In my opinion, the best panel at the SF Music Tech Summit was the audio engineers' “Tour Secrets of the Pros: How to sound big even if you’re not.”
The panel was Greg Looper, John Meyer, Deanne Franklin, David Gibbons and the moderator, Heather Rafter.
Much of the conversation was recounting their own experiences. Of fundamental importance was the idea that to become an expert Front of House engineer, you don’t need to go to school, but you do need to volunteer to help other experts, to “do it.”
They also had some words of wisdom, such as:
If you are a musician with a tiny budget, what should you do as a priority?
- Use the Front of House engineer. Reach out, and develop a good relationship with them. Listen to what they have to say about the pecuiliarities of that venue. Keep track of the ones you run across who are good, trustworthy, and dependable and share that information! And of course, tip if you can.
- Rent the best equipment, choose the mike carefully, and don't neglect what the performers hear!
- Automix works well for panels.
What are the top 3 reasons concerts sound bad?
- Operator error, the bands won't listen to front of house engineer, and speaker placement
Why is the sound so loud it hurts my ears?
- Do you adjust the volume once everyone stands up, or crowd sings? Greg Looper drew laughs with "No, I don't turn it up: if they want to hear it they'll shut up.”
- The perception of loudness varies widely. Noise can be very fatiguing very fast, but music is different. In surfing, being in the pipe is extremely loud, yet there's little hearing loss.
- Deanne Franklin: Sometimes, there is not enough PA, so we need more coverage. Also remember to cut out high frequency more when volume gets louder.
And what’s it really like?
- Greg Looper: we have 6am-3am so we only have 6am-noon to set up.
- John Meyer - we used to have a week with grateful dead.
- John Meyer - in the 70's if we got to the end of the show with power still on, it was a miracle.
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