Outdoor gigs-sound guy is your best friend

Swampish

Swampish

Dec 31, 2015
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Quebec, Canada
#1
So, we played our first outdoor gig ever about a week ago. Great weather, decent crowd, but I was super concerned about whether my gear (about 250W of output) would be adequate, even with a PA, in the great outdoors.

Well, I can safely say, a good sound guy makes magic happen! After the singer, guitarist and keyboardist monopolized his time in getting their monitors "just right" he came and asked what I was looking for, which I took as a good sign, and I simply said, "I want to come through in the mix". He helped me tweak my on-amp EQ a bit to reduce a bit of clang then got my sound set through the system.

After the show, which went really well, I got lots of compliments on how well the bass and drums mixed together and after viewing a couple of video snippets from iPhone footage, which is not always kind to bass, the sound was almost studio-like (from different positions in the crowd, too)! I was super-happy that it worked out so well and from my perspective, a good sound guy is priceless!

Good, bad, confirming experiences? Outdoor vs indoor sound guy impact and importance?
 
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#3
Swampish said:
So, we played our first outdoor gig ever about a week ago. Great weather, decent crowd, but I was super concerned about whether my gear (about 250W of output) would be adequate, even with a PA, in the great outdoors.

Well, I can safely say, a good sound guy makes magic happen! After the singer, guitarist and keyboardist monopolized his time in getting their monitors "just right" he came and asked what I was looking for, which I took as a good sign, and I simply said, "I want to come through in the mix". He helped me tweak my on-amp EQ a bit to reduce a bit of clang then got my sound set through the system.

After the show, which went really well, I got lots of compliments on how well the bass and drums mixed together and after viewing a couple of video snippets from iPhone footage, which is not always kind to bass, the sound was almost studio-like (from different positions in the crowd, too)! I was super-happy that it worked out so well and from my perspective, a good sound guy is priceless!

Good, bad, confirming experiences? Outdoor vs indoor sound guy impact and importance?
Click to expand...

I wonder how many others here would allow a sound guy to tweak their EQ. I'm guessing very few.

That being said, as a sound guy myself, I would never start turning knobs. I WOULD have a conversation with a willing bass player regarding things he/she might do to cut through better.
 
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#4
Chad Michael said:
95% of the time, we mixed our own, and I can tell you it is much easier to mix outdoors than in.

With very few exceptions. There was a venue called Medley's in the valley that we played several times, great sounding room....
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That's true, more and more we're coming across places that are just aluminum shells with lots of concrete and sound bouncing everywhere! Can really be a nightmare. Gotta say, playing outside, all sound considerations aside, is a blast!
 
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#5
two fingers said:
I wonder how many others here would allow a sound guy to tweak their EQ. I'm guessing very few.

That being said, as a sound guy myself, I would never start turning knobs. I WOULD have a conversation with a willing bass player regarding things he/she might do to cut through better.
Click to expand...
That's why I said it was a good sign when he came over and asked what I was looking for. I mentioned in an off hand way the clanging issue and he was cool in asking if he wanted me to take a look at the EQ and maybe help with the issue, which he did without compromising my tone.
Anyway, for me, I thought it worked out really well with this guy and I just loved the final sound. Our guitarist and keyboardist can be really problematic pushing their levels sometimes, so I think in our case that it helped having a third party come in and level things out.
 
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#7
Twice at outdoor gigs we have had raging thunderstorms move in so fast we couldn’t get gear off the stage ... one gig last year the back line bass rig took a dive right as we were set to play, I had my old ACC Acoustic rig back stage rolled in on flipped on the switch played the show no mic no DI, that’s what those amps were made to do, and it did it well.
 
#8
When we play a large and/or outdoor gig with sound provided, always always ALWAYS go find the sound guy beforehand and introduce yourself. Ask what he needs from you, and always find him afterward and thank him. A little goes quite a long way.
 
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#9
Interesting how fast this praise for a FOH person that took the time to make the OP feel important gets overlooked. I did FOH twice this last weeks. One for a 5 piece rock type band and the other for an 11 piece Motown horn band. I can assure you mixing outside is not easy.

To me each song is a living, breathing newborn baby and with every twist of a verse, chorus or solo it needs changing.
 
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