Hotel 'sound guys'…

[Adam Burgess]

Thought someone of you could relate to this, and take comfort in 'no, it happens all the time, it's not just you', I hope! 😀

Just finished an hour and half solo piano set at a hotel lobby gig I do regularly to keep me sane of an afternoon.

Then one manager who I've never heard of or seen tells the maintenance guy that the piano isn't loud enough where he, the manager, is.
Special gig as the big boss for the whole MENA region for a huge group of hotels came for a visit, so all the (many) managers are hovering!

So, I'm playing away, there's customers all around me, having tea and cakes, nice coffees etc. chatting away. Some friends, some business going on, some waiting to check in/out…||

Been playing here two years and no one has ever mentioned mic-ing up the piano. Well, the mic came later, two guys underneath the piano looking for a jack connection…

"It's acoustic, guys. I can play louder, but these tables close to me may not be happy if they can't hear themselves.

I've been here many afternoons in two years, and know where I should be volume-wise."

Off they shuffle. Come back 10 mins later with a powered speaker and a lav radio mic.

Speaker goes under the piano. After lots of bass feedback, they kind of shuffle away again leaving a very hot lav mic just dangling over the music stand pointing vaguely at the strings and other mechanics in there.

So, now the piano is 4 times as loud, at the piano, then the piano is supposed to be - and sounds dreadful. The sound still doesn't travel around the corner where this manager is.

Before I have the chance to finish the tune I'm doing, and just turn it off, a waitress is over telling me I'm too loud, of course.
"Yes, I'm sorry. I'm aware!"

Then, try to explain to the 'sound guy' (poor lad, it's not his fault, really), that if the sound isn't in a certain area, then THAT area needs a speaker. I can go full lid and belt the thing if it's not loud enough HERE! But - it is!!! Losing battle.

But pays ok and on time, it's steady, and currently in the little bar next door having a quick beer, getting this off my chest before another half hour set before I'm done for the day.

Have a great day!

[Mike Davis]

Been there! 🙂

 

Or this one: you’re playing in a lobby and the hotel sound techs can’t figure it how to turn off the Muzak. Which is emanating from a speaker right over your head.
Not to worry though, the manager has a solution: “Can’t you just play along with it?”

 

 

[SamuelBLupowitz]

The dreaded "playing live music in a venue that isn't primarily intended for music" gig only gets worse when the staff tries (or is ordered) to "help." I'm glad at least they have a real piano for you to play. When it's your personal gear they start messing with ... hoo boy.

 

Plus, if you have to bring your own gear and amplification, nine times out of ten there is an absolutely nightmarish power outlet situation. "We're going to tape this frayed extension cord down here so the servers don't trip on it going in and out of the kitchen right next to where you're set up! You can run all your gear out of these two outlets, right?"

[Adam Burgess]

40 minutes ago, SamuelBLupowitz said:

The dreaded "playing live music in a venue that isn't primarily intended for music" gig only gets worse when the staff tries (or is ordered) to "help." I'm glad at least they have a real piano for you to play. When it's your personal gear they start messing with ... hoo boy.

 

Plus, if you have to bring your own gear and amplification, nine times out of ten there is an absolutely nightmarish power outlet situation. "We're going to tape this frayed extension cord down here so the servers don't trip on it going in and out of the kitchen right next to where you're set up! You can run all your gear out of these two outlets, right?"

When I was younger, I used to put up with it! 

But, I learned enough about electricity, and the gig doesn't go on unless I'm happy.

Don't mind walking away these days!
 

"You're running ALL OF THAT from the same socket??"

"???"
"Nah. I'll go home unless you get a REAL electrician."

You learned that these frayed power extensions have been heated and deformed within an inch of their lives by the kitchen staff and lighting/LED screen guys simultaneously 🤪

As for this venue being suited to music, this one suits a baby grand played quite softly. 
 

[Stokely]

Not just hotels and other places...we had a big high-profile gig (for us) with a hired sound company that had 3-4 people there...lots of equipment, maybe overkill for the size but it was outdoors.  There was some weird phasing almost like a tremolo going on out front, I heard this both from them and my buddy who was there.   Nothing like that in the monitors and nobody was doing anything differently than usual with our gear.  Long story short, we sounded like crap at a gig that might have brought us future gigs and gave a lot of exposure.  Bad exposure in this case.  Not to mention, if we'd brought our own PA and hired someone to run it, we would have saved about 400 dollars.

We fortunately don't deal with many power issues at our current crop of gigs.   We did keep tripping the breaker at one place and the bandleader was getting extremely pissed.  Out comes the manager from the indoor bar, goes behind the outdoor stage where we were, and holds up a standard orange extension that was coming from the main building.  "You all need to plug in some of your stuff to this."  Gee thanks for letting us know by the 2nd set when we'd lost power 3 times already.   And here we thought the multiple built-into-the-stage outlets were enough to handle power.

[Adam Burgess]

Luckily, a lot of power issues, at least in 240V land are less frequent as amplifiers are much more efficient than old stacks of heavy-iron 5000W Crowns etc. Lighting with LED, also. But all these high-freq. switching power supplies leak a lot of stuff to ground and this causes a different problem tripping breakers for different reasons.

Having said that, a Kronos at full tilt draws a mighty 36W, another keyboard, a MacBook, and possibly a sub-mixer will hardly tip the scales. We keys players are easy.

[Stokely]

For sure, size, weight and power draw tend to be a lot less.  And maybe people don't want quite the same volume as they used to (I sure don't as a patron) but today's gear is so much more efficient.  As you say, the lights in particular.  Those huge heavy (and very hot) par cans and trusses hold a special bad place in my memory...

[obxa]

When I was doing hotels, used to pride myself that I often outlived the revolving door of catering managers.  

 

Not sure if you want to go out of pocket:  I have one of those snack-size Mackie 150 speaker things that mounts on a mic stand.  If I know I'm going to have a tough time keeping up volume, I sometimes bring that (or a  Bose) with a small PZM  or Barcus berry pickup and set it out aways from the piano.   The 5" Mackie's lack of bass is actually a plus, relatively feedback free,  and  volume is just enough to help lend some support.   Plus not kill your hands.  

 

Wonder if you all have experienced this pet peeve of mine:  Showing up for large rehearsal-anniversary dinner at a Country Club or venue;  and the party planner/ host thinks it's a great idea to cover the entire (now closed ) piano with family pictures, or gifts.  I now put in my letter of agreement I'll likely need to open the lid, and please leave clear.

[Adam Burgess]

9 hours ago, obxa said:

When I was doing hotels, used to pride myself that I often outlived the revolving door of catering managers.  

 

Not sure if you want to go out of pocket:  I have one of those snack-size Mackie 150 speaker things that mounts on a mic stand.  If I know I'm going to have a tough time keeping up volume, I sometimes bring that (or a  Bose) with a small PZM  or Barcus berry pickup and set it out aways from the piano.   The 5" Mackie's lack of bass is actually a plus, relatively feedback free,  and  volume is just enough to help lend some support.   Plus not kill your hands.  

 

Wonder if you all have experienced this pet peeve of mine:  Showing up for large rehearsal-anniversary dinner at a Country Club or venue;  and the party planner/ host thinks it's a great idea to cover the entire (now closed ) piano with family pictures, or gifts.  I now put in my letter of agreement I'll likely need to open the lid, and please leave clear.

I'm not worried about spending and money, I know that it's loud enough for the paying customers who are there. They have stuff to use, anyway, if really needed; just no idea how to deploy it. Having said that, I've often thought of getting a really nice mic to record with. I've always got a laptop and a small interface with me.

And, yes - depending which guy they get to come and do the flowers in this lobby every couple of weeks, there's often a selection of very nice vases and plants on top of the piano… I just rearrange them… Rearrange them off the piano. They don't like the 20º lid angle any more than the 45º 🙂.

I'll just stay out of the way of these ever changing managers who come down from on high twice a year, get paid, and go home. Cause no bother. I should get angry at the amount of times they can't turn off the BGM above my head, but, it pays the rent, and good practise playing everything in every key for fun. And the longer it takes, the less I play, although sitting around like a spare part does annoy me.

[obxa]

12 hours ago, Adam Burgess said:

Having said that, I've often thought of getting a really nice mic to record with. I've always got a laptop and a small interface with me.

Originally bought this for band gigs as an in-ear ambient stage mic.   Often had a great night on solo gigs and wish I had recorded it.  Getting ready to try it for recording as it's easy to just plop in place vs stereo setup.  As you know,  prices jump considerably on the better stereo condensors. but might be worth a shot. 
Of course  zoom stuff and most personal recorders have built in stereo mics.

 

https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B0002YLDZA/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

As we've all been discussing in another thread- are you using any loops or is it just straight piano?    Haven't personally done it in a very long time.  Not always appropriate;  but on my longer gigs (e.g airport, restaurant) getting ready to add some light drum stuff via SoftDrummer.  But that now means needing audio to pipe it through. 

[Adam Burgess]

9 hours ago, obxa said:

Originally bought this for band gigs as an in-ear ambient stage mic.   Often had a great night on solo gigs and wish I had recorded it.  Getting ready to try it for recording as it's easy to just plop in place vs stereo setup.  As you know,  prices jump considerably on the better stereo condensors. but might be worth a shot. 
Of course  zoom stuff and most personal recorders have built in stereo mics.

 

https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B0002YLDZA/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

As we've all been discussing in another thread- are you using any loops or is it just straight piano?    Haven't personally done it in a very long time.  Not always appropriate;  but on my longer gigs (e.g airport, restaurant) getting ready to add some light drum stuff via SoftDrummer.  But that now means needing audio to pipe it through. 

Yes, some days, you just feel more 'on-it' and every risk taken works haha. Wish I'd had some of those bits recorded, for sure.
I guess a Zoom recorder would be a handy little thing to have around anyway… sucker for little gadgets.

In the other thread, I mentioned that sometimes I contemplate taking my little Korg i3 for some drum bits… but, then I just think taking an iPad only is easier!