Running sound.
The unsung hero behind the board.
As a musician, I have performed on many stages. As a roadie, I have set-up and torn-down many stages. As a guitar tech, I have changed and tuned dozens of guitars. I have even run sound on a few shows I did for my buddies back in the early 1980’s. All of this is what most musicians learn to do at some point in their musical career.
Every drummer I know has tech’d for another drummer at some point. Every guitar player I know has tech’d for another guitar player. This was called, paying your dues. This was what you did back in the day. You hung out with the band, you helped load-in, you helped set-up, tear down and pack the gear. If you were a musician wanting to join that band, this was a great way to earn an audition when the bass guitarist quit. Brownie points always helped - because the band already trusted you. You might never get paid for any of your effort, but usually the band made sure that you ate and drank for free too. They sometimes even paid for breakfast at Denny’s at 4am, on the way home from the gig.
Running sound was something I usually left for the guys who understood the language between the stage and the board. Musicians needed to know how to talk to the guys running sound - to let them know what needed to fixed in the mix. A lot of this was going on way before “in-ear” monitors. If you were lucky, you had at least two wedges in front of at least three mics. When you’re in a band, you hear everything you need to hear in rehearsals. That’s why bands have so many of them. When you play large venues with an in-house sound guy, you learn to relinquish control to that sound guy and trust that he will make you sound awesome in the house.
Bands have soundchecks. It is a must before any gig. Unfortunately, sound checks and actually performances change by the minute. Lot’s of things to know and always be aware of when you play in a band. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve played plenty of gigs where the sound guy has his head up his ass and everything sounds like shit. I’ve also played gigs where the sound is so incredibly loud, it becomes nothing more than white noise; and you can’t hear anything at any level. That’s when the band is forced to play on auto-pilot.
With that said, I really enjoyed this video with Rick Beato and Dave Natale. This guy reminds me of every neurotic sound guy I’ve ever known: “Get away from my board! Why don’t you help from over there?!”