Like many sound engineers, I have a background in music, so I’ve been on both sides of sound checks and know how annoying a poorly-run check can be for musicians. These experiences have led to a paradigm shift in the way I approach sound checks: they’re for the artists, not the engineers.

On the road, practice time is in short supply, so many artists prefer to use their stage time to rehearse new material, tweak the backline, and tighten up the performance.

It’s very helpful to spend some time dialing in monitor mixes, but standing around while the front of house engineer listens to Rack Tom 2 for five minutes straight? Not so much.

Bringing this mindset to the other side of the console, I developed a system that helps me get up and running at a gig as quickly as possible, catch potential problems early, and dial in a good mix, all without bugging the artists. (Although I came up with this process for myself over the years, I’m sure that I’m not the only person to have done so, and as a result I’m not claiming originality or innovation here, just sharing what works for me.)

The process that laypeople call “sound check” is actually a conglomerate of several tasks. My approach divides the process into three steps: system check, line check, and sound check.

Step One: System Check

I start every gig by examining the relationship between the sound system and the room. There are the physical and acoustic properties of the space itself (resonant low-frequency modes, wall reflections, reverb decay, rattles in ductwork, HVAC noise, etc.), but my biggest priority at this step is the system’s variance, or how its coverage changes throughout the space. Ideally, my mix should be related to every seat with the same tonal balance (low spectral variance) and at the same volume (low level variance).

Using a playlist of reference tracks, I move around the space, listening from every section. Maybe the level at the back of the balcony is down 8 dB, or the front fill coverage area is too hot above 12 kHz. Maybe the system’s HF coverage drops off at the end of the rows, or there’s a “power alley” of coupling-zone subwoofer energy that passes through the mix position.

If what I’m hearing at the mix position is not representative of what other audience members are hearing, I want to know how, why, and where.

It’s important to note that I might not be able to address these issues. If it’s a one-off on an installed rig, the venue is not going to appreciate me tinkering around with the DSP.

But even if I can’t rectify the problems, I need to know they exist so I can mix accordingly. I learned this the hard way after realizing halfway through a club gig that my mix sounded good at FOH and pretty lousy everywhere else. Once I determined that there was far more sub energy and less HF at the console, I altered my mix to correct for it, and the audience was noticeably more pleased with the second half of the show.

Since that experience, walking the space to my playlist (see that list at the end of this article) is the first thing I do when I get into a venue. By the way, I try to use the same tunes every night, which more readily reveals differences gig-to-gig. At a festival, I wander around during another band’s set to scope out the rig’s coverage variance before it’s my turn.

Step Two: Line Check

This is exactly what it sounds like: checking the lines. While Step One was focused exclusively on everything downstream of the mixer (post-console, if you will), Step Two deals strictly with everything upstream – microphones, direct boxes, cables, and snakes.

I’m checking to ensure each input is coming up in the right spot (correct patching) and that there are no hums, buzzes or bad cables in play. I rough in some input gains and high-pass filters, but this is not the time to spend six minutes EQ-ing the floor tom.

As soon as I verify that I’m getting signal and the input is behaving as expected, it’s time to move on. This takes maybe five to 10 seconds per input, so I can line check a 24-input show in a couple of minutes.

The secret to line check is to not grind to a halt for a non-show-critical issue. Note the problem, move on, and come back to it later – otherwise you risk burning all of your time tracking down something relatively mundane only to discover serious issues with a “show stopper” input like lead vocal. Get through the process then attack the remaining issues in order of decreasing priority.

Step Three: Sound Check

Once the inputs (Step Two) and outputs (Step One) are checked out, I can be confident that everything is entering and leaving the desk properly. All that remains is to dial in a good mix.

I tell artists, “OK, this is your time. You go ahead and rehearse, run some tunes, jam, whatever you need to do. If there’s something specific I need to hear, I’ll let you know.”

Artists tend to be more relaxed, and their playing is more representative of how it will be during the show, which allows me to dial in a mix pretty quickly. (We’ll get to that in a minute.)

When the situation permits, I like to walk up on stage after a couple of songs and find out how everyone is feeling, face to face. Since I do a lot of one-offs, the artists and I may not know each other, and this is a bit more personal than grunting into a talkback mic.

A typical comment might be something like, “Everything is sounding good out front, but I’m getting a lot of that guitar amp off the stage. It will sound a lot more even in the house if we can turn it down a bit or re-aim it.”

Your mileage will vary depending on your rapport with the particular artist, but the approach has a lot to do with it as well. If I need to recommend an adjustment, I always explain why it will help them sound better, and that’s often enough. (Sometimes there is no practical solution. During a one-off for a pop artist with a stage volume issue, I told her TM, “She really needs to be on IEMs.” He agreed, but added that it was a “next tour” solution not a “tonight’s show” solution. In these cases we simply do the best we can.)

Mix It Up

Since larger-venue artists tend to have their own engineers, most of my one-off gigs are relatively small rooms, 1,000 seats or less, which means stage sound is a significant factor. My approach as to the best way to get a quick mix in a small venue is to start with all non-vocal channels completely out. As the musicians play, I listen to what’s already coming off the stage (probably a lot of guitar, bass, and drums), and simply add what’s needed. It’s called live sound reinforcement for a reason.

With vocals at a comfortable level, I bring up everything else around them. In small rooms, low frequencies warrant special attention. As the bass guitar comes up in the subs, it starts to sound “wider” before it gets appreciably louder, and I find that this is often the “sweet spot” in many rooms.

Bringing drum channels up, rather than down from 0 dB, ensures only adding what’s needed, which is important as your drum levels will dictate the level of the mix as a whole. The specifics vary quite a bit with genre, but the point is to work with the room sound, not fight it – that’s a losing battle.

Off & Running

From here, I tighten up EQs (cutting what I don’t want rather than boosting what I do), and tweak compressors and reverbs. At first it’s a bit unnerving to launch into a tune with only high-pass filters in place, but I’ve found that initial attention spent on Steps One and Two really pays off here in a big way, as I’m already heading down the path to a good sound.

This is why the order of the steps is important: boosting HF on a muddy vocal won’t do a bit of good if the culprit is a burned-out HF driver in the mains (which I should have found in Step One) or a “spit-out” mic diaphragm (ditto, Step Two). Due diligence during system and line checks means that virtually any problem I run into during sound check is fixable at the console.

Many artists are pleasantly surprised when I don’t ask them to stop what they’re doing and give me kick… kick… kick… OK… snare… snare… As any studio engineer will tell you, each instrument can be sounding great on its own but there can be a horrible mess when they’re mixed together. So I skip the tedious one-at-a-time approach and just let them play as I build the mix as a whole.

There are, of course, some caveats to this approach. It’s best tried with an experienced pair of ears, as a seasoned engineer is more easily able to hear something funky in the mix and identify which channel is responsible. It’s also necessary to be able to identify frequencies by ear, a skill I call “hand-ear coordination” – knowing what sound you want and which knobs to turn to get there.

This applies both to feedback (“That acoustic guitar is ringing at 125 Hz”) and tonal adjustments (“I have too much 400 Hz in that vocal”). Also required is a high degree of fluency with console operation, as the “all at once” sound check requires making a bunch of adjustments in rapid succession.

Not infrequently, I have to mix artists without a sound check. It’s not optimal but it is reality. Experience helps, but the main reason I’m able to do this is because I strictly adhere to the process described here. For novice engineers, sound checks can be pretty stressful, but each one makes us a little faster, a little more effective, and a little cooler under fire. Over the course of many checks, we can develop a sort of “rhythm” that grows into an effective routine.

Selections From The Author’s Reference Track Playlist

—“Domino,” Jesse J. A clean, dry mix that tends to reveal time alignment issues in sub arrays.

—“Neon,” John Mayer. On systems with excess energy in the 2 – 8 kHz region, this track will sound overly harsh in the vocals.

—“The Real World,” Owl City. There’s a nice bass drop that’s very revealing of LF room issues, modes, and rattles.

—“117,” Halo 4 Soundtrack. A cool orchestral piece that illuminates issues in the 1 kHz region quite readily.

—“Breakeven,” The Script. This recording tends to be representative of how a live band will sound in the space, particularly the drums.