It’s like this guy was in my band for all those crappy gigs. He touched on all the problems that smaller local bands had and still have to go through in order to pull off a gig at a small local venue. Not to mention, the “sound man” is usually a bartender and the “pa,” well…

Man I usually started with drums > bass > guitar > keys and then vocals but this thing about vocals firsts now makes so much sense for small places, I could even control the levels better

I'd love to play at a venue where the sound engineer is willing to work with you like this. I've always, always, always felt the same way about starting with the vocals! Great stuff!

Great timeless advice. As a guitarist who turned up to 11 relentlessly, I finally figured out exactly what you are saying. Word to guitarists who play loud: 1. Turn down your amp as much as to allow the sound engineer to have good control of the mix. 2. If you cannot hear your guitar, ask him to put some of your guitar in the monitor. Hopefully you get your own mix where you can do that. God forbid, if you have a single front stage monitor mix, try repositioning the amp so that you hear it, but the FOH mixer can manage the overall mix. It will make a huge difference!

Probably the best advice on practical sound system tuning. There's too much videos by inexperienced or young engineers that repeat the same thing: pink noise + rta + software and adjust the system based on what you *see* ...ffs, Calling yourself a live sound engineer, but not able to tune a sound system by ear and Hundreds or thousands of dollars worth of gear to do it is just wierd to me. Grab a mic, use your voice. Throw on some music that you are intimately familiar with.. Music you've grown up with.. Doesn't have to be new music.. Doesn't have to impress anyone on your taste in music.. just has to be music that you know what it is supposed to sound like. Use your ears

When out with my sound trailer, I've found it advantageous to bring up vocal mics at a moderate level in the corresponding monitors, and then send each mic to all the other monitors at 10db below that level, basically doing that part of the soundcheck before the band arrives. Man do the singers relax when they see what you've already done for them, and of course you can adjust from there.

I can't find that paper any more :(((

This is great for me fairly new to combat live sound and interacting with bands

I just started doing sound for a live open mic because I told them I'd like to sit in should they need anyone just in case as I've done radio (never live music shows before! but I'm a musician myself, a vocalist and have perfect pitch, I guess that helps haha) and would love to try doing sound for live bands and eventually producing (a dream of mine), they actually tried me during one open mic a week ago and it went super well, and just a few days ago, during a live gig, they asked me to jump in mid show and at the end the band came to thank me for the great sound, but I am still very new and am wanting to learn more and more so I started building myself a YT playlist and your video here is going to stay at the top of my playlist for sure and I'll share it away! Thank you!!

I have always carried a small tool kit with a soldering iron, flux and magnifier as well as a good cable tester. Even when I am playing drums for a band and not running the sound. Great advice! Also have been given a ton of cables that musicians just wanted to replace so I repair them at home and add them to my collection.

100 gecs

Nice job! These ste gteat videos with valuable advice. Cool!

FOH and Monitor engineers is your best friend in any venue…kiss their ass

Watching this nearly 4 years later, coronavirus is still circulating, but people got tired of protecting themselves (and others) and slacked off of masking and vaccinating. As I write in mid January 2024, we're going through yet another wave. Fatal cases of COVID-19 are a lot less common than in spring 2020, but long COVID is still leaving a lot of people disabled.You were right, this IS the new normal. If only people would take it seriously.

This content is so 🔥 this is some of the nitty gritty we need to know, everyone loves the show what about the business! it's show business!

Incredible video that I should re watch before every live sound gig to get myself in the best mindset. Thank you for making this.

This is off topic but this question has never been resolved or understood between my son and I. We went to see the Rush R 40 tour in Houston at the Toyota Center and it was way too loud. I've been to see Rush two times before that. Once at the Cynthia Mitchell Woodlands Pavillion, and back in the 90's at what was then The Summit.(Now Lakewood Church). 😮 Anyway, having seen and heard Rush twice before and them being very well mixed, i was surprised that it was so obnoxiously loud! Painfully loud! It wasn't till halfway through the show, once my hearing had been sufficiently damaged did the sound border on bearable. My son has his associates degree in audio engineering and he says that it was the bad acoustics at Toyota Center, which is probably true but there's no mistaking (too loud.) Im gen X so it's almost a sacrilege to say that a concert is too loud. This is the first professional concert I've ever been to that seemed too loud. My son said that there's always a difference between an empty arena and one full of people. I get that totally but this concert left me wondering, do pro bands have people in the audience, at different positions of the venue to monitor levels and other aspects of the sound? How did the band not know it was so loud? I mean, I get it, this was RUSH and nearing the end of their touring career, at least maybe for Neil Peart, who had developed arthritis. We were up in the nose bleed section, high above the crowd, but looking down with binoculars, I could see that the crowd was plastered, arms down enveloped by a wall of thunder. So much different from the times I'd seen them before where fans were jumping up and down, arms raised, having a great time. How could the band not know this was too loud? I know they all had ear monitors in and from what we could see through binoculars, they were in perfect form. The bass guitar was way too loud and Neils bass drum was way too loud. I've never understood this. I would think that their sound crew and themselves would want this to be perfect. It was just painful thr whole concert. I wish id have brought ear plugs. Then maybe i could have heard more of what was going on.

I doubt you check this still but ive done foh for like 7 years and never once did vox first. It’s genius. Also, is it even possible to live off of this job in San Francisco anymore? Bottom of the Hill has amazing sound btw.

damn man, I've played metal guitar live on stage with many bands for 30 years. I just learned that we are fragile and weak creatures that need psychological manipulation during soundcheck. hahahahhaha. great advice here brother.

Damn VCA's..this one time at band camp..LOl, On a digital console, i pulled up what was supposed to be a clean zero'd showfile. And it appeared to be. Except channel 6 was randomly routed to a VCA (they still call it vca on a soundcraft vi) and it drove me insane for about half an hour

Do you set the FOH eq based on your vocal mix? If not, then what?Just curious what your method is.

Interesting psychology

This guy is a psychologist too

Change the title of this video to "How to use Jedi mind tricks on the band at soundcheck". Lol J/K, this is all good advice, giving it a like. After you get the vocals checked first, do you seat with the kick drum and drums next? Cheers-

Just leave the grill and foam in mouthwash for 30 minutes. Rinse, pat dry grill with towel then leave foam and grill leave out to dry (not in direct sunlight or it can damage the foam) 🤘

Why did we ever decide that on an input list, or soundboard, the layout should start with drums? I have changed mine around to start with vocals long ago. Mostly due to ease in finding things when using an IPAD to control a sound board. Drums may be the first thing we touch when setting music levels, but are not nearly as frequently needed as vocal levels while running the show.

How do u mix the industrial bands that play a pre recorded track or a click that goes to drummers head phone and the monitors?

Thank you very much! I knew beforehand how to work with an individual channel in a console, but I always felt a bit lost in regards to processes when it came to soundcheck time because I simply didn't know where to start and how to structure the soundcheck. Now I feel much more competent, thanks!

I've been doing this with my own personal music project for a few years now and it works great; all of my friends from other bands think I'm crazy for pretending to go "against" the sound engineers rules (drums first...vocals last), and almost everybody hate me 🤭, I love it, at the end, it's me a my public who's enjoying the venue, not my jealous def musician friends.

I always use my own 58 Beta and clean it and my earbuds after every gig.

Miss your vids. Such great advice! I used rhis during covid. Hope you are doing well! ⚡

lol this has nothing to do with actual sound teaching but just how to deal with bands lol

A few days ago I went to a small pub to see a band, and the volume was so brutal that I had to go outside for the second song. The guitars were tuned in d Drop and together with the bass, a ball of such caliber was formed that it seemed that it would collapse at any moment. It seems that some people don't understand that playing louder does NOT mean sounding better. Anyway, it wasn't a very good band either.

I think people say it's a thankless job because 90% of the audience don't understand what it entails, or appreciate how important it is for their enjoyment of the show. They complain when it's sounds bad but don't notice when it sounds good. In my experience most bands are generally very appreciative. I'd say its generally only the lesser experienced musicians who lack understanding of the engineer/musician dynamic that aren't very appreciative.

When the monitor mix is good, the band don't even look at the soundman. If they dancing on stage then they can hear everything and my job is good. Soundman is the 5th member of the band. It's like mixing a record, Live. I don't set it and forget it.

Thanks for video.

Cool

What can you say about one man playing several instruments separately in recording studio like Paul McCartney did on his first album? What can you suggest about setting up mixers between tracks when the one man switches to another instrument and uses pre-recorded back up for rest of the tracks??

This video has some great information, thank you!

Late to watching this video but mixing vocals first is what I started doing a while ago (singer in a covers rock band). I was finding doing drums and other instruments first meant by the time I did vocals I had to run it so hot that feedback and stage volume became an issue. Great tips in this video!

I can see how this might be effective if you’re running in front of house console, and you’re possibly just a one-man show, nowadays, using digital mixers via iPad or tablet, I always start by running pink on the room and then as the band gets on stage and is ready I’m right there with them so I can hear exactly what they want to hear,. For larger Productions, you will find a monitor desk on the side stage so again this is the same practice as 99.9% of all the venues and events happening nowadays are all digital consoles with an engineer who has access to a tablet or an iPad for mixing right next to the Musician

I love this advice because everything you talked about has happened to me as an engineer. This has led to some long and struggling shows because I was taught to do the instruments first for a sound check instead of the vocals first.

Omg thank you! I always politely ask the sound guy to start with vocals because I base my whole monitor mix around that. Sometimes they get offended

Lovely background noises at 11:30 - 12:00 😄

Super helpful! Thank you!

damn,.... something this simple but i agree... i can't tell you how many times letting the FOH guys know what to adjust and fix... well said.

Hey love watching your videos! Just getting into live sound in Oakland! Are you still in SF?

Great advice

I'd hit the thumbs up twice if I could! lol I'd say you've considered far more than most ever do for a sound check haha. Great advice and great attitude towards the job and most importantly, the people. I was introduced to "vocals first" working with The Fab Four. You're so right, it raises eyebrows until the singer starts raving lol. Cheers! (subbed)

Wow! Finally a sound guy that tries to accommodate musicians! Bravo. 99% of sound checks, and I'm talking about nice professional venues, they do Drums, backline and vocals, then ask us to play something together, with NOTHING on the monitors. And if we ask they say the monitoring will be done later and we should play something to make the FOH first. HOW?!? We don't have anything in the monitors for F sake! Then, of course, as the stage mix is an after though, it will be bad, very BAD! My theory is that most sound guys are yet to understand that if we don't have the conditions to perform, everything will sound very bad, no matter the quality of the FOH mix!