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Let’s have a tip of the glass for the hometown hero, the relatively little guy who shuns the mega-tours and life on the road, and focuses instead on serving the local community for fairs, festivals, theatre in the parks and one-off concerts.

Despite the differences in their respective regions, the number of full-time employees (ranging from one to 100) and length in business (10 years to 60 years), they have much in common. Most started out as musicians and offer a variation on Clearwing’s Gregg Brunclik’s “I started out as a musician but decided I wanted to eat” quip. And they all share a never-ceasing passion for quality sound, razor-sharp survival instincts and most indispensably, a sense of humor.

When you get off of an airplane at Austin-Bergstrom International Airport, the first thing you see is a plaque on the wall proclaiming Austin as the "Live Music Capital of the World". With more live music venues per capita than Nashville, Memphis, Los Angeles, Las Vegas or New York City, it's tough to argue the point.

Live Music From Concentrate

The city's live music scene is most concentrated downtown, just north of the Colorado River, with dozens of clubs situated side-by-side on Fourth, Sixth, and Red River Street. Other pockets of venues are scattered throughout the city, most notably on South Congress Avenue a couple miles South of downtown. Walk down Sixth street on a weekend night in July and you will very quickly see what all the fuss is about. Amongst a plethora of bars with names like Chuggin' Monkey, The Library, Iron Cactus, and Red Eyed Fly, the sounds of country, rock, metal and dueling pianos mix together, offering up a new artist to almost any musical taste.

Your mission, (should you choose to accept it) is: Get a gig in Mexico (preferably on the Baja Peninsula); transport yourself, a rig and a crew to the gig; do the show; get paid, have fun and go home. Or, better yet, start up a sound reinforcement company in Baja, around the Cabo San Lucas/ La Paz area and work there a few months out of the year. Actually, this has been my mission or dream for the last year or so. It all started when I went to Cabo San Lucas for the first time in 1991. I immediately fell in love with the place. Soon I found an outdoor bar that made excellent margaritas, and within a few days I got a gig there playing acoustic guitar and singing. I had that gig for five years, traveling down south once or twice a year to play music, lay in the sun, boat, eat, fish etc. During this time I never made any real money but I got free trips and had a ton of fun. And more importantly, I planted the seeds for my dream of having a viable sound company south of the border. The following writings are my experiences, subjections and observations with regards to the pursuit of live sound in Baja California. However, I believe you can use this information for a variety of business ventures not to mention general travel. So, let's go:

There are those magical moments in the recording studio when musicians give birth to a song, yet it is when those same musicians play that song in front of an audience that it comes to life. Live sound mixers are in a unique position to watch as audiences and musicians respond to each other. Likewise, these Front of House engineers have to respond almost instantly to problems that arise, which can run the gamut from faulty gear to failing instruments to singers who might need a bit of technical assistance to hit all the appropriate notes. For many active producers working these days, including Ryan Greene, Don Gehman, Ross Hogarth and Mark Howard, this was the perfect training ground for the stresses and joys of the studio environment.

Have you ever heard the sound of more than 10,000 girls screaming at 119dBa at FOH? Daryl Carmen, FOH for Hilary Duff, and the Masque Live crew have been experiencing this night after night since her tour started last summer.

Those who think of theatre sound and wireless microphone management when they hear "Masque Sound" should know that over the past two years, Masque Live, a new division, has been slowly establishing itself as a formidable player in the fast-paced commodity world of concert sound. Masque Sound is renowned in the theatre world because, like with a high-end installation, they take the time to work out every last sonic detail for Broadway-type shows that run for years in the same venue. In contrast, Masque Live is about the time pressures of being in a different arena or stadium every night. Crew chief Paul Fabre said he believes that what separates Masque Live is their philosophy of having the same level of quality control at the shop for both their theatre and concert businesses.

In post-Hurricane Katrina New Orleans, you never know what to expect; events often take unexpected turns. Case in point: "A Night for New Orleans." It began as a modest fundraising gala, something to help the city's renowned opera company regain a semblance of normalcy. However, by the time the day of the event rolled around, it had mushroomed into what was quite likely the largest operatic performance in Louisiana history. When Placido Domingo stepped on stage at the New Orleans Arena–a relatively new NBA-sized facility largely unscathed in the disaster–an audience of 7,400-plus gave him a rousing welcome. By any measure, it was a result far better than expected only weeks earlier. However, for the audio professionals charged with sound reinforcement, the late surge in ticket sales became a challenging turn of events that required on-thespot changes in system configuration.