So, here’s a little insight to my daily life. I like to think of myself as a live sound engineer who is (I think very) capable of tour managing. If you’re not interested in these things, I would suggest skipping this blog.

We’ll start with one of my favorite things in the world, mixing live sound.

LIVE SOUND
Mixing live is such a rush. Every day presents an engineer with new situations, problems to solve, and fun to be had! Front of house (herein referred to as FOH) mixing is the most important part of a show. Nothing is worse than bad sound.

I like to be a very ‘hands on’ engineer. My fortes lie in live effects. I really like to do tap tempo delays, manually controlled reverbs, and other effects live.

FOH
- If it’s too loud for the engineer, it’s killing the audience. Remember, you’re mixing for them, not for you.
- Don’t be afraid to tell the band to turn down their amps. If you’re fighting with stage volume it can make the entire room unbalanced.
- Be nice to the band you’re working for. They’re signing your checks after all.
- Mix with your ears, not with your eyes. Too many new engineers look at all the lights to make sure everything is doing what it’s ‘supposed’ to do. It doesn’t matter if it looks wrong, it’s what it sounds like that’s important.
- The less microphone stands, the better. Claws and amp grabbers will make everyone’s life easier. I always clamp my ‘overheads’ as ‘underheads’. It takes the harshness and attack out of the cymbals and looks very nice on stage.
- 2 mics on individual instruments can be your friend. In & out kick mics, top & bottom snare, bass DI and mic. This allows you to get two different tones and be able to blend them together. This will prevent a lot of equalization that you would normally have to do. For snare, it also give you more room to work with when applying reverb.
- Garbage in, garbage out. It’s a lot easier to make a good band sound bad than it is to make a bad band sound good.
- Sometimes, in a big room, it’s not a bad idea to engage a high pass on the kick drum around 40-50Hz.

MONITORS
- Never take your eyes off of the band. Watch them like a hawk.
- Be nice to the band and listen to them. It can get a bit hectic on stage at times, but always keep your cool. A bad monitor engineer (not necessarily bad monitors) can ruin a show.
- Ring out your monitors every day with whatever vocal mics you are using for that particular show. Nothing is worse than feedback.
- Be very gradual with your adjustments, one jump too big in a level can induce feedback.
- Develop hand signals. Band members asking for things over their microphones can totally kill the vibe of a show.
- Learn your frequencies (or buy a handheld RTA).
- Never pull out more than 5 frequencies (aside from the super low ones that you don’t need anyway).

TOUR MANAGING
- Your job is to make the band’s life easier. With a good TM, a band shouldn’t have to worry about much except for showing up on time and playing the shows.
- Day sheets will lessen the amount of stress and inevitable headache you get every day.
- Advance, advance, advance! Ask the band everything they will need to know each day and find out that information far ahead of time.
- Know when to work, and know when to party. If you don’t cut loose every now and then, you’ll go crazy. However, you will need to be on top of your game and ready to take charge at any given moment.
- Realize that you’re going to have to be an asshole at times.
- Don’t ever question a band’s request, just do it.
- Figure out how to get drugs (or anything) in every town. Most bands have their vices, and your job is to provide them (this is something you can advance as well).
- Don’t expect the band to do anything for themselves. You should always be the first one to take care of anything, or at least offer to take care of any issues.
- A good TM is the first one up and the last one to sleep.
- Always keep the band’s money on you. Never leave it in the van or at the venue (the hotel is ok, or if you’re on a bus leave it in the safe).
- Deposit your money in the bank as often as possible.
- Master Tour (or other TM software) can make your life easy. Technology is on your side with TMing.
- Budget an extra hour for all drives.
- Keep your bus/van well cleaned and maintained.