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Sound System at Live Gigs
A recurring weakness I have observed in the local live music scene (bars, cafés, tap houses, and similar venues) is poor sound production. This does not include bands which provide an audio technician and is not a comment about quality of musicianship. I’m referring only to the sound that fills the room, what people hear, what comes out of the main speakers. Sometimes performers can successfully control the sound from the stage, which can work well for a soloist or duet or maybe a trio, but to get a sound mix that properly supports the needs of the musician(s) requires the attention of a dedicated individual. Someone who is not onstage but listens from the audience’s perspective.
The techie is a musician and a bone fide member of the band. The best setup is an audio engineer sitting at a sound board – listening closely and adjusting levels throughout a show. Their instrument is the sound system and they are the critical link between the musicians and the audience. A bad sound person can make a good musician sound horrible, but a good sound techie cannot make a bad performer sound polished.
Constant vigilance from the audio operator is necessary because the sound of a room changes as people come and go; a full house will absorb sound, a sparsely attended venue’s walls, ceiling, and floor will produce lots of echo, especially of certain frequencies, which interferes with what the musician should actually sound like. Singers may change from song to song requiring subtle changes to the voice channel, a soloist may come across too loud or too quiet; and a guitarist, for example, might choose a new instrument in the middle of a set.
And issues arise: a voice or instrument may be too loud or too quiet in someone’s monitor, a cable can malfunction, feedback may suddenly erupt, and speakers can overheat and either shut down completely or distort the audio signal. Also, a person at the sound board can adjust the overall volume so it does not overpower the audience – very critical in a venue where clients expect to be able to talk to each other, and helpful to the wait staff who need to hear orders without asking customers to shout.
Of course, the inclusion of a dedicated audio techie is complicated; whatever fee the musician(s) receive (usually well less than what they deserve) needs to be split with an extra person. And the sound board operator needs to attend a practice or two and be one of the first to arrive at a gig and one of the last to leave.
Gigging musicians invest a lot of time, money, and soul into their craft – purchase and repair of instruments is costly; writing and learning tunes is time-consuming; travel demands reliable transportation; hauling heavy equipment to and from a stage can be laborious and sometimes dangerous; audiences may be unappreciative and occasionally hostile – especially when they pay good money to hear what they assumed would be a professional performance.
It makes no sense for musicians to put so much effort into developing their craft only to have their hard work cheapened by a substandard mix coming through the sound system.
So, please, if you’re going to invite people to listen to your music, do your absolute best to ensure what they hear is as close to your ideal sound as possible. Otherwise, everyone – performers and audience members – get less than they deserve.
39 Days of July Weather Rant notes
May 12, 2023
This place has had: earthquake, eclipses, floods, forest fires etc. coldest, hottest, forests, river What local story to tell? This piece of land? Use a piece of Acasta.
May 14, 2023
39 days
quote l. Cohen – “Let’s Compare Mythologies”
songs from each area tell about in intro
distances to: EV Farm, center of earth, top of stratosphere
May 23, 2023.
To the 39 days to go before the beginning of the 39 days of July.
Cool today, no rain, fires in the NWT at hay river and British Columbia and Alberta, started 10 days ago. Not much rain in the fire zones or nearby the fires that too much rain will result in floods because after the earththis scorched it can’t hold moisture very well. There is a respite coming from the heat.
May 24, 2023
Weather, no wind, distrustful stories of fires and floods and landslides and heat waves.
May 25, 2023
Weather: El Nino is happening soon and warming the eastern Pacific to to to and there is also a warming in the Atlantic ocean down step in the Caribbean area, so there could be fewer hurricanes if the wind from the west from El Nino interferes with the wings of the hurricane. Tell the story from huge two small weather influencers. To
May 26, 2023
Kind of hot, more news of the fires in the north woods territories, Alberta, and British Columbia. So early in the year. Maybe this all leads back to the beach elements, like the sun and other things. So in the 39 days of July show, you could start with the present moment of weather and expand out, which means backwards and forwards or certainly from the past to the present.
May 27, 2023
39 days. Weather report. Scottish, hotter than elsewhere here in Ladysmith. AMOC, Atlantic Meridial Overturning Circulation. It distributes heat to the north Atlantic. It is slowing by about 15%. Heat of apparatus water, the leaves this all, so the water becomes heavier and, after moving north, sinks, and then returns to the south. This is what normally happens.
We have four jet streams: two polar jet streams and two subtropical jet streams.
May 28, 2023
quite hot but not too hot, low tide, our sister ocean the Atlantic is getting warm
COVID resulted in less CO2 in atmosphere
May 29, 2023
fires – more this summer?
heat dome this year?
huge tornadoes etc? are the fears we live with. What is next?
May 30, 2023
First whiff of smoke from the mainland today.
May 31, 2023
Fires in Nova Scotia continue to spread. Our air advisory is lifted today. But a few small fires on the island. El Nino slowly happening like a sly trickster that will nip our butts and maybe bite our butts.
Some drizzle today. cool to 8 degrees C. time ticks by – the water infrastructure rots like it is a kitchen timer as it reaches its expiry date – a reminder of how we are tied to time; we live at the end of it and the beginning of it.
“The age you are now is older than you have ever been and younger than you will ever be.”
Marguerite Camus. June 2023.
June 1, 2023
Begin to seriously plan for emergency escape via Ford Windstar. Continuing big fires in Nova Scotia.
June 2, 2023
39 days Nullschool.net for weather history.
big fires around Sept-iles – some evacuations. The weather as a bubbling brew of hot, cold, pressures, moisture, win, the jet streams 2 polar and 2 sub-tropical
June 3, 2023
The big picture, earthquake, Van Allen belt, volcanoes, tsunami, any of which could hit us in a big way.
June 4, 2023
Sometimes, we have a pause in the climate change reception, we sort of forget about it all.
Big turmoil, rumble and, Baldwin, wailing clowns, swift winds, sun, Moon, tides.
June 5, 2023
Big Federal Press conference about a busy fire season this year.
June 6, 2023
Wake up every day wondering if this will be the day you need to run from a fire. On alert, panic, uneasy, bomb.
June 7, 2023
The naysayers.