On Wed, Feb 26, 2014 at 2:44 PM, Ben Hornstein <[email protected]> wrote: > For your last story, if the band wants a certain mix, that is their right. > Perhaps their style is for the guitar to be louder than the fiddle (maybe > they think the fiddler isn't that good, but don't want to hurt his/her > feelings). As a sound guy, you can do a sound check, then suggest > modifications for the monitors or house. Ultimately, I think it should be > up to the band to decide how they want to sound. >
What mix is appropriate will depend on the hall. At the very least there's a difference between small venues where you're going to hear the instruments mostly acoustically and large ones where people are mostly hearing via the PA system. The sound person needs to be able to change relative levels, and maybe put eq or compression on individual instruments, to make the band sound best for the situation. But what makes what Tom described worse is that this band was relying on the hall sound system for monitors. This meant that if their needs for hearing themselves were different from the hall needs there just wasn't a way to make both sound right. If a band wants to supply a single mix to the hall PA system I think they need to at least (1) run it by the sound person in advance, (2) make it clear they're happy to make changes when requested to fit what the hall needs, and (3) send the hall a separate mix for the monitor. Jeff
