# Stuff that will happen...



## Inaki2 (Nov 29, 2003)

...and you gotta live with them.
I thought of this topic cuz a lot of kids in a show the other day started asking me how I cope with certain stuff.
So basically:

Actors will give you trouble, very few don't

Mics, cables, windscreens, and such, will break, you just gotta try to a) minimze how much and b) try to make sure it won't happen during a show.

Most times, equipment is mandated by budget, not needs.

Directors ussually don't know about sound but still think they do!

Yes, people will ALWAYS ask you if you know what all those buttons do!!!

What I mean with this short list (feel free and encouraged to expand, I just got home from work, my mind doesn't work very well right now) is an idea of how the sound industry (and most industries) work.
Basically all of you guys have to remember that real life is real life. Budget is the key element in most shows, the world is capitalist remember? People WILL comment on your sound, ignore who you need to and pay attention to who you must (that includes the diector regretfully). Stuff WILL break, there is no perfect assembly in anything, mics will be beaten up, dropped etc. You just have to minimise the efects of this in the performance of a show. And yes, you are a "frontstage" (get it...you're not back-stage....well I told you my mind didn't work to well) so people WLL ask you what all those buttons do. Children may re-eq a channel strip.


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## wolf825 (Nov 29, 2003)

I would also add---CD players and playback WILL fail or "skip" or just not cue....have a back-up or asI saw the other nite on a show (I wasn't running sound--a "stage-mom" was) if you hit the PLAY button on the CD player or those buttons that skip it forward--it WILL do just that...skip forward. All you can do is re-cue and go from there... 

Cue disks and show disks on lights WILL get corrupted--have a backup. 

Key thing to when stuff happens is how you deal with it...if you freak out--it will not get any better. Be calm, be professional--fix what you can when you can and if you cannot until later (cause you would have to stop the show or leave your post) don't freak out over it--because Stuff just happens...perfection is a fine line where the chaos factor is MUCH bigger.. As long as things are SAFE its not a major emergency to get all hyper over. If you can do something perfectly on cue--you are ahead of the curve...be proud! If you can't--weclome to the world of imperfection and variables..and know that you WILL do things perfectly with practice. 

wolf


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## zac850 (Nov 29, 2003)

...computers will not cue up the right sound at the right time

...the dimmer pack will go into chase mode randomly and the only way to get it out of chase is to smack it as hard as you can (litterly, no joke, you need to smack it as hard as you can to get it out of chase mode...)


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## Inaki2 (Nov 29, 2003)

Ha, yeah I didn't go into lights!  

Lets se....
Movers will show any glitch during a show. Never fails.
Consoles will quit 5 minutes before the opening number. It has happened to me. Anyone care to hand operate 144 cues ina single scene? I did
Oh yeah, th edimmer packs will have some unexpected problem 5 min before the show.
And the one that never fails due to its inherent nature: Actors wil never, ever stand in the light.


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## zac850 (Nov 29, 2003)

Inaki2 said:


> And the one that never fails due to its inherent nature: Actors wil never, ever stand in the light.


Or will stare right at the lights and wine that the lights are in there eyes, of corse they are, your looking right at them. I set them up so that they won't be in your eyes during the show, so stop winning!!!

sorry, getting a little mad at the actors, all better now


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## The_Terg (Dec 4, 2003)

Some classics:

Bad actors / vocalists WILL tap the mic and say 'Is this thing on?' to an SM58.

Young children WILL speak into ANY mic as CLOSE as possible when they are bored.

(kinda the same) Young children WILL tap the floormics repeatedly!


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## Inaki2 (Dec 5, 2003)

New one:

Crappy floor crew will hit the hanging mics when moving set around...ouch!!


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## DMXtools (Dec 5, 2003)

I do sound and lights for low-budget rock concerts, not theater.

Musicians will ALWAYS sing and play louder (and set their amps louder) during the actual performance than they did during sound checks.

Lead singers will move back a few feet from the mic when they whisper and kiss it when they scream.

First time in a new venue - the promoter has assured you there are six 20-amp circuits on stage. Well, there are six outlets, all on the same 15-amp breaker. 

The least-talented musicians will be the pickiest about the sound. Conversely, the best musicians will trust you to do your job.

I don't do bar shows - there's always some drunk who thinks he knows more about sound or lighting than I do.

John


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## wemeck (Dec 5, 2003)

Our the first six receivers of our 14 shure wireless system are configured to be used with handheld or beltpack. But you can not use both at the same time. Well every year during our fast paced Variety show either a performer or our backstage sound crew will sometimes "forget" to turn off one or the other. Which causes our professional sound engineer (Dave Leavit of Accutrackrecordings.com) to pull his hair out.


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## tinears3938 (Dec 18, 2003)

DMXtools said:


> I do sound and lights for low-budget rock concerts, not theater.
> 
> Musicians will ALWAYS sing and play louder (and set their amps louder) during the actual performance than they did during sound checks.
> 
> ...


 8) 

Your dead on track I have had every one these things happen to me what fond crappy memories Now Im a do sound and lights at a church in Baton Rouge if they screw up on stage Ill kill the sound & lights while holding up my arms saying I din't do it musta blew somthing... see at church they don't throw things at ya...


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## Inaki2 (Dec 18, 2003)

Lying at church eh??? :roll:


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## wemeck (Dec 19, 2003)

Inaki2 said:


> Lying at church eh??? :roll:



Depending on the branch of religion full disclosure may not be required.


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## tinears3938 (Dec 19, 2003)

non denominational we play real music you know rock & roll :roll: I only do that during rehearsal to irritate our producer


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## paulman592 (Mar 8, 2004)

actors love to sit on floor mics. they love to turn off thier wireless bodypack and neglect to turn it back on when they go on stage (despite warnings not to touch the damn thing). batteries are expensive, and actors don't understand. actors never friggin project enough. give me a few more days of rehearsal, and i'll be sure to post some more


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## wemeck (Mar 8, 2004)

paulman592 said:


> actors love to sit on floor mics. they love to turn off thier wireless bodypack and neglect to turn it back on when they go on stage (despite warnings not to touch the damn thing). batteries are expensive, and actors don't understand. actors never friggin project enough. give me a few more days of rehearsal, and i'll be sure to post some more



It is up to the act directly to reinforce that they are not to be shutting the mics off and that they need to project. If need be put a crew kid backstage on a wireless walkie-talkie so the sound engineer can tell him to turn belt pack 7 on, or etc. Over the years we basically had to create a backstage sound crew to monitor the equipment because of such problems. It has always amazed me how fast parents will complain when they cannot hear their child sing during a solo, and the total look of denial and condemnation to you when you tell them the student muted their own microphone by playing with the switches.


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## avkid (Mar 8, 2004)

the lights will fall in the absence of safety cords


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## soundman (Mar 8, 2004)

The one time you go up to the loading rail to throw weight and dont take out your keys or change it will rain down on thoose below. (This year it was gumballs)

The director waits till doors to tell you about the other 5 actors that need mics.

The paint is still drying at intermission.


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## emanueltech (Mar 27, 2004)

Dunno bout u guys but at any concert i do, there is this one bloody band that always play, and there lead singer always shouts in his stupid stoner voice.. eh man this mic aint on and taps and taps it, the reason it isnt on is that when he walks on instead of turning the mic on he turns it off. To solve this I wraped it in gaffa, but when he came on stage he shouted i cant turn it on its got tape round it and began to peel it of??!!


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## Pocado (Mar 30, 2004)

OH my goodness, my sympathies. I had to deal with that about 3 weeks ago. Everything had to be perfect for this guy, and he kept blowing into the mic to check it. Then 3 time or MORE he yelled hey turn on the mic, when it was the physical microphone that was off.

Yea, not too bright, but a good band.

Pocado


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## Inaki2 (Mar 31, 2004)

Oh, singers and mics is a whole new story on itself. I've gone thru so many weird situations (and no, I still haven't worked with Marilyn Manson). I once nearly loose a stage box because a singer threw his wired mic into the audience, and thank god a stage tech realized this before we ran out of cable and dragged the stage box as well!!!! :? 
I've had broken mics, battered mics..mics stuck into unusual places..and by far the funniest was a singer that realized the Shure wireless was made of metal and was heavy, so he started bashing his drummer with it!!! That was just the funniest, most out of this world, f*cked up thing I've seen people do with a mic.


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## Inaki2 (Mar 31, 2004)

Oh, singers and mics is a whole new story on itself. I've gone thru so many weird situations (and no, I still haven't worked with Marilyn Manson). I once nearly loose a stage box because a singer threw his wired mic into the audience, and thank god a stage tech realized this before we ran out of cable and dragged the stage box as well!!!! :? 
I've had broken mics, battered mics..mics stuck into unusual places..and by far the funniest was a singer that realized the Shure wireless was made of metal and was heavy, so he started bashing his drummer with it!!! That was just the funniest, most out of this world, f*cked up thing I've seen people do with a mic.


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## DMXtools (Apr 1, 2004)

I swear, I'm going to physically remove the "mute" switches from my wireless mics.

John


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## dj_illusions (Apr 1, 2004)

Im sure many of you know the gay little on off/mute switch that is on the base of the Sennheiser hand held microphones...

Someone in a band i did obviously had that exact thought dmxtools, he didnt know that u pushed it in
instead he musta tried sliding it and goodness knows what else but eventually he rooted the mic swtich so bad it actually fell out. cost him 350bucks to get it fixed too... thats about 600bucks for u yanks


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## Mayhem (Apr 4, 2004)

dj_illusions said:


> cost him 350bucks to get it fixed too... thats about 600bucks for u yanks



Alright Jeremy - I am going to come to you when I need to get money exchanged whe I go to the US. The Australian dollar has never been that strong and buys about 75c US

That makes it about $260 US


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## cmcner (May 22, 2004)

It will be known by all experenced people in the sound field, that tape is the most valuable tool in your possession. It is the cure all from wires to mics to even mixers at some points. It is also common knowlege that people just destroy a last second attempt at fixing a problem by stealing it.


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## dj_illusions (May 23, 2004)

I dont get your last post Mayhem.. Im in Australia too, we're in this together lol


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## Mayhem (May 31, 2004)

dj_illusions said:


> I dont get your last post Mayhem.. Im in Australia too, we're in this together lol



LOL - I know where you are Jeremy! 

I was just thinking that based on your previous comment that I would be better off coming to see you when I want to buy American dollars, as (based on your $350 (AUD) = $600 (USD)) I would get almost $2 American for every Australian dollar that I gave you. Unfortunately, it is closer to the opposite, with the Australian dollar buying only 70 US cents.

Or perhaps Melbourne has a stronger economy than the rest of the country and it is just us other states that are poor?


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## jim24 (Jun 1, 2004)

To those of you complaining about body pacs....

Don't yours have a way to get them to lock on? I did that in the last show I did and ran them through a Yamaha 01v with the right mutes set for every scene....worked like a charm and the only other person who knew how to turn the mics off after they were locked on was my assistant  

Keep in mind, though, this was a relatively small show (cast of 12, 8 mics, some being swaped).

Jim


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## dj_illusions (Jun 1, 2004)

yeah, economy is booming here atm mayhem! lol

yeah i musta mucked up somewhere along the line, not thinking very straight... got a biggggg show on atm...


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## halojen (Jun 1, 2004)

cmcner said:


> It will be known by all experenced people in the sound field, that tape is the most valuable tool in your possession. It is the cure all from wires to mics to even mixers at some points.



..amen brother.
i hear ye, i hear ye.


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## halojen (Jun 1, 2004)

we used to do a lot of assemblies at college (high school in america)
and we would have the mic stand coming up one side of the lecturn then the boom come accross horozontally.

we learnt after an awkward prize-giving that when doing this you should always have it coming from the right hand side of the speechmaker.
this way, if they are short and pull down on the mic they will _tighten_ the mic clip onto teh end of the boom.

we had one person that pulled down and loosened it so it flopped down and faced the floor cause it was coming from the wrong side.


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## avkid (Jun 1, 2004)

if you do not have asbolute control the apprentice will make some fuggly( f*** ugly) sound and mess up the mixer


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## falcon (Jan 6, 2005)

Our school has solved our problem with body mics being turned off during performance. 
We just have a sound crew backstage, usually a couple of guys, that put the body mics on the actors as the go onstage and take them off as they leave the stage. It does get annoying, but it ensures that there are only 2 people that handle the mics making sure they are on and not muted when the actors are acting. The female actors usally have a problem with this and insist they put on the mic and remove it themselves, but our sound crew always checks to make sure they are on. The female actors won't let any guy but me handle the mic when on them :wink: 

And as for bands, we use mics that don't have on/off switches on them. I have had one singer look at the mic then yell at me "where is the on switch?" this was usually about 5 minutes after I tell them that they have no control over the mic at all and there is no on/off switch.


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## Inaki2 (Jan 6, 2005)

Ooh...good one:
MiniMACS will crap out!


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## Andy_Leviss (Jan 7, 2005)

tinears3938 said:


> Your dead on track I have had every one these things happen to me what fond crappy memories Now Im a do sound and lights at a church in Baton Rouge if they screw up on stage Ill kill the sound & lights while holding up my arms saying I din't do it musta blew somthing... see at church they don't throw things at ya...



Note to the students here: this is NOT a good attitude to have. No matter what a band, actors, directors, etc. throw at you, you want to be the one who remains calm and reasonable. There are ways to deal with things going wrong that are much more beneficial to everybody involved than cutting power and claiming it wasn't you.


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## len (Jan 7, 2005)

It seems musicians will play softer when they don't know the part, and louder and more aggressive when they do. 

Bass players are usually the most relaxed band members, followed by drummers.

Drummers can never sit down at the kit without bumping at least one mic

Keyboard players think they know the most about running live sound. 

The more talented the guitarist, the fewer effects they have.

The better the guitarist, the better the quality of the effects they do have. 

The older the musician, the more set in their ways they are. 

Never trust a sound guy to have a dmx line available in the snake. 

Always assume that the sound guy will want you to fry an egg on a leko lens, "just to see if it can be done."

If there's video, people will always duck and avoid walking in front of the camera as much as possible, but they'll walk betweeen a projector and a screen without a second's thought, even if it's blocked off.


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## Inaki2 (Jan 7, 2005)

LOL, I never thought about the projector, but its totally true.
As a side note to ducking in a camera, they'll duck, but they'll stand up again when they're not completely past it


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## avkid (Jan 7, 2005)

frying eggs on lights, I have never tried that! We did reheat KFC in a spotlight a couple times, and it worked almost as fast as a microwave!


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## Inaki2 (Jan 7, 2005)

Yeah I remember a friend of mine was doing followspot in one of my horse auctions and he kept the pizza slices warm over the lamp housing


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## Andy_Leviss (Jan 7, 2005)

> Never trust a sound guy to have a dmx line available in the snake.



Even if he does offer one, you shouldn't use it. DMX is not intended to run on the same type of cable as audio signal. DMX needs a particular type of cable (based on capacitance and other things) to be happy. Plus if DMX does bleed into the audio lines, it won't sound happy.

--A

P.S.-You should have your own cable, anyway, we shouldn't have to supply you with one )


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## herr_highbrau (Apr 12, 2005)

In Edinburgh, always count on having hired kit turn up at least 2-4 hours late. Especially if the concert's on in the evening and you're working with a below par crew. (Bad memorys  )


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## avkid (Apr 12, 2005)

During tap numbers someone will kick at least one mic!!


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