The Art of the Soundcheck

Ages ago, a mate of mine called  me up with the wonderful news that his band Blackfire were playing the Sydney Entertainment Centre supporting Santana!!

"Hey", I said, "I guess the only way I can see that concert is if I mix you guys". Well, to my surprise, he said "would you?" Umm, "hell yeah" I said.

So my second ever live mixing gig was The Sydney Entertainment Centre - piece of cake!!! (not)

But here's where the story REALLY begins.

It was the first gig of the tour, so the Santana road crew were at it from about 7am, the band did a LONG sound check, I was there, it was GREAT. So as a result, by the time Blackfire were to sound check, the crew were WAY MORE interested in a hamburger than getting a sound perfect platform, from which Blackfire could perform wonderfully and effortlessly to the audience as a result of the fantastic audio experience the band was experiencing on stage after a long and fanatical sound check.

The crew just wanted to get outta there ASAP... FOOD!!!

So I said to the guys, "we've got 5 minutes to do this, here's what we need to do..."

1. get on stage and look at me and I'll tell you when to make a noise.
2. when it's your turn, play for a few seconds, check your microphone then let me know exactly what you want... be specific. What is too loud and what is too soft.
3. no-one else is to make a noise when it's not your turn. Now is not the time to play Smoke On The Water!
4. focus, we have 5 minutes to do 1/2 hrs work.
5. you will get the crew on side if this all goes very quickly.
6. play 1 minute of a song, stop and let me know what you want changed, don't do an extended version of Voodoo Chile as a sound check.

So that's what we did and it worked like a charm, the crew were DELIGHTED that the sound check took only 5 mins, they were off to have a meal and a drink and when Blackfire did their gig, the crew were on side willing and able to help them out with whatever they wanted - and it all sounded fine on stage and Blackfire performed wonderfully on the night. JOB DONE!

So the message here is two fold...

1. until you're the main act, you can't do a 2 hr sound check
   
   
2. if you can focus on an efficient sound check, the Band will sound fine on stage, you'll play great and win the audience over and make just one more step towards total world domination with your music..

Soundcheck-Smoundcheck...
I just wanna rock man!!!

Yeah, well you're an idiot, before you gotta rock, it's gotta sound at least "reasonable" on stage. If you're doing a 3 song band comp or a 2 hour gig, it'd be wise to make sure that the kick drum isn't 100db in your ear or the vocal isn't 100 db in the drummer ear cause the sound man that you've never met until 5 minutes before the gig, might get it wrong... I hate to rain on your party, but this does happen nightly at gigs everywhere in the world, as we speak. 

I went to a gig recently to support a mate in a band comp. There was a whole lotta preparation, a whole lotta love, put into this gig. The band turned up late, no sound check, using different guitars tuners, no time to check.... uh-oh... the band was out of tune and one guitar was WAY loud in the foldback. As luck (not) would have it, the band was first on the bill, so what happened was that it took 2 songs to tune up and sort out the foldback issue. Net result, the band sounded GREAT for just one song.... guess who didn't win... no big deal you say, well not so... every successful band has lucky breaks, having bad sound on stage with out of tune guitars with band members that look like stunned mullets  cause one guitarists volume in the foldback is pinning your ears back like your mother did when you were 4 years old caught stealing money out of your dad's wallet... oh, sorry that was me, I digress. 

So here's a plan for your soundchecks...

1. How to avoid total catastrophes...
   Have everybody play just for a minute, nothing flash - just a couple of verses and a chorus will do.... you don't need to play for 10 minutes to identify that the bass drum is @ 100 Db and the vocal is @ 3db... make it clear to Mr Fold Back Guy, what you want, in simple language... like, the bass drum is too loud and my vocal needs to come up, rather than language like.... "oh, it just doesn't sound right, or man, those drums are pulling my pubes out, or he's a shit drummer, my vocals are drowned out". This will not cause a situation where the Mr Foldback Guy will want to be you're Best Man at your wedding.
   
   
2. By the way, Mr Foldback Guy is your best and most valuable friend at the moment, treat him with extreme respect... a beer wouldn't go astray and if he doesn't drink (yes, they do exist) buy him a candy bar + a pack of chips!
   
   
3. When everybody has their turn at their foldback, without any other band member making any noise on their chosen instrument, play just 1 minute of a song, and the song chosen would need to be a "typical" song for the band, don't play the song that has just bass drum, hi-hat and bass guitar for the first 3 verses... give the sound guys a song with a typical verse and chorus with the whole band playing. That will make life better for the sound guy and as a result, the band.
   
   Remember that there only needs to be one thing wrong to absolutely ruin a performance - if the monitors have the bass drum pounding away and none of your vocals, you're in trouble.
   
   
4. Get off stage ASAP... the crew wanna eat and you will endear yourselves to the crew and as a result get a better mix... can I repeat that...
   
   You get yourselves a better mix, if you have the crew on side....

Being more specific....

Mr Drummer - just get a bit of bass drum and Lead Vocal in your foldback... if you have more time, get more stuff if you need to, but bottom line that's all you need.

Mr Bass Player - get a bit of kick, if you need it, but as long as you can hear the band and vocals, you're sweet, give any extra time saved here to your vocalist. You don't want a vocalist singing out of key cause he can't hear himself, that doesn't help the "greater cause".

Mr/Miss/Ms Singer - get your vocals loud enough but not TOO loud... you'll feedback.. does it sound a bit "boxy"? Get Mr Fold Back Guy to have a listen, he'll know right away and sort it out (hopefully). It'd be great to get accustomed to some critical (bad) frequencies, like 100Hz (boomy), 1K (boxy), 2 1/2K (sharp) so you can guide Mr Fold Back Guy as to what to do, if you say things like "it doesn't sound very good", he'll be tempted to pull a gun and perhaps fire, which is not only against the law, but painful... it's your job to know these things.

Mr Guitarist - don't ask to have much of you're guitar in the foldback.

Another little trick.... If you play on a HUGE stage, don't spread out too much, it'll disorient you , the drummer will sound like he's playing in Egypt while you're in New York and the tempo will go out the door, as will most of the listeners. The art of playing a BIG stage comes with practice. Stay close and play well......

The Band - the simpler the better, especially if you're the support band, if you ask for 2 things in the foldback, it'll happen, ask for 5 things, 3 will happen, ask for 9, 2 will happen... keep it simple... bottom line ,a bit of drums and a bit of vocal!!!

Permission to reproduce this article is available to all,
as long as you include attribution to myself including contact details
and let me know where you have used the material.
Jeff Cripps
A# Sharp Recording Studio
Email: jeff@asharp.com.au
Phone: +612 9153 9988

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