Where NOT To Work As A Live Sound Engineer

Рет қаралды 9,810

Күн бұрын

Пікірлер: 40

@jeffreydanilko6657 Ай бұрын

I have a few tips for new FOH/Monitor engineers. 1. Grab your self a couple rolls of GOOD gaffe tape, couple different colours of spike tape. 2. Have an assortment of adaptors. XLR M and F to 1/4", RCA to 1/4" or XLR (with the correct pins jumped), I would also have F to F NL4 couplers, maybe even NL8. I also travelled with a bunch of patch cables. 4. Cable tester, you can get great testers that will test anything to anything. I've had the same one for almost 20 years. 5. Learn to solder and now adays terminate Cat5/6. 6. Smaart, OpenSoundMeter or any other software/hardware are great tools but don't blindly follow them, use your ears. 7. Protect your hearing, get custom moulded ear plugs. The ones I use have replaceable filters -9, -15 or completely closed for -35dB.

@ayrshiresoundman Ай бұрын

You cannot argue with any of the points raised here. This is the formula for help[ing any engineer to deliver their best. I do think though that we have to stand back for a minute when we are talking about conditions and what is unacceptable. I have in the last few years become more involved with some bar operations and got to know bar staff and seeing what they are required to do during work. This is something to consider when we are talking about our plight of having to un tangle a badly rolled up cable or use a Behiringer copy of a 58. Ive never had to scrub stale alcohol off a floor of clean up vomit so in that context being forced to use an X32 once in a while isn't really that bad.

@MrAmiaffe Ай бұрын

I had a similar thought when he talked about budget mics. They're largely a part of my past now but I do think I can make a gig work if it's not completely t-bone and behringer mics, and that's just talking about some older models. Some of the newer knockoff mics are stupidly good.

@ryanbird109 Ай бұрын

Other red flags I have come across: Late get ins - if soundchecks aren’t due to start until 5pm, get out. Places like this usually pay terribly and it’ll be a four band bill with doors at 7pm. This leaves no room for troubleshooting or time for food before the first band. For small venues, I’ll always ask for a 2pm get in and a 3pm soundcheck. House backline - There is no situation imo where the sound engineer should be involved in setting up or packing up a drum kit. If venue management want there to be house kit, that is their responsibility.

@joshdemarco4308 Ай бұрын

Great places to start. You’ll really be forced to learn how to talk to people, manage expectations and give bad news like “you’re going to get a line check mid show”. So much stress and always some issues but these places will provide a good environment for learning and it only gets better from there.

@joshdemarco4308 Ай бұрын

I hope there aren’t any more 4 metal band bills with 5pm load in and 7pm doors in my future.

@ryanbird109 Ай бұрын

@@joshdemarco4308 oh yeah great places to learn but I sure am glad I’m done working in those kinds of places

@MrAmiaffe Ай бұрын

I made the jump to being dependant on FOH a few years ago. I can't stress enough: GOOD PEOPLE (imagine infinite exlamation marks) Really loved this take. I spent a lot of time (a lot of which, admittedly, in which I still had to grow myself) scratching at the edge of professionalism simply because I was not working in an environment where people aimed for professional standards.

@lpdude72 Ай бұрын

Might I add H&S procedures as well. I had to walk out of some venues because they lacked any common sense when it came to safety for the people who work at the venue or worse for the public! I.e. I was once asked to replace speakers that were hanging above an auditorium in the upper circle. These speakers weighed 35kg and were hanging on a scaff bar. I was expected to unhook, and lift that speaker by myself without a safety line attached to it. When I asked for said safety line, I was told I didn’t need it! I immediately said not going to do it unless I have someone else with me and a safety line attached to it. They threatened my employment and so I simply said OK, walked out, and never looked back.

@polhemic Ай бұрын

Absolutely the right thing to do - if they're skirting the rules on this one, what else are they ignoring? "H&S law is written in the blood of the tech who came before you"

@DanCrudge Ай бұрын

I have a venue that I'm winding down working at after this year which is almost everything you said to avoid, it is such a grass-roots DIY location that I only ever get paid by promoters directly and half the people who do sound there are volunteers. Speakers are no-name and busted with no headroom at all - everything is always broken - microphones look like they've survived the apocalypse etc. I've had some absolutely mega gigs there and probably am one of only a couple of people who can consistently get it sounding passable but after working in a professional atmosphere at other clubs in the city I always come back grimacing at the state of it. Its one of those places that was so easy to get into and get trusted to work solo that it allowed me to get on my feet - but now I'm getting paid almost 2x more in some of my other positions it's totally unsustainable to keep coming back.

@giuseppegiannetto8362 Ай бұрын

I don’t know u and sorry in advance for asking this…How much is payed a young sound guy in your city? In average of course

@DanCrudge Ай бұрын

@@giuseppegiannetto8362 honestly in the UK it varies incredibly heavily from place to place, my rates as a solo venue guy are anywhere from £85-165 per night depending on the venue, job etc. I'd look to whatever local union representation you have (if that exists) as your bottom baseline in order to not do yourself and other engineers a disservice by devaluing your work.

@grinkashman7884 Ай бұрын

Sounds like the first sound company I worked for. Damn, literally all the points you made!

@robertmccracken3763 Ай бұрын

Man, the first venue I worked in had a lot of this. No name brand monitors, unreliable cables, and dodgy stands. They went up to £14 ph this year! The minimum around Glasgow is £15. I think another red flag is the constant change in what's required of you. They keep adding more and more, while they expect a discount on your work. I am just grateful that I have started to get a good reputation around Glasgow that I don't need to work in that venue anymore :D Thanks very much for the content by the way. I have been enjoying your attitude and experience based videos. Keep it up man!

@johnmcquay82 13 күн бұрын

I agree with all your points, 100%. I have experienced all of these at some point along the way.

@gekkegasten100 Ай бұрын

I love the video but i do have some important notes. I work in a lot of non profit mostly volunteer run venues, this is mostly also as a volunteer. These venues usually dont have the money for nice namebrand stuff. They will have weird branded PA systems and old monitors. But usually, this works well! Somethimes you just got to understand that not every place gets subsudies or has the revenue to support a great system. Its important to know what the stuff is that a venue has. For example: I mixed in a basement venue yesterday with EV tops and subs from the 90s. They sound not so great. but with with a bit of system EQ and prelistening to the room i was able to make a clear balanced mix in the room. Just dont expect the newest and the best stuff from small/low budget venues and learn how to make sub-par PA systems sound better

@RealGengarTV Ай бұрын

If you're doing non-profit, voluntary work then that's good experience if you're relatively "green" and the expectation should be put relativity low because the non-profit organization should be happy they got somebody who knows what an eq is in the first place but still, anybody with a drop off professionalism are going to do their best and use it as a learning experience. In my opinion; Once you've made live mixing your bread and butter, voluntary work should be off the table, leave that to those that need experience. (Also; judging the PA for being a brand you don't usually work with and turn down the gig for it sounds like a rash judgement, I agree. "Oh no, this PA is a.... JBL? Never heard of it (not one mentioned here but a well known brand)." At least take a quick listen if the system already is rigged up and ready to go 🤷🏻‍♂️)

@tylernewcomb6465 Ай бұрын

@@RealGengarTVI disagree that volunteer work should be off the table once you’re a professional. Obviously don’t get in the habit of being taken advantage of, but I volunteer for nonprofit jobs because I care about their mission, and helping with the A/V is something that I’m good at and can help a lot with (for some organizations, it’s effectively donating your day rate). That said, it is also great for experience, and volunteer work looks good on a resume and sounds good at an interview no matter the level you’re at.

@MrAmiaffe Ай бұрын

I doh FOH for a living and I learned in venues like you describe, I see the merit in both positions. I agree with your notes, but from his perspective what I want to stress is how much it will really push you forward if you manage to get into a position where you can just rely on stuff working and being in good condition, it's really a different kind of live mixing when you can concentrate the largest parts of your effort into the mix instead of troubleshooting.

@RollingSctone Ай бұрын

When ever I see your video it makes me happy ❤❤❤

@OffshoreAudio Ай бұрын

Aw well that's very nice to hear ❤️ thank you

@keitholiver3981 Ай бұрын

Good video many thanks, one thought which I don’t think is covered taking down the set at the end of the performance ie putting everything back where it belongs also folding up the cables correctly so the next sound engineer doesn’t have to untangle cables.

@TheMI169 Ай бұрын

I’ve worked at a couple venues in Dubai recently where these kinds of bad practices are really prevalent. Communication and finances are especially poor

@joshdemarco4308 Ай бұрын

Usually I’ve found the conditions and treatment improve with pay. There are some exceptions where this is inverse. I work at a $30B art museum where I get $22/hr and work on QL1s but the staff is great and I’m treated well. I’ve also worked at a place where I’ve gotten $50/hr to work on a horrible presonus with horrible mics, stands, cables and no monitors.

@iengineer_247 Ай бұрын

I usually can get to venues and they have their stuff there so I can go!!! I keep direct boxes and extra cables on me. I mostly record the bands to give them a clip of how they sounded during their performance which leads me to doing a live recording for them. I've had some good and not so god experiences with live sound but I still do it. A lot of times the people that do not know what they're doing get these gigs and then when a Pro is hired they give us the crazy treatment lol. I try to do the best I can communication so I can get hired again!!!!!!

@tobyxtreme_ Ай бұрын

Absolutely true… this kind of things can ruin your reputation as a sound engineer

@petterrong1590 Ай бұрын

2:13 I would somewhat disagree with this take. Whereas typically larger system gear like PA, console, amps etc. almost exclusively are audibly unusable with unknown/cheaper brands, I've found that with smaller utility stuff like mics, DIs, cables and various signal processing, it's not about always about the audible quality but the reliability/longevity.

@chrisclose7793 Ай бұрын

i always keep spare rolls of gaffa tape with me as done gigs where there was no gaffa tape at the venue , saying about PA i just did a gig recently where the venue had for foh speakers a pair of old 12 inch 240 watt TOA speakers no subs , a 32 channel soundcraft LX7 ,and a mix of behringer ,soundlab and EV mics and i had to mix a bon jovi tribute band with this system and i must admit it was incredibly stressful

@lascasspector Ай бұрын

Eres un privilegiado. Un enfoque bueno sería, por ejemplo, como sacar ventajas laborales u oportunidades de crecimiento diseñando metodologías, dinámicas de trabajo y sistemas de sonido en Venues poco aptas. Pero no, tu perspectiva es poco realista y demuestra que has trabajado poco en tu vida. Gracias por tu trabajo en redes. ;)

@ryanjohnson1590 Ай бұрын

Good info man!

@Unkraut Ай бұрын

lol. i guess going by this, it really makes sense why i dropped out of the profession pretty much right after my apprenticeships, even then pretty much none of these conditions where ever present, haha (sorry, great video, i guess i'm just being frustrated about it yet again)