Top 5 Tips To Start Live Engineering

TIP #1: Learn From Experience, Not Relying On How To Videos

Playing in a lot of gigs, I learned a few things about setting up, plugging in cables, and sometimes having hands on a mixer, but after a while, I wanted to put my mind on the technical side of things, so I did like what anybody else would do, and look up how to videos on “ how to mix a band “, but I only relied on the videos I watched, and that was a mistake. From a personal view, I didn’t want to go to school for audio because I know there are things in life you can learn without going to college(In specific fields, some are needed) but it would take longer for the “ free “ way, and furthermore while looking up how to videos I came across the “ Why you don’t need to go to audio school to be a sound engineer “, and it made me feel better about not going. But that isn’t to say “ not going “ means you need buy books, look up videos, buy courses, and on and on, because the best way to learn, is by going out and experiencing it. The first six months of learning was pretty tough, all I did was watch videos and learn some things, but most people, like me, are a hands on learning. So how to videos aren’t bad, just use the context live. Example; If you are barely learning and you watch a in depth video how to set speakers properly, how to hook them up, and to set up monitors, well thats a good start, but after learning that you go out to help a band you know that has all the essentials, and tell them you know how to set up and run it, then something unexpected happens(They have a Passive speaker system) and you don’t know nothing about Amps, Passive, Ohms, Watts, the right amount of volts you need, and so on, and you based your small career on that “one video” because they only showed “Active speakers” and maybe call it quits (almost what I did) but the important part was you learned from experience, and know next time you mess with Passive systems, it wont happen again, so you can learn from how to videos, don’t rely on it, just experience the outcome.

TIP #2: Invest What Career You Want To Start

Investing to be a sound engineer can be expensive, or it can be cheap. From what I know, going out and helping bands live, being one on one with the engineers at the shows, not many gear is owned by the sound engineers. I’m talking about the consoles, stages, lights, speakers, amps, and all the equipment, but the men and women who have their own setup, it’s hard to find. So there is a fine line on what you can do, work for a sound company, branch off and have your own business, or, buy your own gear and work with what you have. In my case, I have no sound company experience, just single person handling all the gear. So the career I wanted to invest was have my own sound system, speakers, equipment, and all the fun stuff, and to this point its working out good, but I didn’t know what I wanted to invest in. I didn’t know if I wanted to have a analog mixer for shows, but that means I need a 150ft snake to run and a big case for the mixer, or did I want powered speakers or passive, and had to manage what I needed to buy, or just text all the bands I know and asked, “ Can I run sound for your band ? “. Invest what YOU want, if its running bands for a whole show, buy all your own gear(I’ll have a blog what I run soon) so you can tell people don’t touch your stuff and stay away, or if its helping small touring bands, then look into what to take with you for back ups, or what they need, this can go both ways but its smart to choose from the start and invest on the right stuff so you don’t over think and constantly change your mind.

TIP #3: Go To Other Gigs And Learn How The Bands Operate

This tip is like an internship, but you’re working for yourself. I know you want to start off right off the bat, but it’s also good if you take time to go listen and watch other bands play. I was lucky enough being around a lot of local bands playing almost every weekend, so I went out and sat at a bar, coffee shop, coliseum, and even lucky enough to show up at free events that had popular bands and the seating was next to the FOH(Front of House). Not saying you need to take notes on why the Engineer had the Snare 1.87 dB higher than usual, just watch and see what is common on what the engineer’s do. One common theme I’ve seen (In Commercial Sound Companies) is the check the inputs on the FOH then they go to monitors for the musicians. It’s good and bad for this reason; you are setting gain for the FOH, which also insure the monitors will get signal, but also when telling the musicians to hit the kick, or strum, they’ll start complaining about not hearing anything in the monitors, but thats another topic another day. That was for the Commercial side of things, but in some cases for everyone there are a lot of small bands with there own sound system, and no sound engineer, just working purely with what sounds good, so in that case if you listen to bands and see how they work, you may ask them for you to help them out, just so as long as you don’t make the band, crowd, and venue upset, if you learn how the others operate, then you have no problems in your own gigs.

TIP #4: Have A Humble Start

I did not take this one when I first started and it delayed me from being a better engineer, be humble for everything thats presented to you, you will have your own mistakes and good to learn from them. By having a humble start, what I mean is you may have learned all the things you need to start a live show, or even started helping a band with sound, but almost always you are going to have someone come up to you and tell you something you don’t like, and in many cases it will kill your ego, happened to me a lot, and I didn’t let it go for the night, and it made me look bad for having an attitude. For starters, the crowd, Dads, and the guy who’s “done” audio for years but only likes what he wants, probably don’t know anything audio related, BUT, they have ears within the crowd, they may tell you they can’t hear the vocal, or guitar, kick, or even the lights don’t look “ Cool “ just take it into consideration, and try to think from there mind set, yes it will take a while until you get a “ good “ sound, but it’s supposed to take a while so you can be a master at it, if your humble and think what there talking about, then you’ll know what to do next time, I may have set the EQ and volume level that sounds good to me, but not everyone can here from your point of view, Heres a extra tip: Everyone cares more about the vocals than anythings, take it from me, I liked having the drum set loud, and someone came up and said they can’t hear the vocals, and it hurt me, but after adjusting it, the crowd was happy, so be humble when you get told something, you either take it and learn from it, or you smile when its not right, and move on.

TIP #5: Be A Nice Engineer, But Not Too Nice

So with the other tips are what I experienced, without being too technical I believe learning from experience, know what to invest in, learning by going to other gigs and events, and learning to be humble, is a good start to have, you get to see the full picture and you’ll know if you want to continue this career or stop, even if you are going to audio school and you are learning, going to internships, learning hands on, and being a part of the experience as a new comer is also a good route to do, with all that being said; Don’t be a sound engineer somebody wants to stay away from. Being a musician, I’ve played in gigs where the venue hired a sound company, and its mostly nice for the musicians because they Plug-In play and the most easiest for them, but some of those companies won’t be compassionate with the players. You may have not seen this before, but 1/10 sound companies are gonna be aggressive, and its not going to be a good night. I understand that for a sound engineer, you expect most bands to be professional, but some might be there first time playing, so when you tell that Bass player theres no signal coming out of the mains, and you know you plugged him in the Di, he tells you he unplugged it because his “ Rig “ is loud enough. Now you may not experience helping big sound companies, just sticking with local bands, and this is the Not To Nice Part of this Tip. You may have been doing this already, but telling bands you can help out for the night is a good thing, you learn a lot, and may want you to go more, BUT, if you continue to do this, they might use you without paying you properly. If you are starting out, and you know some basics things that can help bands, the help them out, but it’s always good to be upfront to tell them you want to get paid for your time, you are making them sound good, so why aren’t they paying for your services, be mean when it needs to be.