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heavy5 - Posted - 07/15/2022: 12:25:10
Got to hear this talanted group last evening at a nearby outdoor venue as a part of Norwich NY's Summer Fest Series free to anyone .
It is a nice large shaded park in the middle of this town of about 7k people .
I don't know what this group is leaning towards w/ the sound volume used but it was so loud to my wife & I , the true vocal & instrumental quality was distorted beyond our appreciation & at times was just a blast of noise !
These are not words I like to bestow on a group of this caliber & having seen this top notch group here in 2019 it was the same ?
Now in our 80's , we've been to quite a few fests w/ shaky sound but not from talented musicians such as these ?
Edited by - heavy5 on 07/16/2022 04:13:27
banjonz - Posted - 07/16/2022: 14:20:56
I have seen similar here in NZ where a sound operator who is more used to working with rock bands, tries to do sound for an acoustic band and totally screws it up.
heavy5 - Posted - 07/16/2022: 16:10:07
Yes , I've seen this also w/ sound people not familiar w/ BG .
Yrs ago at a fest near Cooperstown NY the Osborne Bros stopped playing until the sound guy got it together & at another upstate NY fest we were sitting on a side hill near the sound platform where the guy made a few half fast adjustments at the beginning then laid down for a lengthy nap .
Edited by - heavy5 on 07/16/2022 16:20:59
Tractor1 - Posted - 07/16/2022: 16:59:34
Anytime i go to a live show-I take ear plugs--these guys would not want it sounding like you said--it may have not been that way at all on their monitors---Do they plug up or use mics-is one question.I have to plug up ;to not be left in the dust by my friends electric guitar--It is a trick to get it gain-staged for good tone.when using a transducer type pick-up. too much front end gain goes from just right to nasty loud way ahead of a natural response
rcc56 - Posted - 07/16/2022: 21:29:00
Unless a band has their own sound man, they have little, if any control over the sound.
I don't know of one bluegrass group who has their own sound man.
The last time the Nashville Bluegrass Band was here, the sound operator never got Roland White's mandolin into the main speakers. I was sad about that. It was my last opportunity to hear Roland White.
Some years back, on a job here at the city's biggest festival, I was playing a mandolin that was the easiest instrument to mic that I ever owned. A 16 year old could have dialed the instrument in with a $100 microphone and a $500 soundboard. The sound operators stuck a $1000 microphone on it and ran it through a $20,000 soundboard. It kept feeding back, and when I tried to help them out, they started chirping about standing waves, assuming I didn't know what they were talking about. I have an electronics degree, and know what a standing wave is. I also know that the sound man didn't know what knob to turn to eliminate the feedback, and he had 3 or 4 ways to fix it on his big, fancy board. There was nothing I could do about it.
Oh well.
I hope you get an opportunity to hear the McCoury's with a decent sound man behind the board. They are wonderful musicians. And no, the bad sound was not the band's fault. They were probably more frustrated than you were, but Del taught his kids to always smile on stage, and to be sure not to let the audience know that they were upset.
Edited by - rcc56 on 07/16/2022 21:30:46
Tractor1 - Posted - 07/17/2022: 03:55:24
the early version of newgrass revival surpassed all rivals because Sam bush's wife rode herd on the board and Courtney's kept the instruments restrung and tuned
RB3 - Posted - 07/17/2022: 08:32:01
I've been b****in' about this my entire adult life. The rock sound guys just don't seem to know how to deal with acoustic instruments, particularly in the context of a Bluegrass band.
Several year ago, Tony Rice played at a Tall Stacks riverboat festival in Cincinnati. I was sitting with a bunch of friends, and everyone was bummed out because of the poor quality of the sound. Finally, one of our group walked back and asked the sound guy to turn up the volume on Tony Rice's guitar. The sound guy said "which one's Tony Rice?"
heavy5 - Posted - 07/17/2022: 09:43:49
Wayne , We had a very similar experience at a long ago at Gettysburg fest ( the current location , not the old closer to town) whereby Rhonda Vincent advertised Tony being a guest performer on her show there .
Came time for Tony & we couldn't hear him , AT ALL , & the whole performance was silent & NO ONE did a thing !!
Word later was , Rhonda's sound guy was in charge & apparently didn't know it (what !!) Tony was a large reason for us being there ---- what a fiasco !
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