The Worst Sound Guys Of All Time!

[@anonymas825]

as a sound guy, I hate people like this, they make us look bad. when a band wants something, i do the best I can to make them happy, and transitions are nothing, and if it takes to long, it cuts into their time. I hate when people do a terrible job. Honestly I want to, when I see a terrible sound guy, i want to literally kick them off the board and fix it like crazy. I also dont have a conventional preference when i listen to a song, as to which is louder, I get a feel for what it should be like, and I try to make that sound, i like to hear everything as equally as possible (with exceptions, solos etc)

[@lastwymsi]

So I'm studying to be a sound engineer in college, If thats the competition Im up against... yeesh.

[@musicmaster555]

It's a pretty highly saturated market. Just don't be a fucking DVA, do solid work, be flexible, and you'll go a long long way.

[@psychochicken9535]

You'll do fine.

[@andrewgreiner4681]

im in college for audio as well

[@AuspiciousIno]

Andrew Greiner as am I

[@samuelaubrey481]

Same, but uk

[@Miningfordiamonds1]

My friend is his sound guy for his band. At one of the venues he was playing they already had a sound guy set. He was horrible didn’t have a clue what he was doing. So when he left to get water my buddy tossed his guitar down on stage went over and remixed everything. Needless to say that dude was pissed off enough that he quit, my buddy made two salaries that night mixing for the rest of the bands. 10/10 bad sound guys.

[@EliPorter456]

This is why I start my own band I'm getting my own sound guy. I already have a friend in mind and everything.

[@CooperAATE]

@@alicec1533 nah, this kind of thing happens...

[@1980hardhitter]

yeah right

[@jessegardner33]

Don't know if this dude knows what a salary actually is xD

[@iamsparta96]

What a fantastic turnaround! Always nice to get paid double to do your job plus the asshat that couldn’t do his!

[@FatStormcloak]

Austin looks crazy good now, man. So proud

[@callumhawkins2937]

The worst sound enginner is me because i accidently make pornogrind metalcore during a battle of the bands. I put the gain up way to high and no one could tell that i was playing different notes. Also i saw black beil brides and you couldnt hear the guitars unless they harmonized with eachother. The drums were too loud and andys vioce was to high

[@psychosocial8035]

Austin's looking good.

[@rokobacic8404]

is there some kind of a bakstory why are you saying that? Austin was not good?

[@WoeIsLee]

I guess losing 10 or so pounds is the new 60

[@martingoldblunt5163]

Ikr

[@egosumumbraemortis5609]

As someone who went to school for audio engineering/music technology/recording arts, I sympathize with a lot of these stories. Even after four years of intensive schooling I still at times have a little trouble with extensive routing or assigning issues but other than that I'm pretty solid and run the board for quite a few churches. I recall one instance in which I showed up (just getting internship hours) for my wife's parent's church. This is one of those church's where their mentality is, "if you even think you can play an instrument or sing, we'll let you on the stage". Consequently, there's almost 11 people up there, only three of which who actually know what they're doing. For the Sunday set, I muted virtually everyone except the lead guitarist, lead vocalist, and drummer and let them do their thing. Afterwards literally everyone came up to the booth and was like, "Wow our worship team has gotten so much better since last week! Thanks". I didn't have the heart to tell anyone but the lead pastor what had transpired, and he just sat there and was like, "I guess we need to make some changes". The true talent of a sound man lies in his honesty to the musicians as well as the venue owners. You can be honest and not a dick, but at the end of the day if a band or speaker is paying you for a specific sound, you also need to follow the rules and respect their leadership. Fast forward to next week they had half the people on stage and it sounded just fine. I also had realized everything, and I mean everything had been routed to only two monitors. Hence why everyone was off beat and out of key. Especially for churches, botching the way people commune with the Lord through unapologetically awful vocals and instruments is just unacceptable. The church spent hundreds per week on high end coffee and pastries for the congregation and not a penny on the sound guy; which, btw, was the pastor's sun who basically knew how to turn things on and unmute channels. What a disaster. When I finally left that place, the week I did, I heard that all the people who had been kicked off the stage came back and the whole thing was undone. Just garbage.

[@razztastic]

So what did we learn? Exactly! Christians *can* and *will* fuck things up because they think they know best thanks to their mighty lord!

[@thereverendtholomewplaque2987]

Super proud of Austin's weight-loss, looks great now. Well done my organicboi

[@MatterOfFire]

“He was old, like 40”. Jeez 40 is like middle-aged at max xD

[@SeemsLikeSomething]

Ouch. I’m nearly 40 and I’m just starting to be ready to play some shows! 😆

[@StormChasersofOhio]

You guys are like the rhett and link of metal youtube

[@schlubenno3827]

Jonny Glessner Great comparison, there’s even a funny one and an unfunny one! 😃

[@nikkinoona8630]

Jaden L hoooooooooooooow daaaaaare you

[@JUNK_ZONE]

They don't perpetuate false information for cash so...

[@StormChasersofOhio]

Ectoplasmic36 What false information do R&L perpetuate for cash?

[@JUNK_ZONE]

They've peddled false information about the safety and regulation of vaping from the "surgeon general".

[@yonikup2865]

Jared: 0:06 "you sacks of Salamander Shit" Austin: 0:08 sigh...mumbles"Demonitized..."

[@cianden3098]

Hahahaha

[@JamesSmith-gk8sz]

In defense of audio engineers who actually went to college and have degrees in sound reinforcement, recording arts, etc. 1.) Most bands don't know how to communicate effectively to the audio guy. Saying "I want my guitar louder" could mean a.) Your guitar in your monitor? b.) Your guitar in the house? c.) Your guitar coupled with an FX or plug in? d.) Your overdubbed guitar on the backing tracks louder? Point being, sound guys have to deal with so much ineptitude from bands who don't know what they're doing it's crazy. 2.) If you haven't been to school, haven't been doing shows, haven't been a sound guy for longer than a year, just say that right off the bat to the band so they know what they're dealing with. 3.) Most suggestions people give sound guys are, in reality, total nonsense. One person could hear a frequency better than someone else and want it boosted, which then makes it sound worse for the previous guy. It's an unending battle in which no one will ever be fully happy. Telling me to give your voice more reverb when you're in a grind metal band is fucking pointless. 4.) Most bands don't know have quality cables, instruments, amps, etc and the accompanying sound is terrible simply because of the gear and usually coupled with their stupidity. Using a 100$, intro level Fender meant to teach children coupled with a Mogami gold cable still won't make it sound good. And yes, some audio guys have no formal training and are terrible. For the rest of us, including myself, keep making bands sound great. I salute you.

[@memebigboy1946]

I think having Glen Fricker as a soundguy would be both entertaining and amazing considering he actually knows how to mic shit.

[@emmanuelrogercosta9671]

he would scare the shit out of some bands though :D

[@Hikaeme-od3zq]

@@emmanuelrogercosta9671 I agree, I love Glenn but he's pretty intimidating 😅

[@mdurst2009]

@JezBollah 667 "face tattoos are intimidating" Nah Im not 12 or an old woman so Ill be good.

[@ava_3230]

Who the fuck wants to work with a discount Peter Griffin that thinks he's the shit when he's just okay?

[@hailskatean]

Glen is a studio engineer, no doubt he could mix live though. But studio wizards are their own league as are massive arena FOH or monitor wizards. Live is a whole other beast considering you never know what acoustics the room will bring, tuning frequencies out of venues regularly and the problems that come with equipment / speakers / cables that have been on the road, handled by loaders and travelled in truck packs..

[@GyanjoYoutube]

Do a 5 sound guys spoof thingy, like you did with the other band members, it would be amazing

[@insertmetalnamehere8838]

That one guy who said Metallica's sound sucked just went to a bad show apparently. I saw them in Houston on their last tour and I heard everything perfectly.

[@WillLeitner]

yeah i’ve seen them a lot recently and they sound great

[@mschuhler]

That one guy (being me) agrees that it was probably just a bad show. The stadium itself was not a great venue, and I've seen vids of some kickass shows they've done, so I'm guessing that was the issue. It was just rather disappointing at the time, you don't get to see legends like that every day

[@jacobnelsen2786]

What year did he see them?

[@turbocateyeS475]

I am convinced Austin was being serious when he said he only owned 3 shirts. Two Acacia Strain shirts and this sleeveless Ghost shirt. Plus his classic jacket and an overwatch hat. Jared might own 5 now? And that damn Naked hat

[@jordanthurt]

There's a major difference between sound guys and audio engineers.

[@LilXezon_1121]

The difference being a degree, their attitude is exactly the same! XD

[@TheMeade]

@@LilXezon_1121 not exactly lol, you don't need a degree to be hired as an audio engineer, and often sound guy and audio engineer are interchangeable.

[@ShaneSlaughterTV]

I once showed up to a festival in the woods and the sound guy legit went "whats a DI box?"

[@silentriders]

...what the fuck lol

[@norgepalm7315]

Sounds like an edm guy

[@vargsburzum]

There had to be something else going on with Metallica because Big Mick has run sound for Metallica since 1984. Maybe it was an intern, cause Big Mick is a legend.

[@nordicshredder4128]

yeah i saw them once, it was loud to where i needed earbuds but then again the band also uses earbuds and they sounded fine, the PA functioned perfectly ect, they played flawlessly i could hear everything from the drums to bass to vocals to guitars, great show

[@Cobra4993]

I saw Metallica a few years ago and I was really really far from the stage but it still sounded really good. I saw them in the same place 2 years ago but they did a center stage with the crowd surrounding it and speakers pointing in all directions instead of crowd on one side stage on the other side with speakers pointing one direction and it sounded like shit from all the sound echoing. Every show is different. I like to think Metallica normally sounds awesome like my first experience.

[@JollyRogerProductions]

Some dude: "...It was all just loud thrashing." Austin: "hell yea."

[@edgardiaz6811]

Plugin a guitar into another guitar

[@SeemsLikeSomething]

Lmao!! I’m not done watching the video so I dunno if this is a reference to something in it but I almost spit out my drink laughing from this comment 😆

[@nbtstan3198]

big brain

[@egosumumbraemortis5609]

This is the summation of every first year MTECH student lmfao I kid you not some people's logic.....saw a debate between my Recording Arts professor (has his own award winning band, over ten albums, multiple Master's degrees in every field of music and recording technology) and this first year dipshit who kept trying to explain, to the professor, that he needed to bring the channel fader to unity, not to "taste". My professor kept calmly telling him it's essentially the same thing and this moron wouldn't have it smfh.....awesome comment encapsulates everything about audio idiots in one concise sentence.

[@kaiser7695]

I’m curious what would happen

[@TheSonic1685]

I only just started doing music this year and the other week I had my first run in with a sound guy. The first sound guy I ever had to deal with and he was a real piece of work. This was at a recording studio attached to the school I was going at to finish my senior year and a presentation performance was due. It was a school environment and as a result was one of the shitest music environments to be in. Especially for someone who finally started taking music seriously. I approached the sound and tech guys after the tech guy politely asked me if I wanted some requests to give him. I did, I asked him for some disco lighting effects and I wanted a bit of extra delay on my set pretty standard request nothing too difficult.The sound guy then started having a temper tantrum at me like I was asking him to resurrect someone from the dead. Sarcastically asking me if I wanted to provide my specifications for it on an excel spreadsheet. In the end I didn't get my delay and instead got one pissed of sound guy. Still do not know why that kid was so angry over such a basic request. I should also mention the concert ended up being so rushed only one band actually got a sound check and the others well they can go fuck themselves.

[@JoshRiffMonster]

The last year me and my band open a concert and the sound guy was extremely cooky... I mean, he made the thing right but: 1) He treated the guitarist like an idiot because of the feedback of the amp with the guitar. 2) When he was going to check the mics for the vocalist, because the vocalist weren't ready, the sound guy just got up and left! And we were just like: *What, you just wait for 5 seconds and leave?* 3) I play bass and keyboard... I put on the bass and then plug it in the DI box, that was ok, but, when he listened a little bad sound (because of my cable) he scolded me and threatened to cancel thw *whole* concert only because of that (I had other cable thanks to God) 4) *During the show* He turned off my keyboard (why? Because he doesn't give a sh...) And it was celtic music, so I play that without strings, I had to play bass. 5) And finally, when the other bands performed, he was laughing at them (at to us) the whole concert and even throwing things at people like pieces of paper... And... It was our first concert ever as a band...

[@ShiningXwolf]

went to a babymetal concert in philly once, it was all drums and vocals, nothing else. There was a bass solo thing at one point that kinda cut through but the rest was drums and vocals

[@kamehameharem]

When I saw them at hardrock in Boston, they were pretty well mixed. Still had a preference for vocals, but that makes sense considering that is what makes them so unique. At least I could hear the guitar since those parts are very well written and performed. Hope you can see them somewhere with good audio next time!

[@nomanard1220]

Kpop and metal dont go together

[@deadpixel_1614]

@@nomanard1220 theyre japanese not korean....

[@nomanard1220]

@@deadpixel_1614its the the same to me

[@nilsnrevents4956]

17:33 Oh those Soundguys who turn the bassdrum up so loud that it's a constant hum xD

[@kidwajagstang]

6:03, to be fair, if I’m hired as a sound engineer, I don’t concern myself with the lights. Unless when I agree to do the job, I’m told that I’m also responsible for the lighting, it’s not my concern.

[@hailskatean]

meh.. LX, AX, VX from projectors, line arrays to lighting fixtures. Inputs and outputs right? Its all universal, if someone wants a light turned down thats not a huge ask at all and any technician should be able to accomodate. Not like the request was to start timecoding scenes or anything

[@ignzomby4544]

@@hailskatean not really, cause sometimes people use stuff we don't know, even if we can do light shows ourselves

[@hailskatean]

@@ignzomby4544 I get that not being familiar with menu layouts of certain mixers or whatever but I'll always give it a crack because the functionality is the same just need to understand the layout I can understand if some people are just sound guys and thats what they do. I know in the US its very specific on "this guy is a rigger so he just rigs speakers and lights" and "this guy is the tech he just touches audio" but in the EU and AUS us operating techs are also the ones in scissor lifts, rigging and patching, then addressing/ labeling and operating Anyway I'm of the opinion that any good sound tech should understand a basic lighting desk which on a pub/small venue level of bands coming to do shows the lighting desk isnt going to be anything crazy...

[@zachbowden1993]

I had the opposite experience on Metallica's last tour. Their sound engineer has been with them for most of their career and definitely knows what he's doing. I was about 3 rows from the stage and I could hear everything crystal clear. Also, because they played in the round, the sound wasn't overpoweringly loud because the sound was coming from loads of spread out speakers, not one huge speaker array

[@DapperBlobfish]

My band once headlined a local gig and we had to bring our own drum kit. He proceeded to sit there scrolling on his phone for half an hour after it was set up. He then took ages micing up the drum kit so we sound checked late, as a result the other bands sound checked late and the show started late. Then when we finally performed he threw whatever preset he had out the window because we sounded nothing like the sound check and my bass was not turned on. Between songs we kept telling him to turn the bass up and he did fuck all. Worst part was this clusterfuck of a gig was a graded college assessment.

[@ashleyrobertson9774]

I feel like I just watched a video in another language

[@sebastianviuf]

Ashley Robertson Haha same, even though its interesting when you play in a band

[@IntergalacticSpaceKitten]

Lol yeah! I understand the general gist of it all but since I'm not a soundguy nor a guitarist or musician in general, I have no idea what certain equipment they're talking about actually are.

[@paniccleo]

Another story; one time the dude who was meant to be doing sound was missing at the time for our sound check. The venue called him and he was off somewhere else getting dinner, so I did our sound before we played. Later I heard him getting compliements from his friends about it.

[@iNickNarcotic]

I was playing a show at a venue in Brooklyn(not gonna say the name) and the sound guy told make my tone with less bass..... i play the bass

[@EliPorter456]

Every bass player knows just turn the bass up all the ways and mute the other instruments #bass

[@psychochicken9535]

Ok. That dude needs to be fired.

[@1980hardhitter]

Hmm, do you have an equalizer?

[@dustsucker87]

Speaking as a sound engineer here. I wasn't there and I've never heard you play so I can't tell what your sound was like. But in general I can say there's more to bassguitar than just low end. You need the mids and highs to get definition of what you're playing and to get it to sit well in a mix. Going "Yeah but I play bass" will put you both at odds, when just trying his suggestion might take just a minute to check and could result in a better sound for your band. If you feel it's not your sound you can always dial it back in.

[@Are_you_eyeballing_me]

I've been to multiple shows where bass was just drowning out pretty much everything else but maybe the snare and the kick drum. So yeah, there can definitely be too much bass in your bass.

[@jakebrandt5882]

Played a festival we'd been trying to get on for 2 years and after the first song I had none of my guitar in my monitor. I looked over to monitor world and gave the guy the "this guitar up" signal, and he thumbs upped. This happened 3 more times (and I still had no monitor) before the other guitar player (who was on the opposite side of the stage from myself) started giving him "this guitar down" signals. Dude didnt even know what line was patched to where...and we were the 4th band of the bill that day. He literally had 3 sets and about 4 hours of time to figure his shit out, and still didnt have it nailed down. Sooooooo I just Marty McFly'd my amp because fuck that guy.

[@johannes4218]

I saw Ghost this summer and it was the most bass heavy mix i've ever heard. During one song the keyboards played lots of long low notes and all i could hear was BMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM...

[@Evergladecro]

The coolest thing about this subject is wherever i played with my band we had issues with the sound guys. I never played a gig where i can hear guitars and vocals clearly. Always had a feeling that the guys just soundcheck the first band and leave it like that and drink beer. Haha great.

[@theberserkturk6059]

The 2 dislikes were probably sound guys

[@hannahc1790]

There are so many shows that I go to where I just want to jump the sound guy, and do it myself! When I was a stagehand, there were so many times even sitting with the sound guy like “bro...please step aside! I can make Rob Zombie sound so much better!”

[@techmetal2292]

I’m not a sound guy. But I am a sound guy in a way. I put in home theatre systems and commercial audio and the way things are supposed to be tuned is so all frequencies are equal and nothing is louder or quieter than something else. This is done with a tool known as a RTA (real time analyzer) that shows the level of all frequencies. I thought this was basic knowledge for any sound related set up but apparently not.

[@sandermestemaker5271]

RTA doesn't mean it gonna sound good, and also doesn't fully show the reaction of the room, besides the hearing of the human ears are not equal on every frequency. RTA is a tool to help filter out a lot of problems, time alignment and so on, but is not the way to trust fully on. It is seen as basic knowledge these days, but the guys that have been in the job for ages never used it when they started and were still able to make it sound great.

[@LivingArtExoticsCAN]

Once had a sound guy show up 2 hours after doors were supposed to open. By the time, our band went on stage, most everyone left. I was so beyond pissed off. Not to mention he showed up baked out of his mind and took forever to set up.

[@yoiamhere4737]

Nightmare fuel 😢😢

[@AndyBxHell]

Big festival in my country, great day and I was finally able to see Disturbed for the first time in my life. I think I enjoyed the first 15 seconds of the set which was the intro to 10.000 fists (yaaay). When they went into the main riff, our nightmare started: the kick drum was so intense it dominated the rest of the instruments and vocals. 45 minutes of airplane engine, I wanted to hang the sound guy on top of the stage to set an example.

[@benthies9531]

Metal festivals always have awful sound :/

[@pinecone3519]

Austin start Torture Dungeon McFly Boys with me

[@nicolaynyvold9154]

Can i play triangle?

[@daantenham8482]

Can i play banjo?

[@scottvogel8477]

Can I play the mayonnaise?

[@nicolaynyvold9154]

Triangle, Pine Cone, Austin, Banjo and Mayonnaise. I'm feeling this band, let's go for it!

[@daantenham8482]

Nicolay Nyvold we are gonna be a Pine core band

[@lodougherty]

Second post by me: Worst sound guy ever. Let's just say he was from L.A, now working in the midwest. Stealing beers. Pulling band mixes and getting them off stage if he didn't like them. Playing bands instruments to sound check them, and at the end of the night fighting the owner of the bar. He has since worked at every local venue in the city and now his face is a poster on all of them with the term "Banned from drinking and entering. Please be on the look out." It goes so much deeper than that short short story.

[@logancuda4624]

I just had a sound guy at a show where he wanted to balance everybody by bringing those that are loud... DOWN.... Its a rock show.... AND! I was using my half stack tuned exactly how I wanted it and I had to bring the amp down to basically a whisper, couldnt even hear myself and neither could the rest of the band who needed to hear me. He then wanted me to lower my treble because my amp had more treble than his PA. It was like that on purpose. We eventually got in a huge argument and I put everything back to where I wanted it, everything was balanced and our group was the best group of the night. We had the highlight song of the show and I got nothing but compliments and people saying how sick and amazing we sounded. Thats all the revenge I needed for that sound guy, knowing that WE set it right, and had the best performance of the night to the crowd.

[@thetoddisgodful]

Best sound guy my band has ever had just checked everything worked then said "fuck it, play." mixed it as we went and it sounded epic

[@mystic0maggot401]

Hey, we don't just have maple syrup, hockey and Rush. We also have The Tragically Hip. Don't go selling us short.

[@psychosocial8035]

Hey Three Days Grace is Canadian. However they were abolished after they got that new sissy vocalist.

[@alexlevesque9687]

We also have better beer than the Americans

[@mortensen1961]

And Red Green.

[@johnpartington5910]

Hey the times we had or whatever is a great song.

[@micawber7162]

And Scott Pilgrim

[@saltysteel3996]

I saw Motley Crue in 2006 at the Von Braun Civic Center in Huntsville, AL. It sounded like I was listening to the tracks on the album. Just very very very loudly. Lol it was perfect. I also saw Cannibal Corpse in Huntsville, AL about 5 years ago at a small venue and they sounded great. Very powerful. 2 chicks got in a fight in the circle pit. They were hitting each other with beer bottles. Everyone just stood there watching them and the band was even watching while playing. Lol

[@omercinar6693]

4:16 You do know theres a pretty popular band called Septicflesh, right?

[@airsoftguy9918]

New band name: Imprison the Sound Guy

[@SneakyLynxy]

I remember when I went to Rockville to see Avenged Sevenfold, I think it was the day after when bullet for my valentine played and I got a video of Matthew rethinking his entire life because his microphone cut in and out during Your Betrayal and all you could hear was Jamie trying to save the song. Side Note A7X had to cut their set because some crowdsurfer broke his neck and an ambulance had to intercept the sea of disappointed fans. Caught a pick from Synyster Gates though so it wasn’t a horrible night.

[@The_JustJoshing]

Damn

[@notxander2072]

Love the intro, and Austin's shirt too! Gotta love Ghost

[@deadpixel_1614]

@mermaid no chill

[@jcjohncarter3]

I was volun-told to be the sound guy at a friend's venue. I have no idea what I was doing, and I told the bands straight up, "Hey, sound guy didn't show up and I'm new at this, so be patient with me, but I'll do my best." My Dad worked in cable so I understood how power and cables in systems work, so as soon as I figured what controlled what each band was satisfied with how I set it up. The only really hard part was drum mic placement, and the drummers monitor wouldn't work. Of course, I found out after the show that it was broken. Don't think I was the best, but the event could've been WAY worse.

[@nachofast6144]

In Ijahis Idja (this festival in Northern Finland) the sound engineers forbid me from increasing the GAIN when playing metal. The gain was at around 2-3. I was supposed to play palm muting rhythm and tapping solos. In the end I was playing pretty much an acoustic guitar on stage with the bass and drums drowning the sounds from my guitar. There was just no gain at all. The gig was a mess, we screwed up the rhythm constantly because no one heard shit and after the gig I heard someone's mom say: "They were nice. ALMOST LIKE A REAL BAND". Compare that to an earlier Ijahis Idja where a band I love came backstage to tell us we had a great gig. Hope those sound engineers are drowning in pig semen

[@Mr.Goldbar]

You should've brought an overdrive pedal and not telling him XD

[@thedondeluxe6941]

4:00 That's literally Glen Fricker, hahaha!

[@zw474]

In my first so called "show" was delayed half way because the sound guy didn't notice that the amp wasn't plugged in.

[@citizennozmeda7232]

Seems like the person using the amp should know if it's plugged in too...

[@zw474]

@@citizennozmeda7232 well the amp was plugged in but there was no power going to it, and they wanted to use stage speakers

[@manfredbazarov6417]

Sound guy says this and I know the gig is fuked: "you're not going to use distortion, are you?"

[@samtheman123]

0:08 “Demonitized” lol watch Austin

[@kidwajagstang]

All of these experiences and stories are exactly why you don’t just hire anyone that says they can “do sound” and will take the job for like $50 or some crazy cheap price. A good sound engineer knows the work involved and what’s required to produce the desired results. I often won’t take less than $350 for a day. If it’s only a few hours and I don’t have to tear down (I ALWAYS want to be there at setup or at least have time ahead of when I’m supposed to start sound check to inspect the PA and see how everything is wired up, routed/patched, and configured with the amps/speakers, mics, and board) I might take $200 if it’s a really simple job that the possibilities of a problem that could turn into a massive headache are small as I really don’t want to find myself in the middle of a complete clusterfuck of a situation that I wasn’t prepared for. It’s extremely frustrating to find out something isn’t plugged in properly or a problem arises due to a mistake that happened during setup. I can sympathize to a degree with the story of the monitor not being plugged in properly and being confused as to why someone’s mix isn’t going where it’s supposed to, but instead of taking 45 minutes, I would have checked the line first thing to make sure it’s going from the correct output to the correct destination. This is a situation that often occurs when I can’t be there during the PA’s initial setup and some random roadie was responsible for plugging everything in and I am so pressed for time I didn’t have the opportunity to check that the stage has been properly setup. It can also occur on stages where each group has there own sound tech, and didn’t reset the stage during their teardown. Example: previous band had only a few members on IEMs but neglected to repatch the monitors after disconnecting their IEM transmitter.

[@freakinnuclearfantasy2511]

I was at a Breaking Benjamin concert and for the first three songs of their set you couldn't hear Bens voice over the instruments. Not bad enough to leave but still kinda annoying

[@ZackSeifMusic]

Same thing when I saw them last week. It's crazy. They have their own sound guys and do sound checks...has to be the arena

[@freakinnuclearfantasy2511]

@@ZackSeifMusic thing is they were on their phones the whole time until someone in front of them told them to do their fucking job

[@sunspear4858]

Dude most BB live videos are horrendously bad because of their sound guys, they're a fantastic band but their sound guys suck

[@cjtraywick]

Before I ever was allowed to mix on my own, I had a senior FOH tech judge my mixes until they felt I had a grasp of what was going on. I’ve been fortunate enough to be trained by really solid techs

[@musicmaster555]

As someone who works in the event tech industry and has spoken with a decent handful of sound guys I think the problem is twofold. Number 1 is that the market is completely oversaturated with sound guys. I would know, I came to Nashville wanting to be one; now I'm a livhting guy haha. Number 2 is that venues don't want to pay for good sound and also don't vet their technicians. Fun fact to venues, there's a decent chance that your best friend's friend Jim Bob who has only worked two separate venues his whole life and will work for beer money probably isn't going to be the best choice. The market is oversaturated so there are a fuck ton of sound guys who will work for pretty damn cheap considering. Read resumes and pay your people!!! rant over.

[@seanmakessound]

The worst experience is when you’re playing a gig with an amp modeler (Helix in my case) and have a background as a touring live audio engineer. The local guy rarely knows how to set it up correctly (even though it literally only takes 1-2 XLR cables), will argue with you about it for about 20 minutes straight (even though it shouldn’t even take 2 minutes to setup) and will ALWAYS insist that they know more than you, even if you do the same job regularly. TL;DR if you get stuck with a bad sound guy and you know what you’re talking about, they’re even grumpier.

[@KeepoKreepo]

Heading to college for my soundguy status lmao

[@martingoldblunt5163]

Good luck!

[@PlayingWithAndi]

nice! I'm taking my bachelors degree in audio engineering.

[@zaimusic_150]

Andreas Persson dude where...there are no programs for that where I live...like no universities or colleges in New Mexico offer a Bachelors in audio engineering...could you give me some advice

[@LeonardoDaMacgyver]

Some of these problems i could see happening cause of miscommunication, like asking something while someone is playing, or usin signlanguage during the soundcheck/gig. Also some problems i’d see happening in a small venue, with small PA. But now a story for you: I was working with this mediocre metal band, with a vocalist whose growls were just slightly harder then a whisper. He was yelling at me to put more volume to his vocals, witch was impossible due to his vocal”style” and the fact that he cupped the mic. So after the check i went to get coffee and when i got back i saw him messing with the mixer and when he saw me, he asked if we’d try out the vocals a bit more. So he went to the stage and i opened the mic channel and this infernal ear raping feedback squeel startet, that made him drop the mic and cover his ears, so i mutes the channel and said to the talkback mic ”maybe next time you won’t touch my gain settings.”

[@mightymitch1421]

Saw Metallica a few months ago and they sounded great. Maybe the sound guy had a bad night that one night. lol

[@michaelbogdon2632]

So..... are they censoring themselves now???? Like bleeping out the... naughty words. “Oooo I think he said HECC mom is gonna kill me” 😂😂

[@williamking8684]

i had a sound guy completely cut me from the mix after asking 7 times to turn down my inears

[@jackphillips6165]

I went to this local gig the band was ready and were waiting for the sound guy to do the pre show checks . The sound guy shows up after the front man had apologised for the delay. He starts the sound check and screams into the microphone "check ONE! check ONE! CHICKEN WINGS!!!" Almost pissed myself laughing

[@jonah11111]

I saw Metallica recently in Toronto and it was the best sound quality I've heard at a concert in a stadium.

[@DannyGadish]

yes i saw metallica last year in new jersey and the sound was great. i think the best sounding band I've heard was Judas Priest

[@alexlevesque9687]

I saw U2 at the Rogers Centre and they sounded like shit P.s. I dont like U2, but I went with my family

[@DannyGadish]

Alex Levesque dude same. i saw them at MetLife with my family and i don't even like them. and they sounded like shit

[@alexlevesque9687]

Our struggles, dude. When I plugged my ears actually, it sounded ok, but I didn't want to look like an idiot haha. The Lumineers (who I have learned to hate) opened for them and the kick drum was painful every time you heard it. The dumbass sound guy at the Rogers Centre did not properly soundcheck EITHER GROUP

[@jessemurray2236]

I saw them in Edmonton a year ago and the sound was great too

[@DylSherm91]

This is the exact reason my group got a rack mount mixer. Do all the sound ourselves, and just send it to the FoH so all they have control over is the master fader

[@computergenerated3833]

18:30 well, there's being president.

[@chrisaaron]

As a "Sound Guy" of about 5 years dude its awful that they have no idea how to do their jobs and aren't current on the technology on their field!!! on behalf of all the good sound guys we apologize!

[@WoeIsLee]

Alright, as a huge Metallica fan, m Schuler needs to get his ears checked, I was at the Philly show last year and sure it was the loudest show I've ever been to but it was perfect, no clue what he's talking about, I'm assuming it was either him or the venue he was at. Also depending on where he was sitting/standing I could see being right at the front next to the speakers not hearing shit, but that's kinda your own fault.

[@Jellybean199611]

A sound guy for a local college radio station we played for told us that he didn't use any EQ or compression, just adjusted the faders. His philosophy was that if he needed to add EQ/compression, it would be because WE didn't sound good enough as is. So we had weak drums, okay guitar, no audible bass, but plenty of vocals. He also couldn't wrap his mind around the fact that the Sennheiser MD421 is the industry standard tom mic, because "that's a vocal mic".

[@thomas.cloutier-guay]

@vDosc UV7 the MD421 will become a great mic once they fix its one problem... that fucking terrible clip..

[@ollieiden6124]

I think magic mike should be a sound guy

[@blaizeroyer8135]

You two are hilarious and so much fun to watch! I’ve been waiting to get noticed by you guys! I’ve seen pretty much all of your videos, and loved them all! Keep it up you guys! Much love ❤️

[@eaf27]

8:50 as someone in a band who also runs sound, both on a regular basis, most of this was ok until I heard the foot on the monitor thing. I disagree with where you're coming from here, the attitude from the guy I'll agree was shitty and that's not professional but lets turn the scenario around. some person puts their foot on the grill of your amp cab potentially damaging your speaker, would you be "cool" about it? what if it happened 2-3 times a week? isn't it in the realm of don't put your drink on my amp aka respect others property? do we need a sign for all things that should be common sense? it's not like we as musicians or sound guys make a ton of money in most cases. so when there is speaker damage because the grill has been pushed in buy a low level rock star who just needed to put their foot on something that then costs the owner of the pa money and time, I mean how do you expect them to react? you cost me money and make my job harder because you need a foot rest... I get the anger because my singer used to do it to my p,. hell my drummer had his kick drum warped because our idiot bassist used to stand on it or put his foot on it. I don't think you'd like a sound guy standing on your kick drum or guitar / bass amp to put up an overhead mic, so why is it ok to do the same to the sound guys stuff if there's "no sign"? otherwise spot on!

[@Drummerjon]

Being a drummer myself i know what i want to hear when i mix bands. For some reason for me it's the bands giving me a problem. I was working at a festival and we had 3 stages at the venue. The inside stage was for the merch tables, stage B was for the acoustic acts, and A stage was for the bands. I told every band that I wanted to know what they wanted to hear. we also were only able to have 3 drum kits on stage and we were crunched for time. The headliner had their own kit and the band before them had their own as well. Everyone else had to use the backline kit. There were about 10 bands total playing and they each had about 25 to 30 minutes to play and 15 minutes to set up and soundcheck. For some reason every drummer decided that they didn't want to use the backline kit but most of the bands agreed to. It wasn't a bad kit (Dw Collector's series) but the 2 bands before the last one and the headliner stopped in the middle of their set and tore down the backline kit and set up theirs and went overtime so the headliner only ended up playing 45 minutes instead of an hour and a half. Also the vocalists of those bands wanted the wedges up so hot you couldn't stop the feedback. To make things worse they kept yelling at me to turn it down and then complained that they couldn't hear anything. I got revenge on them later though. I told the owner of the venue and i ended up getting both those bands cuts and they didn't even get paid!! When they complained to the owner She simply told them, "This is the best sound guy we know and if he is being respectful and makes it sound incredible every night and you treat him like shit then you can go fuck yourself and don't ever play here again!!" Sorry this was so long but there's an exaple of the times when the sound guy's good but the band is bad! Love you guys. Keep up the awesome work!!

[@johannesbutz4771]

I recently played in a venue with my band that had a field with lamas outside the building, and then our soundguy suddenly spoke up in front of the lamas to me and went like "Hey, Johannes I'm turning around the laws of nature now" and spit into the lamas face😂 he is just the best guy to be gigging with, he's always there for a laugh😂🤘

[@jamesmcwilliams9552]

i thought that was alpacas?

[@johannesbutz4771]

@@jamesmcwilliams9552 Lamas too, as we found out after it got pissed off of him😂

[@seanfolk7133]

"If you're a bad sound guy, quit and fuck you" holy shit Jared 😂😂😂

[@Evilwhiteclownpunk]

Even the best sound guys can't make Cookie Monsters and guitars tuned to drop Q flat sound good anyways...

[@jayceorourke5672]

Lol

[@jtnoble321]

I used to run sound for my school and I typically got a lot of good comments on my shows. There was one musical where my director wanted me to teach two more people how to run sound because I was going to be a senior the next year, so I taught during the show. One night my director wanted to let one of them run the show. The first 10 minutes it was either someone was too loud and feedback was roaming everything, or their mic was so low that it was basically off. What I had to do was sit in the far back, text the other sound guy who was running it (because my director wanted me to not go up there and have him run the whole show) and tell him to stop touching the board while I run it from my iPad. Needless to say, that sound guy got a lot better and replaced me when I left, but during that show it was an absolute nightmare.

[@kking1367]

A LOT of opening bands get pissed when you will not do what they want. They do not realise that the sound is set for the headliner and the headliner pays them.

[@thatguyoverthere531]

It's still the sound guys job to mix every band. If they won't do it, you can always pay them.

[@garyvaldez8699]

A lot of the digital boards have cues. One mix for every band. Hopefully they’d use that or else they’re at a loss 🤷🏻‍♂️

[@regortex3364]

The flip side of this is the pro sound guys that have to work with clueless hacks that don’t belong near a stage.

[@levivoniderstein4486]

As a sound guy, hearing these horror stories hurts my lack of a soul.

[@trudoguitar4643]

I know it’s a bit late, but after watching your sound guy video, I needed to share my story. I used to be a touring sound engineer, and the band that I was touring with liked to incorporate modern technology and solutions in the way their sound was done. (And they had the money to do so.) So we went all out, and designed a tour set with a silent stage, that we could build up or tear down in 5 minutes. The set incorporated: In-Ear monitors, Kemper(s) for guitar and bass, triggered drums with mesh heads and Zildjian Gen16 Cymbals, everything to make the sound in FOH consistent everywhere. And the stage as silent as possible. We even brought our own digital sound desks, wireless equipment, cables, everything. We just needed to plug into the local PA, everything else was ours, and it worked and sounded brilliantly. We where on the 41st show of the tour, and played a large festival. Around 12k people had bought a ticket for that day, and we played the slot before the headliner that day. After our show was done, the festival crew actually complimented us with the way we sounded, and the way we designed our tour set. After our show the headliner started.... They also brought their own sound and lighting engineers with them. Their show sucked however, and the sound was horrible. It sounded like it was their sound guys first day on the job. After the show the manager for the headliner asked the sound guy they hired why the show sounded so much worse than our show did. Their sound guy said: “because we play live. They (the band I was working for) where just play backing. They didn’t even have mics on the drums, or guitar amps with them. It’s easy to make a cd sound good.... “

[@AngryShredder2004]

Sounds like boomer talk on behalf of the headliner's sound guy. Nothing wrong with playing live or with kempers.

[@Drkilljoy94]

I did a festival a while back (while somewhat new, I emphasized in school in Audio Tech) NO ONE HAD A STAGE PLOT. Had a guy that said “no don’t mic my amp, it’ll be so hot it won’t matter” Like...dude...big stage, lots of people. He seemed like he was tripping balls on something so it’s lit.

[@ethanmeyer5525]

I wish I could’ve gotten mine in my band played a fest where the sound guy was a church sound guy so he never did anything outside, he had us turn our amps almost all the way down bc he was going to mic then he had us start then didn’t mic anything to the point we couldn’t hear guitars so mid song we had to turn our amps back up. Then the power went out 5 times during our 30 minute set. Our drummer said fuck it at the end and kicked his drum set over and chucked a stick at the sound guy after swigging out of a bottle. Fun times

[@Seth-hc2bj]

As someone who's going sound guy school I'm so scared of being one of these guys in the future

[@Oatinator]

So myself and my high school best friend decided to do a cover of 1985 by Bowling For Soup at our schools music night. I had never played at our school before because apparently music council didn't like breakdowns (losers am i right?). Anyways, in our auditorium the stage was about 3 to 4 feet elevated and was about 30 feet (maybe more) deep. We did our sound check and everything was fine, but later on that night when we were supposed to play, they decided to move my drum set up onto the stage, and set it back around centre stage so it wouldn't be so loud. That wouldn't have been a problem, except that they didn't give me a monitor, and both my guitarist and my bassest are standing on the floor, at least 20 feet away from me, amps facing away, the works. I couldn't hear a damn thing, and when i told our schools sound guy that i needed a monitor he told me "You're gonna be fine". Unsurprisingly, i couldn't hear a damn thing, and i had to watch my guitar players elbow to see him strumming to keep time since i couldn't hear anything. That didn't work out so well since hes a punk guitarist and only does down strumming. It was a shit show to say the least.

[@LMurphyMusic]

My stepdad used to be one of his friends soundguys for their band and then their manager. He’s my sound guy for all my gigs now and i finally appreciate how important it is to have a good sound guy and setup.

[@lukehansen7144]

I played this mixed bill show about a month ago, the sound coming from the other bands prior to our set was a bit muddy so I kinda figured this was gonna be a pretty meh performance. We checked our levels and started playing. After the first song our singer asked to be turned up in the PA monitors. To which the sound guy replied " well, stop screaming then. "Like dude. It's a hardcore show, whaddya want us to do. Another sound guy took over for him shortly after and provided us with the phat mix. It was like being saved by superman 10/10 \m/

[@wubh3407]

I had a sound guy spill food all over my bass amp when playing. I was pissed. He didn't even attempt to clean it off. He then blames me for it happening. Lmao

[@DarkestSecrets1]

I have a story as well. I went to see Avenged Sevenfold with Disturbed and Chevelle in February of 2017 and the sound was aweful. There were multiple complaints about it. As far as I know, don't know if it's true or not, the soundguys were the guys from A7X, so they micd everything up and kept the sound levels the same, since I know A7X's bass sound is quite silent in the mix, so they have to turn that up more. But they kept the same levels during Chevelle's show, which was the first of the night. The bass was so loud, I couldn't hear anything besides the bass and the kickdrum the first 3 songs. No vocals, no guitar, no snare, no crash etc. The bass actually resulted in shaking a lot of stuff in the venue, and due to the loudness in front 5 people around me fainted. Just because of the bass! I wasn't feeling well either... When Disturbed came on the sound was fixed a little, still too much bass, but it was okay to listen to. While when A7X started playing, the sound was perfect, nothing to complain. Everything was leveled completely right. But the night was partially ruined thanks to the sound guy in the beginning of the night.

[@LivingArtExoticsCAN]

Was on tour and had a sound guy show up 2 and a half hours after the show was supposed to start, by the time my band went up, there was pretty much no one there because it was super late. I was pissed and at the end of the show I said “and thank you to the sound guy for eventually showing up...2 and a half hours late”

[@TheDeath301]

My band played the Viper Room in Hollywood on our last headlining tour. They asked if they could backline my 8-piece drum kit for the whole night (except for snare, cymbals, and kick pedals of course.) I was perfectly fine with that. What I wasn't ok with, was when they kicked my whole band out 15 minutes before doors open. Apparently they have a safety law which states that everyone has to be out of the building before doors open to the audience. Instead of explaining that to us prior to us getting kicked, they were rude and made the experience horrible. We were the only band kicked out. When we got back in, the same 20 people were there still setting up. The sound guy then proceeded to touch our x32 on our IEM Rack, which fucked up our mix for the next 5 shows, until I realized what happened.

[@jamesfriesen8077]

So much truth haha. I recently went to an Oh, Sleeper show in a small venue and the sound guy wrecked it by cranking everything through the roof.

[@knotchbass]

I am a bass player and my band plays at a club that the sound guy does not allow bass amps to be used period. He has even gone as far as posting signs on the stage wall that state "NO BASS AMPS ALLOWED". He expects bass players to go through a DI and just hear themselves standing behind the PA. The club pays well so we continue to gig there. After the show one night the sound guy comes up to me and said how did it sound tonight. I looked at him and said how should I know all I could hear was drums......lol.

[@ManticoreSigma]

I've got two stories here: When I went to the Black Crusade Tour with Arch Enemy, Shadows Fall, Dragonforce as support and Machinehead and Trivium as headliner, all three support bands sounded great, but you couldn't hear anything of the headliners. It was all just noise. And in our city, there's only 1-2 good sound guys. In one venue, my band had some no name who had no clue and just smothered my voice with his reverb effect. The crowd couldn't understand a word I said.

[@LincolnGTX]

25 years ago when we were actively playing there was one guy who did all these gigs since we were a small town and he was using the same setup for every band and venue, indoors, outdoors, nevermind and he was getting angry every time we were trying to point out what's wrong, like he was the almighty sound guy... It was incredible how better it all sounded when we played in other towns or cities. Sucks.

[@nicholasdeville3870]

The Canadians have maple syrup, hockey, and free healthcare (if you live there)!! Lol

[@kyleswatzell9272]

Hahahahahaha this is amazing!!! I’ve met all of these kinds of sound guys. This is why I’m proud to be a lighting guy! Never get recognition unless something goes wrong, which I haven’t done since I first started 10 years ago. 😊

[@theelupus9162]

There are classes for being a sound guy/stage hand in general, but people that are ''bad'' just are new to this. A lot of people working in the industry learned by just working, don't be so harsh on those who don't know much. Those assholes doing the opposite though smh, shame on them

[@theelupus9162]

It's Litt!! Well see, big festivals have their sound guys hired months before the festival. Wasn’t an inexperienced sound guy, it happens

[@theelupus9162]

Plus, if it was a known band or artist, they would have their own

[@MrInitialMan]

Second-hand story here, but a friend of mine worked at a club where the soundboard and the NEWER equipment (this includes the microphones) was made in the 1970s, and the sound guy couldn't figure out a lot of the effects these bands wanted (the guy was old as dirt, apparently, and even mentally in another decade), but what set this guy apart was he was really polite about it and did what he could. During show time, my friend was looking at the fashions in the crowd to make sure he hadn't stepped back 40-odd years in time. It was one of his most surreal experiences ever.