Author Topic: F*cking rant thread about f*cking keyboards getting no f*cking respect  (Read 5023 times)

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Online Orbert

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Listen to the f*cking tapes!

Watch the f*cking videos!

Yeah, looks great, except you can't f*cking hear any keyboards, or hear his f*cking vocals, or f*cking see him (although that's mostly his fault for wanting to be in the back), so who the f*ck cares if he's even up there, right?

Online Orbert

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F*cking sound man who has no f*cking idea what he's doing but he's one of the f*cking owners so he's gonna do whatever the f*ck he wants and since he doesn't really give a f*ck about keyboards in the mix, f*ck the keyboards in the mix.  Yeah, those awesome f*cking three-part and four-part harmonies that they've worked their f*cking asses off on for the last three f*cking months would really sound sweet if the f*cking keyboard players background vocals were in the mix but f*ck that who the f*ck does he think he is anyway Jackie F*cking Chan or something so f*ck him.
« Last Edit: July 18, 2018, 07:18:26 PM by Orbert »

Online Orbert

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People coming up to me all night telling me how great we sound and I'm digging it then the next day I'm checking out phone vids and sh*t and the quality is sh*t but there's no mistaking the mix which is sh*t and there's no f*cking keyboards.  None.

Online Orbert

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My buddy from church was there (he's like our biggest fan) and he said the second set was much better in terms of balance.  Still way too loud to the point where people were leaving because the place only holds like 200 people and it was barely half full but people said it sounded great but was just too f*cking loud and someone should really tell our sound man.  Well f*ck because he's not our f*cking sound man he's one of the owners who also owns a sound and video production company so he somehow thinks that qualifies him to be a sound man like yeah right yeah no f*cking no I mean I could buy a pizza place and own my own pizza place but that doesn't make me an expert on how to run a pizza place so I'd have to get someone to do that for me right?

Online Orbert

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I mean... F*CK!!


I mean... it pisses me off okay?

Online Orbert

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So he made some adjustments at halftime.  So yay, you could actually hear me the second set.  Cool.  For half the show, after half the people have left because it's too f*cking loud, it actually sounds pretty great.

Online Orbert

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Guess I should take what I can get right?

F*CK!

Rock and Roll.

Online Adami

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Sorry, I didn't catch any of that.
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Online Orbert

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I don't know, man.  Sound man said he'd turned me up.

Online Adami

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I don't know, man.  Sound man said he'd turned me up.

I'm not a keyboardist, but I used to play shows with a significant amount of backing tracks. The tracks were a ton of keyboards but we didn't have a keyboardist. The keys, since it was an industrial band, were often EXTREMELY important to the sound. Without which, we sounded really thin and lame.

I'd always, ALWAYS, ask the sound guy to treat the keys as he would a lead instrument. And at exactly 0 shows were the backing tracks audible.
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Online Orbert

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I'm not a professional sound technician by any means, but I've run sound before.  Four piece band, three of them sang.  Amateur, first time, I made them sound great.

We're a seven-piece band and five of us sing, but come on.  More variables, but still a finite number.  Make sure you can hear everything.  It can't be that hard.

Offline mikeyd23

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My philosophy over the years I've been playing out (in a variety of scenarios) is that the sound guy is literally just as important as any member of the band on stage. He (or she) can make a good performance sound horrible. The one band I was in years ago that gigged on a regular basis brought our own sound guy with us to every show. That was the only way we would play a venue or event - is if we could bring our own guy to run the board.

Online Orbert

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In this particular venue, one of the owners has provided all the audio equipment (probably written off for one business from his other one) and no one but him touches his equipment.  We do not have the option of providing our own sound.  We have a few guys we've worked with in the past who were very good and we'd use if we could.

And unfortunately, this place is literally a mile from John's house (the band's "home base") so playing there is still better than hauling ass two counties away, for less money, and having to pay a sound man as well.

Offline mikeyd23

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In this particular venue, one of the owners has provided all the audio equipment (probably written off for one business from his other one) and no one but him touches his equipment.  We do not have the option of providing our own sound.  We have a few guys we've worked with in the past who were very good and we'd use if we could.

And unfortunately, this place is literally a mile from John's house (the band's "home base") so playing there is still better than hauling ass two counties away, for less money, and having to pay a sound man as well.

Ah that makes sense, do you guys travel with your own PA or do you typically rely on venues to provide it?

Online Orbert

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We've gone both ways.  The band (that is, John) owns a very nice PA system -- horns, bottoms, board, wireless in-ear monitors, the works.  Places that have a decent PA, we'll go ahead and use theirs.  Usually they're pretty accommodating and let us hook up the IEMs without a fuss.  Sound techs that we hire always have their own board that they prefer, and in most cases they're allowed to hook it up, but we've had some places insist that we just use their equipment.  We tend not to take any more gigs at those places.  But if the venue doesn't provide PA, or theirs kinda sucks, we'll use John's.

It's just that one of the owners of this venue thinks he's a sound tech by virtue of owning all the equipment, so not only does he provide the PA and run sound himself, we don't have any other options.  He tries to promote it as a positive thing; we don't have to haul PA or pay a sound man.  Both plusses, if not for the fact that he sucks as a sound man.  Even though it's the closest we ever play, I've stopped trying to get my friends to come out, because it's always the same.  "I can see you back there, but I can't hear you at all; not your keys, or your vocals either."

If you can't hear the singers, that's pretty obvious.  Same with guitars, bass, or drums.  Pretty obvious if they're not in the mix.  But most of the time, keyboards just fill things out, and if they're not there it's not the end of the world.  And if people are coming up and raving about how good we are and they're not even hearing one of us, then I really should just shut up and take my money for the night.

Except for the keyboard solos in "Smokin'", "Never Been Any Reason", "Call Me", "Shut Up and Dance", "Separate Ways", "Turn Me Loose", "Come Sail Away", etc., etc., etc.  I mean, what do they think is going on there?  There's no one singing, and the guitars are just playing chords.

But most people don't care.  They're there to get drunk, try to get laid, and maybe dance to some not-horrible cover tunes.  They don't even notice if there's a keyboard player up there that they can't hear, so they sure as hell don't care.  The sound man doesn't care, most of the band doesn't even care.  Basically there's only one person in the whole place who cares whether I'm even there or not, and that's me.
« Last Edit: July 19, 2018, 05:36:21 PM by Orbert »