From: Dermott
Message:
Re-posted from IE-Dance;
Regards,
Dermott
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From some sound enginnering site. Worth a read.
Mondays at the Whisky in LA was normally hip-hop night and was
also, by no coincidence whatsoever, my night off.
One Monday I got called in to work so had to endure a load of
kids sending me horrifically clipped signals from their cheap-ass DJ
mixers, rapping with a capital "C" and generally giving me attitude all
night. I was not in a good mood as it was, had a rather nasty toothache
(which necessitated an emergency trip to the dentist the next morning)
and these kids had me seriously thinking about going postal on them
although, given that I only had my leatherman knife and they were very
likely considerably better armed than me (and in all probability better
armed than most of the local police force to boot), it did not seem such
a good idea in hindsight.
One of the so-called "organizers" got up on stage and announced
they had a big treat for everyone. "We got some iced tea for y'all" came
the announcement. "Oh good" I thought, I was feeling a bit thirsty and
those nice promoters were going to give out free drinks to everyone. I
wasn't sure what the bar staff would make of it but I presumed it had
been cleared with them beforehand. Then came the big let-down. It seems
a rapper known as "Ice T" was "in da house" and was going to get up and
"perform" for them. Having deliberately avoided all forms of rap music
for as long as I can remember (will exceptions made for Arrested
Development and US3 who were both class acts) I had no idea who this
Iced Tea bloke was.
Anyway, he got up on stage and straight away began cupping the
mic. I was running monitors from FOH that night so had a talkback mic
set up. He got through a couple of lines then stopped, looked up at me
and said "Hey man, this sounds like shite". Since he was coming out in
the house I decided to give the audience the chance to learn something
so routed my talkback mic into the FOH as well as to his monitors.
"There's a very good reason it sounds like shite. You are cupping the
microphone which, apart from making you look very silly, also causes the
microphone to sound terrible and greatly increases the risk of feedback.
You are going through one of the best sound systems in LA and, unlike
yourself I know what I am doing so please, hold the microphone the way
it was intended and you'll be amazed at the instant improvement in the
sound"
Our "talent" got rather angry at this point and shouted up at me
"Don't you give me that shit man. I got seven platinum albums". Making
sure my fader was much higher than his so I would always drown him out I
replied with my best English accent "You may well have 7 platinum albums
but unfortunately you still seem to know jack shite about proper
microphone handling and technique. Now please, if you care one iota
about your sound rather than trying to somehow look "cool" try holding
the microphone properly and see how much better it sounds".
He mumbled something else, turned round to his DJ and carried on
with the show. I looked behind me to see Tisa the manager laughing her
head off as apparently he'd really pissed her off earlier in the night
as well. It was only after this I got to thinking I was a white guy at a
hip hop night in LA and I had been damn lucky not to have been shot for
what I'd done
I got a very pleasant surprise after the show though. Our
offender on the mic came up to me and said "Respect man. Nobody ever had
the balls to talk to me like that before" and gave me some sort of weird
handshake. We actually had a short conversation on how and why the mic
should be held properly although how much of it he took to heart I don't
know as I really wasn't going to go to one of his shows to find out.
Still, an interesting night and hopefully one where some kids
learned that cupping the mic just isn't cool.
