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Posted by: Socky42 Oct 21 2014, 06:09 PM

Pretty interesting video, always wondered what FOH guys do during shows.

Posted by: Todd Simpson Oct 22 2014, 04:21 AM

Cool vid he's partially trying to look busy by just touching faders but he's keeping an eye on things and turning on fx and stuff for certain parts Sounds like he's got a good mix going which is the main thing!

Posted by: Cosmin Lupu Oct 23 2014, 10:33 AM

I always say that the band's dedicated sound engineer is a member of the band - his instrument is the mixer and he can make the difference between a crappy sounding gig and an AMAZING sounding gig. I can tell if a band is really pro, if they come with their own sound engineer. We have our own and we never go out on stage without him, as he knows the songs and he knows what to do at each song, so that the sound will serve the music Great video!

Posted by: Todd Simpson Oct 23 2014, 08:43 PM

Well said!! Same for the lighting guy. If they really know the songs, it can make for a killer show. If they don't know the songs, it's much less fun to watch IMHO

Posted by: Cosmin Lupu Oct 24 2014, 08:53 AM

True! But that one - we don't have him .. yet Anyway, it's clear that any band needs to have a good knowledge about the folks that will be supporting them onstage, ESPECIALLY if they aren't part of the team. The ideal situation is to have a full crew:

- technicians - at least 2
- sound engineer
- lighting guy
- merch responsible
- tour manager
- band manager
- booking agent - it's best to work with as many as possible, paying them comission based - it's in their interest to find and book gigs for you then.

It's complicated, because nowadays, I know VERY few bands that make enough money to support such a team, but those that do have a team like this, are more likely to nail things down big time

Posted by: SpaseMoonkey Oct 25 2014, 07:08 PM

I would have to agree with what everyone here says. I've never played live, but some bands that I've seen really made me think they were fake playing because of how good they sound.

Trans-Siberian Orchestra is one of those bands, but they do a rock opera basically, no one else plays just them and they have a full show they follow to a T. I've seen them 4 times and it is spot on.

Past that getting into more of what I listen to. I've seen Lamb of God twice, once they were headlining, the other they opened for Metallica. They actually were more fun to watch than Metallica and still had that crystal clear sound. Up next I've seen Periphery twice and Devin Townsend. Just from the start of the show to the end. Standing outside waiting in line Devin walks out and shakes every ones hand, such a humble man. To the stage presence he gives off. Periphery some how someone spilled water on the floor and they stopped the show till it was all cleaned up and dried, they didn't even cut the show they just pushed everyone back farther and played some extra music. But both of them felt like I was just sitting in my room with some headphones on listening to the music. It was a very great experience, I would love to see either of them again.

Now my all time favorite has to be none other than Gwar, man you may not like a lot of the music. But... WOW! That stage show is second to none. I have gone twice. If the show wasn't the day before Thanksgiving I would be there front row drowning in colored water! It's like watching a horror movie on stage while people play. Most bands that open up kind of come out dressed up also and have a little bit of a show.

Posted by: Cosmin Lupu Oct 26 2014, 09:07 AM

Heh! I will see Periphery and Devin perform together in Budapest in March next year.

Another gig which impressed me because as Travis said, you couldn't really tell it was live - although it was - was Meshuggah's gig in Bucharest back in 2012. Man... it sounded like someone just played the CD through that huge PA Machine gun perfect.

Also, Karnivool, Tesseract and Animals as Leaders sounded incredibly good in the live context! I've heard Tesseract in a live footage from a big fest and they didn't sound so great, but once agan, I have learned that I have to stop expecting, as in the past, there were a lot of times in which I went to see a gig having a preconception which was blown away by the show

Posted by: Bogdan Radovic Oct 27 2014, 11:34 AM

Great to see this video - never watched that kind of video before.
I'd like to +1 on the importance of having a sound engineer as part of your band. It makes a huge difference to the live performances, no matter how good the band is or how well you can setup your tone on stage. The truth is that a good sound engineer is the last guy people think of when organizing gigs. When I say gigs I think mostly small (clubs etc) to medium sized (smaller open air festivals etc) and based on my experience. What I would usually encounter on such gigs is a guy that rents all the PA/stage equipment to be dubbing as a sound engineer tech. Unfortunately, in most cases he is not really qualified for the position. Also, he doesn't know the band or will work in any specific details. Usually, he would setup one band's tone and than after next one starts playing, DURING the first song he would adjust the levels etc to fit the completely different band. Once done (btw this usually ruins the important first song), he'd just leave it like that and don't make any further changes. Sometimes he would leave the mixing table

I know it is funny, but it happens all the time. I remember one gig where a band brought their sound guy and some equipment he uses (I think he had some rack compressors etc) and the venue that we were playing had a really PA and stage gear. It was actually funny how bad we sounded in comparison to the other band which used the power of their sound guy to : make the overall volume of the band louder, better clarity and mix. In this case, the sound guy made all the difference and "of course" he was not willing to turn on his precious compressor/rack gear while we were playing

Posted by: Cosmin Lupu Oct 27 2014, 01:32 PM

You have no idea on how well I feel you, mate I've been experiencing that a lot of times in the distant past unfortunately...