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Joined: Feb 17, 2005 Posts: 1768 Location: St. Bens bitch ass!
is fucking shit. I will hopefully never watch another band there and I know my band will certainly never play there again.
Last night, not only did every mic that was put in my hand fall to pieces within seconds, no onstage monitors worked at fucking all.
Afterwards, the 'soundman' let slip that he hasn't really done live sound for a while (I think he meant to say 'ever'). So basically the whole time we were soundchecking and I was saying 'more in the monitor please mate' and he was nodding, he wasn't actually doing fuck all.
We spent the whole set behind the PA trying to hear what we were doing, our drummer couldn't hear anything but himself, and we ended up with one working microphone for songs that normally include 3 vocals.
We don't often play in Norwich as the rest of the guys live in West Norfolk, so I was really looking forward to playing for all my Norwich friends who hadn't seen us before. Needless to say, I spent the rest of the evening post-set apologising to everyone for an absolute embaressment of a rock show and trying to convince them that we are a great live band, really!
Joined: Feb 16, 2005 Posts: 6062 Location: Camden County
MattBucket wrote:
Last night, not only did every mic that was put in my hand fall to pieces within seconds, no onstage monitors worked at fucking all.
a) If Tim can afford all that ludicrous guitar gear, he can afford to buy you a bloody '58 or two.
b) The monitors at B2 have never, EVER worked in my experience, so I don't bother getting my hopes up. Even if one does manage to spark up, they're always aimed at my feet so I get zilch anyway.
I know it's not what you want to hear right now, but failing monitors will actually help you in the long run. They are never guaranteed to work how you need them to and it forces you to rely more on your internal reflexes while singing and become more 'tuned in' to yourself. If you know the songs well then you should be able to 'feel' where the notes should be. Have you thought about in-ears? _________________
is fucking shit. I will hopefully never watch another band there and I know my band will certainly never play there again.
Last night, not only did every mic that was put in my hand fall to pieces within seconds, no onstage monitors worked at fucking all.
Afterwards, the 'soundman' let slip that he hasn't really done live sound for a while (I think he meant to say 'ever'). So basically the whole time we were soundchecking and I was saying 'more in the monitor please mate' and he was nodding, he wasn't actually doing fuck all.
We spent the whole set behind the PA trying to hear what we were doing, our drummer couldn't hear anything but himself, and we ended up with one working microphone for songs that normally include 3 vocals.
We don't often play in Norwich as the rest of the guys live in West Norfolk, so I was really looking forward to playing for all my Norwich friends who hadn't seen us before. Needless to say, I spent the rest of the evening post-set apologising to everyone for an absolute embaressment of a rock show and trying to convince them that we are a great live band, really!
Fucking shocking, it really is.
To be fair to the sound man, it wasnt entirely his fault. The original soundman dissapeared to do a recording leaving the new guy to not only run the desk but also the bar, the poor guy didnt have enough experience to know how to solve the problems, that comes down to management and not the sound guy who actually did try to help and couldnt apologise enough for the mistakes made by the venue he works at.
In four years of touring last night was probably the worst sound we've ever had and we've played much worse venues than the b2. Simple things like the xlr retaining screws not done up, xlr jack locking connectors not working and the fuse in the monitor amp blowing are all very simple and easy things to sort, its actually just general equipment maintenance and theyre things we'd look out for on our rehearsal PA, so a venue needs to be a lot sharper than that.
Its sad that the b2 lacks professionalism, its a great little venue, but the attention to detail is poor, with just a little thought the place could be 1000 times better. I'm so glad the QC has re-opened, it mashes the b2.
Chim is right though, it'll make you a better band in the long run as you'll learn to play on the fly......
Just think if you guys make it big and play on telly and you get a shit sound or technical failure you won't have a choice but to soldier on...
It's good practice.
I've lost count the number of gigs I've played only been able to hear myself. I've spent many an hour watching the guitarists hands trying to make out just where the fuck we are in a song!!!
Chim is right though, it'll make you a better band in the long run as you'll learn to play on the fly......
Just think if you guys make it big and play on telly and you get a shit sound or technical failure you won't have a choice but to soldier on...
It's good practice.
I've lost count the number of gigs I've played only been able to hear myself. I've spent many an hour watching the guitarists hands trying to make out just where the fuck we are in a song!!!
I know it's annoying but it will help you guys.
Cheers
Nick
Its not a problem for us to play without monitors, we do it all the time! It only becomes a problem when they've di'ed the bass and kept the amp volumes low on stage for the front of house sound. In hindsight we'd have been better off dumping all the mic'ing up and just running the vocals through the PA.
Very difficult to sing or play if you can't hear yourself. Nowadays I always park myself next to my bass amp and turn it up loud. I never trust other people's monitors. We had a similar experience recently playing the Brewery Tap, when we kept asking the sound guy to turn the monitors up. In the end, I asked him to turn the PA off and it turned out they weren't working at all.
I'm thinking of getting something like a TC Helicon VoiceSolo as wedges are pretty useless for singers even when they work.
Joined: Feb 16, 2005 Posts: 6062 Location: Camden County
But how the hell are you supposed to do David Coverdale-esque mic humping with that thing? You'd get your cock stuck in the grille before your reached your first pre-chorus. _________________
You know i have never missed monitors i can take them or leave them, when playing bass i "know" the songs and just play along to everyone else most the time if i cant hear. _________________ Download my e.p. here
Chim is right though, it'll make you a better band in the long run as you'll learn to play on the fly......
Just think if you guys make it big and play on telly and you get a shit sound or technical failure you won't have a choice but to soldier on...
It's good practice.
I've lost count the number of gigs I've played only been able to hear myself. I've spent many an hour watching the guitarists hands trying to make out just where the fuck we are in a song!!!
I know it's annoying but it will help you guys.
Cheers
Nick
Its not a problem for us to play without monitors, we do it all the time! It only becomes a problem when they've di'ed the bass and kept the amp volumes low on stage for the front of house sound. In hindsight we'd have been better off dumping all the mic'ing up and just running the vocals through the PA.
I think that would have been a good idea, yes.....
Joined: Feb 16, 2005 Posts: 4696 Location: aylsham
Nickolai wrote:
Monitors?
What are these mystical 'Monitors' you speak of?
It is true for Nick, he plays so bloody loud no monitor can match him so the rest of the band are forced to play along with whatever nonsense he is playing at some ridiculously fast bpm. _________________ -one person's terrorist is another's freedom fighter-
Owning a mic would quickly solve one of those problems..
But when we were booked for this date and we posed the question " what gear do we need?" no microphones were mentioned in the reply. Wr've got plenty of our own mics, but if a venue claims to be able to supply them then we wont bring ours.
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