Thank you, Jan! 🙏 I appreciate you taking the time to watch. I just released another one yesterday and will have one each Monday in the coming weeks. ruclips.net/video/YDtICNWdsHA/видео.html
Jedi mixing tricks. It's as if thousands of voices cried out and where suddenly silenced. 👍😁😜 I like that you are covering the non-technical side. This is what a person would learn as an observer or gopher. These things can't be taught, and you are teaching it. Thanks so much!
Thanks again, Freeman! I plan to get into a few more technical topics soon but there's already a lot of people doing a better and more thorough job of that whereas I feel like the psychology side of things is too overlooked so I'll mostly stick with that in the coming months. More videos soon!
@@LiveSoundTips Yes! Especially word choice and strategy. Can't thank you enough. Work ethic is so non-existent anymore. No drink tickets or bar issues, just a strong worship leader. Lol.
I wanna shake your hand, sir. Welcome back. I absolutely LOVE your videos. Your psychology behind this biz is awesome. I've altered a few of my personal habits on your advice, to find Good results with all of them. My soundchecks have been more efficient, due to your method of 'Vocals First', resulting in Better performances. My personal relationships with performers have improved...(except for one guy, I keep forgetting his name...) And all of this has resulted in a better SHOW for the audience...which is what its all about. Thank you for what your doing....(hand shake)
Wow! That's the ultimate compliment and testimonial, Robert! Thank you so much for reporting back that some of the ideas presented here are helping you achieve even better results with your shows. This is the sort of feedback that gets me excited and optimisitc about getting this channel going once again. New videos coming soon. :)
A great follow-up video! when it comes to performance time, you hit the nail on the head when you said that you want to appear calm, confident, and in charge. Performers want the relevant details and to know that things are running smoothly. Things that help are - having a sheet with relevant show details printed out, discussing changeovers and how to request changes to the mix, and sticking to the schedule. It's a real bummer for me as a performer when the show details are fuzzy and the sound engineer has no idea either, when the sound engineer is aloof or absent, and when the show is way off schedule. Seriously, keeping a tight schedule is SO important. We tell our fans and friends what time our set is and if we're running an hour late, folks leave. If that becomes the norm, people just assume it's going to be a mess. I just played a show with like 12 artists on the roster, each playing 2 songs each with changeovers in between. It was such a mess that my girlfriend just decided to stay home and not come see the show because we had no set times and it started 30 mins late.
Oof! That is rough! I agree, someone needs to be in charge and keeping things flowing smoothly. Nobody likes feeling pressured or stressed out by chaos and it's even worse when they know their fans are leaving because of that. Thank you for watching and commenting!
@@LiveSoundTips Exactly. If there's a performance schedule, it's always best to stick to it. When I was touring, I'd get pissed off when opening bands start and end late because we had a bus call time to travel overnight like you mentioned in the video. Nothing is worse than losing sleep to your opening band's carelessness and ego. That being said, I think the musicians are equally, if not much more, responsible for making sure that everything runs on time. Not showing up to your set late, not playing past your time, not milling around between changeovers or taking too long to set up because you wanted to bring your ego stacks, etc. I played a set between local metal acts at a Denton, TX bar once and one of the bands pushed the entire show schedule 30 mins behind because they literally have 3 full stacks on a small stage (probably less than 120 person capacity venue) and a LAPTOP with a MIXER so they could self-record their set. It literally took them 40 minutes to set up and we probably lost a fifth of the crowd waiting on them to just start playing. And guess what - they sounded terrible because they didn't properly line check because they were too busy trying to get their background tracks and recording setup to work.
@@jakestewartmusic holy moly. You and I could probably make so many videos of this kind of foolishness we've experienced that it would just overload and break the RUclips forever.
Thank you for taking the time to watch, Robbie! I'm convinced that engineers and performers can quickly change this whole industry for the better if we get on the same page. The old guard of bitter, resentful, uncooperative live engineers are finally being weeded out of the biz. Let's help them on their way. 👂💪🤟🖖
So good and very refreshing to see a sound guy that actually knows about this stuff - equally as important as the technical end of things. Keep up the good work.
Really great foundational info. I look forward to your technical advice but technical knowledge can’t stand on its own without doing the things you mention in this video. Thanks for sharing your wisdom/experience and explaining why.
Thank you so much for taking the time to watch, Mike! I think it is important to explain why I care about all of the smallest details. Some people might think it's just how I've always been but nothing could be further from the truth. I just had to really pay attention to what the most common complaints and problems were for performers and have the empathy to see it from their viewpoint so that I could keep refining my practices to further alleviate their anxieties or discomfort on stage. It's a constant, ongoing process of trying to get better at all aspects of live sound. :)
I'm pretty new to live sound and find this to be immensely helpful! I really appreciate you offering your insight and I'm really glad you're making more vids!!
Thank you! I'm glad you find these videos helpful and I'm sorry for the long hiatus. Starting a business and so much life stuff got in the way. More videos being shot in the coming weeks. :)
It's so good to see you addressing the psychological aspect of musician's and how they function... We are a weird and dynamic bunch of freaks and we love it...!!!
I listened to this whole vid and I'm a drummer! So informative. I sent the link to our sound guy. You covered pretty every base I can think of! Thank you...whatever you name is!!! (I couldn't find it)!
This day and age the technical is not as important as the psychological. Smarter processing amps and cheaper great sounding digital consoles are everywhere. Performers seem to be more aware of their sound compared to the 1990's. Knowing how to work alongside others is indeed a must-have characteristic. If only more people adopted this mind set maybe it would be easier finding good staff! Keep up the great work and thanks for all your effort!!
Thank you! It's great to finally resume making these after such a long hiatus! I had so much stuff planned 2 years ago and it was super disappointing to not have the energy nor the spare mental bandwidth to keep it going. I now look forward to doing this much more regularly.
Thank you for watching! Please spread the word so we can finally make it normal for engineers and performers to be on the same page and working toward the same goal.
im about to go on tour for the first time and this and the previous video have been really useful for going forward with rehearsals and the actual shows. thanks for the advice and talking about the other aspects of engineering apart from the technical side :)
Nice! Congratulations on landing your first tour! Touring has it's own set of unique challenges which is another reason that I pay so much attention to the psychology side of the job. Being in potentially stressful situations while traveling with people can teach you a lot about psychology in a short time. ;)
Thank you for watching and commenting! The subtle and overlooked stuff will certainly be my main focus but I will also add some more technical videos in 2019.
From a musician's perspective, a lot of your advice is similar to what we get: sometimes the difference between who they call and who they don't call is not in the technical ability, but in who do they want to be around for a few hours.
Precisely. I'm sure there's plenty of great technical videos out there, like Dave Rat's stuff, so I figure it's being well covered by others. I'd rather devote some of my focus to the stuff _not_ getting talked about because, all other things being equal, the person that's more pleasant to be around will get much further.
I'm glad to hear that! I think we all inevitably arrive at finding a lot of these methods for ourselves when we approach the job with kindness and respect for others. Whenever I hear that others like yourself have already found success with the same things I'm trying it makes me happy and confirms that maybe I'm not totally crazy for doing things the way I do them (but maybe just a little bit). Thank you for watching and commenting!
Thank you for watching, Jose! I just put out another video and there will be others coming out each Monday over the next few weeks. Check it out here: ruclips.net/video/YDtICNWdsHA/видео.html
Love your content, wish you didnt have to take a hiatus, although as the previous commenter stated the high freq noise is crazy. I had to notch out that freq around 5.57khz on my board with a q setting around 1.3 and 11.9khz with a narrow q (10)
It's good to be back making new videos and I appreciate you getting through this one despite whatever was going on with my wireless mic and preamp in the flip-cam. The video I released a few days later turned out much better. :)
Thanks for the great advice! Have any advice on building healthy relationships with DJ's? Some seem to be cool and cooperative but some DJ's are not so cooperative.
Thank you for the support, Tony! I've really had my hands full but now with everything being shut down for the next 6 weeks (or more) I'm gonna start cranking out videos on new topics that people have asked for.
Definitely! My Canon flip cam seems to have a AGC built in which brings up all the background noise and even clips my vocal. I'll have to try something different on the next video. :/
Was just about to suggest a sound test on the video... treat it like a mix, a 2nd headset or device is like getting a 2nd opinion... always good to get just incase, and knowledge is power lol
@@damienhegedus8973, I'm slowly getting it figured out. Doing these latest ones on my own with somewhat low budget equipment, whereas previous episodes were shot by friends that are professional video dudes with legit gear. Gonna keep trying to step up my quality on each one!
I am exited to start doing FoH sound work but the one thing I am dreading is if a band runs over, I have seen it before where the engineer cuts sound halfway through a song to get the next band on stage and this is one thing I would absolutely hate to do as it turns the whole vibe sour. Do you have any advice on how to get around having to do this without having a set run over?
If every sound engineer was like you, I would have much more fun on stage. Must be fun to work with you. Just a little thing: this fan noise and the high frequency tone in the background of the video is a bit stressful. Maybe you could switch the machines off. That would make it even more fun to watch your videos!
I totally agree. My Canon flip cam appears to have a built in AGC that just slams all the levels up as far as possible. It dramatically raises the noise floor and pushes my vocal to the bring of clipping. I'll experiment with some other approaches before the next video.
I’m actually watching this for the 3rd or 4th time but this question just came up to my mind: GAIN STAGING!! Especially with vocalists, things sound great on the mains but the vocalist wants more and more in their monitor mix and the only way to overcome that is by adding more gain but then you have all this approximity effect which is disturbing. How do you deal with that?
The videos you make are crucial, please don't stop making them
Thank you, Jan! 🙏 I appreciate you taking the time to watch. I just released another one yesterday and will have one each Monday in the coming weeks. ruclips.net/video/YDtICNWdsHA/видео.html
Thank for the soft skill engineering side of running a successful show consistently
Thank you for considering these ideas, Phong! I hope they assist you in getting great results!
Jedi mixing tricks. It's as if thousands of voices cried out and where suddenly silenced. 👍😁😜
I like that you are covering the non-technical side. This is what a person would learn as an observer or gopher. These things can't be taught, and you are teaching it. Thanks so much!
Thanks again, Freeman! I plan to get into a few more technical topics soon but there's already a lot of people doing a better and more thorough job of that whereas I feel like the psychology side of things is too overlooked so I'll mostly stick with that in the coming months. More videos soon!
@@LiveSoundTips
Yes! Especially word choice and strategy. Can't thank you enough. Work ethic is so non-existent anymore. No drink tickets or bar issues, just a strong worship leader. Lol.
I wanna shake your hand, sir. Welcome back. I absolutely LOVE your videos. Your psychology behind this biz is awesome. I've altered a few of my personal habits on your advice, to find Good results with all of them. My soundchecks have been more efficient, due to your method of 'Vocals First', resulting in Better performances. My personal relationships with performers have improved...(except for one guy, I keep forgetting his name...) And all of this has resulted in a better SHOW for the audience...which is what its all about. Thank you for what your doing....(hand shake)
Wow! That's the ultimate compliment and testimonial, Robert! Thank you so much for reporting back that some of the ideas presented here are helping you achieve even better results with your shows. This is the sort of feedback that gets me excited and optimisitc about getting this channel going once again. New videos coming soon. :)
A great follow-up video! when it comes to performance time, you hit the nail on the head when you said that you want to appear calm, confident, and in charge.
Performers want the relevant details and to know that things are running smoothly. Things that help are - having a sheet with relevant show details printed out, discussing changeovers and how to request changes to the mix, and sticking to the schedule.
It's a real bummer for me as a performer when the show details are fuzzy and the sound engineer has no idea either, when the sound engineer is aloof or absent, and when the show is way off schedule. Seriously, keeping a tight schedule is SO important. We tell our fans and friends what time our set is and if we're running an hour late, folks leave. If that becomes the norm, people just assume it's going to be a mess.
I just played a show with like 12 artists on the roster, each playing 2 songs each with changeovers in between. It was such a mess that my girlfriend just decided to stay home and not come see the show because we had no set times and it started 30 mins late.
Oof! That is rough! I agree, someone needs to be in charge and keeping things flowing smoothly. Nobody likes feeling pressured or stressed out by chaos and it's even worse when they know their fans are leaving because of that. Thank you for watching and commenting!
@@LiveSoundTips Exactly. If there's a performance schedule, it's always best to stick to it. When I was touring, I'd get pissed off when opening bands start and end late because we had a bus call time to travel overnight like you mentioned in the video. Nothing is worse than losing sleep to your opening band's carelessness and ego. That being said, I think the musicians are equally, if not much more, responsible for making sure that everything runs on time. Not showing up to your set late, not playing past your time, not milling around between changeovers or taking too long to set up because you wanted to bring your ego stacks, etc.
I played a set between local metal acts at a Denton, TX bar once and one of the bands pushed the entire show schedule 30 mins behind because they literally have 3 full stacks on a small stage (probably less than 120 person capacity venue) and a LAPTOP with a MIXER so they could self-record their set. It literally took them 40 minutes to set up and we probably lost a fifth of the crowd waiting on them to just start playing. And guess what - they sounded terrible because they didn't properly line check because they were too busy trying to get their background tracks and recording setup to work.
@@jakestewartmusic holy moly. You and I could probably make so many videos of this kind of foolishness we've experienced that it would just overload and break the RUclips forever.
@@LiveSoundTips looking forward to those videos haha
Valuable advice ever
One of the best RUclips channels I've stumbled upon. This is phenomenal information. Thank you
Thank you for taking the time to watch, Robbie! I'm convinced that engineers and performers can quickly change this whole industry for the better if we get on the same page. The old guard of bitter, resentful, uncooperative live engineers are finally being weeded out of the biz. Let's help them on their way. 👂💪🤟🖖
So good and very refreshing to see a sound guy that actually knows about this stuff - equally as important as the technical end of things. Keep up the good work.
Thank you for taking the time to watch! I'm glad you found addressing the psychology side of the job helpful!
Really great foundational info. I look forward to your technical advice but technical knowledge can’t stand on its own without doing the things you mention in this video. Thanks for sharing your wisdom/experience and explaining why.
Thank you so much for taking the time to watch, Mike! I think it is important to explain why I care about all of the smallest details. Some people might think it's just how I've always been but nothing could be further from the truth. I just had to really pay attention to what the most common complaints and problems were for performers and have the empathy to see it from their viewpoint so that I could keep refining my practices to further alleviate their anxieties or discomfort on stage. It's a constant, ongoing process of trying to get better at all aspects of live sound. :)
I'm pretty new to live sound and find this to be immensely helpful! I really appreciate you offering your insight and I'm really glad you're making more vids!!
Thanks! I'm glad you find the ideas helpful!
Welcome back, it’s great seeing how others approach audio and all that that entails. I’m learning heaps, thanks
Thank you! I'm glad you find these videos helpful and I'm sorry for the long hiatus. Starting a business and so much life stuff got in the way. More videos being shot in the coming weeks. :)
It's so good to see you addressing the psychological aspect of musician's and how they function... We are a weird and dynamic bunch of freaks and we love it...!!!
I listened to this whole vid and I'm a drummer! So informative. I sent the link to our sound guy. You covered pretty every base I can think of! Thank you...whatever you name is!!! (I couldn't find it)!
This day and age the technical is not as important as the psychological. Smarter processing amps and cheaper great sounding digital consoles are everywhere. Performers seem to be more aware of their sound compared to the 1990's. Knowing how to work alongside others is indeed a must-have characteristic. If only more people adopted this mind set maybe it would be easier finding good staff!
Keep up the great work and thanks for all your effort!!
So glad you’re back, thanks for this.
Thank you! It's great to finally resume making these after such a long hiatus! I had so much stuff planned 2 years ago and it was super disappointing to not have the energy nor the spare mental bandwidth to keep it going. I now look forward to doing this much more regularly.
Thank you, Paul! Pure gold!
Thank you and please keep posting these
Thank you, I will! I had to take a long hiatus but I'm back now with more videos scheduled to be shot in the coming weeks.
Thanks for doing this! As someone in a band at this kind of venue I hope other sound engineers watch and learn.
Thank you for watching! Please spread the word so we can finally make it normal for engineers and performers to be on the same page and working toward the same goal.
im about to go on tour for the first time and this and the previous video have been really useful for going forward with rehearsals and the actual shows. thanks for the advice and talking about the other aspects of engineering apart from the technical side :)
Nice! Congratulations on landing your first tour! Touring has it's own set of unique challenges which is another reason that I pay so much attention to the psychology side of the job. Being in potentially stressful situations while traveling with people can teach you a lot about psychology in a short time. ;)
One of the best RUclips channels out there !
You're too kind! Hey, come to think of it we all need to get Dave Rate to crank out more videos on live sound. DAVE RAT IS THE MASTER
Welcome back, Paul!
I'd love to see a rig/room overview for Bottom of the Hill
I've been planning on that for a long time as it would be helpful to send to touring engineers before they arrive at the venue.
+1
Thank you so much for this! Such great insight into improving things that are often overlooked.
Thank you for watching and commenting! The subtle and overlooked stuff will certainly be my main focus but I will also add some more technical videos in 2019.
From a musician's perspective, a lot of your advice is similar to what we get: sometimes the difference between who they call and who they don't call is not in the technical ability, but in who do they want to be around for a few hours.
Precisely. I'm sure there's plenty of great technical videos out there, like Dave Rat's stuff, so I figure it's being well covered by others. I'd rather devote some of my focus to the stuff _not_ getting talked about because, all other things being equal, the person that's more pleasant to be around will get much further.
@@LiveSoundTips What's cool is when you combine both - that whole thing about doing the vocals first just blew my mind! I can't wait to try it!
Nice job! These ste gteat videos with valuable advice. Cool!
As a guy who does sound from time to time - I do most of this - especially the encouragement part!
I'm glad to hear that! I think we all inevitably arrive at finding a lot of these methods for ourselves when we approach the job with kindness and respect for others. Whenever I hear that others like yourself have already found success with the same things I'm trying it makes me happy and confirms that maybe I'm not totally crazy for doing things the way I do them (but maybe just a little bit). Thank you for watching and commenting!
Great content here, thanks for sharing! I just found your channel but I'm glad to hear that your getting back into it making videos!
Thank you for taking the time to watch! I'm glad this content resonates with you and I hope it will help you in the future. :)
thank you for this informative video , please keep doing more videos like this one 👍🏻
Thank you for watching, Jose! I just put out another video and there will be others coming out each Monday over the next few weeks. Check it out here: ruclips.net/video/YDtICNWdsHA/видео.html
So great to see you again!
Thnk you! It's good to be back after a long hiatus. :)
Love your content, wish you didnt have to take a hiatus, although as the previous commenter stated the high freq noise is crazy. I had to notch out that freq around 5.57khz on my board with a q setting around 1.3 and 11.9khz with a narrow q (10)
It's good to be back making new videos and I appreciate you getting through this one despite whatever was going on with my wireless mic and preamp in the flip-cam. The video I released a few days later turned out much better. :)
Thank you Thank you Thank you! :D
Thank _YOU_ for taking the time to watch and comment! I appreciate it!
welcome back
Thank you and my apologies for the long hiatus. Lot's of difficult life stuff in the last couple years.
Thanks for the great advice! Have any advice on building healthy relationships with DJ's? Some seem to be cool and cooperative but some DJ's are not so cooperative.
please do more videos !! 👍👍
Thank you for the support, Tony! I've really had my hands full but now with everything being shut down for the next 6 weeks (or more) I'm gonna start cranking out videos on new topics that people have asked for.
Great video but pleeease next time cut that high pitched noise it's earpiercing :D
Definitely! My Canon flip cam seems to have a AGC built in which brings up all the background noise and even clips my vocal. I'll have to try something different on the next video. :/
@@LiveSoundTips High pitched noise? I must have lost that part of my hearing.... (too many loud gigs :)
@@Defenderman123 Sooner or later it's bound to happen to us all. ;)
Was just about to suggest a sound test on the video... treat it like a mix, a 2nd headset or device is like getting a 2nd opinion... always good to get just incase, and knowledge is power lol
@@damienhegedus8973, I'm slowly getting it figured out. Doing these latest ones on my own with somewhat low budget equipment, whereas previous episodes were shot by friends that are professional video dudes with legit gear. Gonna keep trying to step up my quality on each one!
I am exited to start doing FoH sound work but the one thing I am dreading is if a band runs over, I have seen it before where the engineer cuts sound halfway through a song to get the next band on stage and this is one thing I would absolutely hate to do as it turns the whole vibe sour.
Do you have any advice on how to get around having to do this without having a set run over?
If every sound engineer was like you, I would have much more fun on stage. Must be fun to work with you. Just a little thing: this fan noise and the high frequency tone in the background of the video is a bit stressful. Maybe you could switch the machines off. That would make it even more fun to watch your videos!
I totally agree. My Canon flip cam appears to have a built in AGC that just slams all the levels up as far as possible. It dramatically raises the noise floor and pushes my vocal to the bring of clipping. I'll experiment with some other approaches before the next video.
You should hook up with Glenn Fricker at SMG. He's had some experience with live engineering, and I guess you two would hit it off.
I'll have to look him up. Thank you for putting the name on my radar!
I’m actually watching this for the 3rd or 4th time but this question just came up to my mind: GAIN STAGING!! Especially with vocalists, things sound great on the mains but the vocalist wants more and more in their monitor mix and the only way to overcome that is by adding more gain but then you have all this approximity effect which is disturbing. How do you deal with that?
Please edit the video to remove the noise haha, love your stuff but this is un-listenable.