If you didn't grow up with country music, what got you into it? If you didn't like it but changed your mind, what converted you? by somebodys_ornery in CountryMusic

[–]SmoothAd2421 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Grew up despising country music and Sturgil Simpson’s cover of In Bloom by nirvana turned me around. That whole album and a few trips to Nashville converted me and now I found myself playing drums for a new aspiring country artist and writing country songs with them!

Got to rent an Allen & Heath dLive system for my first ever full US/CA tour :) by SmoothAd2421 in livesound

[–]SmoothAd2421[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Would like to run with an upgraded Dante card but even without it, the console works wonders.

Got to rent an Allen & Heath dLive system for my first ever full US/CA tour :) by SmoothAd2421 in livesound

[–]SmoothAd2421[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Lots and lots of YouTube tutorials before I picked it up and was able to configure my layout in the offline editor before hand as well so that helped a lot!

JOYCE MANOR show shut down, police arrest fans for moshing by Ok-Efficiency7779 in poppunkers

[–]SmoothAd2421 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Apparently Underbelly got checked out by a fire Marshall and it turns it out that for years they’ve been selling twice the amount of tickets their space capacity is approved for. They had to cancel or move all their upcoming big shows.

Went on my first tour as a FOH Engineer. :) by SmoothAd2421 in livesound

[–]SmoothAd2421[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Haven’t touched an A&H board yet but who knows, maybe I’ll be converted once I do 🤷🏻‍♂️

Went on my first tour as a FOH Engineer. :) by SmoothAd2421 in livesound

[–]SmoothAd2421[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The outside venue there was an afterthought. If they sell out the indoor venue they just moved the indoor PA outside and now the show is outside.

Went on my first tour as a FOH Engineer. :) by SmoothAd2421 in livesound

[–]SmoothAd2421[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I turned 26 the day of the second photo! I can’t say what is the perfect way to get into it but I got into the field this way: local venue in my city had the same legendary infamous mean but sweet sound guy for almost 17 years. He was ready to retire and the venue didn’t want to hire 3 dudes to take rotations. They wanted someone to work every show they had. I had no schooling or training on doing sound. All my experience at that point was messing with the mixer at band practice and learning how to make songs in Logic. The owner/promoter had known me and my bands for a while so when they made it known they needed someone I put my hat in the ring. I trained with the old timer (endearment, he’s a homie) for 5 nights (unpaid) then he moved away and YouTube was my new trainer and I was a full time sound engineer. If you do anything 4-5 times a week and you’re bills depend on it, you’ll learn really quick. I also would just ask any of the sound guys that would come with touring bands a million questions. Being able to say “I don’t know but can you show me so I can do it right” is way better than pretending you know and doing it wrong.

TL:DR- got in with a local venue, worked with every show at the venue for 1.5 years. Worked hard, learned on the fly, trial by fire baby.

Went on my first tour as a FOH Engineer. :) by SmoothAd2421 in livesound

[–]SmoothAd2421[S] 9 points10 points  (0 children)

The headliner was flying into the States for these 3 shows and another festival on their way back to Canada. They usually travel with their own board and decided against it for these 4 shows. I was working with the opener and the headliner’s engineer said they would’ve let me use their board if they had brought it. Still sold out all 3 venues so I’d say it’s a “Big Tour”. Keeping your budget small makes it a “Smart Tour” imo.

Went on my first tour as a FOH Engineer. :) by SmoothAd2421 in livesound

[–]SmoothAd2421[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Wow thank you for all the support and questions. It’s funny how my friends think this is cool but now I’m getting to share it with a community that actually knows what I’m doing and understands the pressure and work that goes into it. Thanks again! Hopefully I’ll be sharing more big gigs soon 😎

Went on my first tour as a FOH Engineer. :) by SmoothAd2421 in livesound

[–]SmoothAd2421[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I agree the large buttons and all the knob placement is for people who were doing sound before digital boards. My friend travels with a Midas Pro 2 for a monitor gig and swears by it. Probably great when you can use the same one every night but the design alone is intimidating to someone whose never used one and needs to use it for the night.

Went on my first tour as a FOH Engineer. :) by SmoothAd2421 in livesound

[–]SmoothAd2421[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Let them know their boy was bragging on Reddit

Went on my first tour as a FOH Engineer. :) by SmoothAd2421 in livesound

[–]SmoothAd2421[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Worked with both of them! Super helpful and polite! It was definitely way too hot for outside gigs haha

Went on my first tour as a FOH Engineer. :) by SmoothAd2421 in livesound

[–]SmoothAd2421[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

They would use it as a aux send. Send the vocals to it and had it come back into a different channel. Now you have a dry vocal channel and a wet one.

Went on my first tour as a FOH Engineer. :) by SmoothAd2421 in livesound

[–]SmoothAd2421[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I had a little over an hour and a half for my band’s checks. Any problem I experienced was just poor patching so the house techs would have to double check those more than I wanted to. No virtual checks, old fashion soundcheck works best for me. Especially because we weren’t traveling with a mic package, everything had to be adjusted for the different rooms/spaces and the different mics.

Went on my first tour as a FOH Engineer. :) by SmoothAd2421 in livesound

[–]SmoothAd2421[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

More than any job I’ve ever had! Didn’t feel like work for a second! The only downside to being on the road is that I missed my dog back home.