FOH at Large

An engineer friend of mine (now retired from the business) started his audio career in the early 1970s and spent the most part of the ensuing 30 years traveling throughout the world, mixing front of house and monitors. As well as being an excellent engineer, he is endowed with a charismatic charm, wit and a talent for networking. He was in with the Rock ‘n’ Roll elite and always had work with top-name acts in the business. In the latter part of the last century, he navigated a glamorous course that took him on an odyssey via the world of towering platform boots, big hair and colossal snare drum sounds to the north country of plaid shirts and ripped jeans. After a final bit of touring — which took him across an ocean of lip-synching divas to the lucrative strip-mined fields of boy-bands — he finally hung up his shoes and decided to settle down.

Here is an open letter to any and all clients that that require audio and production assistance. Please understand that I recognize you, as the client, are most likely spending a huge amount of money on your incredibly important event and also be aware that, as a bronco buster, this is not my first rodeo. After all, if you were going into the hospital for an operation would you tell the surgeon where to cut, or how to stitch? I think not. Therefore, what compels you to dictate to me how to do my job? You own an ipod? You did sound for a friend in college? Please…get over it.

An engineer with whom I shared mixing responsibilities had an interesting way of seeing and expressing the technical world in which we audio people exist. To him everything was “sexy” or had “sex appeal” and, depending upon his own personal interpretation, a good mix, or great sounding reverb, was either of the two. While I never quite understood the difference — or if there were one — I would like to believe that he was speaking metaphorically and not literally about objects and things that are sexually neutral. Regrettably, in this ever-expanding world of strange that we call home, I am hard pressed to assume anything about my fellow man despite my unflagging optimism. Regardless, his “sexy” descriptions of sound equipment and their associated sounds confused me at first because as much as I enjoy and like certain audio gear, my lustful urges are oriented elsewhere.

Recently, the question was asked of me, “How do I get into The Big Time?”  How indeed? Although I understand the person’s desire for success, and I certainly do comprehend what is meant by “The Big Time,” I seriously have no absolute viable solution to the query.  The good news is that, for any neophyte seeking a job in the audio business, there are many available avenues to “The Big Time.” The bad news, on the other hand, is that, once you arrive at your destination, it may not seem as glossy as “The Big Time” you once expected.  Therefore, I must say that it’s not as much the destination as it is the journey, because if one keeps seeking the big gig just around the corner, then it becomes increasingly difficult to see that they may have finally arrived. (That’s right; I spent my New Year’s Day watching the Twilight Zone marathon).

There is no definitive way of setting up gain structure and mixing a show but, after much time and years of practice, we all learn the right way to go about achieving our desired results. While the “art” of mixing may not be an exact science, there are still many precise and defined rules to which we need to adhere as we master our craft and practice our “art.” The rules that define right from wrong are not only imperatives for mixing, but are also the tenets that extend to every aspect of a given production.

Three guys are traveling together, and they stop at a hotel to spend the night. To save money, they decide to rent only one room, and they ask the hotel clerk what the price of the room is for the night. Upon learning that the room is $30 for the night, they each chip in $10 and head for the room.

From the Encarta Dictionary: "Relevant (adjective) 1. Connected: having some sensible or logical connection with something else such as a matter being discussed or investigated. 2.Having social significance; having some bearing on or importance for real-world issues, present-day events, or the current state of society."

One nice aspect of getting older is that one gains perspective through a personal history. The downside to this new outlook is that it is as humbling as it is enlightening, especially when it comes to technology. I remember a moment in time when we started to replace our black and white televisions with color. Having grown up with a black and white TV set, I took television itself for granted, but as archaic as it sounds now, color TV was a new and transformational technology that changed the average viewer's life.

I spend my days taking requests for a variety of equipment. From audio and lights to backline, tents, video and anything else pertaining to production; the requests keep coming in. All too often, these requests come from people who are not necessarily in our field and, therefore, certain requests employ malapropisms, misnomers, misspellings and just plain typos.

There are a lot of great things about live audio and what we do as engineers that I really appreciate. It can be fun, exciting, entertaining and rewarding while, at the same time, providing us with a decent livelihood. The hours are often long, but we are neither shoveling manure, risking our lives (unless you're a rigger), nor are we working in a dead-end 9-5 job.

In a few months I will be 60 years of age and, as in the past, I usually spend the year before these milestone birthdays acclimating myself to my new surroundings by reminiscing about the past and trying to map out the future. Recollecting the history of my triumphs and failures is the easy part of the equation; disseminating all the previous information and trying to create a cohesive plan for the imminent change becomes the challenge. Nevertheless, by the time of my birthday, I have already accepted and settled into my new decade armed with the wisdom of the past and a blueprint for the upcoming years. Ha ha ha! As John Lennon once said "Life is what happens while you are busy making other plans."

Patience is a virtue, as well as a virtual necessity when dealing with most clients in need of audio equipment. It would be nice – in a perfect world – if everyone who called for audio gear knew exactly what they were doing and what they were requesting, but alas, it is not the case.