FOH at Large

It’s been a long winter, but spring is just about here and hopefully it signifies an end to the bad weather and the beginning of a beautiful summer touring season. All the road dogs who recently submitted resumes to me looking for off-season work are now mostly unavailable when I call. The bus has left the dock, and audio is on the move! Once again, the musical caravan is carving a path through the clubs, sheds, theaters and summer festivals on this continent and across the globe. Regional audio companies will be getting calls to fill venues with sound for concerts and corporate events, and local television stations will require assistance with band appearances as they promote the show du jour when the tour comes to town. For a month or so, high schools and colleges will be having their graduation ceremonies and — in association with their formals and proms — there should be a good amount of work for local audio companies and audio technicians.

Recently, a winter storm in my neck of the woods coated the trees with a heavy layer of ice. I awoke early that day to the sound of tree branches breaking off due to the heavy weight of their frigid encasement. Shortly thereafter, I lost all electric to my home. I called the electric company and reported the outage and then went off to work, not realizing that the outage would affect about 600,000 customers or that I would be without power for approximately five days. Trees were down, branches were down, wires were down, and I was woefully unprepared. By the time I got to Home Depot, every generator was sold out; the generator companies I called were sold out as well. I was relegated to charging my cell phone in the car and feeding wood into my fireplace — which is designed more for decorative log burning than for home heating.

The doldrums are upon us and the wind has gone out of the sails of our good ship audio as we drift listlessly in a sea of calm. We have powered ourselves at a breakneck pace out of the old year and into the new and, as always, our charted course delivers us directly into a dead calm where we will drift for approximately two months or so while our live sound industry moves forward at a languid pace. Although the newer seafarers might be surprised by the seasonal torpor, the more experienced salty dogs among us know the drill and prepare accordingly. Arrgh matey, that just isn’t true and you know it!

So, I’m thinking about gear — as I am wont to do — and I start making up a song to the tune of “Food Glorious Food.” The first line comes to me automatically, but then I get stumped, because I use a word that has no apparent rhyme with any word that will make a statement as a final destination for the direction of the first line. By the way, this song is of no great importance other than a bit of brain eruption, but once it got stuck in my head as a half thought it became a puzzle to be solved.

Years ago, I used to remember phone numbers and addresses of all my friends, relatives and business associates. I also had a fairly good internal databank of their birthdays, anniversaries and other special occasions. I kept most of my appointments and gigs in my head, and I was fairly adept and remembering detailed instructions and directions that were verbally conveyed to me. I had a good memory for recalling certain movies, music and sports trivia as well as having a decent knowledge of historical fact, which I could recall at any given time. I must admit that I finally bought an address book/organizer when I became really busy, but I still kept the most pertinent information in my head.

According to Wikipedia,  the word “Politics” is derived from Greek, politicos, meaning ‘of, for, or relating to citizens’). “It is the practice and theory of influencing other people on a civic or individual level. More narrowly, it refers to achieving and exercising positions of governance — organized control over a human community, particularly a state. A variety of methods is employed in politics, which include promoting its own political views among people, negotiations with other political subjects, making laws, and exercising force, including warfare against adversaries.”

My friend, a qualified engineer, posted the results of his blind listening test between a Mackie SRM450 and QSC K-12, EAW KF300, Martin XD12 and Martin W8VDQ loudspeakers. Claiming that there were no crossovers, processors or equalizers used in the test, he said that unanimously each engineer involved chose the Mackie as the best sounding speaker. They had to be high!

Let’s face it. For most of us, the choice of a career in audio production rarely involves a traditional nine-to-five week. Travel, last-minute schedules, late (and/or extended) hours and weekend/holiday gigs are typically part of the audio lifestyle, and trying to juggle one’s personal life and career often becomes a delicate balancing act.

As working technicians who do shows night after night, we often become inured to the varied performances that take place on a given stage and, though we can still distinguish the difference between a good and bad concert presentation, our perception of a quality event relies less upon the actual show itself and more upon the excellence — or lack of — the production technicalities.

Every time I answer the phone for an audio call, it’s another adventure in problem solving and — for the most part — I do enjoy the challenge of solving the logistical difficulties of any given event. The concert events in real theatres or sheds usually entail the standard fare of negotiating load in/load out times, labor calls, required gear, bus/truck parking and feeder and snake runs.

Most of the people I know in the technical end of the music business got into the profession because of their love for music. A good portion of these people are competent musicians in their own right and have played and toured with well-known acts, recorded records and CDs and possibly even had a deal of their own. In all likelihood, they still play and record when they are not out making a living on the technical side of the microphone. Supporting oneself as a musician is a difficult task, and while there are many people attempting to make a living just playing music, I would venture to say that many musicians have a second job.

It is generally understood, by most college students and their parents, that the study of Philosophy should be considered as a minor or — at best — an elective credit or two towards graduation. I would think that the prerequisite for any student graduating from college as a Philosophy major would be ownership of a large trust fund or — if that is not the case — a good knowledge of plumbing, roofing, electric or some other technical profession. Audio engineering happens to be a great technical profession for poets, musicians and truth-seekers, as it seems to lend itself better to the artistic and idealistic type than some of the other technical careers available to emerging philosophers.