In previous Theory and Practice installments, I have gone over many lists of things to do while setting up for the show, but it's a whole new game once the show starts. From the sound check, you should have your performance mix roughed in, or at least your usual fader starting locations for vocals and the various instrument inputs. And once the performance is started, all your senses are required. This means a lot more than the standard "no alcohol consumption" bromide. (Repeat after me class: "It robs you of your high-frequency hearing temporarily.") "All senses required" means a mind emptied of all non-performance issues as the show starts. See the board, be the board. Or, if you prefer, get your Jedi on. Jedi-like, I find that my intuitions are nearly always correct. If something "sounds odd", it is very likely something to seek out and rectify soon. It could be a muted input, a mis-set channel gain control, a mis-assigned channel to subgroup, a pre-fader-listen (PFL) toggled on something that should have been left out or a host of things that experience helps locate. The bottom line is to identify the oddity and correct it as quickly as possible. In some cases, it may require others' assistance, or it may have to be left as-is until the next set break. Good hearing is a must, and visual confirmation of normalcy on the console and outboard racks is very important.
Settle Down, Son
At show start, also understand that you cannot busy yourself in nailing the mix over the first song or two. Your first priority, after leveling up the mix, is to look for and hit the show cues. This may be foreign to many "house techs," but the band's sound engineers, and especially the band's light console operators (lampys), are looking for natural breaks in the music where solos are performed, or a change in the song's attitude is done. I mix regularly with rock cover bands, and it makes taking cues fun, as I know the song cues well and usually know what the band is going to do the next moment.
Audio cues are typically bumps in instrument levels or effects as the talent takes a solo. Some sound persons may take offense that I am "doctoring up" the show by accentuating solos, but I know from experience that few musicians can kick up the performance dynamics onstage and make it sound good. Most semi-pro bands can sound downright monotonous and lacking in performance dynamics without punching up the solos. I look at the task the way a studio producer finds ways to bring excitement to a track.
The other cues are effects set to the song or part of a song. When mixing by the seat of my pants, I set two reverb returns for "medium hall" and "vocal plate." Mostly, I will note how a song starts, and if it is up-tempo, the vocal plate 'verb is eased in. Generally, I will have it ready just as the vocal starts. Then all I need to do is add 'verb to taste, with the room acoustics taken into account. For soft ballads, that medium hall enlarges the tune and works well with drawn out lyrics. The mental criteria is to make sure the lyrics are plainly understood, unless the original artist intentionally buried the lyrics in effects or instruments on their recording (e.g. The Hollies' "Long Cool Woman in a Black Dress").
One of my favorite effects cues is tagging delay repeats at the end of vocal phrases, as required. A great example of this is Tom Petty's "Runnin' Down A Dream," in which some verse phrases get a couple of 500 millisecond slap repeats — this is skill in mixing, with the fader pumped on the last word or two and then brought back out.
What I am saying is that mixing should include attention to cues, and it is a contact sport in league with the band. When done exceptionally well, sad ballads should put tears on the audience's cheeks and revved-up songs should get the audience shouting and pumping their fists in the air by the song's ending. It really pains me to see house engineers reading novels at FOH while a band is performing, or taking a meal break mid-performance, or just doing a "set and forget" mix on a band.
Background Thoughts
And with the tasks of sensing oddities and hitting the cues, you also need to continuously re-evaluate the state of the mix in the background. You should periodically ask yourself questions like, "Does the bass guitar sound right? Are the vocals balanced and on top of the mix? Is the timbre of the electric guitars correct, or does it need a touch of equalization?"
Mentally, you should go down the channel strips and ask yourself, "Are these settings the best for this situation right now?" And the same has to be considered on the outboard processing as well. For example, the lightly-used compression on an instrument at the beginning of the show may now be hitting hard and bopping into the limiters on every note. It may not have been your problem on mix setup, but now you have to either back off on the channel strip gain or re-adjust the compressor threshold.
If you are doing small shows with yourself as the key audio person, also keep a wandering eye on what the drive and amp racks are doing. On small shows where I am tied up at FOH, I point the amp racks back at me so I can periodically see the LED metering on the power amplifiers, speaker processors and power conditioning gear. Usually, a short glance at the familiar dancing LEDs tells me all I need to know about how hard the system is being pushed, and how stable the house power is. Often, I pick up on things like bad receptacles, slightly shorted speaker cables and how close to circuit overload I am running.
Summing Up
The broad point I want to make is that mixing is not something you can do with a beer in one hand, chatting with your buddies. Good shows are more than just good talent onstage, and your constant attention at monitor beach or FOH is needed to make the music performance worth the attendance to the patrons. Personally, I prefer not to be bothered while the show is in progress, and there better be a good reason for someone to distract me while at the console. And if you are a visiting soundperson behind the working sound person, keep quiet until asked. And if you're even smarter, you'll keep your ego in check.
