Tips for gig with unknown sound engineer

bigbadorange

bigbadorange

Member
All the gigs I have done with the ax8 have been with sound engineers I know, and those guys had experience with modlers. Anything I should make sure I know when I may be dealing with an engineer that may have not mixed one before? I plan on using house monitors only with no personal amp/monitor.
 
If they're an engineer, theyll know what to do.

If they ask, I would just say to treat it the same as a micd cab. They'll redundantly cut out your lowes then mix you in.


Just from my experience it works out fine.
They just need to use their ears, not their eyes... Like the rest of us learned.
 
bigbadorange said:
those guys had experience with modlers.
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I find this irrelevant as they should treat it the same as a mic'd up amp as this is what they are essentially being fed.

If they know how to mix guitar properly then they should be able to mix the AX8. If they can't, then they shouldn't be behind the desk.
 
dbun said:
I find this irrelevant as they should treat it the same as a mic'd up amp as this is what they are essentially being fed.

If they know how to mix guitar properly then they should be able to mix the AX8. If they can't, then they shouldn't be behind the desk.
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Totally agree with this but there is always that one guy that wants to mic your FR cab o_O.
 
Sixstring said:
Totally agree with this but there is always that one guy that wants to mic your FR cab
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True - there's always one!

I find the bad stigma of modelers is due to the old gen gear that just didn't really sound that great. These days the engineers that have come across Fractal or Kemper gear are almost relieved as they know they are going to get a great sound direct to the board that they can work with, they won't have to deal with roaring amps bleeding into FOH (and other mics on stage) and they have less work to do as they don't have to mic anything up.
 
mikejay said:
I've worked with that guy-he must get around quite a bit (cross-continents, no less).
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He has family on every continent. :)

The tough part is teaching him without pissing him off or having him retreat in embarrassment.
 
bigbadorange said:
All the gigs I have done with the ax8 have been with sound engineers I know, and those guys had experience with modlers. Anything I should make sure I know when I may be dealing with an engineer that may have not mixed one before? I plan on using house monitors only with no personal amp/monitor.
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I give him a mono guitar signal that's low-passed at 6k and high-passed at 150 Hz, which almost always works.

And I bring a XLR-1/4" converter plug to make sure my XLR-XLR cable makes it into the snake or mixing table.
 
If it is a "sound engineer" there will not be a problem. If it is a burn out stuck in 69' you are so screwed from the start.
 
+1 on what Yek said. I always bring cables and converters to gigs with the unknown sound engineer. Also, I build in a gain boost in all of my presets using a null filter. I never count on the guy running the board to boost my all important guitar solos. Most of the sound guys I have worked with were pretty good. A few were deaf (and dumb). If you have time for a decent sound check that should get things off to a good start.
 
#1 Find out what they drink and bring them one when you introduce yourself.

#2 Make sure you introduce yourself - in person at their booth - before beginning sound check or anything else.

These two things, more than any technical solution, will ensure you sound good and have smooth communications with anything that comes up.
 
OmegaZero said:
#1 Find out what they drink and bring them one when you introduce yourself.

#2 Make sure you introduce yourself - in person at their booth - before beginning sound check or anything else.

These two things, more than any technical solution, will ensure you sound good and have smooth communications with anything that comes up.
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A big +1 on item #2. But supplying alcohol to the sound guy before a gig is not in your best interests. :)
 
Wow, thanks for all the great tips, I will definately grab a couple adapters just in case. I gave up on sound engineers reliably boosting solos so I have been doing that my self for ages. I had a buddy that used to tip the soundman a joint, once in while that joint got smoked BEFORE the show...lol.
 
I bring a Radial JDI DI to convert from line level XLR to mic level XLR if needed.

I ran into this more often that I would have thought playing festivals and "concerts in the park" local series.

A lot times the snakes aren't wired for line level. The stage box has XLR in and 1/4" TRS out for the returns (stage monitors).

In addition in smaller mixers the channel line level in is 1/4" TRS. So the fan at the mixer is not patched to go line level from the stage box to a channel input. I.e. all the XLR's from the snake are patched to the channel mic inputs.

Long story short, mic level works everywhere, hence the DI.

I have never played a show from the biggest to the smallest venue that can't take at least one mic level XLR in :)
 
I too have had the guy mic my K12, one time we couldn't go direct because the signal was too hot for his board, so we mic'd it and it worked, not ideal. So since then i bought some inline pad xlr, 5,10,20db in case i run into that again (which i have never used lol).

Just tell him to run it up the middle eq wise, then tweak like he would a normal amp.
 
Trust the engineer.
Spend a few minutes before the gig explaining the concept of your system.
Don't be concerned if they decide to add EQ -- you haven't heard yourself in this PA with this band on this night...
 
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