Lost all stage monitors tonight!?
Having a pretty good night, decent crowd, band playing better than ever, got through our first two sets and looking forward to our third set which is usually our best. Come back from break, do a quick check to make sure the mics are hot....and no sound at all from our stage monitors! Completely dead! What the heck? Did we blow our monitor amp? The power is still on to the amp but there is no sound in the monitors. Our soundguy is twisting knobs and trying to get the monitors back, but it was no use. So, I say lets just play before the crowd gets too upset. Tough call, but I did not want to lose the crowd with another break at that time of the night. The guys agree.
So, we play almost our entire third set, our power set, without being able to hear ourselves at all, vocally. And in the third set, we all have songs we sing, not just the lead singer. So everyone got to feel the pain. But we stood up there and took it like professionals. It was absolutely the hardest thing I have ever done on stage, in my three years of gigging. Especially since we have many songs that we all harmonize. Try that when you can't even hear the guy next to you!
Well, we put on a good smile and made it through 40 minutes of the set and I suggest that we take a strategic break so I can wire up our backup amp for the monitors. Agreed. We take a break and I start setting up our backup amp for the monitors. Just when I finished setting everything up, our lead singer comes running up to me and says that they found the problem on the mixing board. Someone had pressed a kill button for the monitors when our soundguy had his back turned and he did not find it until we were on break. I quickly rewire everything back to our main setup for the monitors and everything works fine. All it was, was just a simple mute button someone had pressed. What are the odds?
Anyway, I'm really fortunate to work with a bunch of guys who were professional enough to work through the technical problems of the loss of monitors. That was really tough but all the guys made it work. To make it even sweeter, there was a lead singer from one of the other local bands in the venue tonight and he said that he could not believe, how not only did we make it through the set, but that we sounded fantastic. He said nobody noticed the difference out front, even though he knew we were really naked up there on stage without any monitors. He said that if that had happened to his band, they probably would have packed up for the night.
Once again, I really feel fortunate to be playing with a great bunch of guys. If it all ends tomorrow, I'll still have all these good memories of working with my bandmates. It's just a priviledge that I can be part of it. Best wishes.
So, we play almost our entire third set, our power set, without being able to hear ourselves at all, vocally. And in the third set, we all have songs we sing, not just the lead singer. So everyone got to feel the pain. But we stood up there and took it like professionals. It was absolutely the hardest thing I have ever done on stage, in my three years of gigging. Especially since we have many songs that we all harmonize. Try that when you can't even hear the guy next to you!
Well, we put on a good smile and made it through 40 minutes of the set and I suggest that we take a strategic break so I can wire up our backup amp for the monitors. Agreed. We take a break and I start setting up our backup amp for the monitors. Just when I finished setting everything up, our lead singer comes running up to me and says that they found the problem on the mixing board. Someone had pressed a kill button for the monitors when our soundguy had his back turned and he did not find it until we were on break. I quickly rewire everything back to our main setup for the monitors and everything works fine. All it was, was just a simple mute button someone had pressed. What are the odds?
Anyway, I'm really fortunate to work with a bunch of guys who were professional enough to work through the technical problems of the loss of monitors. That was really tough but all the guys made it work. To make it even sweeter, there was a lead singer from one of the other local bands in the venue tonight and he said that he could not believe, how not only did we make it through the set, but that we sounded fantastic. He said nobody noticed the difference out front, even though he knew we were really naked up there on stage without any monitors. He said that if that had happened to his band, they probably would have packed up for the night.
Once again, I really feel fortunate to be playing with a great bunch of guys. If it all ends tomorrow, I'll still have all these good memories of working with my bandmates. It's just a priviledge that I can be part of it. Best wishes.
Comments
That said, if I caught someone messing with the mixer, I'd beat him/her/it to death with a mic stand. :?
That's my real point. There comes a point in the band that you end up playing for each other as much as the crowd. If it was just the music, you could load up some backing tracks and wail away by yourself at home. But that's not the same. Working with a group of guys through the magic and mayhem on stage is a different animal and that's where you start to build respect for other musicians. It's easy when everything goes well, but when you experience problems on stage, that's when you get to see what your bandmates are made of. I'm working with a great bunch of guys right now and I really feel lucky. Just wanted to share a bit of that with you guys. Take care.
But aren't you leaving out the part where you all made the 'Sound' Guy load the transport by himself after that gig... While the band enjoyed a relaxing cold one for a change! :P
To be somewhat fair to our soundguy, I should mention that all the PA equipment is mine, not his. The only time he has to actually learn the board hand's on is when we are at the gigs. I've given him the manual to read and there are some great in depth videos on Google.com (two 60 minute vids) on how to run the board. So, you would figure that he would have plenty of time to learn the ins and outs of the board. Unfortunately, he's still learning the hard way.
But yeah, he loaded all the heavy gear for the band after this weekend as part of saying \"Sorry\" to the band.....
I once was called in to fix a system. Someone switched the console outs for the sub mix bus to the main tops on one side. Bass through mid drivers sounded really really bad. Luckily for them, they did not blow the 2200W power amps or the array !
Aw man! I was just yinging it to everyones yang. Hence the Razz smily :P
I am fully aware it was a stuff happens moment. Now if you were a national act or knew there were some execs an A n R guys (<--- they still exist?) in the crowd and were playing for a recording deal......... :evil:
All things aside Tells me y'all weren't that sympathetic
Well, you are right about that. We pay him to run our equipment, and to watch over it. If someone played around with the board when he had his back turned, that's bad for him. If it affects our sound (like losing all our monitors), then it becomes a problem for everyone. So he knew it was his problem either way.
Things happen when playing live, equipment breaks, power outages, etc..., and you don't have much control over that. But you can foresee someone trying to mess with the mixing board if you are not watching over it. The second night of the weekend our soundguy was watching the board like a hawk.
Yeah, we are not a national act, and we try not to take ourselves too seriously. But we also try to put on the best show we can. Us four core musicians in the group work hard in practice sessions to bring new, and better, songs to the shows. Playing without any monitors was about the toughest thing I have ever done up on stage. You don't realize how much you depend on those stage monitors until they are gone.
None of us ragged on the soundguy, although he knew that he had let us down. And I went out of my way to thank my bandmates for the professionalism they displayed under the hardship of not having any stage monitors for that set. Also, we got a big compliment from the lead singer of another local band that was at our gig when this all went down. He said the sound out front was still fantastic and that nobody noticed that we, on stage, were basically singing naked up there.
In the end, it's just another story to remember in my old age of experiences with my band. That's what it is all about.
Some one who would know the equipment, and know what button to push quickly? .. :? Just a thought.
I don't even know where to begin with the problems we had. Once everything was working on correct channels, the mix on stage changed almost every song. For the most part, we had no idea what it was sounding like out there and basically had to take the sound guy's word for it. Troubleshooting each channel became an ordeal, because we weren't sure whether it was the cable, the snake channel, the mixer channel, or god knows what else that wasn't working. For the opening band, I ended up pulling out one of the drum OH mics to accommodate a second vocalist (on top of a sax and a trumpet). There is a video clip of me running around on stage during setup literally pulling my hair in utter despair.
(I should also mention - everyone was about an hour late to the gig because snow has a big impact on traffic in our area. And we got stuck in the elevator with half of our gear. But that's all minor in comparison.)
To add to the problems, my GNX power supply kept messing up, so I would regularly lose audio. The stage was a mess too - people would drag their cables and accidentally press buttons or turn knobs on my pedal and the preset or some level would change. Without a good mix in the monitor, you can imagine how pain in the behind that is.
For the encore, the sound team pulled the power on all of their equipment at the end of the show, resulting in my digital recorder not having the opportunity to save the audio for our second set. Luckily the camera mic sounded decent.
But hey, everyone loved it and had a great time, so I guess it was worth it.
Rawb: Well, I might suspect some people....but not this guy. First of all, he's a nice younger guy and second of all, he has no idea how to run a mixing board. He knew we were having problems with our monitors because he heard us talking to our soundguy about the issue. The FOH speakers were working fine so unless you were a musician, you probably did not pick up what the issue was for the band. He's the lead singer for his band and knows for sure what the stage monitors are used for. But I don't think most non-musicians know, or care, what the loss of monitors on stage does to a band as long as the FOH speakers are working fine.
iliace: Thanks for the story. It's good to know that we are not the only band that continues to face technical challenges.