"What is that?", he said

MKeditor

MKeditor

Experienced
I just played a 3000 seat room yesterday. The monitor guy smirked a bit when I just asked for two XLRs and told him I didn't need any mics. He said "we don't normally do that here". After our sound check, the FOH engineer came up to see what I was playing through. He said, "When I brought up the faders it already sounded great with no EQ. That is amazing!". He commented that he has had people play through PODs or other digital units and it always sounded thin and that he had never heard anything digital sound like this. After we played, I had a group of ten guys checking out my rig wanting to know what it was all about.

The Axe-FX is redefining the way people think about digital....one guy at a time.
 
VirgilGuitar said:
MKeditor said:
He said "we don't normally do that here".
Click to expand...
LOL - brings a new tagline to mind "Axe-FX, redefining dumb statements from ignorant sound guys since 2005"
Click to expand...

To be fair, he was not dumb but I would say a very knowledgeable guy. This was just outside his experience with guitar players.
 
MKeditor said:
VirgilGuitar said:
MKeditor said:
He said "we don't normally do that here".
Click to expand...
LOL - brings a new tagline to mind "Axe-FX, redefining dumb statements from ignorant sound guys since 2005"
Click to expand...

To be fair, he was not dumb but I would say a very knowledgeable guy. This was just outside his experience with guitar players.
Click to expand...

Actually, I never called him dumb, I called his statement dumb - I thought there was a teensy wincy bit of ignorance on his part- but in all fairness, I should NEVER talk smack about sound guys ( ;) )- I'll leave that for the drummers... :lol:
All in all, that sounds like a cool deal though - I had a similar moment with my ol' Fender CyberTwin - cool stuff man!
 
That totally echo's 99% of all my gigs when I hit a room or soundguy that's not ever heard of this box before. From start to finish, exact same thing.
 
Scott Peterson said:
That totally echo's 99% of all my gigs when I hit a room or soundguy that's not ever heard of this box before. From start to finish, exact same thing.
Click to expand...
I can echo this as well. Have had a fair amount of recent epxeriences. Posted more at PWF.
 
MKeditor said:
To be fair, he was not dumb but I would say a very knowledgeable guy. This was just outside his experience with guitar players.
Click to expand...
To be fair, there are many soundmen that are not dumb. I like to consider myself to be in that group. The "not dumb" one. :)
Many of us would prefer a DI (XLR) feed over micing a cab. XLR feeds tend to be constant volume (once set). When Johnny cranks that amp up to 11 on stage - 'cus he's got to feel that "air move" - then the input level from the mic goes off the dial! And it's not like Johnny calls me up and says that he's going to crank it on the next lead, so watch out. Talk about grabbing faders and trim levels !!! On average, give me an XLR feed over a mic'ed cab any day.
Caveat: unless I have an experienced pro who can control his/her stage volume properly. Which honestly is pretty darn rare in my 20+yrs of running sound.
 
MKeditor said:
I just played a 3000 seat room yesterday. The monitor guy smirked a bit when I just asked for two XLRs and told him I didn't need any mics. He said "we don't normally do that here". After our sound check, the FOH engineer came up to see what I was playing through. He said, "When I brought up the faders it already sounded great with no EQ. That is amazing!". He commented that he has had people play through PODs or other digital units and it always sounded thin and that he had never heard anything digital sound like this. After we played, I had a group of ten guys checking out my rig wanting to know what it was all about.

The Axe-FX is redefining the way people think about digital....one guy at a time.
Click to expand...

...happens pretty much every weekend! this last Friday night, I saw a musician watching our first set (you can ALWAYS tell the musicians in the crowd; they're the ones in the back with their arms folded, analyzing everything). he came up the minute the set was over and wanted to know what I was using. he said he noticed that there were no amps or wedges on stage and yet everything sounded "live" to him. lots-o-fun!
 
s0c9 said:
MKeditor said:
Caveat: unless I have an experienced pro who can control his/her stage volume properly. Which honestly is pretty darn rare in my 20+yrs of running sound.
Click to expand...
Click to expand...

Quick story - I ran sound in 'a world famous London Venue' for several years and for the most part I felt like an curmudgeonly 'educator' imparting knowledge so that the (mostly young and inexperienced) musicians could get what they needed out of the experience. Anybody remember a young soul singer Oran 'Juice' Jones? - well he turned up with a pick-up band of black jazzmen from Vegas and my eyes were truly opened as to what a professional musician can be. These guys were amazing. After the frankly unnecessary soundcheck the Star of the Show left and we hung around on stage for about four hours jamming, telling stories, making each other laugh and generally having fun. These guys could play anything and had worked out a whole range of skits from 'The Twilight Lounge, Vegas' to Led Zep Live. Come the gig, my engineering skills were of course completely superfluous - they mixed themselves - all I had to do was make Oran's voice sit on top.

There's no punchline, (other than they asked me to do the rest of the tour with them, and I simply couldn't make it happen) - just the joy of being in the presence of awesome skill and talent and one of the best days of my life.
 
I've had similar experiences. In fact, ( a few months ago) I played an outdoor benefit show with lots bands (originals and covers). There was a drum kit and some amps there for everyone to use to cut down on bearkdown and setup between bands. The people running the thing had two JCM800 stacks on the stage and everyone else was just plugging into them (occasionally adding in their own effects units, pedal boards, etc.). The sound engineers and PA system were good. Everyone sounded decent. And, then I get up there with my black box, floor controller, and a personal FRFR wedge so that I have some control over my personal stage volume if I wanted. I was running FRFR and that was all there was to it. I went over beofre going up and told the guys what my deal was and said, "I'm going to give you an XLR cable. All you need to do is run me as "line level" and don't EQ me. Just keep it all flat." He then said, "Unplug the SM57 in from the cable at the amp on your side and use that cord." I politely said, "OK. But, please know that I'll be line level and would appreciate NO EQ and NO effects on my signal." He said, "Alright."

It absolutely killed. I had lots of guys from the other bands coming over and asking me about what I was doing and what I had. More than one person who didn't know me took it upon themselves to tell me that my sound was among the best the entire day. The sound guys even told me (when I was breaking down to get out of the way for the next band) that they were surprised at how well it worked and how good they thought it sounded. I love hearing these stories from other people. Who else has one?
 
Yep, same here. Both outdoor and indoor gigs.

Soundguys were utterly surprised with the "line input, no DI" request. And very happy with the low stage volume level.

I asked after the gigs and they confirmed that the EQ was kept flat. However, I wouldn't demand it and frankly I don't care. There can be valid reasons for some additional eq-ing.
 
I was in the studio last December for a 4-song demo recording in a live-room (no overdubs, except we redid vocals to remove all the bleed). The engineer let us set up, and I asked for a pair of XLRs, stating I would give him line-level, and I wanted them panned hard left and right, no EQ, no effects. The guy initially wanted to mike my FRFR monitor (!), and said that usually, those direct outs sounded like crap. I said "this one's different, humor me, and let me give you a pair of direct outs".

We recorded the 4 songs. and the engineer later told me he couldn't believe how good it sounded direct to his desk. Later that week, after receiving some rough mix MP3's, I recorded a few little bits of guitar harmonies at home, and emailed those files back to him. He mixed them right in, and was floored that it sounded just like it would have sounded in his studio. Couldn't believe it!

Engineers will typically react to us feeding them one or two XLRs... it's actually the right thing to do. If someone's running an older Boss or Zoom thingie, and is convinced he sounds good direct, it actually *is* the engineer's job to set the record straight. Not always necessary (i.e. with an Axe-FX), but until all engineers have had experience with Fractal gear, they can't know that. As long as they don't stubbornly insist on doing things their way, it usually ends well.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom