A Musicians Guide to a Sound Check

As a musician, you play a crucial role in the sound check. A live sound setup, especially in a small or medium sized venue, is a delicately balanced system where many of the elements are outside of the sound engineer’s control. A great sound engineer can work wonders for a band’s live sound, but a performer knowing what to expect and how to make the check flow smoothly is equally as important.

While this guide doesn’t address some of the specifics of how we run a typical Flashband showcases (8 bands with quick changeovers and shared backlines), it covers all the core components of any sound check – including those in Flashband.

The Purpose

A sound check serves a two-fold purpose.  Most obviously, it allows the engineer to get all of the levels right for the audience listening to the performance.  In addition, it allows the performers to communicate their needs to the sound engineer.  An important point that new performers don’t often consider is that the stage sound and front of house sound are often very different.  Singers may want the vocals and keyboard turned way up with the drums turned way down.  Bass players and drummers may want to hear each other better while turning down their guitarist.  It is rare that a stage musician wants what the audience hears, and thus, should communicate what they would like their stage mix to sound like.

The 5 Simple Rules for a great sound check

1. Communicate with the sound engineer.  Find out your engineer’s name and use it. Tell them what you hear or don’t hear, ask them what they need from you, warn them about special considerations in your set. Be respectful and assume they know what they’re doing, as lots of times things you see as a problem have a reason or just a difference of opinion. They are not mind readers so always be specific – instead of ‘I need some more guitar’, point to the guitar in question, and point to which monitor needs adjustment.
2. Don’t noodle. If you have not been explicitly told to play your instrument, don’t. Excess sound makes the whole process harder. At best it lengthens the process, at worst you’ll have bad sound when you run out of time and patience. 
3. Be patient. There’s lots of waiting in the sound check – the engineer can only do one thing at a time, and diagnosing a problem sometimes requires tracing the whole chain of equipment. 
4. Pay attention. When your participation or input is needed in the sound check, nothing slows the process down more than when it’s your turn to check and you’re daydreaming. More so, when the engineer says ‘Is everyone okay with the bass level?’ and you miss it, you’re the one who’s playing suffers. 
5. A sound check is not a practice.  You should not be working out the final details of new songs during a sound check.  Play something you know already sounds good that can quickly show the dynamics and ranges of your instruments.  

The process

Every engineer will have their own method, so always defer to their instructions. But it’s best to know what to expect, and when a step is missing don’t be afraid to ask about it.

Part 1 - Setup

Be ready with all your equipment ready to go. Wait until the band before you (if any) as cleared the stage, and then head on stage to set up your equipment. Follow your stage plot to determine where to plug in, but don’t unplug or rearrange anything without the sound engineer’s permission – it’ll cause big headaches later. Think of it like going over to a friend’s house for dinner – ask ‘Should I put my shoes here?’ and ‘Can I help with the dishes?’

The performer’s role: Get your equipment up quickly, but ask permission before rearranging anything on stage. 

Part 2 - Line check

When everyone is plugged in, and the engineer is back at the mixing board, they will go one by one through each instrument to check that everyone has approximately the right level. The engineer’s job is to make sure the level is right in the room. It’s your job to tell the engineer what you hear on stage, and if you need more or less of anything so that you can perform well when there’s a crowd of people talking to each other and the sound bouncing off all the walls.

The performer’s role: When the sound engineer asks you to play, play something simple and repetitive at a volume that is the same as you will perform. 

• Vocalists: your talking voice is quieter than your singing voice.  Many good sound checks involve singing a few bars of a track without the backing instruments 
• Drummers: start with repetitive quarter note hits on each of the major drums before playing a full pattern.
• Other Instruments: one or two chords in a basic pattern is sufficient. 

When each other instrument does their line check, pay attention and let the engineer know if you need more or less of anything in your monitor – he can’t hear what it sounds like on stage. And don’t make any noise when it isn’t your turn. 

Part 3 - The song check

After level checks, you’ll play something as a whole band. Pick something that uses all your instruments at normal levels. Ask the engineer what they want, but normally you’ll want to play about 8 bars (20 seconds) of a song first, and then stop and tell the sound engineer of any significant adjustments needed now that everyone is playing together. You’ll start again while the engineer tweaks any specific components and levels.

The performer’s role: Start and stop your song efficiently – this isn’t practice, or a performance, so you should expect to cut the song short as soon as everything is set up. Tell the engineer about changes you need to what you hear on stage – it sounds very different across the room. 

Part 4 - The show

When you’re past the sound check and on to the actual performance, your main job (besides your music) is not making things harder for the engineer. This includes not making surprise changes, and using your equipment properly.

The performer’s role: Don’t change your instrument or amp volume levels without getting the OK from the engineer. Instrument and vocalists, play/sing directly into your microphones and don’t let them drift away – dynamic microphones typically used are very sensitive to distance and the sound engineer can’t correct the problem with volume if you’re not playing into the mic. Pay attention to your stage position and don’t point mics towards speakers – this usually happens when vocalists move in front of the stage. If you do have a big problem with your monitor levels it’s okay to say so between songs, but small problems are better left alone. 

Being good at sound check is a key tipoff of a professional musician - but by paying attention and keeping a few things in mind you can make the process go easier, and make it that much more fun to rock out in your actual set. Want to learn more? We cover this and lots of related topics in our Intro to Performance class, which we hold regularly. Check out this and all the Flashband events on the Events page.

More sound check resources:

Help the soundman get you a great live music mix