Tips for my first live sound gig?

[Mystic Steamship Co.]

I got a gig running live sound at a local club yesterday and I am moderately stressed out about it because I'm going "train" tomorrow and the I'm working by myself at a big show on Saturday. I have lots of experience recording and even recording and setting up live concerts (mostly classical and jazz ), but I have never run sound at a rock venue. What are some general Do's and Don'ts for running live sound for rock bands?

[bluesman]

Introduce yourself to the band with a smile and a firm handshake. Ask about their lineup, the number & type insturments, number of vox etc. Try to make them feel as comfortable as possible. Let them know up front that you will do everything within your power & the limitations of the house pa to get their point across to the audience. I have won over some pretty hard nosed acts in the first few minutes of conversation. After the show starts, Do not leave the sound booth while the act is performing. Maintain good eye contact with all band members during the entire performance, visual cues are all the band has during a performance & they will only be capable of quick gestures, make sure that you are observant & watch for those cues. Above all Have Fun! A good attitude is contageous & a kind word goes a long way. If the band can tell that you enjoy your job & are sincere about helping them, they will be more inclined to enjoy the gig themselves, and if the band is having fun, the crowd will, in all likelihood, follow suit. Bands will, in turn, tell their agent what a great time they had at your venue & word will spread.

enjoy!

[ckeene]

Tell the drummer to play without cymbals. Make the bass player go direct. The guitarist will be too loud so tell him to turn down and make sure you have a mic at the board so you can repeatedly tell him to turn down during the performance. Do not under any circumstances let the singer run effects from stage. And most of all remember you're working for the club, not the bands.

[Skipwave]

Do not under any circumstances let the singer run effects from stage..

That triggered painful memories.

...but also made me laugh.

[Jay Reynolds]

After the show starts, Do not leave the sound booth while the act is performing.
enjoy!

Except, once you've got things "up and running", its a good idea to get out and listen to how the mix sounds in different parts of the room. You are the only person who is hearing the mix at the "sound booth" (Front Of House or FOH). You might want to hear what the audience is hearing.

[rwc]

Tell the drummer to play without cymbals. Make the bass player go direct. The guitarist will be too loud so tell him to turn down and make sure you have a mic at the board so you can repeatedly tell him to turn down during the performance. Do not under any circumstances let the singer run effects from stage. And most of all remember you're working for the club, not the bands.

[newfuturevintage]

+1 to everything bluesman has to say.

I'll add when you have that conversation, (at least when I do), it's a good idea to take pen and paper with you so you can draw a quick stage plot & mic chart.

if you take nothing else with you, bring sharpies and board tape.

[A.David.MacKinnon]

Get to the club early and ring out the PA.
In my live sound days I would do this by putting a mic center stage (where the singer will be) and cranking the gain up on the mains (leave the monitors off). Find the spot where it's just on the verge of of feeding back and then go to your graph EQ. Start boosting frequencies 1 by 1 till you find the the ones that are feeding back. Pull those freqs down.
Once you've got the FOH rung out do the same thing with the monitors.
This will let you get the FOH and monitors as loud as possible without feeding back.

Other than that be friendly, helpful and up front about what you can and can't do (every club has limitations). Be on time and don't get drunk (or too drunk).

Most importantly never be a house sound tech for more than 5 years. It turns the nicest people into grouchy drunks and can kill your love of live music.

[chorga1]

use subtractive eq 99% of the time


push volume a lil too hot during soundcheck to see where feedback (might) occur



get there a lil early to see the equipment set-up and see if the house/monitors have a properly set-up eq on each - if not you could have serious feedback issues. Not necessarily, but not having the system properly "rung out" can be a huge pita

[tommy]

Off the top of my head.

Communication between all bands is important so that everyone gets to play their full and allotted time slots. Let everyone be aware of the set schedules including stage change over times between each band and try to stick to it as close as you can. Know in advance who is sharing which channels and make easy to follow and read channel strip documentation after sound checking each band. Work efficiently during sound checks and change overs. Don't over fuss with mic placement and processing. Getting a decently workable sound will be fine then move on to your next channel. Get to the club early enough to ring out your monitors and tune mains. As much as you can manage it, run your mic cables around amps and drums and along edges of the stage as opposed to right through the middle of the stage. coil up excess mic cable near the corresponding mic stand and source.
Tell the super drunk dude that strolls into the FOH mix position and starts touching your shit that if he does that again, he will be thrown out.
Also tell the drunk girl that tells you to turn up the singer that you dont take requests.
Have fun.

[Mystic Steamship Co.]

The tips about ringing out the PA are very interesting. Would this change night to night? I will be working in the same club every time so if I did this once would it be pretty much set up? Also, should I bring headphones? and if so what kind? and when should I use them? I only have a pair of super nice Sennheiser HD650's but they are open back so I'm not sure how much good that would do. My friend has some closed back sony's I could probably borrow.

And say worse case scenario....

I get a experimental metal band full of high school kids, with 2 marshal stacks at 11, a drum kit with 12 cymbals and a singer running a rack full of digitech outboard effects. Off course the guitar player can't hear the bass and the vocalist can't hear his own voice (but he is still on key thanks to his onstage effects box). How the hell would you deal with that situation? I'm sure those of you that have done this before have had to put up with this stuff, what can you really do? Turn the mains down? Turn off their monitors to teach them a lesson? Start throwing back PBR's until it's over?

[chorga1]

typically a good live sound venue will have seperate system eqs permanently set-up on the mains and monitors. They are only there to help flatten out the frequency response so you have less trouble with feedback. These eqs - once properly set-up - should not be adjusted.


if they have the eqs, but are not properly set-up (one clue is that they should almost always be using subtractive eq for this - if you see these sytem eqs with a bunch of positive eq settings that is a sign you may be in for problems), going there early and setting up a few mics - where you'd expect to place them for a show, then turn up the mains, and then go through each eq fader and turn it up until you hear ringing/feedback. Some will have a lil, some will have none, and some will have lots. Adjust the eq to minimze the amount of ringing for each frequency.




If there is no system eq - yer stuck using eq on individual channels to fight with feedback - pita

[Andy Peters]

The tips about ringing out the PA are very interesting. Would this change night to night? I will be working in the same club every time so if I did this once would it be pretty much set up?

A properly-configured rig should not require house graphic EQ tweaking every night. The only reason you'd change it is because some dude was in the night before and started cutting everything and essentially ended up with "gain reduction through equalization." There is always the guy who starts EQing before listening to the rig, which is a problem.

At my house gig, we have a system processor that does crossover, EQ and delay alignment. Nobody gets access to the processor. We have a stereo 31-band EQ inserted across the mains (and generally flat) for visiting BEs to play with, although we notice that it's rarely touched.

Now, as for that "put the mic on the stage and turn up the gain until it feeds back then notch out the feedback on the graph and lather, rinse repeat" that was advocated a few posts ago ... Ummmm, respectfully, no, don't do that.

I've found that when guys do this, they try to squeeze every last little feedback drop out and they end up with ... gain reduction through equalization. See, when you use that technique, often the "target level" you're trying to reach is waaaay above where you'd actually run the rig. And since you're not running it that loud, you don't need those cuts because for normal operation, you're not feeding back.

So assuming the house speakers are positioned in a reasonable manner -- far enough away from the front-line vocal mics -- generally, house feedback is not an issue, unless the room sucks, in which case all bets are off.

Monitor EQ settings depend on two things ... mic pattern and position of mic relative to a wedge. So you need to put the mic du jour up at the vocal position and check it out.

Also, should I bring headphones? and if so what kind? and when should I use them? I only have a pair of super nice Sennheiser HD650's but they are open back so I'm not sure how much good that would do. My friend has some closed back sony's I could probably borrow.

I bring a pair of 7509s, mainly for cuing effects and troubleshooting. You cannot mix a live show wearing headphones.

-a

[NeglectedFred]

Not so much a tip, but be prepared - everybody in the club is a better "sound guy" than you. They'll all stagger to the booth, and as they attempt to remain upright while executing a graceful sway-like motion, they'll tell you about how they used to do sound for the hottest club in town back in the day.

Then as you back into the wall in attempt to escape the overbearing drunken breath - which is now quickly filling up your workspace, they'll proceed to tell you what levels should come up, and which should go down.

Have fun!

[newfuturevintage]

re: will the EQ change from night to night:

I've found it does, and depends largely on how the number and positions of microphones changed from the last time the EQ was set. Feedback is hugely influenced by the nulls and peaks in a room, and those are quite variable. I'm referring to the monitor EQ here. FOH EQ in a static room doesn't change that much, unless something weird happens.

As for how to get a feel for how to ring out a system: do it a lot. Also, listen to sine waves, and memorize how they sound at a a bunch of different frequencies. This will help you ring out a system quickly once you get good at it.

As for dealing with your worst case scenario, job 1 is to make FOH suck as little as possible, and hopefully make it sound good in the process. Job 2 is to make the musicians be able to hear one another. 1&2 do not always peacefully coexist. Some nights are just going to suck. Bring earplugs.

Lastly, assuming a small room, use as few (open) mics as you can get away with, and keep as many of them out of the monitors as you can...
I find in small spaces, mic'ing toms is usually more effective on drums than mic'ing OH's.