Please come to Chicago and beat 99% of our soundguys into submission!  This is great, common sensical, and so attuned to the way I wish we all would get started. Been on the scene for 30 years - and this is the routine EVERYWHERE and with EVERY knob twiddler. Additionally, having the drums mixed first and like a LEAD instrument leaves the rest of the band in a “dynamic second place.” Even less appealing is the fact that almost all the clubs in town mix monitors from the soundbooth. Hardly anyone walks the stage or watches for cues during the show. It’s the 1% that are carrying the reputation of a lot of bands’ sounding great… They know who they are.

I’ve been using a version of your method for quite a few years now. The only difference is we’ll check lines with our backline guy playing each instrument to get gain settings and a bit of rough EQ and dynamic settings. My partner on monitors roughs in her mixes as well. When the band shows up, they just play. Shorter, more productive soundchecks. Everyone wins.

Many times I still want to hear an acoustic guitar by itself to twist out the quirky piezo pickups, of which every one responds differently. Otherwise the above works great. You do have to put up with the well meaning folks who volunteer to tell you something is too far up or absent in the “mix”, thinking you’re trying to set up the show mix during sound check.  Really….no s*#t sherlock!  Leave me alone and come back in 10 minutes.  Then all is good.

Please tell the bar owners and DJ’s that I’m really performing a public service if I ask the band to do this while everyone’s still watching one of the 100+ big screens on the walls showing anything from cricket matches in Mumbai to 40 year old super bowl games (I think we already know who one).

Count me a 4th advocate of the above method and it’s variations.  Get the performers comfortable on this stage!  Most of us know how hard various instruments will hit the DIs and mics we use and it shouldn’t take long to get there from some basic “default/get ready” settings.  I don’t even want to dial anything until I hear what’s actually coming off the instruments/amps/kit/etc.

I love Dave Rat, he and I think a lot alike on a lot of topics.  I use the same method with one slight difference.  I have my monitor engineer run the sound check.  We usually get all the Vox up and in the wedge in front of the mic before the band gets there.  So Vox 1 goes into Mix 1, Vox 2 into Mix 2, etc. all rung out and ready to go, with lotsa volume and no feedback.  Then Monitor engineer calls out “Kick” through the talkback to the band, drummer kicks the kick drum, if any one wants the kick in their mix, they raise their hand.  When it’s loud enough in their mix, they drop their hand.  Move on to snare, etc.  If no hands are raised, monitor engineer moves to the next channel.  It gets the band exactly what they want in their mix very quickly, and then when they are running their soundcheck they can ask for subtle changes at monitor world.  This way, when they are running their songs, they are super happy because it sounds just like they want it to when they start playing.  Out front, I PFL the input trims and set gates or comps while this is going on, and wait for the band to start full songs, then I start mixing.  Fast and efficient.  Also, if you are doing a festival that version of doing the monitors and FOH is fantastic and fast, so, that the band isn’t wasting their stage time on soundcheck.

i’m just a newbie, moved over from electronic music.
i’ve been soundchecking like this from the start, as i wangled whatever work i could get with circuit bands.
as i’ve been getting an education, i’ve been trying to learn the slow slow method, but never actually seen it work in time (various excuses from the pro’s), so its good to read that i can get away with doing what feels more natural and not get frowned at!

I love all of Dave Rat’s stuff…. he’s just too good… he’s a sound god….thx Dave..!!

I like that method. What I have done in the past (I am not mixing sound at the moment) was try to mic everything at rehearsal and get a board mix using headphones. It gave me a chance to get compressors set, gain structure, FX, plus monitor EQ’ing done. Then when we hit the first concert on the tour it was usually just getting house sound and adjusting eq’s and monitors while the band ran through a tune or two.
This really helped when there was barely enough time to do a line check.

I certainly tend to agree with this style of sound checking, if you have musicians who understand that you are plenty qualified to do it this way.  That said, there are those players who absolutely have a f-ing cow if you don’t check their instrument individually.  After 30+ years of doing this, if you see me checking a bass drum or snare more than 3 beats, then something is either really wrong with the mic placement, the drums suck, or the person hitting the drums can’t hit! (Ok, there could also be various technical problems) With any luck at all, and if it doesn’t bother the players, I can grab everything I need during the monitor check and then fine tune as they, hopefully, actually play a few songs.  With many large festivals under my belt, the idea of sound checking has become, at best, a luxury, and at worst, a waste of time.  But, I’ll still take any opportunity to make sure that everything works before the doors open!

Problems arise when the venue has 10 bands crammed in one night, and the bands all have to do their sound checks in front of the audience. In that situation having them play a few songs while we mess with the mix before the show starts isn’t a realistic answer.

But the majority of what was said is still applicable. Why spend even a second fine tuning a single mic, when you have no idea how it sounds with the rest of the mix?

Have the drummer play a minute long drum solo and start with all mics on, spend that time adjusting faders and eqs to fix whatever doesn’t sound right. Then tell the bass player to play 30 seconds and set his level and eq at a rough spot. Do the same for the guitar players. Then have all the band members perform at once for roughly 30 seconds while you dial everything in.

After that it’s just a matter of a quick vocal check.

I know this method of doing sound check works for me I have been doing this sort of just jam soundcheck with the band Goddo for over 20 years. I usually go back to just the toms with our drummer after the band is done playing to tune gatesin on the toms.

Its a very good way of doing sound check, i have never tried it will do so in future. Thks Dave for this valueable info/method. Hope to get more info of this kind of better sound mixing and tuning skills from u. Can this method of sound chk b used for any type of Musical bands ?

Dave has it right on and this is (almost) how I do things. The mindless banging on a drum for 15 minutes is yet another example of Monkey See- Monkey Do (someone saw someone saw someone who didn’t really have a clue…)

Totally agree about getting the gains more or less in place - this is logical. After that, faders up and play! For me, the most important thing is getting a rough balance together - once you have that, then you can start messing with EQ and it can be quite surprising how little you actually need. Of course, it helps if the source, i.e. the musicians have it together.

I have started working with a Prog Metal band and in their first ‘sound check’, this is how we did things. They loved it!! About the only pre-EQ was HP filters but that’s common sense.

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