Re: Sometimes, I never want to hear the word 'audio' again after days like this.
I had a similar experience where I was mixing FOH for the audience while the event was taped for a TV show. The TV production was basically calling the shots and had a bunch of special requirements like we had to use their mic package, nor could I be onstage at any time. The producers had the band so wrapped up about time on stage and not touching anything that they were going to basically start their set and plow on to the end regardless of what was happening tech wise.
We did get an extensive sound check, but still had to share a couple of channels on an analog board so I quickly memorized some settings. Fortunately, I was able to arrange things that the shared channels were not any of the vocal channels. I was pretty happy with the sound check and the stage crew then went through spiking the stage. they even did things like measure the heights of mics.
When our turn in the show came, the stage was reset for us, and the band started playing. I immediately had problems with two vocal and two instrument channels. I could also tell from some of the bands body postures that something just wasn't right but they were just going to keep on playing.
Turns out one vocal channel I had almost no level because the singer couldn't get close to it because of where her guitar mic was placed. The booming guitar I was able to turn down but there was no way to get enough gain in the vocal mic. The mandolin player is doing this back and forth dance between playing and singing because his instrument mic stand is on the wrong side of his vocal mic stand.
I had no direct com, so I am shouting back and forth with the cameraman in front of FOH. He is saying that if I can't do better the producers are going to replace me, I am saying I can't do anything with the mics placed the way they are, please tell the stage crew to fix them. And we went back and forth till about the second to last song, when I don't know if the stage crew finally got a message to the band or if the band just got tired of the placement but the band moved the stuff themselves (a big no no by house rules). So everything was better just in time to leave the stage.
