Start before the band arrives
A good sound check begins an hour before anyone picks up an instrument. I walk the room with a notebook and note where the speakers sit, where the stage boxes land, how long the cable runs are and which sockets are live. Ask the venue for a stage plan in advance, and if there is none, sketch one on arrival and keep it with you for the rest of the night.
Next I power up in a sensible order: desk and processing first, amplifiers last, with the faders down. This avoids the thump that startles everyone in the room and sometimes damages a driver. While the system warms up, I label every channel strip with tape or the desk's own scribble strips, using the names the musicians will actually say out loud, such as kick, bass amp or vocal left.
- Get a stage plan or sketch one
- Label channels in the band's own words
- Bring the system up with faders down
Line check comes before sound check
A line check is quick and quiet: one person on stage, one at the desk, and every input tested in turn. I ask for a single tap or a few words into each microphone and watch the meter, confirming that the right source arrives on the right channel. It takes ten minutes and finds the dead cable, the missing phantom power or the swapped XLR long before the band is standing around waiting.
Only after the line check do I ask the band to play. This keeps the two jobs separate. If I mix while still hunting faults, the musicians lose patience and I lose focus. Set gains carefully at this stage, aiming for healthy signal without clipping, because poor gain structure is hard to repair later at the faders, however experienced the engineer is.
- Test each input alone before any playing
- Check phantom power and cable polarity
- Set gain with the player at performance volume
Build the mix from the drums outward
I usually start with the kick drum, then snare, hi-hat and toms, and only then the bass. Getting the low end settled first gives every other instrument something solid to sit on. I use high-pass filters on everything that does not need low frequencies, which clears mud from the room more reliably than any equaliser boost on the bass guitar.
Then I add guitars, keys and finally vocals, because vocals are what the audience will judge the whole night by. Ask the singer to perform a full verse and chorus rather than shouting 'check one two'; the voice behaves differently at singing volume. Compression and reverb come last and in small amounts. If the dry mix is balanced, the effects only need to polish it.
- Settle drums and bass before anything else
- Filter out unneeded low frequencies
- Judge vocals on a real verse and chorus
Give the stage a monitor mix people can use
Monitors cause more arguments than any other part of a show, so I treat them as a separate job. I ask each musician what one or two things they need to hear above everything else, often their own voice and the kick drum, and build from that instead of sending the full mix to every wedge. A simple, short request list is easier to satisfy than a vague wish for more of everything.
Feedback is the other risk. Keep microphones behind the line of the wedges, and avoid boosting the frequencies where a ring begins to build. If a singer moves around, agree a safe area on stage. Small cuts at the troublesome pitch work better than turning the whole monitor down, and they leave the performer with enough level to feel comfortable and sing in tune.
- Ask for the two or three essentials per player
- Keep microphones behind the monitor line
- Cut the ringing frequency rather than the whole level
Tune the system to the room, not the other way round
Small rooms with low ceilings, hard floors and glass fronts behave very differently from converted halls. I play a familiar track through the system and walk the venue, listening at the bar, near the doors and at the back. If the low end swells in the corners, I reduce it in the system settings rather than hoping the mix will cope. Pointing speakers slightly away from reflective walls also helps more than most people expect.
Level is part of the tuning. A mix that is too loud makes the room's problems worse and tires the audience, while a slightly lower level often sounds clearer and invites people closer to the stage. Agree a sensible ceiling with the organiser early, and check the sound again once the room is full, because a crowd absorbs a great deal of the high frequencies.
- Walk the whole room with a familiar track
- Aim speakers away from hard reflective surfaces
- Recheck the sound once the audience is in
Keep a written record for next time
After the show I note the console settings, microphone choices and any problems we solved, and save the desk scene if the console allows it. A returning band or venue can then start from a known position instead of beginning from zero. That alone often shortens the next sound check by half and makes the evening calmer for everyone involved.
I also pack down in the reverse order to setup: faders down, amplifiers off first, desk last. Coil cables the same way each time, tag any that behaved badly and report them to whoever owns the kit. A tidy load-out is not glamorous, but it stops small faults reaching the next job, and it lets the crew leave on time rather than searching for a missing adapter at midnight.
- Save desk scenes and write down the key settings
- Pack down in reverse order
- Tag faulty cables so they are repaired
A smooth live sound check is mostly about order and patience: prepare the room, test every line, build the mix from the drums outward, listen to what the stage needs and write it all down. None of it requires special equipment, only a routine you repeat every time. Follow that routine and most shows will start on time, with a band that hears itself and an audience that hears the music rather than the problems.
