Sound check please?

Bass2Live · #1 05-12-2007, 10:55 AM

I may be completely wrong here but I've always thought that a sound check was everyone jamming together on something for a second to find a good equal volume so the music sounds good and nothing is too overpowering. I played a show last night and the band had each player go through one at a time doing their "sound check" and needless to say I left pissed about how the lead guitar playing was blowing me and and the rhythm guitarist out of the water.

Trigg

theshadow2001 · #2 05-12-2007, 12:35 PM

When running everything through a PA you generally sound check everything individually including each drum of the kit right the way up to the vocals. Everyone can adjust their sound on stage to be heard sort out volume issues or whatever. But the overall sound and mix is done at the desk.

Also you might want to adjust eq's of your rig to suit the room better which could mean playing solo during sound check

KekChoz · #3 05-12-2007, 01:24 PM

well said. i was about to say that.

Brad Maestas · #4 05-12-2007, 01:51 PM

I like to think of the initial, individual instrument testing as a "line check", a coarse adjustment if you will. Then when everyone's playing together and getting a blend, that's the soundcheck and where the fine-tuning (or not!) is done.

While I'll agree that the overall mix is done at the board, I think the band is entirely responsible for the overall sound. This isn't a sterile, isolated recording environment where everything is piped through the desk. Your sound is still coming off the stage and that's where it can become a nightmare for a sound guy (or fellow bandmate, in your case). While it is the sound engineer's responsibility to adjust on-stage volume as well as FOH, it's ultimately the individual musicians' responsibilities to be aware of these things before someone has to tell them to turn down. Communicate with your guitarist (flash cards, maybe?) and let him know he's too @#*&$^#@$ loud!

Lately, my bands have been doing lots of quick line checks before we go on since we're usually one of several bands in an evening. This is fine because we really only need the vocals to come through. We're much better at controlling our blend ourselves than any half-assed sound guy. Most of the places are so small anyway that we don't need anything but vocals/soloists going through the FOH.

Good luck, Trigg!

jonathan_matos5 · #5 05-12-2007, 01:52 PM

yeah it is everyone by them selves and then the band as a whole that way you get everybody playing and mixing well.

Bass2Live · #6 05-13-2007, 03:21 PM

Great stuff guys. I agree with everyones comments about playing solo (possibly for the purpose of getting their EQ set or just getting a volume that is satisfying to player). Course I think the guy at the board should also be able to go through and make overall changes as we jam and depending on the song. I'll take all the tips into consideration next time we jam and hopefully can make some progress with getting things sounding good.

Trigg

Diggler · #7 05-13-2007, 08:13 PM

Big difference between gain and volume. They have to do each instrument individually to get the right amount of gain to keep the signal to noise ratio down. Once that's figured out for the instruments, they should be about the same and are quickly fine-tuned at the beginning of the first song, whether at the end of soundcheck or the beginning of the show.

Trying to set gain levels while everyone is playing a song would be a nightmare.

ntimkovich · #8 05-14-2007, 10:42 AM

absolutely right. individual sources to set the gain, then a song or a jam to set the monitor volumes and start to tweak the FOH sound. the only thing that's important is to play a song at soundcheck that uses the most number of sources (so don't play an instrumental soundcheck if all your songs require vocals).

i run sound all the time, and it's very frustrating to have a band come on stage that doesn't understand how to soundcheck properly. mid song they start yelling at me to set the monitors right, and if they had been clear during soundcheck, they would have sounded great from the get-go.

i could write a long article about how to soundcheck properly.

heh, maybe i will...

cheers!
nick

derrico1 · #9 05-14-2007, 01:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ntimkovich

i could write a long article about how to soundcheck properly. . . .heh, maybe i will...

Sounds like a good sticky; have at it!

theshadow2001 · #10 05-14-2007, 06:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by derrico1

Sounds like a good sticky; have at it!

+1

memphissound · #11 05-16-2007, 11:10 AM

Sound check peeve...

Guy plays one volume at sound check, walks on stage for performance and immediately reaches for the volume knob to turn it up. Now he's WAY TOO LOUD.

grumblegrumblegrumblegrumblegrumble

peace,
memphissound <><

theshadow2001 · #12 05-16-2007, 04:54 PM

I had one last week, whilst checking drums, fiddling at the desk. I suddenly here the sound of a guitarist noodling. "What the F are you doing man????"

Diggler · #13 05-16-2007, 06:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by memphissound

Sound check peeve...

Guy plays one volume at sound check, walks on stage for performance and immediately reaches for the volume knob to turn it up. Now he's WAY TOO LOUD.

grumblegrumblegrumblegrumblegrumble

peace,
memphissound <><

That's why I insist on DI'ing myself and my guitar player rather than micing cabinets.

Not only is it 100x cleaner, if he needs more volume, he can turn up his stage volume without affecting the entire mix too badly.

Wanna sound like an overdriven Marshall? Use a modeler.

bstringrandy · #14 05-18-2007, 11:55 AM

We do a quick individual channel check with the sound guy through his headphones at the board to check gain and EQ. He has the drummer do a quick bit on the whole set next and then a quick check of the monitors. That way we know all of the mics and lines are working. He knows enough of how to set the FOH levels on the first song so it only takes a minor tweak or two once we kick off.

Trying to do a sound check on a jam would make it difficult to tell if you had an individual channel line issue or gain out of whack.

++1 on communicating and being responsible for maintaining your sound levels where the sound guy has the headroom to get you into the mix correctly. If you're out-blasting everyone else to the point where he has to take you out of the board and turn everything else up to compensate, you're not doing anyone any favors!!!

We have six mikes on the drums, a DI for me, a mike on the guitar amp, and three vocal mikes to play with...

Randy

Stumpy · #15 05-18-2007, 12:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by theshadow2001

When running everything through a PA you generally sound check everything individually including each drum of the kit right the way up to the vocals. Everyone can adjust their sound on stage to be heard sort out volume issues or whatever. But the overall sound and mix is done at the desk.

Also you might want to adjust eq's of your rig to suit the room better which could mean playing solo during sound check

+1

The sound guy running the FOH needs to set levels on the board and in the house. You need to do every instrument that is being played (or beat upon) so he can start his job.

Once all of those parts are finished then the band should play a few minutes of song so he can get the starting overall mix for the FOH.