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Sound Engineering Declared Grumpiest Profession In The World

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I like it. :D

Sound engineering has officially been declared the grumpiest profession in the world at this week’s International Jobs Summit in Tokyo, Japan.

According to the keynote speaker, Steven Jobless, sound engineers have reached a level of grumpiness only previously seen in roles held by “post internet librarians” and a “specific member of the Seven Dwarves”.

“The grumpiness of sound engineers almost definitely stems from the fact that about 99% of them are failed musicians and DJs,” explained Jobless during his speech. “They’ve hung onto their dreams by staying close to their desired profession, much like a child will wear a football kit to a football match hoping that by some fluke of nature they’ll be asked to come on as second half substitute, and in the process they’ve built a level of resentment similar to that of fat security guards who didn’t make the police.”

“Sound mixing booths and DJ boxes are both highly stressful environments so when we mix the stress with the resentment felt for the actual artists we get a level of working environment stress that is far greater than any other profession,” continued Jobless. “It’s what we call in the industry ‘the cunt sound engineer’ level of stress.”

Wunderground also asked Ryan Hobbs, a local nightclub sound engineer, what he thought about the latest accusations against his profession, to which he responded, “Fuck off we’re not grumpy, DJs, musicians and everyone else involved in the entertainment industry are just cunts.”

Other notable extracts from the summit seen barmen declared the drunkest profession in the world, bankers the most likely profession to steal from the public and politicians and senior management civil servants the most likely profession to be aliens or lizard people.

http://wundergroundmusic.com/sound-engineering-declared-grumpiest-profession-in-the-world/
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One of my sound engineer colleagues fits this perfectly - The other however lets the side down badly. He's far too friendly, happy and helpful - but there is hope, he's still young! :D
 
Its pretty much about right...... The only people sound engineers talk to are other sound engineers, and then its merely to compare metaphorical dick sizes.
 
I know it's a joke article, but I can understand why they can be grumpy. They're responsible for very expensive but sensitive and fragile kit that a bunch of drug- and booze-addled entitled morons with no sense of responsibility (musicians) constantly abuse, plus they have to put up with pissed up punters sloshing around drinks near the mixing desk and jumping off the speakers.
 
i was doing production for an outdoor wedding this weekend, sound engineer turned up last thing at night the evening before bringing about 15K of PA with him, decided the genny was too far away and the voltage drop over the distance would destroy his equipment so packed up and left first thing in the morning.

one of the good things about sound engineers is that there are loads of them and some of them are really quite nice, have total faith in their equipment and can get it there and set up in about the time it takes to make a cup of tea in a field :thumbs:
 
Orang Utan said:
I know it's a joke article, but I can understand why they can be grumpy. They're responsible for very expensive but sensitive and fragile kit that a bunch of drug- and booze-addled entitled morons with no sense of responsibility (musicians) constantly abuse, plus they have to put up with pissed up punters sloshing around drinks near the mixing desk and jumping off the speakers.
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Also, their job involves them being the only sober people at a massive party. We all know what its like to go out with our mates and stay sober and together while everyone around is getting smashed, taking drugs, having sex and a generally mental time. Imagine if that was what you did for work. I'd be pissed off.
 
There's no question that the soundman can often be the least appreciated part of an evening. I speak from experience here:

Soundman/roadie. Yep, you really are at the bottom of the pile, registering with the masses as a lowly artisan tasked with fiddling about with sliders in the background – or being shouted at when some drunken buffoon decides that the bass guitar needs to be lifted higher than the entire band and oceans of Phil Spector-like reverb added to the entire mix.

Despite sound engineering being a skilled job, it’s possible that these regular incursions into a world where no-one appreciates their worth is what turns some soundmen/women into grumpy, lost souls, forever more interested in fiddling with compressor thresholds than engaging with the audience.
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From bands to DJs to soundmen: The Hierarchy Of Cool At A Gig
 
I've done a bit of sound engineering. I didn't enjoy it. It's like being a social worker, nobody notices you exist unless you fuck up.

And just like social workers, there are some people a sound engineer simply can't help. There's no button on a mixing desk that teaches the band how to play properly. My least favourite was a band of posh hipster kids making some atonal drone-racket while a bloke in a beard and a kaftan talked shit very loudly and repeatedly bashed himself in the head with his designer flip flops. They seemed to think that all this was OK because it was 'art' :rolleyes:
 
IME a lot of sound engineers are into metal, have absolutely no idea how reggae is supposed to sound and as they consider themselves to be infallible experts cannot be told.

And as for the ones who don't like vinyl...:p;)
 
pesh said:
one of the good things about sound engineers is that there are loads of them and some of them are really quite nice, have total faith in their equipment and can get it there and set up in about the time it takes to make a cup of tea in a field :thumbs:
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IME it's usually a case of getting everything set up in no time at all, then sitting around for another hour or so waiting for the musicians to tune their instruments, a job a chimpanzee could do in under two minutes. As for the drummer putting his kit together, fuck me. Space shuttles have been built faster.
 
ringo said:
IME a lot of sound engineers are into metal, have absolutely no idea how reggae is supposed to sound and as they consider themselves to be infallible experts cannot be told.

And as for the ones who don't like vinyl...:p;)
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Wooarh! Be astonished at the breadth of that stereotyping brush!
 
SpookyFrank said:
I've done a bit of sound engineering. I didn't enjoy it. It's like being a social worker, nobody notices you exist unless you fuck up.

And just like social workers, there are some people a sound engineer simply can't help. There's no button on a mixing desk that teaches the band how to play properly. My least favourite was a band of posh hipster kids making some atonal drone-racket while a bloke in a beard and a kaftan talked shit very loudly and repeatedly bashed himself in the head with his designer flip flops. They seemed to think that all this was OK because it was 'art' :rolleyes:
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My pet hates are (a) the guitarist who refuses to accept that him playing at full volume in a small gig means that he'll make the band sound shit and (b) the drummer who doesn't so much hit his bass drum as lightly graze it with a near-imperceptible touch.
 
ringo said:
That's my experience over the last 25 years. I seem to recall you have no idea how reggae is supposed to sound either.
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I've never had any complaints from the bands thanks, but your needless dig is duly noted. Why be so fucking unpleasant? Or are you just trying to live up to the stereotype here?
 
editor said:
I've never had any complaints from the bands thanks, but your needless dig is duly noted. Why be so fucking unpleasant?
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I'm not being 'fucking unpleasant'.

You accused me of stereotyping - I'm not it really is my experience over 25 years of DJ'ing, and it reminded me of a comment you made about this subject which you got completely wrong but tried to wriggle out of.

http://www.urban75.net/forums/threads/speaker-monitor-advice-for-reggae.204729/page-2#post-13028345
 
ringo said:
I'm not being 'fucking unpleasant'.

You accused me of stereotyping - I'm not it really is my experience over 25 years of DJ'ing, and it reminded me of a comment you made about this subject which you got completely wrong but tried to wriggle out of.

http://www.urban75.net/forums/threads/speaker-monitor-advice-for-reggae.204729/page-2#post-13028345
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Jesus. Confused cross-thread beef from over a year ago and about a different subject. :facepalm: :rolleyes:

I've done live sound for reggae bands. They were more than happy, and you know what? Their opinion matters more than yours.
 
ringo said:
Oh, is it bad to remember a conversation from a year ago? I think it was you that was confused.
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It is when you're jumping into what was a fun thread to try and publicly put down someone's professional abilities based on nothing but your own personal thoughts of an unrelated discussion elsewhere.

Please take your sour point-scoring elsewhere.
 
editor said:
I'll always argue against people posting up unpleasant personal bullshit about things they know nothing about.
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It was neither bullshit nor a subject I know nothing about.

You accused me of stereotyping. I wasn't, I expressed a personal opinion based on 25 years experience of building, tuning, listening to and playing reggae on sound systems and PA's. Your accusation was made worse by the fact that you had previously demonstrated that you knew fuck all about how reggae was supposed to sound.
 
ringo said:
It was neither bullshit nor a subject I know nothing about.
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You know absolutely nothing about my abilities as a soundman. Zero. Fuck all. Nothing. Go wave your willy elsewhere as it's leaving an unpleasant smell on what was supposed to be a fun thread. Pooh!
 
rutabowa said:
always been lucky with sound engineers i think... probably because we are polite.
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I've put on hundreds of live shows and there's only two acts that have acted like twats. One was a dreadful ska/reggae outfit who seemed to think that the New Year's Eve crowd was in fact solely there to see them, and who cleared the dance floor so completely we had to pull the power to make them stop. The singer particularly fucked me off by running off into the crowd and then complaining about the level of his foldback (maybe that's something to do with the fact that you're nowhere near the monitors, dickhead!).

The other was an acoustic act who started berating me from the stage when his guitar kept cutting out. Even though he'd see me running out to change leads, DI boxes, channels and everything else to fix the problem, he started on a big lecture about how bad I was.

And then I had the joy of pointing out that part of his guitar's electronics were hanging out so it was all his fault :D
 
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