The sound engineer and the Axe FX

What @lqdsnddist said. It's not like guitarists don't have their own stereotypes following them around (How many guitarists does it take to change a light bulb? Ten: one to change the light bulb, and nine to talk about how much better they could have done it.).

It's amazing how much better things go when you roll in with an open mind and a little respect.
 
We (I) usually mix our own sound from the stage, but on occasion we play gigs that come with a sound man. With one exception (a reverb junkie who made our whole band sound unrecognizable), they've all appreciated my having the AxeFx, and had no trouble getting FOH to sound good.

I did learn at one casino gig that I need to warn the FOH guys that one of my scenes for Wish You Were Here includes a noisy scratchy record sound. Poor guy had been happy with the mix for most of the set, and was texting on his phone. All of a sudden I fade in with a boatload of static at the beginning of the set, and he jumped up and started going nuts on the board, trying to track down the noise. :D
 
lqdsnddist said:
I think there are too many negative stereotypes of sound engineers. We always seem to think of them as they no talent hacks, who are tone deaf, have no clue what they are doing, and because they can't be on stage, they try to ruin our set...

Well in reality, that never seems to be the experiences of myself or anyone I know. Engineers I've met always seem to really love what they are doing, and that is why they are still doing it, love of music. Plenty of better paying jobs with better hours than running sound after all. Also the ones I've met tend to also be keen musicians, who enjoy talking guitars, amps, and also the Axe-Fx. A lot of them actually do perform on stage in their own groups, and they just happened to do such a good job running sound for those shows that other bands asked them to man the boards.

Unless your really serious, how many guys really are playing out several nights a week ? More like once a month amongst the guys I know, because adult life gets in the way. But, even if you can't be on stage once a week, maybe you can run sound and still enjoy the scene on a regular basis, and all the while, helping make fellow musicians and everyone who paid the cover sound great.

Yes, bad ones are out there, but I've found they are in the minority. Makes me wonder if maybe we walk into the venue really to argue, thinking the guy is going to say we need to mic a cab, and modelers suck because someone had a Line6 POD years ago, etc etc.

Maybe the guy was actually excited to see a Fractal unit, and he was just watching the Metallica rundown last night on You Tube and wants to talk shop over a few beers, on his tab, and it could of been a great show, but we can in with attitude over how we thought he was going to act/say/do, and as a result, he thought we were the dick and did try to make us sound bad....?

Something to think about, coming from someone who's spent as much time behind a board as I have on a stage (and who enjoys every moment of it)
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I think we also have to keep in mind that sound engineers tend to interact with bands a lot more then the reverse. We tend to have to deal with one engineer during a gig, they can see multiple bands during gigs. And they probably have to work on a lot more gigs on average then we do. Take your average band and keep in mind how many idiots there tend to be in them. Then realize that half of the bands are even more stupid then that. Then imagine having to deal with those on a very regular basis. Especially bass players. That might go a long way to explain a sound guy's sunny behavior.
 
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