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What Happens Between Sound Check and Down Beat???


Guitar Slim

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This has happened most of the gigs we play (when we do not mix our monitors ourselves), including last weekend. We are a 7-piece band so I know mixing us isn't the easiest job but why do our in-ear mixes change entirely between sound check and the beginning of the show?

 

Last weekend I had a pretty decent mix in my ears at sound check. my vocal loudest followed by my guitar, the lead vocal, all other vocals, then piano. I did not need drums as I stand next to the drummer and I did not need bass as it was cranking out of the mains. But once the show started, I had no piano, a little lead vocal, my guitar and my vocal. Not awful, but very different from what I had when we walked away. Each of the other guys in the band describe a similar, if not much worse, experience.

 

So what is happening? Surely the sound guys are not just making changes once we are gone since they just spent so much time getting what we wanted. Also, it has not been just one guy but most sound guys we have worked with.

 

Any help would be fantastic! Thanks,

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If you depending FOH for your monitor mixes it seems they will almost always start jumping on gains with no regard to how it affects your monitors. If there is another band before you, unless there's a digital board AND the FOH saves your mixes, there almost no way it's going to be like it was at sound check. Given any opportunity, we will bring our own monitor board and use their amp and wedges. We have everything in a single rack to give us consistent monitor mixes from stage to stage, including splits, drop snakes and patch snakes, and ensure that that our monitor mixes cannot be tampered with at FOH. That said, there are situations such as multi-band shows where it just isn't practical and you just have suck it up and deal with it.

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Only a rank amateur would be mixing monitors using post-fade auxes at FOH. If that's the case, you had better start bring your own monitor mixer. An IEM mix shouldn't change that much when the house is full. That's one of its advantages.

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