26 Feb
2014
26 Feb
'14
7:25 p.m.
On Wed, Feb 26, 2014 at 2:44 PM, Ben Hornstein <bhornstein5189(a)gmail.com> wrote:
For your last story, if the band wants a certain mix,
that is their right.
Perhaps their style is for the guitar to be louder than the fiddle (maybe
they think the fiddler isn't that good, but don't want to hurt his/her
feelings). As a sound guy, you can do a sound check, then suggest
modifications for the monitors or house. Ultimately, I think it should be
up to the band to decide how they want to sound.
What mix is appropriate will depend on the hall. At the very least
there's a difference between small venues where you're going to hear
the instruments mostly acoustically and large ones where people are
mostly hearing via the PA system. The sound person needs to be able
to change relative levels, and maybe put eq or compression on
individual instruments, to make the band sound best for the situation.
But what makes what Tom described worse is that this band was relying
on the hall sound system for monitors. This meant that if their needs
for hearing themselves were different from the hall needs there just
wasn't a way to make both sound right.
If a band wants to supply a single mix to the hall PA system I think
they need to at least (1) run it by the sound person in advance, (2)
make it clear they're happy to make changes when requested to fit what
the hall needs, and (3) send the hall a separate mix for the monitor.
Jeff