolutely nailed it and that was a joy. But for most of the night, solos (not just guitars, all instruments) were buried in the mix, only just audible. Drove me nuts! I can sort of understand a mixer not knowing who’s soling when for the local act, but the international act?

 

[Rook]

Moral of the story; don't leave that shit up to the sound guy!

 

[cosmik]

Bees are organic too.

 

[John Tisdale]

If I hired a sound guy, I'd make damn sure he understood every nuance of my shows. I don't care what equipment we use, he should know how to make sure it was as close to our ideal mix, and tone as possible at every gig. That's why you hire a guy, and not let some random guy do it.


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[mairinsea]

If I hired a sound guy, I'd make damn sure he understood every nuance of my shows. I don't care what equipment we use, he should know how to make sure it was as close to our ideal mix, and tone as possible at every gig. That's why you hire a guy, and not let some random guy do it.


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I agree. But some venues act shitty and won't even let your guy touch the board etc, then after that shitty mix that done all night they want to take money from the door. FOH!

 

[John Tisdale]

One of the benefits of the new digital rack mount mixers is that they aren't going take my sound guys iPad, that would be a mistake. Just keep the mixer in your gear rack, hand them a cable, or two if they've got stereo, and they can whine all they want, my sound guy has the reigns. That's our next big step, I've got a few friends doing that around the country, and they get all sorts of pissed off club hired sound guys, but if they don't like it, then all well. If they don't like you sounding good, then you don't need to play there.


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[John Tisdale]

Honestly, I think it's pretty shitty how some clubs treat local acts, with how well so many bands have proven they don't really need them to be successful. There are so many internet fame bands doing quite well that have never stepped in a small club, but I guess they know there's always some fresh faced band out there willing to play for $35, and some beer that doesn't get the Internet as well as they should. I only deal with them cause I enjoy playing a live show, but I get way more attention for my band on YouTube than I do locally.


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[audemia]

whenever i do sound, whenever someone solos the fader goes up and the HF knob goes down (usually). even when i dont know the band or song you can always "feel" when a solo is coming too! theres no excuse for bad sound guy'ing!

 

[dpeterson]

more often than not they are terrible around here. we went the digital mixer route for our ear monitor rig. we now always do our own monitors, and working on a full time guy to drag around with us for the FOH. anyone can push faders... mixing is the tricky part.

 

[barhrecords]

I've seen lots of live pro FOH mixers that don't ride the faders for instruments.

The lead vocal gets the most attention.

The exception would be an instrumental oriented band like Satriani or Vai.

My biggest complaint about rock / pop shows is the FOH is so freakish loud and so freakishly compressed, all clarity is gone. It's a giant muddy sub / low mid wash. You can never hear the attack of the bass ever and are lucky if you can hear the attack of the guitars.

 

[jakel]

Yeah, somehow they equate louder with better. That's true up to a point of course, but beyond sounding good and powerful, louder is not better.

Dang, I must be getting old...

 

[mr_fender]

You know it's loud when even guitarist think it's too loud...

 

[John Tisdale]

Another thing I do, keep in mind I'm the only guitarist, and the lead vocalist, I just program my axe to give me the exact boost I want for solos.


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[dpeterson]

I do my own lead boosts as well... I use 3 scenes for all my patches.. scene 1 is clean or low gain, or if the patch only has gain and lead, I have high gain on scene 1, scene 2 is higher gain, and 3 is a 3.0 db boost with a touch of delay.