Dave Tobias:
Mixing Monitors With Pride
By David Weiss

Why is David Tobias laughing? Because even after 15+ years as a live sound engineer with top tours ranging from Metallica to Riverdance and No Doubt, he still can't quite figure out he wound up as a monitor engineer.

Dave Tobias

"Most people envision sound as a FOH gig," Tobias says, once he's done giggling. "When you tell them you're a monitor engineer they're like, "Huh?" but if you just say you mix sound for bands, they can get their minds around that. I laugh about it because I remember my own vision of being a sound engineer, and now to be a monitor specialist - I don't know how it happened."

Of course, Tobias knows exactly how it happened, and he's pleased as punch to tell you. A professional bassist until he was 25, he found his audio engineering chops were fast outpacing his playing. Tobias went from being a guitar tech to an all-purpose soundman for Bill Graham Productions, cutting his teeth with members of Journey, The Tubes and the rest of the best of the Bay Area. Somewhere along the way he did a monitoring gig, and his place in the live sound food chain was set - much to his satisfaction.

"I'm here to make music, and I think mixing music is just like making music," Tobias explains. "When I mix monitors, I often feel I have a relationship where I'm like a member of the band. When you get in with some big name groups, and they show you that respect, like you're a fellow musician and not the classic crew employee, that's really great. As a monitor engineer, you get to work closely with musicians and establish a connection that's much more special than just being a FOH guy or the PA tech."

When given a choice, Tobias will take on his duties transmitting to Garwood in-ear monitors while mixing from behind a Midas Heritage 3000 or a Soundcraft Series FIVE console, preferences he developed due both to those boards' high quality mic pres and his significant and ongoing experience in the recording studio. "I'm a firm believer in mics and mic preamps," he says. "As a studio engineer, I say that if you have the right mic and preamp, 95% of the job is done. Live, you don't always get the best mics, so the most important thing, then, is the mic pre."

However, going in with killer equipment is never a high priority for him. "I've always been a guy who can work with anything," he states. "Law #1: It's the guy, not the gear. Period. I've mixed some unbelievably great nights with some great musicians, on some unbelievably bad gear. Besides, there are very few speaker boxes that you run into on the road today that are bad. Sound companies show up with the good stuff: Crests, Crowns, for amps, Midas or Yamaha desks, or some combination thereof, that, if you're a competent engineer, are going to sound good."

Tobias knew his latest high-profile tour, an extended international run with No Doubt, would be fun, but it was the band's high level of musicianship that allowed him to use his own talents to the fullest. "That's a great rock and roll band," he says. "Terrific rock rhythm section, and Gwen Stefani has a great voice and she wrote so much of the stuff. This is no teenybopper band! (Drummer) Adrian Young likes the kitchen sink-plus in his monitors: two subs, two wedges, a thumper and headphones. Conversely, Tom Dumont wants one wedge with a little guitar, and that's it.

"For Gwen, once I found her frequency, it became easy. Developing the right sound in-ear for a vocalist, the correct frequency that takes the singer's voice and makes it work properly with the equipment, takes some work. Her number is 700Hz, which is a death frequency for her. It took two weeks of Gwen going, "It's too fuzzy on the bottom, too sparkley on top..." That's me doing musician-speak, being a communicator, figuring out what she means and turning that into numbers.

"That's why monitors are so challenging. There are guys who do a tour for a year and they won't get fired, but they never really satisfy the band. Monitors is 90% communication, 5% mics and preamps, and 5% everything else. It comes from being a fellow musician - when I'm up on stage with a monitor desk, that's little different from being up there with a guitar."

Now based out of New York's musically fertile upstate Woodstock area, Tobias has a choice of recording studios to work out of when he's waiting for the next tour call. While he's been fortunate to have a big project in the buildout of The Gallery Recording Studios in New Paltz, he's quick to point out the overall difficulties that his fellow sound people have in eking out a long-term survival strategy.

"People often treat live sound like, "That's not really a job. You guys just hang out and have fun all day." But there are guys who can't get steady work, and it's a serious problem," says Tobias. "Making a commitment for the love of a profession, like teaching, that's exactly how I feel this business is. Everyone expects quality audio at all times, but nobody can make a living - many of the people don't have health insurance. How do you develop a pool of qualified professionals, when no one treats us like pros? As long as that mentality exists, it's going to stay tough."