October 1, 2009

[Märk]

DRC: I'm looking for work right now, and noticed a help wanted ad for a sound engineer at my favorite local pub. No formal qualifications required, the pay is nothing great, etc., basically they need a sound man to do live sound, and run the board/software/etc. in studio recording sessions. I like to think I'm pretty good for the latter, but have never really been behind the desk for live sound. I know the owner pretty good (well, we're on first name basis, and I've been a semi-regular at his pub for over 10 years anyway) so I'm seriously considering going and talking to him about this job. I'd even be willing to volunteer for a bit until I can wrap my brain around the mixing desk (it's like a 32 channel with about 6 billion knobs.. a bit intimidating) because, hey; I'm sick of doing what I've been doing for the last 20+ years, and this would pretty much be an awesome job. Wish me luck.

QotD: What's the best way to learn sound engineering on the fly?

[fluffy]

Just do it?

It seems like the sort of thing you'd get the hang of pretty quickly. You just have to be on your toes due to the fact that performers get tired, rooms get more people, etc., but at least judging from the quality of the "you MUST use our sound guy" sound guys at Song Fight Live events, most of them don't know what they're doing either.

Not that I'd be any good at it either.

(The only time I've actually appreciated the in-house sound guys was at the Moscow, ID tour stop. Of course they HATED me because of my loop pedal which is basically a sound guy's nightmare, but they did a great job on everyone else.)

[JonPorobil]

Go Sven go!

I'm with fluffy on this one; you can probably learn by doing. If that's not enough for you, you might try asking the house sound guy at some other pub/club if you can shadow him for a night or two.

Sounds like a great job, and it sounds like your odds are pretty good, too! Break a leg!

[Billy's Little Trip]

Good luck, Mark. It's really easy to run a live board, but takes some time to be good at it. My friend does it for a living, so I have helped out for local shows. I love it! Plus, the fringe benefits *coughsvaginacough* makes it even better! Usually you are playing other music between band tear down and set up. So you take requests from the ladies Something about playing a song a girl requests make her want your wiener.

One of the clubs I go to has something really cool. They have web TV on 4 big 72" flat screens. So intermission is just youtube, etc stuff from the webz. But anyone can request a link as long as there's no porn or anything racist, which is pretty safe with youtube.
I made Josh from Rat Poison famous, lol. Everyone died laughing at his tech talk piece he did. He got a bunch of fans from that.
Watch it naow! > http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fusea ... id=3464922
...by the way, note the background moozak.

So Mark. Once you're in, tell him to start the youtube intermission. People LOVE it. You'll be a hero.

OH! Fluffy! I just got an idea! re-mix Joshes vid.

[Caravan Ray]

The usual prerequisites for such a job are a bad mullet, body odour, beer gut, and about six inches of exposed arse-crack. Are you qualified?

[fluffy]

This is Sven Mullet we're talking about. What do you think?

[roymond]

Fellow song fighter Ben Krieger runs the shows at Sidewalk Cafe, NYC (212-473-7373) and hosted our recent SF event this spring. Give him a ring and see what makes him tick.