I was hired to "run" the new sound system in the remodeled lounge at a local Vegas casino. The system was installed by a local music store (now defunct), and had a few decent pieces, but was void of some desirable items, such as subwoofers and such. But I was game, having worked several casino rooms, and I had previous experience with volume issues in this type of venue.
The first show was a known headliner from the 1960s who had several top 40 hits, and he had signed off on doing this show with foldback monitor mixes. Soundcheck came and went, and things seemed fine until showtime, when after introducing the act from FOH position everything went to hell.
The show started and everything had changed. The system sounded like we were in a fishbowl. I am scrambling, cueing, searching and basically freaking out. I should mention I was using a well known "8 Buss" console primarily made for home studios, this a board with 6 aux mixes, but 5/6 are only assignable by channels, giving up 3/4 mixes. My problem wasn't involving this issue, but I was new to this console.
Fortunately, the artist on stage was unaffected by what was happening to the audience side of things.
The song ended, and the spot operator is yelling at me, the agent is on a beeline for the sound booth, the entertainment director is glaring at me while trying to look like he was in control, and I call out "I don't know what the problem is!"
This is when I figured out the problem, because my own voice was coming out through the sound system. I had laid the announce mike down on top of the momentary "talkback" mike button on the console, and the on board mike was "hot" until I picked up the mike.
All of a sudden I had complete control back, and my heart fell back into place. The show went on, and what a lesson I learned!
– Michael (Smitty) Smith, Sound Smith Audio, Las Vegas
