Sound Engineers vs. BEATBOXERS!


In my experience, there can be a frequently occuring battle between vocalists and the infamous "sound engineer". Sound engineers who are skilled and dedicated to making performances sound there best are godsends. Those who do not fit this criteria are, to me, vindictive beasts with super inflated egos.

I think there should be a healthy discussion regarding sound engineers who are disrespectful to beatboxing artists and vocalists in general.

The situation that has brought me to write about this has been a culmination of engineers and even artists saying that " oh it doesn't matter what it sounds like". Recently a veteran sound engineer who claims to have toured with Rahzel told me a few things that made become somewhat nasty with him. First, he refused to give me a sound check claiming that because he mixed Rahzel he didn't even have to hear me to set my levels, also telling me that a generic mic was exactly the same as the SHURE SM58 when it comes to beatboxing so it didn't matter if I took the SHURE.

Because I'm a cool kat I let him do his thing... When I got up to do my number my sound was terrible... I abruptly stopped, walked over to the sound guy and blew up. I became so tired of A**HOLE sound engineers. It doesn't matter who this guy has mixed down Buff, Biz, Rah, Doug, he has never mixed ME down. Beatboxers have different styles, sounds, and levels needed in my opinion. When your sound is not they way YOU want it, the performer comes away feeling unsatisfied, even if the crowd is jumping with excitement. After having it out with the sound guy my sound became better. Don't be bullied around by ego driven sound engineers. Remember they work for YOU. Stars have made their success and believe they didn't do it by letting other people letting them sound WACK.

A key element to ensuring that you sound tight is bringing your own mic. And out of the numerous soundboards my Shure has been plugged into, during this performance it suddenly didn't work? The end result of this show was I rocked the South Asian Music Festival, but I had to fight to the bare knuckle to simply get my sound to be where it should be.  My advice is to not let anyone tell you that as a "beatboxer" it doesn't matter how you sound!!! Even if they claim to be Rahzel's sound engineer, because you are not Rahzel, you are you.

Also, every performance is important. Don't let people lead you to believe that a specific performance is not worth your all. You never know who is watching and people become interested in you when you are amazing not when you are pretty good.