[BC] Re: Making music worth listening to

[gRAdy Moates]

> Do any of you do anything similar, and if so, how do you 
> handle the upstart, know-it-all tour managers that may be 
> able to put on a passable stage sound, but are clueless 
> when it comes to a really good radio mix?   Fortunately, 
> the rep from the label was there with them, and he 
> understood the problem, and told his tour manager to chill.

    "Hey, you're a geezer. . . you don't know nuthin' 'bout no live 
music!  Now. . . Slowly. . . Step Away From the Mixing Desk!"  

    I've been doing a similar thing for my public radio 
client for 20 years, an average of 15-or-so big shows 
each year.  We also do hundreds of live, in-studio perfs, 
with the announcer doing the mix.  Maybe it's the 
genre of music (singer-songwriter, folk, blues, etc), but 
we've only had a handful of artists bring their own 
mixing tech, and in almost every case they _did_ know 
what they were doing and it worked out fine.  Janis Ian 
in particular had a wonderful sound tech.  

    However, in the 'real world' of pop and rock music, 
I have had a number of conversations with folks who 
do live sound, and I have always walked away shaking 
my head. . . these folks do things entirely differently from 
us radio/recording folks, ignoring proper gain structure.  
They turn the amplifier inputs all the way up, and then 
mix 'by ear', with the meters on the mixer hardly moving 
because they have to run the output level on the mixer 
real low to keep from overdriving the amps and speakers.  

    When I try to explain to them that meters are their 
friends and good gain structure will give them lower 
noise and a more consistent mix over the hour or more 
of the event, they just don't get it.  So, as the event wears 
on, and their ears become fatigued, the room gets louder.  

    I hate it.  

Grady