Audio Engineer: TONY HUERTA ON A SUCCESS IN LIVE SOUND
What the Engineer Can Do
Throughout my professional career, I’ve discovered many truths— no matter the venue, the artist or the acoustics – the sound engineer can either ruin a great concert or enhance a great audience experience.
I’ve left a lot of shows early after giving the engineer the kind of tilted head look you’d expect from a Jack Russell Terrier. Most people in the audience probably blamed the artist. But as a sound engineer, I believe that the sound crew must have the talent and ability to overcome acoustics, equipment and at times, even the artist to make the performance a positive experience for the audience. Here are things to focus on in order to be successful.
3 Keys to success
1. Remain Transparent to the audience
A good live engineer has to possess the ability to remain invisible to the audience. All the glory goes to the talented individuals on stage. No matter what you do, you must never take the focus off the artist and put it onto you. From your effects, EQ, mixing, and technical aspects, the audience perception should always be that the artist holds the key to the great sound.
• You must take care of the needs of the show during sound check in order from the basic and through the complex. First, tackle the room acoustics with EQ, speaker placement and cross over. Second, adjust and dial in the gain structure of your artists. Third, adjust the mix by volume and channel EQ. And last, add in effects for a more pleasing sound. Don’t move on in the sound check until you have addressed each issue in order. Skipping to channel EQ when your room hasn’t been treated is a recipe for a bad mix, or as I say, “you can’t shine a turd”.
• During the show, the needs of your mix change slightly. But, just like sound check, skipping steps will only create a bad mix. First, handle all feedback with EQ either on the channel with a parametric EQ or on the main graphic and/or parametric EQ. Second, ride your mix into balance by adjusting compression and fader level. Only then can you move to the third and most fun part, the effects and creative mixing ideas. Don’t Skip ahead! For instance, who cares if you put a very cool time delay on the lead vocal if the beatbox is killing your mix. Handle the basics and then the creative. If the mix is complex, you might never get to the creative side. The talent level of your artists will usually dictate how much time you have to be creative. In plain terms, if the artist stinks at blending their own mix with dynamic singing, you will have to do it for them with the faders!
2. Practice exceptional customer service
As a performer, there is nothing worse that showing up for a gig and having an engineer with a bad attitude and a closed mind. If the engineer is too bold, argumentative, or just has a bad mood, the artist will lose trust in their engineering abilities, taking focus and energy from the show. The artist should have nothing to worry about on stage except their own performance!
• It’s simple but essential. Greet the artist with a smile and respect. Handling an intense situation like a concert will only get worse if you show your emotions. Hide behind a smile and good attitude. The whole reason I got hired with Take 6 was because Mark Kibble liked my attitude while I was mixing on a small little sound system for a high school concert.
• Have a “what ever you want attitude”. They are the hired artist and they were hired for a reason. Not because their sound engineer is great, but because they generally know what they are doing in creating their own music. Listen to the artist and do what they say. Don’t argue. Just work with them and do what they want. Of course, if the artists are new to the business, they will most likely look up to you for suggestions. Even then, don’t step on their toes. Offer suggestions, not demands.
• Don’t be late, be early. Don’t smell bad, shower and chew gum. Keep your mouth closed more than open. Be efficient and yet courteous under stress. And most important, be patient. Your not running the show, you are just in charge of being invisible once the show starts.
3. The gear is not the most important aspect of your job
Believe it or not, the settings, the numbers, the knobs, and the equipment, are not the most important part of your job. Your job is to create a mix and an experience that 99% of the audience will perceive as good, thus, remaining transparent. Since you are mixing for humans, and since humans are all different and unique, each person will perceive your mix in a unique way. Great engineers never please everyone, they just please more people in the audience than a bad engineer. Focus on what sounds good no matter what the setting. The audience will never see your settings.
• No matter what you’ve read, let go of the technical side. It’s hard when just starting out, but you have to be comfortable in your abilities to control the gear without it controlling you. To some degree, we all got into sound because we are attracted to the detailed and complex technical side of the job, right? We like to twist knobs, look at numbers, and see what a different setting do to a sound. Now, THROW ALL THAT OUT THE WINDOW! For the sound check and show, focus on what you hear, not the numbers or settings. Only do it if it sounds good!
• Practice closing your eyes and dialing in the mix. Then when you have it sounding right, don’t look at the numbers or dials. They don’t matter.
Tony Huerta
tony@take6.com or tony@sonicaudiopro.com