What To Expect When mixing At A Festival

[@davykelly3053]

That was very informative thanks 😊. I am quite new to the FOH world and volunteer at a local small not for profit arts center. I admit I’ve only ever once really became the Grumpy tech. I had a band who continually ignored my instructions regarding the volume of their amps. They made the soundcheck last over 30 minutes (2 mics, bass, guitar, drums). They weren’t happy when I asked them to leave the stage while I sound checked a solo artist. After requesting they wise up and listen they went back on stage ant their sound was dialled in, in under 5 minutes. Sometimes it’s impossible not to be grumpy 😂

[@phillippowers6905]

We would like to see u build that show file! Great advice

[@OffshoreAudio]

It shall be done

[@gregmcveigh9966]

This was really good. I can speak from another perspective - I used to work for Meyer Sound and we provided sound for the Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland. I saw the visiting sound engineers daily and my take away was that they were often tired and sometimes a bit unsure of what to expect in terms of the vibe. The riders were sent and they were in good hands there but I did my best to say hello and let them know that I was a tourist too. It was incredible. I've said this for years and you touch on it as "soft skills" but good gear is good gear. It's the people that make it such a unique environment.

[@OffshoreAudio]

Awesome! That must've been a chill show to work. Thanks so much for sharing your perspective and on behalf of everyone thanks for being a pleasant person haha. What do you do now if you don't work for Meyer anymore?

[@gregmcveigh9966]

@@OffshoreAudio It wasn't crazy but I wouldn't call it chill. We had seven stages and the "Jazz" name is sort of misleading. We had all sorts of acts from all over the world including Living Colour, Neil Young, George Clinton and a ton of other great acts. I loved it. These days I run my Guesthouse Projects company that does PR and artist relations for pro audio manufacturers. My current clients are Heil Sound mics and Clear Tune Monitors.

[@zackcox6651]

Patch technician

[@OffshoreAudio]

This! Thank you! Hot damn I really couldn't remember that.

[@speckles9251]

Thank goodness, ... simply content, no course being sold, no clickybait ... Cool!

[@jameswilkinson6530]

In my world a line technician is called a Patch Technician

[@MetalheadPituuw]

Big fan of Blood Command here, must have been a real blast to mix them ! Cheers, thanks for the content !

[@gaithouri]

sound engineering is so much not about sound engineering. its crazy

[@KenDeavers]

Usually called a lighting director / LD here

[@freddyspaghetti1055]

If you were delivering audio over MADI to both FOH and MON, can you request that the festival has an expansion card for their mixers, just as you request what microphones you want?

[@prospekt1909]

Your imagination is the limit when it comes to requesting, but actually having your requests fulfilled is a whole other story. The festival techs will always try to find a solution that works and most likely approach you in advance if they stumble upon something in your rider that they most likely can't provide (due to budget or availability or whatever). With your specific example of asking them to provide MADI expansion cards for whatever mixers they have without having a good reason for that, it will most likely be denied unless you're headlining a larger festival. As a band tech, it's a very good practice to offer alternative solutions to the supplying company that allow them to keep costs low (this is why we don't ask for one particular PA or mic, but offer a range of options). It's also our job to keep our setup simple and flexible or, if we just can't work around that one special thing, bring our own gear.

[@ryanbird109]

This is a great video, really appreciate it. Starting to get asked to mix bands on tours/festivals myself and this is super helpful as I currently have no idea what it’s like to do a “walk-up” at a festival

[@OffshoreAudio]

Thanks! So glad it was helpful because you (and me 2 weeks ago) are the exact type of person I made it for 😁

[@thestudbq]

Sandwiches

[@johannesfalk8146]

Did you ask about what firmware vers their cl5 was running? One of my big nightmares is coming in to a show where I NEED my prepped showfile to work and it doesn't work. Also, did the showfile include rough monitor mixes, or was that thrown together by their monitor guy on the spot?

[@Drake21339]

Ouch, day of show flights are the worst. Nice work for one of your first fly-date festivals! Next time have your rider, input list, etc all accessible on your phone.. having a small input list memorized is great, but when you start flying out with bands that have 60+ inputs that isn’t feasible. 🙃

[@gabopenav]

Thanks for the insight mate! So much truth!

[@OffshoreAudio]

Thanks!

[@nathe7538]

This is great, I just did my first festival on FOH on a Digico Quantum (not to versed with it but found it easy to get around) and ended up mixing a multitude of bands. Im a new hire with the guy that was doing monitors so this was the first time we got to work together. Through rehearsals I got to making my snapshots for the different acts and would always ask over the talkback about things I wasn't sure about. In hindsight I think I should've definitely used my IEMs to cue the track and listen before I asked but like I would see KEYS L, KEYS R would only have signal in one, then would ask "hey, I'm only getting signal keys L, is it fine" But when I push up the vocal I realize that its a wired vocal that they put in for a specific band (I cant see the stage because I'm pretty far away) So after everything was finished it was requested that they wanted to streamline the micing plans as it was unorganized before (I had asked if the microphones will be designated the same way they are right now and was told yes. So this basically rendered my snapshots useless. So on the actual day, when everything was all over the place I ended up having to mix fresh. So I would ask questions, but I didn't feel like I was asking excessively, just things hat was weird on my end and since he was on the patch side/give out microphones so he's probably know. He said that I was asking stupid questions and I have the easiest job as a FOH engineer and he's always busy when I'm ask and I'm just annoying him. Some of his points were valid like, using and IEM to cue before asking, leave all microphones on with a fader position at -20 or so so you can get it up as soon as things start happening. I just finished Uni and moved to a new country to work with a top AVL company so I'm still in the "I have what it takes phase" but same as him haha. I think what I mean to ask is what things could I have improved on this exchange and how would you tackle something like this. Tq

[@jannik19191]

Interesting video! What's your experience regarding outdoor vs indoor venues? With festivals, my main concern would be that if I mix at the same level I'd mix at indoors, it would be far too loud in the front

[@OffshoreAudio]

Thanks! When At a festival or larger event I'm going to trust that the system tech/pa installer has ensured even coverage from front to back within a reasonable tolerance. I'm mixing so that it sounds good where I am, and trusting then to make it sound good everywhere. On smaller shows then I'll walk the venue and be aware of speaker coverage and you're the environment changes the listening experienc. Like if it's a sold out basement then I know I just won't get the high end at the back, so I'll accept that and won't you chasing it. Hope that makes sense.

[@TheYougig]

Very good advice. You are obviously a very good sound engineer.

[@StereoAnthony]

Well this was unexpectedly very interesting!. I do mostly small stuff so mixing a festival is of very little interest to me, but this overview was very illuminating! Never in my life would I have expected the festival itself providing mics, wireless, and IEM packs. That being said, with a fast act turnover I can certainly see how this would really speed things up, especially in monitor world. I've enjoyed reading the comments of experienced engineers. Some really interesting insights. Very cool video!

[@OffshoreAudio]

Thanks! Really glad you found it interesting!

[@babelbox6642]

the line technician is called a stager ;-)

[@keitholiver3981]

Hi I play in a small band and also build the gig with the mixer, mics, etc. I was very interested in the setting up of a gig in a large venue like a festival and you talked about the responsibility of the various technicians. Is it possible you can explain each persons role with some actual photos/videos, many thanks very interesting.

[@OffshoreAudio]

Hey, thanks for the feedback. yeah I'll try make that video for you. It might take a little while before I've got a bigger show where I've also got time to shoot some video but I'll definitely get it made sooner or later.

[@ericwallis2499]

I would be very interested if you could do an in depth video of how you set up, tricks or shortcuts you may have

[@OffshoreAudio]

Nice. I'll make that video then. I can do a walkthrough of how I set it up and why.

[@chiefrebelangel817]

My favourite thing doing FOH at festivals and arena shows is having a dedicated monitor mixer. I hate doing monitoring

[@OffshoreAudio]

Agreed, I feel ike in a small venue it's fine ish because I'm so close to the stage, but I can't imagine having to do monitors from 50m away

[@chiefrebelangel817]

​@@OffshoreAudio well its fine/ish if i have to do it, but i'd rather not :)

[@iam_elroy]

Love the video

[@OffshoreAudio]

Thanks!

[@maceoellington8997]

Trying to catch your accent. French Canadian?

[@Drake21339]

He’s in Norway (says it in the video).

[@maceoellington8997]

Thanx He speaks American English well.

[@helsinkioslo836]

Common westerner.

[@OffshoreAudio]

Heh. I get Canadian strangely often, but I don't think anyone wants to hear my French.... I'm from Scotland but I've lived in Norway for years so there's also whatever that does to my accent.

[@IvanGarcia-mk6fk]

Lighting Director or LD is another term for the lighting technician.

[@prospekt1909]

He said "line technician", not "light technician" which I'm guessing is some sort of patch tech (taking care of input- and output patching on stage)