Test Post

"A friend is nothing but a known enemy."

-Kurt Cobain

By: Rodrigo de la Parra

Edited by: Gonzalo Ballesteros. 

Even if we would like to deny it, the term 'common mistake' has earned its name much more than the term 'common sense'. It's often that most of us just won't "get it" until we face the consequence of being wrong, of having missed. This doesn't have to be something completely negative, on the contrary, being mistaken is how we can really reveal the fault. Unfortunately, two wrongs don't make a right: one can get it wrong an infinite number of times and still be unable to nail it down.

Know your limits

Musicians are not sound engineers, we may have a basic idea of how sound works, but in the end we have to accept that a good part of our act rests on their hands. Even more difficult is knowing how to pick them, after all, it takes one to know one. How are we expected to know a good sound engineer beforehand if we don't have a degree in engineering? Granted, we have a far more sensitive ear than most people and we can tell when something is well balanced, but that doesn't mean we know the story behind it, we're just able to judge the results. It might seem like a dead-end problem, but the beauty of sound engineering is that even the most clueless person in the audience will notice the difference between something that sounds right and something that doesn't. The bad news is: if something sounds off, they will probably end up blaming the musicians, even if it's not our fault; worst of all, we are limited to finding out if it worked for us until after it's all over.

Know what’s at stake

"[...] when the show's over the wave of applause is directed at us, the performers, but so are the rotten tomatoes."

The spotlight comes with a risk: sound engineers don't have to show their face and bare their soul to the audience. They can (somewhat calmly) do their job off-stage. Even if they do get spotted by a fragment of the audience, those intimidating 50-channel mix tables will surely tell everyone that what they are doing is complicated and the least they need is a distraction. Sure, when the show's over the wave of applause is directed at us, the performers, but so are the rotten tomatoes. There is such a thing as playing too many bad gigs, and there are very few things that can make or break someone like word-of-mouth publicity. Maybe you think that you can take the engineers down with you by telling on them, but first of all, not many will listen to you if your reputation doesn't speak well of you; and second, taking people down with you is not what playing music is about, if anything it's the complete opposite. What is there to be done, then? How can we keep ourselves from being at the mercy of the venue and its staff?

Know what matters

Working with an engineer provided by the venue may seem like more money to be gained, but in the end it will turn out to be a greater expense than having an engineer of your own, especially since the venue has to give its chosen engineer a slice of the cake anyways. The engineer at the venue doesn't know you, your gear, your set, your style, nor your songs, and there is no chance in hell that you will sound as you intend to with a stranger for a coworker, no matter how hard you try. Any form of engineer for hire is not the way to go, not because these sort of engineers are inherently bad, but because you can never know what you are dealing with. Even the people provided by the venue may turn out to be regular employees filling out extra time. You wouldn't go to just anyone to record your material, why must it be any different for your live shows?

Know the difference

"Recording engineers work with order, live engineers work with chaos."

It may seem logical to hire the people who recorded your material to take care of how you sound live, after all, they have worked on every detail of your own sound, right? Wrong. For starters, recording engineers are not the same as live engineers; even if their goal is pretty much the same, their modus operandi couldn't be more different. A recording studio is a controlled environment which can be set to fit the needs of its users at will; the same can't be said about a venue. Recording engineers work with order, live engineers work with chaos, as simple as that. The video below, even if it doesn't depict a live sound engineer, faithfully illustrates the amount of disorder and uncertainty that a proper live professional should be able to overcome and how much skill and dedication they are willing to invest to make the gig what it should be, a worthwhile event for everybody.

A truly professional live crew is one that manages to keep you out of everything else but the stage and your instrument.
You can quote me on that.

Know that you don't know it all

"A true live sound engineer will mend cables and dismantle a sound board on the spot if necessary."

The sound engineer you should pick is the one who not only works for you but works with you. Many times, musicians and engineers could be viewed as enemies rather than allies; they certainly don't speak the same language nor even think in the same terms sometimes, and when it comes to placing blame, fingers are bound to be pointing at opposite ends.

The only way to avoid constant failure is not by simply learning from mistakes, but by knowing how not to fail; and the better part of that knowledge doesn't lie in one person, it lies in many. The people you choose to work with (which are not only your fellow musicians, as you must have figured out) should form a professional relationship with you; they must know your act from top to bottom, they must be able to adapt, and they must be committed to the gig 110 percent. A true live sound engineer will mend cables and dismantle a sound board on the spot if necessary. A true live professional will deal with what little there is to work with and make it work. A live crew is obviously much more than a sound engineer, but for those of us who have a limited budget, it is necessary to cover the basic requirements first. This is why every musician must focus on a sound engineer before anything; their sound engineer, that one person they know, trust, and are willing to meet halfway to make every presentation a success for both.

But don't mind me, I failed the Rorschach test last week.