Welcome to 2014. I’m not sure where 2013 went, but around here, time moves much faster than 1,126 feet/second, and it seems like yesterday that I was penning some kind of welcome address to 2013. This is always the time when journalists everywhere reflect on the past year, but I’m mostly gonna skip that and get to the chase. That said, you don’t want to miss our annual look back at the “Top Tours of 2013” in our expanded “Showtime” edition starting on page 22. (Click HERE to scroll down to the tour listings)
But the past is passed (or passé’d) and this being the first day of the rest of your life, this is a great time to look at your future. There’s a great old 1970’s song made popular by Elvis Costello and covered by a million bands since, called “What’s so Funny ‘bout Peace, Love and Understanding,” and I think that partly applies here. In previous years, countless New Year’s wish lists have included hopes for the “peace and love” part, and, let’s face it, that hasn’t worked so far. So this time around, let’s focus on the Big “U” — understanding. If we as sound pros could just get a little more of that, then this — or any year — could be a lot better.
The Promoter Side
Some of that comes down to R-E-S-P-E-C-T. We get hired by promoters who typically believe they know more about audio than we do. This may come in the form of a wedding planner who wants to dictate — not suggest — speaker placement, or David Morgan’s amusing now (but probably not at the time) tale of ringing in the P.A. before a Cher show, only to have a crew come and place set pieces in front of the rig. I am somewhat amused (that is, when it doesn’t happen to me) when an artist hires the finest mix engineers in the studio and then looks over their shoulders and tell them how to mix. At least that doesn’t typically happen in a live setting where the artist is on stage during the show (and well away from the FOH position), but with virtual sound checks and lip-syncing to Pro Tools playback, technology has made that possible, too. Ah, technology!
The Audience Side
We could go on and on about understanding from that viewpoint, but as one of the few crew members set up surrounded by a sea of ticket buying public, a little understanding from these patrons wouldn’t hurt either. We’ve all heard echoes of “Yes, I DO know what all these knobs do” and “No, I can’t get backstage passes for you and your friends,” and have gotten used to such queries over the years. Yet trying to please 30, 300 or 30,000 people is a tough act, and since you’re visible (and vulnerable), seemingly each one of them will come by to tell you it’s too loud or too soft, or whatever.
To be perfectly fair and even handed, I should point out this sort of audience participation criticism never seems to get directed to the lighting tech. That is, unless some well intentioned yet misguided Joe Customer makes their audio complaints to the person at the lighting board. I’m sure that at an historic occasion one of these days, some Schmoe will utter some comment about the need for a fourth follow spot, or suggest a preference that the background cyc be lit using a #CL113 Cool LED Magenta rather than a #798 Chrysalis Pink, but that hasn’t happened yet.
The Performer Side
This section could easily fill several volumes, but a little understanding from the musician/performer angle would be a welcome change. And I’m not indicting them all, but we’ve all suffered though enough recurring horror stories that there should be a law somewhere requiring players to ingest a quick course on things to NOT do onstage. Actually, this list is far too long for most musicians to remember, much less comprehend. Towards the top is “my amp needs to be at 11 or I can’t get my tone.” If that was really true, they’d invest in an iso cab or try playing through a smaller amp turned up to 11. A Fender Champ has a great sound fully cranked and is worshipped throughout guitardom for its tone — and at 5 watts, probably won’t drown out everyone else on stage.
Of course, the “turn it up” phase is followed by the “I need more monitor” request, which sometimes can be translated as “my instrument is cranked so loud I can’t hear anyone else in the band.” Another variation of this is the “keep it down during sound check and crank it once you hit the stage” routine. And from the FOH mixer’s point of view, we just love surprises, especially when you bring fader on that amp mic down to zero and it’s still way too loud and out of balance with the rest of the band. Now if we each had a dollar for every show we’ve mixed where that happened, we could afford to spend all our winters on a beach in the South Seas somewhere.
There are countless more stories on this subject; in fact, I’ve started a thread on the proaudiospace.com forum so we can all share some war stories, laugh and commiserate. And among fellow audio pros in that virtual brewpub, you’ll definitely uncover a little understanding. So have a great 2014, and we’ll see you there!
