ProAudioSpace
Rule #1: Don't piss off the sound guy!
FOH Hero!!!
So there's Guitar Hero, Band Hero, and now DJ Hero (as much as I want to knock DJ's, I'll forever give 'em love for only needing 2 channels!!!).
The time has come for FOH Hero!!! You get a cool, mini mixing board controller with some faders and knobs, and if you can't make the mix sound good, you lose. Other cool things would happen throughout the gameplay, like "The roadies got hammered last night and missed crew call this morning...," and a mini-game launches to see if you can set the stage up in time.
Or another challenge comes along like "Some idiot just spilled a beer in your mixing console," and you have to find the working channels and get everything re-patched as quickly as possible.
Another scenario I dreamed up would be "Truck 3 broke down last night, which normally wouldn't be a huge problem, but someone PACKED ALL YOUR MICROPHONES ON TRUCK 3 AT THE LAST GIG!" then the mini-game turns into "Oh no, it looks like you'll have to rent mics on this stop" and you have to pick a reputable sound company with the money in your slush fund, or deal with a ton of crappy microphones. The goal would be to sort good gear from bad, and to keep the wireless mics from cutting out or something along those lines.
Of course, normal gameplay would be riddled with people coming up to you asking you to turn up this, that, or the other. Perhaps on a few outdoor gigs, the cops show up and you have to use some kind of point system to bargain with them and get them to go away. And just like the others, you have to start out running sound in dive bars on gear that barely works before graduating to tours and top acts.
Whaddaya think? Of course, we'd never play it (much how real guitarists rarely play guitar hero), but it would be a good learning experience for the kiddies, no???? Because at the end of the day, we all know who the real heroes of the show are ;-)
The time has come for FOH Hero!!! You get a cool, mini mixing board controller with some faders and knobs, and if you can't make the mix sound good, you lose. Other cool things would happen throughout the gameplay, like "The roadies got hammered last night and missed crew call this morning...," and a mini-game launches to see if you can set the stage up in time.
Or another challenge comes along like "Some idiot just spilled a beer in your mixing console," and you have to find the working channels and get everything re-patched as quickly as possible.
Another scenario I dreamed up would be "Truck 3 broke down last night, which normally wouldn't be a huge problem, but someone PACKED ALL YOUR MICROPHONES ON TRUCK 3 AT THE LAST GIG!" then the mini-game turns into "Oh no, it looks like you'll have to rent mics on this stop" and you have to pick a reputable sound company with the money in your slush fund, or deal with a ton of crappy microphones. The goal would be to sort good gear from bad, and to keep the wireless mics from cutting out or something along those lines.
Of course, normal gameplay would be riddled with people coming up to you asking you to turn up this, that, or the other. Perhaps on a few outdoor gigs, the cops show up and you have to use some kind of point system to bargain with them and get them to go away. And just like the others, you have to start out running sound in dive bars on gear that barely works before graduating to tours and top acts.
Whaddaya think? Of course, we'd never play it (much how real guitarists rarely play guitar hero), but it would be a good learning experience for the kiddies, no???? Because at the end of the day, we all know who the real heroes of the show are ;-)
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Mical Caterina on -
great idea, but I think it's already in use/practice... at every local club.
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Permalink Reply by James Daniels on -
Sorry, I should put "snark" in the tags. This is meant as a joke, and not to be taken seriously. I was hoping people would chime in with other mini-games to demonstrate to the world how much bullsh*t we have to put up with on a regular basis. Even on the big gigs...
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Permalink Reply by Mical Caterina on
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Don't apologize, I think it's funny as hell.. but there's also that reality side of it. Personally I've seen/had truck # break down scenario, but it was all rigging. That meant EVERYONE was hosed - audio,lighting,etc... truck eventually made it 4 hours late and we were still moving backline onto stage at doors.
Couple of other suggestions for your game;
a) subs catch fire during 1st set due to incompetent tech jumping down to 2 ohms - do you call the fire department or just pull the subs down in the mix?
b) local official comes in during soundcheck and tells you "your mix cannot exceed 90 dB at FOH". Do you pull your mix down or do you move FOH back another 70+ ft?
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Permalink Reply by James Daniels on
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Yeah, it becomes one of those "reality is stranger than fiction" scenarios real quick dunnit?You just can't make up the kinds of stuff we've all been through. I experienced the truck breakdown in August. Tons of fun. Then there's the non-existent stagehands game. Always a hit, that one. So, I guess as you move through the game, your options to certain problems go from "complain about him" in the beginning all the way to "Fire his ass," in expert mode. Even have some sidegames for the Shady Promoter. When he ducks on the invoice, you can retaliate in a variety of ways. You have to work extra to unlock the hidden "Show's Over" option.
Seriously, Activision needs to give us some love! Everyone here has been in situations where we had to stuff ten pounds of problem into a five pound sack, and at the end of the day, WE make the show go down. Enough glorification of DJ's and Primadonna lead guitarists (sidenote, to any DJ's or guitar players who know how to engineer, this doesn't really apply to you!). Time to let 'em know who really puts it all together!
Cheers,
-j
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Permalink Reply by Tony Tartaglia on -
Don't forget the power issues, the promotor said xxx generators at xxx wattage, but only delivered xx. Who gets cut, lighting?, staging, God forbid us! Well maybe a couple of amps... we could go to 2 ohms on the subs (hahaha)
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Permalink Reply by James Daniels on
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There you go!
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Permalink Reply by EROQ on -
you guys are too funny! so true in many ways... most stories dont really affect me since im stuck on a rock but "ship could always sink and there goes all your ish!" lol best one i can think of would be put together a last minute show and get a call during load up saying there was someone else that a partner promoter got for cheaper.... do you low ball or tell him to f off? how bout show up to load in and the function before is running late so you gotta rush to load in and your labor gotta go cause they have things they had to do... something along the lines of that lol...
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Permalink Reply by Mical Caterina on
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At level 5 (once you get past the toilet gigs) you get to pick a fantasy road crew but there's a catch;
a) for every 1 good guy, you get 2 lame ones (complete with an assortment of newbies, interns, drug, alcohol & stability problems)
And now that you've gotten more responsibility you're doing multiple tasks for the same or less money
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Permalink Reply by Chris Huff on -
A channel turn red which means it's now fried and you have 10 seconds to patch into another channel.
But what about all the add-on's?
- Mini-effect's processors
- Amp plug-in for playing the larger rooms
- ?
Oh, no no no. This would never work (humor here, folks)... then you've got every kid coming up to you while you are at FOH, saying "dude, I did the same thing last night and I mixed the Beatles, Kid Rock, etc."
lol
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Permalink Reply by Stan Romanowski on -
How about monitor hero? Level II you get to run monitors for run dmc & the fat boys while the crowd hurls thunderbird bottles at you every time you run across stage? (BTW: disclaimer, it really happened to me)
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Permalink Reply by james cech on -
got one better, doing a method man show in 97, Gainseville, fl. He started a riot and had to fend of about 200 pissed of brothers, with a fire extinguishers, while the riot police waited out side for the club to clear out, got so bad had to lock ourselves in the electric room. with them pounding on the door, were going to kill the sound man and the white boys. pretty scary stuff, totally trashed the pa, but hey we made national TV, the promoter got beat up, but he deserved it, the bastard didn't tell us , method man has a song kill the sound man i would have stayed home that night, we sued and got 16,000 to cover the pa, but will never do a hip hop show again or rap. still have night mares.
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Permalink Reply by Stan Romanowski on
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really funny thing was as a bottle hurls thru the air it "whistles". We were trying to locate the frequency and eq the monitors to the bottle!
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