How about the gender-free "soundies"?

It's funny you ask: I turn up the monitor when they ask unless it's on the brink of feedback. A band asked me for more last week, I turned it up, they said it was good, and in the middle of the next band, I saw that the thing had been unplugged the whole night. I felt stupid.

As for what to call the ladies of the biz, I don't know, but I'm not a fan of either "sound man" or "sound guy." The latter just sounds like it's someone you dug up at the last minute, whereas "sound man" is too formal. Anyone who calls themselves a "sound engineer" or "audio technician" is a pompous jerk. I'd rather be known as a the Blue Moon's booker, but since nobody else will do the daily grind, just call me the knob jockey. Or the GQ of the EQ. Whatever.

I always gave more (within the limits of the rig). Blame the rest of the band - at least those with volume knobs. As they creep up, those without knobs get lost in the mix. And give'r nuts during sound check, too. Don't be pussy-footing around with your volume just cause the room is empty. But if your soundperson is faking a monitor boost, that is= suckx.

How about sound engineer?
My favorite part about running sound has always been greeting the band and having them ask "So, who's the soundguy?" then responding with "You're looking at him."

A magician never reveals his tricks. Unless he's that guy who did the TV show, or Penn and Teller. So in light of those people I will give an answer. It depends on the situation. I have done both.

Sometimes if a band is just way too loud, I will get the monitors as loud as they will go and if it isn't enough, I will ask the band to turn down, if they don't I show them that they are at the level of the monitors feeding back by a quick sonic zap (eeeeeeeeeeeeeeee). Then usually they shut down until during the middle of the set, then I fake it.

Another trick is to take some of whatever else they have in the monitors and turn it down, just a little to balance out.

Most of the time if the club has a good monitor system, I can just keep turning it up until their ears bleed.

If a singer is not close enough to the mic I always try chaining them to the stand, that way they can't get too far away.

If they sing too quiet, turn off the monitors. these singers are just too timid, they are afraid of their own voice. Thats why the guitars are too loud in those bands, too cover up the intensely personal lyrics that the singer wants/doesn't want his (ex) girlfriend, lover ,or mortal enemy (boss) to hear.

Also the audience is talking too loud to hear the whispering onstage, so I didn't notice when they asked for more vocals.

As far as the question of gender, sound engineer always works, Yet people always seem to address me as, "hey can you hear the vocals" or "Asshole, my (insert: boyfriend, girlfriend, son,or daughter) is singing and I can't hear the vocals, please turn it up". When they get my name wrong like that, I tend to go to my happy place.

When someone asks me for more, i always try to give it to them within the limits of what is availible. i'm not going to turn it up loud enough to damage the gear and i'm NOT going to leave it sqeaking and chirping at times just so they can know that it's not going to get any louder. that is annoying and potentially harmful. if i can't get it any louder, i'll just tell them that's it- that's all i can get out of the system. at that point i would hope that they would be willing to make some sort of adjustment (turn down, sing closer to the mic, quit being such a pissy little prima donna and get on with it) to make things better. that being said, i always try my best to make the bands happy with the monitors on stage because that's where it all starts- it's a struggle to make it sound good in the main mix if the band isn't happy on stage.

as for the "phantom knob twist"--rarely, if ever. the most common scenario is when asked for something, i will start moving my hand toward the correct knob (you've seen it-there's millions of knobs there) and BEFORE I CAN ACTUALLY TOUCH IT AND DO ANYTHING they say "yeah, that's great." the placebo effect is a well documented thing and the most important thing about sound is not what you actually hear, but what you THINK you hear.

i personally prefer audio engineer because it's gender neutral and i don't think it's pompous to say that after 20+ years of running sound EVERY DAY --not just sometimes, not just on weekends--that i'm a professional.

My experience in bands says that you give it one try if you need to make a correction with the stage mix. After that, you tough it out, put on your best show and lay off the sound engineer. Constantly requesting changes in the mix may lead to the engineer hitting the suck button (located somewhere in the left hand corner of the mixing board). After that, you'll sound like shit no matter what is done with your stage mix.

I do sound and play in bands as well. My veiw on monitors is that they are for the vocalists. I have a volume on my rig and can control it myself. The singers have to depend on the wedges for there sound. I think on small stages the band should mix themselves and let the singers have the monitors. I hate it when the loud ass guitar player says he needs guitar in the monitor because it just isn't sounding big enough for him.

I left out this bit on the Freaky Friday post where I asked a sound dude (I use the generic Sound Op, although so many of them are dudes that soundman is usually accurate) some questions. Anyway, he really did advise just touching the knob and looking at the band expectantly before actually adjusting. He said 50% of the time they were like "thanks, that's better."

His whole thing about squeaking the monitors deliberately was basically a joke on the fact that he generally has the monitors as loud as they'll go without feeding back already. If the band won't adjust its stage volume and the singer keeps asking for more, and is pulling some shit where he's trying to call the audience's attention to the sound op in order to place blame on him for the band's fuck-up (this does happen), he will sometimes deliberately squeak them just and then shrug his shoulders to show them that it won't go any higher. But only in the monitors. Never in the mains.

I'm not saying all sound ops do this though. But it's always true you get better sound if you treat whoever's behind the board right.

um/@if= #/6 , I rest my case, best in town!

If anyone wants to laugh today... I've been thinking outside the box a 'lil (being sunny and all), try replacing "sound" with "sex", "band" with "slut", "singer" with "porn star" in all of the above comments. JJ comes off as a pimp, it's great.. He can be my Fader Invader any day, rawr!

hey, it's better than reading another SFJ headache, and it's about time lustlab mixed with slog.. A Stranger Mash-up. what? WWOOooo00OWW.

Sound is sex and singers are sluts. YEEEEAAAHHHH!!! Best thing I've read all day. J.Panther is thinking. I like that a whole lot.

GQ on the EQ with an IQ. Great responses. I love Sound Engineers. Love them longtime.

If the singer asks for more volume, I kill his mic. If anyone else complains, I kill the bass through the house PA. If anyone says a word, I turn everything back up, let it feedback, and then I walk out.

7 (Brent) - I couldn't be more with you. One chance and then tough it out.