In the various venues where I have volunteered or worked at, I have had the privilege of working as producer and technical manager for many touring groups as they came into a town to perform. Yes, believe it or not I think I have seen every crazy thing, from micing a snare drum with the rear (strongest pick up rejection point of a cardioid microphone) of the mic pointed towards the drum head. Micing a guitar amp with two mics placed tight together (and taped) with the mic heads side by side and then run in mono without putting them out of phase with each other…… can you say “phase cancellation”????
I have also experienced the “I know everything” attitude that usually exudes from the least qualified and least experienced engineer. I always try to approach events and the people involved with the mindset that I can learn something in every situation. Now, I have to admit that there have been times where a cantankerous sound guy coupled with incompetence has caused the thought “every live sound guy is an arrogant idiot!” go through my head.
Thankfully, there also have been many positive experiences like the time when I was the arrogant idiot who thought he knew it all and was trying to “help” the seasoned road guy who was using 2 mics on a snare drum, one on top and one on the bottom. Short of calling him stupid, I told him in relatively brash terms that it would never work as he would have all kinds of phasing problems. This seasoned veteran, who obviously had a heart for and desire to educate the “arrogant idiots” who know everything, stopped micing the drums and very calmly and rationally explained to me why he was using this micing technique,
This kind veteran of the industry took out his sharpie and on the back of a set list began drawing polar patterns and phasing charts as he explained to me his technique. I will not bore you with the technical details, but in a nut shell he explained the science and art of why this worked. By placing the mic on the bottom of the snare out of phase with the mic on the top of the snare and doing some really bizarre (at least it seemed that way to me) equalization on both mics a great snare sound would be achieved. Thanks to that veteran and his patient lengthy explanation I learned that day that phase shift is frequency dependent and that it can be used as a positive not just the avoid at all cost negative I had made it in to.
During the show that night as I sat at front of house with my new mentor and hero I marveled at the incredible crack of the snare drum and how it somehow felt like every time the drummer hit the snare drum that crack felt like it was smacking me in the back of my head! I could go on and on to tell you many stories of how seasoned veterans and yes even the “arrogant idiots” taught me some incredible things, but I am sure that my writing are not yet cultivated enough to keep you captive for much longer so I will close with this.
Recently, (about a month ago) a touring act came through town. The budget for the tour was tight so the band (internationally known, dove award nominated….) was only traveling with stage instruments and their inear monitor set up. This meant that they would be using the house system and I would end up having to work closely with their sound guy. Thankfully the band and the sound guy were delightful to work with, but I found myself questioning the sound guy's competence. I tried many times to explain the Left/Center/Right configuration of the house system, how the aux fed subs worked, how to patch the compressors and effects……. The whole time he would smile and nod his head and then proceed to do something that made it appear as if he had no clue as to what I had just told him. During the sound check I had other responsibilities to care for and so I left him to his ways thinking, oh boy this is going to be interesting. Thankfully as I stated above the entire group, including the sound guy was great to work with. I had many laughs as they seemed to be kids at play, so happy to be doing what they were doing.
Having missed the rest of the sound check my next experience with the sound guy was the start of the show that night. As the band prepared to come out on stage I looked at the sound board and saw that of all things he had the kick drum feeding into one of the effects units. Scanning the effects unit that was patched to that feed I saw that there was a reverb with about 2.5 seconds of decay on the kick drum. I thought,”Oh, he must have meant to turn the feed of the aux fed sub up and just twisted the wrong knob. Quickly I tried to bring this to his attention; he just smiled and nodded his head……. Again the, oh boy thought went through my head. Needless to say, once again I was surprised! From the first note the band sounded great! They did have a very different style and sound than most of the contemporary Christian bands that have come through the facility, but it worked very well for them.
Now would I recommend reverb on a kick drum? No! (at least not under normal circumstances). Did it work for this band? Yes! I found myself wondering if the sound guy really knew what he was doing or if he just got lucky. After the show I had time to ask him a few more questions. I found out that he is a very accomplished musician, owns a really tricked out pro tools rig and was only on the tour doing sound because the band he was touring with was on a break and he needed to earn some cash (I surmised that it was to feed his Pro Tools obsession). I also found out that he had a fascinating mix of technical aptitude intertwined with incredible musical and creative skills. As it turns out, I do think he understood most of what I was telling him. The nod and smile where his nice way of saying thank you, but I am going to try some different things.
This experience brought to mind one of my favorite sayings “Audio is the art that everyone thinks is a science and Audio is the science that everyone thinks is art”. It also, totally affirmed to me that when you can both understand and mix science and art together, the results can bring sound to life!
