What is the sound engineer's job?

[Balog]

I always view my job as making the band as happy as I can while maintaining FOH. Actually, that is the standing orders from the venue I volunteer for. Everyone's goal isgood sound for the audience. That requires compromise and trust from everyone at all steps in the path.

 

[BassmanAd]

I don't know what the sound guy does at my shows cos I can't hear the FOH but I don't worry about it, I'm just nice and friendly to them, find out their name and say please and thank you.

Like I say, I don't worry about the FOH.

 

[CC7]

+1, I hear ya on that, to be worrying about FOH and a soundman is just way too much of a distraction for me.
I just try to be as professional as I can and do my job.

 

[electracoyote]

The best sound engineers, indeed the best musician support personnel in any endeavor, will always at least politely listen to the concerns of musicians. They then use their best judgment to get the best sound and mix possible. Sometimes they agree with the suggestions they receive, sometimes they don't but they have the diplomatic skills to not openly refute your opinion as a musician. They get the last word by their actions, not their words, since they are the ones out there behind the console twiddling the knobs and faders, and you're stuck up on the stage, with arguably the worst sound perspective in the room pounding in your ears.

I always make a few brief, well-chosen, non-confrontational comments to the sound guy, tips and suggestions about various aspects of my rig and microphone, and how they've been best utilized in the past, and then just cross my fingers and hope for the best. Realistically, there's not much more you can do.

I've had extremely good relationships with virtually all the soundpeople I've worked with in the Denver/Metro area. It's a matter of building a rapport based on trust and respect.

 

[HolmeBass]

I have found through experience that laying off of the sound engineer is the best path to success. The best engineers I work with effortlessly grant all of my monitor requests, and never ask me to do anything. They usually compliment me on my tone. The less gifted/experienced ones sometimes do ask me to turn down, kill certain frequencies, etc., and I do my best to comply. When a sound guy asks things like that, it usually means they're already in the weeds, no sense throwing gasoline on the fire. It does suck when you can't hear yourself very well, but I try to soldier through, I ask for a bit of bass in the monitor, high-passed if they're dinky little things, and I tough it out as best I can.