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Posted by WillStG on 09/15/06 03:36
HiC wrote:
> Again, an outright gear failure I can understand. But this was pretty
> obviously a pure screwup, not due to the oddball circumstances you've
> postulated.
Well - first off I'm NOT merely postulating... I have witnessed or
experienced in some way every example listed - and more.
> You could hear the band, you could only hear her through the
> ambient mics. Then she came up a a little, then all the way, in a quick fade
> up. No bullshit excuses, somebody blew it.
Somebody maybe. But that doesn't mean the mixer didn't have the
mic he *thought* was her vocal mic tracked. There could have been a
partial set strike before the performance (not unusual at all to get
mic booms out of the shot) and the backup mic could have gotten mixed
up with the main vocal mic. You are at the mercy of your floorguy,
really. Or there very well could have been an audio submixer - maybe a
guy from SIR who had been up all night at a rental for a show the night
before, or maybe the talent's FOH guy was mixing her - could well be
the TV guy wasn't even mixing the band at all!
> I can't say for certain who it was, but given the nature of the way her
> sound finally came up - little bit, then hurriedly ramping up to full
> volume, it sounded to me like someone with control over a fader.
How about the Superbowl with the Stones? Plenty of fader
grabbing there, and with very experienced guys who make probably 3 to 7
times *your* day rate to do that kind of high pressure gig. Sure
*someone* screwed up, maybe someone patched the wrong fibers together
during the stage setup. That doesn't mean the mixer could do anything
about it but scramble.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying no one screws up, or that it's at
all unusual for a management type who doesn't understand audio to put a
guy in the chair who isn't ready. But stuff definitely happens, and it
is not fair - in my experience - to assume that, because you heard a
fader move, that this was the audio mixer's failure of responsibility.
An experienced guy can learn to "backstop" other guys, so thier
mistakes don't make you look bad - but if you want to do live
television, you gotta expect days when you are just gonna look bad - no
matter how heroic your performance is.
Will Miho
NY TV/Ausio Post/Music/Live Sound Guy
"The large print giveth and the small print taketh away..." Tom Waits
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