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Appropriate time length for soundcheck?

#21
One of the most intriguing sound checks I saw was actually BETTER than the band.

What they'd do is a quick 15 second snippet of a hook.. then stop.. (kind of off mike "more bass drum").. they'd then do a hook of another tune.

All stuff I wanted to hear.. bought a beer hoping they'd play teh stuff...

Instead they did the average cover band thing and played a trashy loose version of their favorite songs.

basically they'd play just 10 seconds.. then stop.. adjust... play a different hook.
 
#23
As said, it depends.

If you have a soundman (or an intelligent person) running the board while you play, then not very long at all, as they can adjust stuff on the fly. In cases like that, I generally try to get monitors settled first. Using a talkback mic through the monitors helps a LOT as the soundman can talk to you easily. I find that often after an initial quick levels check and a song (or half song) to check levels, most adjustment is really done by the soundman during the first song or two (fixing the levels, "dude, can I get some more keys in my monitor?" etc. Big bands can be a hassle, but a 4 piece shouldn't be that hard.

If you play with the same people and same equipment, I try to keep things like input gains and faders where they are and adjust as needed at the next gig. This helps a lot with bands with many singers, as you can often assign the vocals to a sub, and keep the relative fader settings the same - adjusting the overall vocal volume for everyone.

I don't recommend keeping tone controls at anything but flat in between gigs, and for that matter, I don't recommend adjusting them from flat unless really really needed.

Player discipline and professionalism during soundchecks helps a ton in terms of getting a soundcheck done in a hurry.
 
#26
alangoldstein said:
we do a half song for sound check
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+1

For bar gigs with my cover band project, we'll do the chorus of a song, if that, for a soundcheck. We've played most of the venues many times so we already have the sound pretty well dialed in before we touch any instruments. Typically, we'll just tweak on the fly.

For the original band stuff, it depends on the venue and where we are in the lineup that night. If we're headlining, we may get a full blown sound check several hours before the gig. Otherwise, its most likely a line check right before we go on.
 
#28
My situation: Originals bands 3 sometimes 4 bands per night, 45 minute sets, house sound guy.
so we usually go on between 2 others. For me, being quick about it is the primary concern, as a matter of courtesy to the audience and other band's time slots.
I try to dial in my rig at rehearsal and not worry too much about tweaky stuff at the gig.
I know the material well enough that if my monitors are suboptimal, I can still execute the material.
I only wait for the vocalists to get their mix, because I feel that's more crucial.
I do put a lot of faith in the sound guy, and follow thier lead if He needs my rig to come up or down.
My band typically gets levels for each instrument, plays half a song and that's it.
 
#29
Stinsok said:
I had a friend that LOVED to use pink noise for extended periods. That is the most annoying thing I have ever heard. Pisses everyone off.
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allexcosta said:
I'm guessing you wouldn't find too amusing to work on a large production, because that's how people do it...
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well, the big boys are using SMAART or whatever with multiple mics to actually analyze phase and delay and all kinds of other parameters.

in the bars, a pink noise session is usually accompanied by a guy trying to EQ "flat" an RTA display fed by one mic set somewhere. so the long annoying static blast is therefore followed by a godawful-sounding mix :rollno:
 
#30
walterw said:
well, the big boys are using SMAART or whatever with multiple mics to actually analyze phase and delay and all kinds of other parameters.

in the bars, a pink noise session is usually accompanied by a guy trying to EQ "flat" an RTA display fed by one mic set somewhere. so the long annoying static blast is therefore followed by a godawful-sounding mix :rollno:
Click to expand...

Agreed. Back in the 80s when I was playing full time we had a Goldline RTA. At the end of the night if the drunks were slow to leave at closing time the bartender had us turn ours on. The bar would clear out in a few minutes.;)
 
#31
Keep in mind too that with multiple bands a good sound crew will be able to soundcheck you very fast. I used to assist my pal in doing fair gigs where we have to deal with 7-9 bands plus our own with 15-20 min tear down/setup times. We got really good at soundchecking in a hurry.

just like anything else, the more you do it, the better you get at it.
 
#32
In my experience behind the desk, soundchecks last until I´m happy (nver totally happy as venues change a lot when the crowd arrives). However, on stage we have often found ourselves with very short soundchecks, we solved this by having our own monitors etc, and our own "on stage" tech. This means that we always use the same rig, and know how we should sound, then it´s up to the FOH engineer to decide how good an impression he wants to make!!!
 
#33
I play a lot of multi-band shows, where half the time we'll get a full (as in 10 minute) sound check before the show, and half the time we'll get a quick and dirty line check and MAYBE get to set monitor levels - but only if the band before us gets their gear off stage fast enough.

They never get it off stage fast enough.
 

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