Everybody knows how to do two jobs. Their own job and the sound man's job.
..seeing as how my job was to mix sound for a few hundred thousand people every day for years and many prior stints as a professional sound engineer for several live venues, I know the difference between a competent engineer and an incompetent knob twiddler. The REAL pro's don't try to dictate
anything in regards to onstage volume. It's their job to work
with the band, not force the band to alter their playing dynamic to fit their lack of ability.
One of the most common complements I get on my sound work from bands is that I am easy to work with. That only makes sense; you'll get a MUCH better performance out of band that's happy with their playing situation and without a good performance, all the mix ability and gear in the world means little.
I trust the sound person to know what it sounds like in the room.
If I can't get a decent sound onstage because of a bad monitor situation, I'm not about to take that same person's word that I sound good out front. Of the few gigs I've had with separate monitor/FOH operators, the more experienced guy unfortunately ends up on monitors because that's an easier gig, so you don't even get to benefit from that in the house.
As an audience member, I think the bass is too loud much more often than it is not loud enough.
I can count on my fingers the shows I've seen where the bass was even audible AT ALL. Most times you get the 'kickdrum of doom,' chainsaw tone guitars and a much too loud vocal with an insane amount of delay riding on top of all of it. I honestly don't think I've ever been to a concert where the bass guitar was too prominent.
IMO the job of the bass is to make the band sound good, not to be heard as a solo instrument.
Agreed.
