As a Stage Manager my main job was being a conduit between the band and the Sound Engineers in a perfect setup everything would go through me and I would keep everyone happy. I have worked with some very professional engineers and find actually the Monitor techs are often less grumpy for some reason. On the Woodford Folk Festival occassionally a really successful band would turn up with all their own technicians. I worked with a fabulous crew of guys. The FOH Engineer had a hammock in his booth and lay it in while the visiting tech took over. The Monitors guy had a big couch. The only time I saw him grumpy was when we had a group of old ladies in a choir group. His area looked so beautiful they all sat on his couch and put all their bags in there. He almost lost it and put up some big KEEP OUT signs! :D
I've been working in sound for three years now, trying not to let it turn me. After several rough experiences, I think it's time to succumb to the grumpy.
@@happypapi1903one of the first things I learned when I started doing this shit professionally: ask the company/venue how they wrap their cables and then never deviate from it. Some places are over under, some places are straight wrapped, but they will always INSIST that the other is wrong. At the end of the day, the “correct way” is however they were coiled before you got there, because over time all of the cables will have developed a memory and will fight you if you try to wrap them differently.
"In an ideal world, a band is scared shitless to ask me anything" Yup, I've always felt better off keeping my mouth shut when the sound tech is working
@@dimitrisblane6368 it actuall typifies his behaviour he is setting out to make things hard for everyone for his own enjoyment much like some of the guys in the Brisitsh office in particular which is more subtle than the American version...
Hey it’s you! You’re actually a perfect role model for younger engineers who deal with guy’s like this at work and don’t want to be lumped in with them (like me). Most of my coworkers are jaded curmudgeons, and I’m trying to avoid going down that path. There’s a very interesting post on r/livesound just titled “grumpy sound guy.” It was posted today, and it’s basically just a discussion about why engineers think so many of us ended up that way. I recommend you read the thread, it’s all too relatable.
I did the sound for a SKA band a few weeks ago. One of the sax players wanted to do the sound check off stage and sat about 10 feet away from my desk and pointing the bell end at me. I had to politely tell him to go on stage and join the rest of the brass section. Later during the gig the same sax player decided to take his sax and place it on its stand with the mic still clipped on to it's bell pointing directly into the monitor. I wasn't happy and quickly muted his wedge. Furious!🤣
\ perfect example of the kind of guy who spends his whole "carreer" in dive bars working with rockers who think attitude is talent. and never figures out his attitude is in his face
I worked with a singer who was so deaf she couldn't hear herself in the monitors WHEN THEY WERE MAXED OUT. "A little more please?" EIGHT HUNDRED WATTS ARE COMPRESSING RIGHT NOW. I HAVE TO TAKE YOUR VOICE OFF THE MAINS BECAUSE THE STAGE VOLUME IS ENOUGH FOR THE ROOM. Go ahead, ask me why I was grumpy. Eventually I buggered off to writing software and a whole 'nother level of annoyance, for which live sound was marvelous preparation.
That is a house gig he has and that is gravy train. In real life its being on the road 365 days a year that makes a soundman seem GRUMPY and intolerant to things that in a normal life would never bother us as human beings. Love this video good job.
I was a _nice_ sound guy. Mostly. Did a US band in Dingwalls one time, after soundcheck I asked if they had any of the set on cassette. They did. Took it home, listened to it, took notes, came back and did the gig, dropped in all the FX they needed on cue. They were catatonic with shock after the show lol, never experienced anything like it.
I played bass at church and there were always complaints I set the combo too loud so one day I solved the problem with a pair of earbuds plugged into an orange CR6 but I wasn't turned up on the desk so I played bass to myself the whole time!
we played this exact venue two weeks ago in Toronto and the real life version of this sound guy actually works there...dude treated us like a bunch of assholes during sound check (in front of 25 big fans who paid for pre-show meet & greet), then we heard about this video a couple days ago after telling the story and are mind-blown that it was shot in the same spot. soundman even looks the same...still not convinced it wasn't the exact same guy, just not humorous at all in person.
it's usually guitarists that are too loud with the mixing desk unplugged and singers who alternate between mumbling a foot away from the mic and eating it. For instance when I was doing sound for church I kept cranking a singers monitor and finally realised she was moving away from the mic and singing quieter when I went up to the stage and it was really sensitive and beginning to feed back - the point where you get this resonant echo on every syllable and you know if you went any louder you would get a continuous loud whine.
This. Right. Here. Singers backing away from the mic because "I don't want to be too loud". What you hear through the monitor is NOT what everyone is hearing out front. And guitarists cranking a full stack in a small club 5 feet from their mic, and the guitar comes over the mic louder than they are singing.
I look forward to hopefully 45-50 more years of bein' grumpy to bands, making their life hell, just doing shitty sound and making sure everyone around me has a negative energy" while the inspirational music plays had me laughing my ass off
Accurate, I'm a music technology student doing some work experience along the side. Out of gigs I'm quiet and well mellow, at work like most of my lecturers and peers I fucking loose it. Comedy at its finest I'd say, love the work though, combine that with witty harsh unregulated British humour and you've got it 😂😂😂
This was my weekend....at a charity event no less. More time was spent trying to impress with his "supposed" knowledge, and zero time spent listening to what was needed/required.........
I must be a total failure as a sound man, because I could never behave like this. Although, I might have years ago... ironically when I had a ponytail.
As a sound guy I know the context just from his reaction. They told him there was only one lead singer but then they ask for a second mic just before the show. Last minute change of plans to add more microphones happen WAY too often, so much so that I'd often set up extra singing mics to make up for their predictable incomitance, and so I wouldn't have to do it just before the show.
@@Zadamanim This. I generally setup 3 up front and have a channel preset for drum vox just in case. The bit in the video about "its an old stage plot" nearly killed me LOL. I dont think Ive had a single night in 9 years of running sound where every stage plot was accurate if I got them at all.
The sound engineer and stage crew prepare the stage based on the stage plot they are sent. On a big festival it may mean that you sent away your extra microphones because a choir suddenly needs 5 on another stage. Usually another mike is not a huge deal but if it is a small system or a complicated band set up there may be limited channels available also there may be faulty channels that cannot be used...
oh so true to life, I've worked along side dozens of sound guys and they're all just like this, can't stand them. I met my very first friendly sound guy last weekend, it weirded me out.
This was 55% of the soundmen in Manhattan/NYC area in the 90s. Some nights you just had to kill them with kindness no matter how it went down. Some nights you just wanted to KILL them and leave the "kindness" out of it.
Are you sure you’re not talking about backline brent… Him grumpy due to lack of sleep and rest… And his grumpy wife who’s stuck in the audio office. oh… by the time she got to the show Mr Jonas threw her a rose. But then someone from the audience offered to buy it from her for $100 . I guess the grumpy wife “office manager bitch” was kinda really nice. She gave it to the Jonas mega fan for nothing. You could call her non-stereotypical karen. 😮 Fun n Games in Rock and Roll Here’s your Five Bucks… And your per diem. You can buy a soda at Circle K with it. 😮😅
There is a horrific amount of truth to this. Pure genius.
Nooooooo. That is not true ;)
As a non-grumpy sound guy just know some of us are trying to break the cycle 😂🤘 rock on brother
Q: How do you piss of the sound guy?
A: Give him a gig.
Got me in the feels with that one!!
"In an ideal world, a band is scared shitless to ask me for anything."
for the monitors he should have said "just fucking sing louder" ........ i say that a lot.
As a Stage Manager my main job was being a conduit between the band and the Sound Engineers in a perfect setup everything would go through me and I would keep everyone happy. I have worked with some very professional engineers and find actually the Monitor techs are often less grumpy for some reason. On the Woodford Folk Festival occassionally a really successful band would turn up with all their own technicians. I worked with a fabulous crew of guys. The FOH Engineer had a hammock in his booth and lay it in while the visiting tech took over. The Monitors guy had a big couch. The only time I saw him grumpy was when we had a group of old ladies in a choir group. His area looked so beautiful they all sat on his couch and put all their bags in there. He almost lost it and put up some big KEEP OUT signs! :D
as a pro FOH... it is insane how on-point this is. amazing. i was crying laughing.
This video made me grumpy but then again, I'm a sound engineer.
It they could turn this short into an entire Netflix series I would watch it on repeat every day for the next year!
I've been working in sound for three years now, trying not to let it turn me. After several rough experiences, I think it's time to succumb to the grumpy.
I'm a theatre sound tech, this is too accurate! Especially when working with amateurs
I feel he should have mentioned "over-under".
Many consider wrapping any other way a fireable offense
@@happypapi1903one of the first things I learned when I started doing this shit professionally: ask the company/venue how they wrap their cables and then never deviate from it. Some places are over under, some places are straight wrapped, but they will always INSIST that the other is wrong. At the end of the day, the “correct way” is however they were coiled before you got there, because over time all of the cables will have developed a memory and will fight you if you try to wrap them differently.
“Ever watch Narcos before?"
"I’ve only seen the British Office.”
RIP
Me
Hahahahahah!
"In an ideal world, a band is scared shitless to ask me anything"
Yup, I've always felt better off keeping my mouth shut when the sound tech is working
Damn!...a biography about our sound man has finally been created!
god damn that Office joke was mint
Didn't get it :(
@@dimitrisblane6368 it actuall typifies his behaviour he is setting out to make things hard for everyone for his own enjoyment much like some of the guys in the Brisitsh office in particular which is more subtle than the American version...
This channel is THE BEST!!! Spot on comedy!
This is so on point it's incredible
I am lighting designer that works with sound people... and I approve this message.
From a noise boy who works with LX geeks may I say "nobody goes home whistling the lights."🤣
I’ve been doing sound for over 10 years. Clearly I still have much to learn if I am to become a true sound guy.
Hey it’s you! You’re actually a perfect role model for younger engineers who deal with guy’s like this at work and don’t want to be lumped in with them (like me). Most of my coworkers are jaded curmudgeons, and I’m trying to avoid going down that path. There’s a very interesting post on r/livesound just titled “grumpy sound guy.” It was posted today, and it’s basically just a discussion about why engineers think so many of us ended up that way. I recommend you read the thread, it’s all too relatable.
I did the sound for a SKA band a few weeks ago. One of the sax players wanted to do the sound check off stage and sat about 10 feet away from my desk and pointing the bell end at me. I had to politely tell him to go on stage and join the rest of the brass section. Later during the gig the same sax player decided to take his sax and place it on its stand with the mic still clipped on to it's bell pointing directly into the monitor. I wasn't happy and quickly muted his wedge. Furious!🤣
If it makes you feel better back in the day the amount of times I overcommitted to a lean and fell off stage because of a slippery wedge 😂
I am not good at many things in life but this video tells me that I am close to perfecting the art of the grumpy!
if you've played on the road, you've run into this guy
20 years later watching the behaviour with fresh eyes I deserved every motherfucking I got as a cocky young "frontman"😂
\ perfect example of the kind of guy who spends his whole "carreer"
in dive bars working with rockers who think attitude is talent. and never figures out his attitude is in his face
This is still Ryan long’s best skit 😂😂
Nice flip-stereo image in the ponytail part. The rest makes me grumpy!
But seriously, I think most of us have been driven to become him at one point or another...
Would be even funnier if it wasn't true
My man is taking zero shit! Love it..🤣
I hope someday i'll be such a mastermind of sound engeneering like him!
Neil Peart bit got me good.
I worked with a singer who was so deaf she couldn't hear herself in the monitors WHEN THEY WERE MAXED OUT. "A little more please?" EIGHT HUNDRED WATTS ARE COMPRESSING RIGHT NOW. I HAVE TO TAKE YOUR VOICE OFF THE MAINS BECAUSE THE STAGE VOLUME IS ENOUGH FOR THE ROOM.
Go ahead, ask me why I was grumpy. Eventually I buggered off to writing software and a whole 'nother level of annoyance, for which live sound was marvelous preparation.
I want to laugh and cry at the same time. It's too real.
No matter how many times I view this, I just gotta laugh !!
That is a house gig he has and that is gravy train. In real life its being on the road 365 days a year that makes a soundman seem GRUMPY and intolerant to things that in a normal life would never bother us as human beings. Love this video good job.
It reminds me of at least half of the soundmen in NYC that I've had the pleasure of dealing with.
Amazing! Done here in Toronto!
I was a _nice_ sound guy. Mostly. Did a US band in Dingwalls one time, after soundcheck I asked if they had any of the set on cassette. They did. Took it home, listened to it, took notes, came back and did the gig, dropped in all the FX they needed on cue. They were catatonic with shock after the show lol, never experienced anything like it.
You guys make great videos, keep 'em coming
Ryan Long is hilarious
brilliant fucking work for a worthy cause
"More vocals in the monitors" cracked me up.
This is pure gold.
This is the only funny, well done piece on sound guys. I have to admit I was him 1990-2003. Not anymore.
literally writing a dissertation on this
Ryan Long, You are a comedic genius.
“I don’t personally smoke, it’s just a grumpy thing to do”
Scarily accurate.
Was just away to share this with you but looks like I’m 2 years too late.
How long until you get an angry letter from D'Addario?
I worked that job for a few years, he speaks worlds.
Just watching this raises my blood pressure
This dude is a comic genius
I played bass at church and there were always complaints I set the combo too loud so one day I solved the problem with a pair of earbuds plugged into an orange CR6 but I wasn't turned up on the desk so I played bass to myself the whole time!
This is so funny!! Thanks for a good laugh. I work in audio post and I approve. This is spot on!!
we played this exact venue two weeks ago in Toronto and the real life version of this sound guy actually works there...dude treated us like a bunch of assholes during sound check (in front of 25 big fans who paid for pre-show meet & greet), then we heard about this video a couple days ago after telling the story and are mind-blown that it was shot in the same spot. soundman even looks the same...still not convinced it wasn't the exact same guy, just not humorous at all in person.
Sounds like Duffys
it's usually guitarists that are too loud with the mixing desk unplugged and singers who alternate between mumbling a foot away from the mic and eating it. For instance when I was doing sound for church I kept cranking a singers monitor and finally realised she was moving away from the mic and singing quieter when I went up to the stage and it was really sensitive and beginning to feed back - the point where you get this resonant echo on every syllable and you know if you went any louder you would get a continuous loud whine.
This. Right. Here. Singers backing away from the mic because "I don't want to be too loud". What you hear through the monitor is NOT what everyone is hearing out front. And guitarists cranking a full stack in a small club 5 feet from their mic, and the guitar comes over the mic louder than they are singing.
Brilliant!
This never gets old ….
😂
''it's about creating negative energy'' X D
This is the step every foh engineer must take to become successful
this was great
I look forward to hopefully 45-50 more years of bein' grumpy to bands, making their life hell, just doing shitty sound and making sure everyone around me has a negative energy" while the inspirational music plays had me laughing my ass off
Love this! I'd like to contact the person who made this.
Accurate, I'm a music technology student doing some work experience along the side.
Out of gigs I'm quiet and well mellow, at work like most of my lecturers and peers I fucking loose it.
Comedy at its finest I'd say, love the work though, combine that with witty harsh unregulated British humour and you've got it 😂😂😂
some people hate their Job and some don't. I have never had a ponytail thank god
i think it but he says it...all!
If you don't find this funny you've never run sound in a club before....
….I’ve actually never turned the singers vocals up in the monitor … ever …
Dude … do you want me to blow the board
😆
This is so accurate. I would know. I'm a grumpy sound guy.
This was my weekend....at a charity event no less. More time was spent trying to impress with his "supposed" knowledge, and zero time spent listening to what was needed/required.........
As an engineer, for the first 30 seconds I didn't get this was taking the piss. I am that guy... 😱
I think he trained under my lead guitarist, LOL!
So true! Hilarious!! Thank you :)
You know that this is fiction because the bass sound check lasts more than 1 second.
Spot. On.
Everyone is a nice guy until they get control of a Volume Knob.
SPOT ON!!!!
All instruments were purchased @ Long & McQuade
Haha of course he thinks the guitar is too loud.
That's because the guitar is too loud.
I must be a total failure as a sound man, because I could never behave like this. Although, I might have years ago... ironically when I had a ponytail.
Its hilarious and scary how true this is :'D
In the real world, there's "Claudio" from the Boardwalk near Sacramento, CA. Pretty much the same.
That is That true it's Scary!
He just hasn't met his match with a grumpy band! LOL It wouldn't end good.
THIS IS HILARIOUS
i did a few first gigs, some were alright, some were horrific, then stopped. sound engineers, bands - do i continue?
If Ricky from TPB was a sound guy.
0:57 Why'd that seem like such a chore for him? It's not like someone asked him to run a damn marathon😂
As a sound guy I know the context just from his reaction. They told him there was only one lead singer but then they ask for a second mic just before the show. Last minute change of plans to add more microphones happen WAY too often, so much so that I'd often set up extra singing mics to make up for their predictable incomitance, and so I wouldn't have to do it just before the show.
@@Zadamanim This. I generally setup 3 up front and have a channel preset for drum vox just in case. The bit in the video about "its an old stage plot" nearly killed me LOL. I dont think Ive had a single night in 9 years of running sound where every stage plot was accurate if I got them at all.
The sound engineer and stage crew prepare the stage based on the stage plot they are sent. On a big festival it may mean that you sent away your extra microphones because a choir suddenly needs 5 on another stage. Usually another mike is not a huge deal but if it is a small system or a complicated band set up there may be limited channels available also there may be faulty channels that cannot be used...
oh so true to life, I've worked along side dozens of sound guys and they're all just like this, can't stand them. I met my very first friendly sound guy last weekend, it weirded me out.
Not weird at all; just professional
If almost every sound guy you run into is like this, I would make sure you know all there is to know about your equipment.
Too funny brother
Too real.
Hes fired!
This is great 😂💀👏🏼
Do One for lighting Pls!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Too fecking funny.
Does this guy provide towels with his shower?
That's my stepdad!!!
As a sound guy for over 40 years there's nothing worse than a drummer trying to play Wipeout while you're trying to eq the bass player🙄
LOL - Classic :-)
This was 55% of the soundmen in Manhattan/NYC area in the 90s. Some nights you just had to kill them with kindness no matter how it went down. Some nights you just wanted to KILL them and leave the "kindness" out of it.
Are you sure you’re not talking about backline brent… Him grumpy due to lack of sleep and rest… And his grumpy wife who’s stuck in the audio office. oh… by the time she got to the show Mr Jonas threw her a rose. But then someone from the audience offered to buy it from her for $100 . I guess the grumpy wife “office manager bitch” was kinda really nice. She gave it to the Jonas mega fan for nothing. You could call her non-stereotypical karen. 😮
Fun n Games in Rock and Roll
Here’s your Five Bucks… And your per diem. You can buy a soda at Circle K with it. 😮😅
It’s sooo funny cause it’s true!!!( for the most part)