Field Kits

Posted: Wed Feb 09, 2005 9:08 am

Wow, Tom....

You are way too nice. I find it interesting that not only are we expected to furnish equipment so that we can do our job, but so that every S.O.B. that comes to the concert can do theirs as well... I love the vidiots that ask for feeds but can't accept a pro level signal, or don't bring cable.... I mean WTF?!!! I'd get fired (or not hired again) if I came unprepared, but for the video guys, it is par for the course...

I provide one kind of feed +4 Ballanced stereo. You take that and figure out how to use it yourself or you get nothing. If your equipment effects my recording, you get cut off.

I have yet to have a client that has complained...

--Ben

Posted: Wed Feb 09, 2005 10:44 am

Tom, I think you get the award for "Most prepared"...or at least "most horror stories". Thumbs Up

That bus driver should have been fined for what he did to your stuff, and that facility with the 220 outlet masquerading as 120 should be cited (at least) for unsafe electrical wiring. (Good god, imagine if you'd plugged your stuff INTO that outlet without checking first!!!! Someone could get seriously hurt there. At least MARK the damn outlet! Sheeesh.....)

Seems we all have similar situations to draw from. Ben's "Vidiot" comments made me chuckle; I once did a rather important concert where the local PBS station sent a videographer to shoot the procedings (he knew EVERYTHING, of course) and we gave him a +4 line to his camera (which he of course kept trying to run into a mic level (albiet adjustable) input. He complained (of course) that he couldn't get the level low enough to have any headroom, and after the fact, the post-production company attempted to blame US for bad sound. (Hehehe...of course, they changed their tune when they had to PAY for us to run off a perfect, pristine copy of the mix so they could save their butts for the client... Smile

More and more, I see parents showing up with bigger and more complicated cameras. (I saw a dad at a recent Christmas concert we were recording, with a Canon GX1 on a tripod. I'm not kidding!) At least he didn't ask for a feed. I think I would have had the music director remove him if so; ONE of us wouldn't have been staying, that's for sure...

It never ceases to amaze me how many silly things can happen in what we all THINK is going to be a basic recording. (CD players, extra recorders, extra soloists, musisians, etc.) At one youth choir recording , I discovered a woman in the second row with a couple of REALLY cheapo mics on a stand, with a CASSETTE recorder in her lap. Incredulous, I asked her what she was doing. (it was too silly to get REALLY mad). She informed me she was the choirs "Documentary" recorder, and while she KNEW the cassettes were crap, it was her "Job" to record all the stuff they performed, even during the times I was hired to do it properly. I just smiled and helped her find an AC outlet.

I'm hired to record a "Solo Cellist" tomorrow....and instead of a solo recitial, it turns out it's a MULTIMEDIA event (at least I have a union crew with full house support) and there will be: DVD player (with FOUR outputs), narration mic, and a clip on mic on the cello. It's two 48 minute sets with a 20 minute intermission. Woof!!!!

So instead of just a solo mic and some omni's, I'll be bringing my full stagebox snake with splitters & other goodies. (Good thing I checked on this ahead of time!)

I'm not complaining; the only thing to expect is the unexpected.

Posted: Wed Feb 09, 2005 11:56 am

Yeah, I've gotta give it up for Saint Tom. Laughing

If some schmuck in the audience with a camcorder asked if they could take a feed from my board, I would politely suggest that they purchase one of my CDs from the concert and then they can sync it after the fact.

The show I did this last weekend was being professionally (I use this term loosely) video'ed by one of the local cable companies. The guy set up in the back, just on the other side of a wall from me and set up his *single* AKG Shortgun Shotgun mic (aimed at the back of a patron's head nonetheless). When I saw this, I chuckled out loud and offered to send a patch from my board so that he could actually have a decent sound. He agreed, but the problem was, he didn't know the first thing about patching anything. I had two sets of stereo and one mono sum output on my board available for him - we patched it everyway possible, but every time, he came over and said "I hear a loud hum." I troubleshot at the board level by plugging my HP amp into the various outputs and none of them produced this buzz. I tried to explain to the guy, "look, the board is putting out the right signal, somethings goofed up on your camera." But he kept coming over trying to get it patched. Ultimately I had to tell him that it just wasn't gonna happen.

God Bless the Vidiots!

Posted: Wed Feb 09, 2005 11:57 am

Great topic and great stories -

I can only add 3 things that I ALWAYS make sure to have in my travel kits --

1. Hard Candy
2. Industrial strength asprin

optional #3 - some sort of beverage for post concert reflection if it will be late

Posted: Wed Feb 09, 2005 12:04 pm

pmolsonmus wrote:

Great topic and great stories -

I can only add 3 things that I ALWAYS make sure to have in my travel kits --

1. Hard Candy
2. Industrial strength asprin

optional #3 - some sort of beverage for post concert reflection if it will be late

Here, here!

You know, I actually bring along some mints for a couple reasons - I do get parched while recording. Plus, I recently did a job for a school band and the director is what is affectionately referred to now adays as a "hottie." Of course, by the time the recording/concert was done - my breath was fierce. Ouch!!!

Of course, now I have to keep my wife from reading this post. Cool

Posted: Wed Feb 09, 2005 1:00 pm

hehehe....seems we did indeed forget a few crucial items.

Excedrines have always staved off my worst migraines, and I've always got some breath fresheners in my pocket for those nasty 'coffee breath" moments - where I'm suddenly going to be talking to a client or soloist up-close-and-personal backstage. I'd HATE to have people walking away saying: "nice guy, but geeeee.....what DIED in his mouth?!?!?" Confused

I used to carry a roll of TUMs as well, but for some magic reason related to a lo-carb (sensible food, that is) diet, my stomach has been a LOT better lately. Surprised

Don't forget biz cards for those "hotties." Twisted Evil

I NEVER mix biz and pleasure (yeah, right!) but it doesn't hurt to have a good way to offer a means of contact, without pressure.

Posted: Wed Feb 09, 2005 3:35 pm

Man... What a bunch of pigs!!! Mints for the hotties?! Confused

Quote:

(Hehehe...of course, they changed their tune when they had to PAY for us to run off a perfect, pristine copy of the mix so they could save their butts for the client...

I had a similar issue this past Christmas Season. Working a holiday show and they had a 3 camera shoot. I sent stereo signal to the master camera. Checked it with headphones and everything. Turns out they loaded sound from one of the cameras with a shotgun mic. Then they went to the stage manager for the entire school to ask me for better audio (gee, what a surprise!). I informed them that I checked their feed and it was clean. They came back and demanded an unedited copy of the performance. When I let them know that it wasn't part of my job description to provide that, but I could if they paid my normal studio rate, they suddenly got a lot nicer. They found the clean audio and said they'd contact the client for the edited, mastered recording and they'd manually sync it in post... Heh...

--Ben

Posted: Thu Feb 10, 2005 8:15 am

FifthCircle wrote:

Wow, Tom....

You are way too nice. I find it interesting that not only are we expected to furnish equipment so that we can do our job, but so that every S.O.B. that comes to the concert can do theirs as well... I love the vidiots that ask for feeds but can't accept a pro level signal, or don't bring cable.... I mean WTF?!!! I'd get fired (or not hired again) if I came unprepared, but for the video guys, it is par for the course...

I provide one kind of feed +4 Balanced stereo. You take that and figure out how to use it yourself or you get nothing. If your equipment effects my recording, you get cut off.

I have yet to have a client that has complained...

--Ben

I try to be nice but some people make it hard to do so. I live and work in a small town and there is a well known college here. Many of the gigs we do are in the venues belonging to the college and we try and be as user friendly as we can so we get asked back. We always return all the tables and chairs we borrowed, take all the gaffer's tape off the floor and throw it away and make sure everything is pretty much back to the way we found it. Sometimes due to the booking of the halls we are rushed both in setup and tear down and in one case a student took it upon himself to hurry us along but dropping the microphone stands with the microphones still attached to the ground along with gathering up in a large ball all of the microphone cable on stage and throwing it in a heap on the concert hall floor. We had a few words and I informed him I needed his name social security number and address in case anything was broken or damaged by his actions. I then called the security office and asked that they send a security officer to the hall to make sure we had the time to untangle the cords and put our stuff safely away. They came and after I explained to them what had transpired they gave me time to pack and told the student that they were writing him up.

I have the policy that we try when ever possible to be proactive when it comes to dealing with the church or meeting hall we are using for the recording and that we try to have a pre session meeting with the performers and the people we will be working with during the sessions. Most times this goes well. We have had problems with one local venue which is staffed by the most arrogant most egotistical tech crew and management I have ever had the misfortune to work with. They are literally the most difficult people I have ever had to work with. They say one thing in the pre production meetings then they "decide" later without telling us that all of what we talked about is "not going to happen".

A case in point was the recording of a regional youth orchestra. We got to the hall and were in the process of setting up for the recording when their "tech person" comes down as asks what we are doing (he was not at the meeting). I explain to him what we are doing and he says NO WAY we cannot put our microphones where we want to have them and will have to put the in the rear of the hall due to fire codes and his personal feeling that he does not like to see tall microphone stands in the audience. I told him that this was approved by the manager of the hall (who was not in attendance and could not be reached) and he said he was in charge in that person's absence and what he said was what was going to happen (This from a person dressed in blue jeans that had more holes than jeans and was wearing a shirt that said "EAT SH!T or DIE" and this was his attire for a formal classical concert) We complied with his rules after talking to the conductor and general manager of the orchestra and sent a formal letter from the three of us to the management of the hall. We never heard back from them but we don't do any more recordings there and the orchestra does not do anymore concerts in that Hall. (and yes the recording sounded like CRAP and we had to put a disclaimer on the CD saying that the choice of recording microphone locations was not our choice.) The videographer had the same problems and was forced to do all the filming from the back of the hall with no use of wild cameras that he normally sets up since the tech person did not like the camera locations and again was concerned with looks and the "fire code"

On the subject of videographers. Most of them are great to work with but as you stated they have no real appreciation for audio and can't seem to deal with normal audio levels. The levels, +4 dBM from us, always seems to be "too hot" or "too low". I too have had video people tell me that the audio was all distorted or had a hum in it but could not understand that it was their equipment that was doing it and not our feed. They also do not like microphone stands in their way and more than once I have had to explain over and over again that we are doing the sound, they are doing the pictures and we are providing them with an audio feed (at no charge) so they can make money off the gig. In one case a videographer came down and moved one of our microphone stands out of "his way" so he could have a better shot of the conductor's back. I moved it back and he again moved it out of the way. So I went to the conductor and asked if he would rather have a good shot of his back or a good recording of the orchestra - no contest - he chose the recording - so we did the concert with the microphones in their proper location and the videographer had to shoot around the microphones.

Good topic but it brings back lots of BAD MEMORIES

Posted: Thu Feb 10, 2005 11:28 am

Geez Tom, I've had some issues, but I think yours take the proverbial cake. If I had some snot-nosed college kid even look at my mics wrong, I'd have a word with him. If they dropped them to the ground, they'd have to call security to pull me off of him!

Okay, so I exxagerate a little, but still, I'd be steaming pissed!

You mention the stage hand bringing up fire codes -- I get so sick and tired of stage hands/managers hiding behind fire codes. It really gets under my skin.

I record for a college here on a regular basis - the orchestra is getting pretty good, so I do enjoy doing the recordings, but I keep having the stage manager tell me I can't put my mics here, I can't put them there, blah, blah, blah. Always because of the fire code. BS!!!!!! There is a minimum specified egress that must be allowed, and as long as my stands aren't encroaching on that, they can pucker up and prepare to kiss ..........

Now, I'm coming off really brash here, but I try to do what you mention and stay as nice as possible. Sometimes, I think, on location gigs that I'm just as much of a politician/sales person as I am an engineer. Sometimes a smile and a "yes sir" or "yes ma'am" and a positive attitude can conquer even the biggest pain in the ass stage manager. They're pains in the ass because they feel like they have power over everyone in the hall (which, unfortunately is somewhat true). Once you placate them and make them feel as though you respect their position, most of them are willing to work with you.

In the case of the "dude" with the attitude and the great shirt, I don't think there was any appeasing him. Mad

A couple policies I have are:
*Never let them see you sweat (I think Joe referred to this at one time too). I don't like the conductor, the musicians, or the management to think that I am ever having a hard time with anything. That doesn't mean I won't work hard and fast to get my job done as quickly as possible. It just means that I find myself saying "No problem!" quite often and then finding solutions on my own.
*Never let them see you frown.
*Never let them see you fight. (Though I've wanted to beat the living crap out of some of the stage crews, I always have my chats with them in private.)
*Be as professional as possible. (The last gig I did was a black-tie event and where I was sitting was slightly visible to part of the audience. I showed up in a tux and the Maestro came and thanked me after the show. He stated that the "usual guy" would show up in jeans and a tee-shirt and he was always afraid what the audience would think.) Of course, I will write off the bill for cleaning the tux after crawling on the ground later in the evening.

I think that last one is probably the most important. And from what I've seen from the individuals on this board, doesn't seem to be a problem for anyone here. But, I let my last intern go because I watched him do several gigs where they never spoke with the conductor or orchestra management, he never smiled at anyone, much less made eye-contact, he just came, set-up, recorded, tore-down and left. He was always wearing less than professional attire (my company policy is at minimum, khaki's and a company polo or a nice polo of their own) and didn't really do much to help the image of my company. I explained to him, that's why people hire me instead of the next guy, but he just didn't get it.

Anyway, I'll shut up now.

J...

Posted: Sat Feb 12, 2005 7:20 am

On the matter of dressing for the occasion. It is hard to make a good choice. Yes you want to be dressed correctly for the concert at hand but you also may get somewhat dirty and dusty by doing your job. I usually go for the dress pants, dress shirt (and tie if needed) and a sweater. If it is really fancy event maybe a suit jacket. My interns have to be reminded that this is not a rock concert and jeans and a tee shirt maybe ok for the rock concerts but they should look at least semi professional when we are doing classical recordings and can be seen by the audience. One problem is that a lot of today's college students don't own things like suit jackets or ties so I usually say that sweaters are ok. If my student interns are also classical musicians then they have to have the correct attire since they will be required to wear it when they perform at the college.

As to your statement of "never let um see you sweat" it is a good one but at a recent concert we were having problems getting all of our gear to talk to each other digitally and 30 minutes before the concert we did not have anything to record to. We normally take a computer, a DAT machine and a CD burning to each concert so we have backups in case something happens to one of the units. I could not get anything to recieve a digital signal and was in a real sweat and was thinking seriously about doing the concert using the analog outputs form our mixer. I kept checking all the connections over and over to see if I had something patched wrong. The harder I looked the less I saw. Finally I saw the problem. My intern had taken the tosslink output from the mixer out of the tosslink input which meant we were not getting any digital signals out of the mixer. I corrected the problem but by that time my shirt was soaked with sweat and so was my face. I am sure to the naked eye everything seemed normal to the people sitting around us but I was sweating like I was out in the noonday sun on a hot day in July.

Oh well I love digital but sometimes I long for the "old days" of analog where you could not easily mess up a male and female XLR connector and this whole epiode would not have happened.

Posted: Sat Feb 12, 2005 12:57 pm

You guys mention some interesting "intangibles" that are also part of any field kits....

Attitudes: Our own, our helpers, and the people we meet.

It's often part of the job to get into a minor scrape with a surly stage manager or custodian, and then (by magic, sometimes) after the hostilities are resolved, we're all good friends afterwards. (I used to think it was a Philly thing, but perhaps it happens just as much in other places.) Maybe we're all like dogs, marking our turf and barking at each other upon first contact, I dunno...

If it's a new venue for us, the facilities person may sometimes come at us with guns blazing, or an attitude about some perceived problem - all twitchy and po'd about something they THINK we're gonna do. (To be fair, these folks have usually been burned quite badly by touring shows, big PA rental companies, caterers, TV news crews kleig lights, etc., and when they hear that a "Recording company" is coming in, they usually dig in their heels and brace for a couple of trucks parked outside, and miles of cables.) They like to mark their turf early and tell us how it's going to be.

I usually kill these folks with kindness, up to a point. And, I will often say something to my assistant (within earshot of the grumpy person) like: Make sure you do NOT touch, move, gaffer-tape (fill in your favorite item here) without their permission, etc. etc. Sometimes I'm just totally full of BS, Twisted Evil

but once they know we're there to do a non-invasive, 3-4 hr recording, they lighten up a bit.

I also try to put on a very positive face and let the problems fall by the wayside as we hurriedly setup. (Doesn't pay to waste too much time arguing with small, shallow, crabby people.) My motto is "Leave no trace" after we're in and out of a place. We even take the ball of used gaffer tape with us, or toss it out...in front of the manager, so he/she sees we're not pigs.

Attire:

I too have some rules about dress codes on the jobs, esp a concert. Rehearsals are less critical, but hey, at least TRY to look like we can all afford to bathe and wear clothing that doesn't spout an agenda (T-shirts that say: "I'm with a-hole", etc.) and no bare skin. Mad

(I have some female assistants as well. That's a distraction I might enjoy, but can't afford it on the job, mentally) Whenever in doubt, BLACK is the order of the day. (Theatrical Black is what I call it.) Black jeans, shoes (even track shoes and t-shirts are less problematic if they're solid black.) You can't go wrong with a combination of black dockers, black dress shirt and a stylish tie. I HATE wearing ties, but I have enough cool-looking ones that I can still tie in a loose enough knot to NOT choke me, and it goes a long way to respectability, esp if your clients are walking around in tuxes. Ditto for a nice black sports jacket. A suit is perhaps ideal, but I don't usually go QUITE that far.

In our somewhat colder climate up here, sweaters are great for hiding rattier shirts, esp during rehearsals. I've got a drawer full of black ones. (one choral singer always calls me "Johnny Cash" - 'cause he says I'm always in black whenever he sees me. Cool

)

I keep meaning to send my logo off to a golf-shirt maker and just get a slew of golf/biz-casual shirts for everyone; longsleeve and shortsleeve, and just be done with it. That way, no one can claim they don't have the right attire for a gig. (Anyone else do this for their biz?)

As for what to wear during a long day of grimy setups, tear-downs, etc., it never hurts to have a change of clothes handy, esp if you're doing a concert in the middle of it all. During the hotter months, esp if we're going to be going in/out of airconditioning (or NO A/C at all!) I always do the front part of the gig in something more comfortable, and change into the dress shirt stuff just before doors open.

If we've done our job right up till that point, there's always a small block of "quiet time" to mentally shake off the dust, go spruce up a bit, and reset the brain for the concert. It's amazing sometimes what that does. (including solving problems like Tom's Tosslink horror! Similar stuff happens to me alllll the time. I usually "fix" it only after I've completely gone-away, mentally, and revisited the problem...sometimes just a cup of coffee helps jumpstart that part of my brain to 'problem solve" - instead of grunt-work setup.)

Posted: Mon Feb 14, 2005 7:04 am

Another intangible or two...

- Since we mostly 'wildcat' these projects (meaning that at the request of and with permission from the establishment and performing group, record, prepare, master, and distribute the final results ourselves, giving a specified percentage back to the performance group)...a professional appearance from those in the vending booths is critical...no tuxes, but business attire...it also helps to have an attractive female (sexism aside, please) dressed in after six attire.

- Comp copies go to conductors, school orchestra chairs, etc.

- Smile a lot...enjoy yourself while working...

- A professionally made sign indicating who you are near your work station (Ours says: "WireLine Studio - Professonal Digital Audio Services" with a web address and/or phone number)

In the ever increasing field kit, we carry 4 colors of gaffer's tape, adapters, a couple of 6 foot 8x8 TRS snakes, etc...and yes, everything is marked "Wireline Studio, Midland TX" in the exact same stenciling....couple of unopened USB/FW drives just in case....tools....and we are working to get a small coffin to carry all the mic stands in one box onstead of a dozen trips...there's a small foldout stepstool, etc...all these things help raise the customer's image of what they are getting themselves into.

Of course, we've never done a 'major' gig...but when the time comes, we will be (hopefully) ready for it.

K

Posted: Mon Feb 14, 2005 7:30 am

There's a couple of great ideas there!

The hotties at the booth - that would be my wife and her cute italian friend. Of course, my wifes a bit pregnant right now, so I'm a little intrigued when I see guys checking her out. Shocked

Contact me off-line and I'll share a few marketing strategies that might help you land some of those big gig's you're after. I don't want to share them on-line, cuz my competition might be reading. Wink

J...

Posted: Mon Feb 14, 2005 9:01 am

Catering is a big part for me too. We sometimes bring "nose bags" filled with goodies and thermos's of tea etc, but are really impressed with the artists if they have organised gourmet sarnies, tapas, or fried chinese yum cha and include us in the consumption of same.

This is the only redeeming feature of schools gigs, the mothers committees always put on a REAL spread, and they wait on us as well, bringing over a la carte service all through the long day of purgatory that a schools gala concert is. Smile