Sunday afternoon was spent attending a 2-hour concert by the Glenn Miller Orchestra. While there were 16 incredible musicians who performed flawlessly, and two wonderful vocalist, the person who set up their sound system apparently did not have a clue what he or she was doing.

Needless to say there are lots of dedicated mics, and all obviously go through a huge mixer. Not only does the output go through their own system, but additionally, it fired through the house system as well.

The auditorium was filled to capacity, which is approximately 1,000 seats, plus there were folks standing in the back. When the first song, Moonlight Serenade, was played, it sounded incredible and there was not a dry eye in the place. The next song, however, involved a significant number of solos, one of which was played by a superb pianist. Unfortunately, the piano mic was not positioned correctly for the type of piano, and additionally, the volume level was not properly set. Consequently, the incredible solo he performed was only heard by the folks sitting in the first 10 rows. Beyond that distance, it was nearly inaudible.

The next mistake was with the volcalist's mics, of which there were 2. The sound person obviously forgot to set the effects, EQ and volume level. However, instead of being too low, they were too hot and overpowered the entire orchestra. No reverb, delay, echo, just dry vocals that despite lousy mic settings, still were quite good, at least those performed by the male vocalist. The female vocalist was so far off on her timing that I wondered if she was even hearing the band. When she performed Over The Rainbow, which is one of my altime favorite songs, I wanted to walk out the door--it was that bad.

I had attended a concert by the Glenn Miller Orchestra a year ago and everything, including the amplification, was perfect. I suspect they must have lost their previous sound person and had recently hired a new one.

I guess the bottom line here is the importance of checking your system's overall sounds before the performance cannot be stressed enough. I know of a few individuals that never walk around the room and listen to a midi or live sounds coming from their system and think that it's no big deal. From an audience standpoint, it's definitely a big deal.

Gary