Axl's in-ear monitor mix and some comments on Axl from monitor engineer

[Voodoochild]

Overconfident one makes a mess of it and doesn't even aware of it.

It's such people who mess up the world.

pbebe, ?ou're really an awesome person! Thanks for posting here, I'm now a fan - really! 

I guess Axl knows how great his band is and he said how he was always trying to perform as good as the guys. So, if he needs some special mix just to him, I'm sure is because he had a lot of confidence in the band and tried to sing as best as he could hear them playing. 

[michaelvincent]

I'm sure as a professional performer he knows what he is doing with on stage monitors in place as well as the in-ear...
As a fan I wouldn't concern myself with his 'wasting money and equipment' - I'd rather just as soon be appreciative that the performer is doing all he can to deliver his best

I ran this article by my roommate, who is a professional sound engineer for on and off Broadway musicals (things that require much more complicated sound systems than a rock concert I might add) and his assessment of Axl's 'awesome' monitor setup was that a) it was overkill, b) Axl Rose probably has significant hearing loss if he needs that kind of firepower onstage to hear himself, c) hiring two monitor guys means they hired at least one that sucks, and d) Axl is probably just being an overdemanding pain in the ass. Having watched him work (and worked with him from time to time, I put myself through college as a sound guy), watched him put together some pretty complicated rigs for tours, and just listening to him talk about these things I have little reason to doubt his expertise in the feild of sound engineering.

The problem with using a monitor setup like that is diminishing returns. The more onstage volume you have to hear yourself the better to a point. After that point you start getting too much volume (your ability to hear onstage starts to diminish instead of get better), phase cancellation (lots of speaker throwing the same sound source into the air from different places with start causing phase weirdness), with the added annoyance of also carrying a pair of small monitors in your ears at all times.

Last night I listened to my soundboard of the 2002 Boston show and made some mental notes to support my opinion on this (PS: I also attended this show ). For the duration of the show, but almost exclusively during really loud parts of the show Axl's pitch is inconsistent at best. He goes out of tune on the ends of his phrases a lot (mostly flat). This is almost surely the byproduct of there being way too much onstage volume. Anyone who has ever played live in a band can tell you that when the monitors are fucking cranked to 11 you mostly get white noise and your ears go to shit quickly. The other thing I noticed that absolutely tellls me that his monitor set up is fucked is during Knockin' on Heaven's Door. This song is easily the best, most consistent vocal performance by Axl of the whole show. He fucking kills it, and it's dead on the whole song.  Why? Because it's a quiet song. The band is playing much softer and there is more space to hear everything instead of just hearing a freight train of sound ripping your eardrums out.

I think he should just lose the in ears, they seem to give him nothing but trouble. And he should invest in better monitor guys, because hiring two is hiring one too many.

[leesixxrose]

I'm sure as a professional performer he knows what he is doing with on stage monitors in place as well as the in-ear...
As a fan I wouldn't concern myself with his 'wasting money and equipment' - I'd rather just as soon be appreciative that the performer is doing all he can to deliver his best

I ran this article by my roommate, who is a professional sound engineer for on and off Broadway musicals (things that require much more complicated sound systems than a rock concert I might add) and his assessment of Axl's 'awesome' monitor setup was that a) it was overkill, b) Axl Rose probably has significant hearing loss if he needs that kind of firepower onstage to hear himself, c) hiring two monitor guys means they hired at least one that sucks, and d) Axl is probably just being an overdemanding pain in the ass. Having watched him work (and worked with him from time to time, I put myself through college as a sound guy), watched him put together some pretty complicated rigs for tours, and just listening to him talk about these things I have little reason to doubt his expertise in the feild of sound engineering.

The problem with using a monitor setup like that is diminishing returns. The more onstage volume you have to hear yourself the better to a point. After that point you start getting too much volume (your ability to hear onstage starts to diminish instead of get better), phase cancellation (lots of speaker throwing the same sound source into the air from different places with start causing phase weirdness), with the added annoyance of also carrying a pair of small monitors in your ears at all times.

Last night I listened to my soundboard of the 2002 Boston show and made some mental notes to support my opinion on this (PS: I also attended this show ). For the duration of the show, but almost exclusively during really loud parts of the show Axl's pitch is inconsistent at best. He goes out of tune on the ends of his phrases a lot (mostly flat). This is almost surely the byproduct of there being way too much onstage volume. Anyone who has ever played live in a band can tell you that when the monitors are fucking cranked to 11 you mostly get white noise and your ears go to shit quickly. The other thing I noticed that absolutely tellls me that his monitor set up is fucked is during Knockin' on Heaven's Door. This song is easily the best, most consistent vocal performance by Axl of the whole show. He fucking kills it, and it's dead on the whole song.? Why? Because it's a quiet song. The band is playing much softer and there is more space to hear everything instead of just hearing a freight train of sound ripping your eardrums out.

I think he should just lose the in ears, they seem to give him nothing but trouble. And he should invest in better monitor guys, because hiring two is hiring one too many.

Thanks for posting that...  Thats basicly the way i was looking at tho not in those specific terms..  I think he should loose that damn thing too....

but its still a cool article EVA......

[Eva GnRAxlRosette]

i get what your friend and you guys are saying

as far as the 2 guys... seems one was for the band and one for axl
is that unusual?

[michaelvincent]

Generally you should be able to get aways with a front of house guy to handle what the crowd hears, and a monitor guy. The only way I could see needing two guys is if the band is so big that they would split the mixing duties equally (ie: guy one handles bass and drums; guy two handles guitars, keyboards and vocals. But you don't see it very often (if at all), and certainly not just one soundguy to only handle the lead vocalist.

[Voodoochild]

Well, I remember to read somewhere that those soundboards were custom made and really expansive. Maybe they need two guys to put everything right before the real CD tour (with new songs), like a warm up tour.

[Mr_Brownstone16]

>I ran this article by my roommate, who is a professional sound engineer for on and off Broadway musicals (things that require much more complicated sound systems than a rock concert I might add) and his assessment of Axl's 'awesome' monitor setup was that a) it was overkill, b) Axl Rose probably has significant hearing loss if he needs that kind of firepower onstage to hear himself, c) hiring two monitor guys means they hired at least one that sucks, and d) Axl is probably just being an overdemanding pain in the ass. Having watched him work (and worked with him from time to time, I put myself through college as a sound guy), watched him put together some pretty complicated rigs for tours, and just listening to him talk about these things I have little reason to doubt his expertise in the feild of sound engineering.>

Agreed. I think I read in one of the earlier posts that Axl had a 40ch? Midas board just for his moniters? Damn
If he ever tours again he better be able to fill the arenas, 'cause
a. those boards aren't cheap, especially just for the lead singer for moniters.
b. If they start playing clubs, good luck hauling one of those into a small club.
c. One of the uses of in ear moniters is to protect the musician's hearing. Some of the higher end systems have built in limiters to prevent hearing damage. You know when you listen to something for awhile at a certain volume, it's human nature to slowly keep cranking up the level, 'cause it sounds better, but does damage to your ears.  This is when that built in limiter kicks in to keep the volumes smoothed out.
I find it odd if he needs both an inear and wedges. He should hear his mix fine with his inears.

[Voodoochild]

I made some caps with the Albany bootleg. This thing looks really big... and I see 3 guys there... 

[img=http://img212.exs.cx/img212/9312/capgnrsoundboard0yq.th.jpg]

[img=http://img212.exs.cx/img212/7026/capgnrsoundboard026lu.th.jpg]

[img=http://img212.exs.cx/img212/4492/capgnrsoundboard35wr.th.jpg]

[Eva GnRAxlRosette]

I made some caps with the Albany bootleg. This thing looks really big... and I see 3 guys there...?

you, my fellow Gunner, are Hardcore!!!    \m/(-_-)\m/
 

next GN'R show I'm gonna take a little trip over to the sound/mixing boards and see if the guys wouldn't mind talking about what they got going on there

[Voodoochild]

you, my fellow Gunner, are Hardcore!!!    \m/(-_-)\m/
 

next GN'R show I'm gonna take a little trip over to the sound/mixing boards and see if the guys wouldn't mind talking about what they got going on there

Thanks! 
You can ask for some cd-r copys too. 
Seems like those soundboards are connected with some Pro-Tools or something. I dunno, maybe it's only virtual presets for each song.

[leesixxrose]

you, my fellow Gunner, are Hardcore!!!? ? \m/(-_-)\m/
 

next GN'R show I'm gonna take a little trip over to the sound/mixing boards and see if the guys wouldn't mind talking about what they got going on there

Thanks!?
You can ask for some cd-r copys too.?
Seems like those soundboards are connected with some Pro-Tools or something. I dunno, maybe it's only virtual presets for each song.

It seems like a fucking lot of equipment just to play the same old songs...... the same songs the old band played with out all that shit..

[norway]

lol, just the newband sounds better

[Eva GnRAxlRosette]

hahah!  lets NOT go there!   

the new band DID have EIGHT players on stage including a 3rd guitar player and 2nd keyboard player who also did/does sound effects stuff... so could take a bit more to keep things 'in order'

nothing wrong with them taking advantage of technology - from reading solo interviews from Brain and Chris alone I can see that the new guys are really 'into' all that 'stuff'.  (not referencing specifically monitors obviously - just computer/technical stuff).

I just love learning about all that kind of techinical stuff myself.

Think I'll spend some time understanding about exactly what all this 'stuff' means - ProTools, mixing boards, in-ears, wedges... butt fills... (hehehe) 

[norway]

Thanks 4 those articles btw

both bands had their own unique style tho, but whatever they do, gunsnroses sounds awesome?

from reading solo interviews from Brain and Chris alone I can see that the new guys are really 'into' all that 'stuff'.

yeah, i think such things is something that makes this even better and intresting,...
-the addition on the old songs is killer

[Saul]

I would imagine all the stage monitors are there for the band and not for "just axl" , moreover I would assume his "in ear" monitors would block out most of the stage sound and what he hears would come most directly from the in-ears .... I just think the way the article was worded made it look like all the gear/monitors the guy was talking about was "for axl" when in reality or rather IMHO I think they would be for the band as a whole.

I just could not see for the life of me why there would be a need for so m,any monitors for axl alone in lieu of the fact that he wears in ear monitors which would presumably block most of the stage sound.

[Voodoochild]

It seems like a fucking lot of equipment just to play the same old songs...... the same songs the old band played with out all that shit..

Yeah, you can always listen to songs in mono and let the DTS 5.1 for the rest of the world.