Austin's thriving club scene attracts some of the best sound engineers in the business, and these world-class console jockeys get a real workout during SXSW. The annual festival brings thousands of musicians and industry players to town, with multiple bands from around the planet trooping onto club stages one after another, with very little time between sets.
It's a challenging time for the sound guys and gals who help make Austin the “live music capital of the world," not just during SXSW but year-round. In an attempt to bring these titans of tinnitus out of obscurity, Wired.com interviewed a handful of knob know-it-alls at some of the busiest clubs at SXSW. They shared tips for getting the best live sound, as well as horror stories from their long and loud careers.
Billy Milano -- Headhunters
How long have you been running sound?: 20 years
Pet peeve: People's dads telling me to turn up their son's vocals. That happened tonight. He was like, “Make sure you can hear my son."
Worst on-the-job story?: There are so many weird bands that come through here. First of all, when they said “Keep Austin weird," they didn't mean let other weird people into the city. They meant keep Austin unique. I guess it was a calling card to weirdos and freaks everywhere in the world.
I mean, I can appreciate any band who does anything that they're truly passionate about. Honestly. I swear to god. But I've seen some crazy stuff.
There's a lot of unique stuff that comes through town that I'm not a personal fan of, but at the end of the night everyone's so appreciative, how could you not be a supporter of the eclecticness of the music. Unfortunately there are a lot of weirdos who play music worldwide. I'm one of them.
Favorite technique: For drums, I use an overhead mike called an AudioTechnica 4050 and it's the whole set minus the kick drum. And then I use a kick drum mike from EV, whom we're sponsored by here at Headhunters, and it just makes the drum set sound so live and real.
I don't want to sit there and mic each individual tom. I want it to be raw and to the point. I do sound checks in 5 minutes and they sound better than most people's clubs that spend a half an hour doing 'em because they take too much time separating everything instead of putting it up as a whole. My technique is “less is more."
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