Does everyone here use a sound man at gigs?

Well, I’ve been on both sides of the sound guy thing. In my first cover band we had a sound guy which meant we had to put the board where he could work it. Just an extra pain in the ass when setting up. We miked everything so it was nice to have someone out there working the board. As time went on we realized we didn’t need to mike everything half the time because we had amps that could get the job done in most situations. By this time we had learned enough about a sound board to run it ourselves and wound up like you guys. There were very few gigs where we would mike everybody but it was different every time. Sometimes we would line in the bass and mike the drums only, sometimes no instrument mikes sometimes everybody. Never had a keyboard in a band so I can’t offer much there but an opinion. For me it would always depend on the venue. I got away without having to mike my guitar at times because of the rig that I used. The keyboards would be the same to me, I think , more often then not you would be running that thru the pa. Might be some more sound geeks here that can offer some good advice.

John, in my case, I am right next to the keyboard player and I find him loud but at the other side of the stage, they can't hear him. The problem is that he's got the amp right behind him aimed straight at his back so he's absorbing much of the sound. I've tried to tell him that he needs to tilt the amp back to get the sound to project over him but he won't listen. His amp is 300 watts and I'm playing thru a 22 watt Deluxe Reverb with tilt back legs yet everyone can hear me! So the last few gigs, I've folded him ever so slightly through the mains and monitors but I just wish he would listen to me.

Those all sound quite good. I can hear the keys in all of them but yes, he could have been a bit louder in the first clip. I believe that a lot of the sound problems can be eliminated by using an amp stand and tilting the amp back. A couple of years ago I picked up a Boss Katana amp and the first gig I played with it, I had it sitting about a foot off the floor on a milk crate and I could hear it fine At the end of the night, the bass player said he could hardly hear me. The following week, same amp, same settings and venue but I tilted the amp back. At the end of the night he said he could hear me clearly and the amp had lots of punch. When he asked what I did differently, I told him that I just tilted it back to get the sound up to our ears and over our heads.

Brent, do you think we are made of money??? 😂🤣😂🤣😂
Seriously my band mates are cheap bastards! I wanted to buy some used stage lights a few years ago. I asked them to pitch in $20 each....I got nothing but questions like “do we need them”? I bought them myself and now they love them and miss them if I don’t bring them. Same goes for a Yamaha powered mixer I found for $50. I thought it would be good to have as a backup at gigs. Nope! So I bought it myself and we use it at rehearsals...works perfectly. I’ve run into this with other items I’ve suggested buying. Now when they complain, I let it go. I’ve spent enough of my cash on them.

I understand what you are saying John but I don’t see how having his amp sitting in front helps as he still can’t hear how loud he is playing out to the audience, which is usually why one would use a sound man and put him through the PA. Besides, as I said to Brent, my band mates are pretty tight with their money....he won’t go and buy a small monitor and when he already has a perfectly good amp.

However, don't get me wrong, our Monitors don’t turn to mud when the keys go through them but rather I find that it’s hard to hear the vocals clearly when the keys are added to the mix. I don’t mind the sax coming through them as it’s a single note instrument and so it’s like a voice. We have 4 vocalists and use a lot of harmonies. We all like to be able to hear what we are all singing.

I’ve installed Fender tilt back legs on my Deluxe Reverb and so the amp sits on the floor. If I use my Boss Katana, I use one of these to tilt it back. I don’t notice any loss of bass and the sound gets out into the crowd.

www.amazon.ca/Stage-RS4000-Folding-Guitar-Amplifier/dp/B0075DNS9A

I used to do sound when I taught for the Festivals--the kids would get a short sound check--and since it wasn't my soundboard I had to learn it quickly--I eventually got decent at it.

I've played ofr others with a sound guy & without.

As dB mentioned--a good sound guy ears their pay.

when I play at church we do have a sound guy--some are better than others--and I have ones I am glad to see when I show up to set up--I know they know their stuff--especially if I'm playing bass.

None are terrible--but some are better than others.

We have had to go without one at times, but someone has to go to the back to turn stuff down when we're not playing.
(Well I have a volume pedal for that--so does the keyboard player--but not everybody else does.)

We have a really good sound guy for the really big gigs where we have 8 people in the band but it is rare.

I've seen quite a few larger bands simply collapse under the weight of too much overhead and the ability to get gigs.

In the words of a bandleader I know:
"With 20 guys on stage and a sound guy the minimum can even field the band for is $2000-2500 and in reality I should be paying them $5000-6000. Compound that with $20,000- $30,000 in sound gear I invested in that I will never get back. Any 4 or 5 man combo or rock band can undercut us and go out for $400-600 so I just can't win"

Important lesson for me when we were starting out...

It is a really fine line between full sounds musicians and financial risk. Cost is one of the factors that torpedoed the Big Bands back in the 1950's.

That what we’ve always done. We would just walk out front and then make whatever adjustments that were needed. I’ve played in clubs that had their own PA system and had a sound guy. Only in one band many years ago did we have a sound guy, kept the board out front, having to find a route for the snake was always a pain let alone humping around the extra cabling. These days it’s just easier to keep the board on the stage and do it ourselves.

In the one band I mentioned above where we actually did have a sound guy we didn’t have a clue what we were doing. It was our first pa and we thought it was just the thing to do. Given the size of the clubs we were playing it would seem pretentious but it was more ignorance then anything. Anyhow, it was live and learn.

I've had that experience where a friend decided to help out on sound it he had absolutely no idea- that didn't go great