Jump to content

What is wrong in this picture?


Smithy

Recommended Posts

What's wrong in that picture is that the crowd aren't rushing the stage. Sadly those of them with the brainpower to notice the missing power connectors are probably too munted to see it.

Yeah, cause the whole puprouse of going to gigs is to check if the act's interconnections are okay!  :D

Link to comment
Share on other sites

You'd notice if a guitar weren't plugged in... or a mic... why not a midi controller? The whole purpose of going to the gig (social concerns aside) is to listen to the music. Without an integral part of the performance, the music will be shit, and the crowd would normally notice, if they had a clue. They have a clue about guitars and mics, but computer music is beyond their education, or cognitive abilities, it seems.

On that note: I had a think about this... tried to see the other side of the story... And I thought, OK it's possible to not notice that your controller is plugged in. Maybe for a few seconds. But only if the music isn't really live, but played-back. Same as with a guitar or a mic.... Without those connected, the effect will be instant - no sound. If you're playing a live PA and your controllers aren't working, you're going to get no sound. But if you're playing a prerecorded tune or large parts of tunes back, and via midi, throwing samples or fx over it, then the dead controller will be far less of an issue - the music will keep playing. It'll just be kinda vanilla.

A quick google around showed me that these guys weren't really doing a "live set" at all, it was a DJ set, with some samples and fx thrown in. Calling it a Live PA is good marketing and poor use of terminology. Believing that marketing hype leads people to hang shit on these guys for "lip syncing" the performance, when in fact the performance is far from reliant upon human interaction at such a level. It's like, if you had a singer with a recorded backing track and one guitarist, and the guitar weren't plugged in, you wouldn't say the singer was lipsyncing. These guys can easily do this kind of set sans-controller - to refer to my earlier example, the controller is not an integral part of the performance - so having it disconnected for a short time is really not a big deal.

If you wanna point fingers at unprofessional behaviour, think of the photographer... He's exposing his clientele to bad publicity, either intentionally or by not knowing his subject. Fortunately for him, suckers who believed the "live set" marketing hype will probably be so distracted by hanging shit on the performer that they won't consider it. Bet your ass that the performers and promoters will!

Heck, speaking of the promoters... and hey, the performers too, I won't defend them too much...WTF happened to sound check?!? How did this even happen in the first place?....

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Back in the day, Marshall did a reasonable bit of extra trade supplying empty cabinets and amps for videos. I know that one stage rig had at least 50% of the amps plugged in but not running, (I know because I'd filched the EL34's to fix the amps they were using).

Any other sound engineers want to own up to putting a mic on a lead guitarists stack, with a DI box, as 'insurance', then never turning the mic up? - or in some cases letting them test it during the sound check? Or putting about 10 mics around a drum kit, then working with 4?

I was asked by one band in the 70's to 'make the lights flash on this thing', a Moog Modular they had rented to make the stage rig look good - because it was feck all use for playing on stage. It was a very early unit and would only stay in tune for for about 5 minutes. It was a really good working patch, sadly no-one ever heard it.

Names withheld to protect the guilty.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I know I'm a newb here, but I couldn't help but chime in on this one.

I work at an outdoor music venue near Chicago, USA. During the season,

we do a good mix of classical and a wide variety of "pop" acts.

The Beach Boys played our main stage with "special guest" John Stamos this year. If

you're from the US, or if you have a thing for American sitcoms, you might remember him

as Uncle Jessie on "Full House". 

Anyway, the cable for his Gretsch went under the drum riser and got plugged into nothing.

His SM 58 did get a channel on the board, but the fader stayed down for the whole show. 

To his credit, though, he was not a terrible drummer.  :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

And I thought, OK it's possible to not notice that your controller is plugged in. Maybe for a few seconds. But only if the music isn't really live

Depends how munted you are.  I know it once took me and my bandmate a seeming eternity to realise that the DJ we'd been jamming over had faded us out.  A horrible, confusing eternity.  But then we tend to have 30,000 devices plugged in and are never quite sure what's going on at the best of times :D

What is wrong in this picture?

God' date=' what's [i']right in that picture??

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
×
×
  • Create New...