I've been playing in the same band now for 6 years. We've never had a soundman, just some friends who follow us around and tell us how things are mixed out front. The singer does have a wireless mic and does go out when we first start out for a song or two just to dial it in. But what about the rest of the night as the crowd comes and goes and the room changes? How about the soundman who works at the venue you're playing at. He doesn't know your material-can you trust him to make your band sound as good as possible? Do we have to slip him some coin to insure a good job?

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Largely the answer is YES. New material and all that gumf means little to them, they've seen it all before, probably a thousand times.

Do I trust my bands soundman. Implicitly, its me. Do yourself a favour, buy a wireless sender/receiver kit. At the end of your first set go out and check it yourself.

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No no and no

I am usually the safeguard on the soundman.
I always double and triple check, mind you I'm not going to be that guy that hovers over them.
But YOU have to be somewhat accountable for your sound.


PS, this is in reference to playing out, we get different soundmen/women.
As for recording I am my own soundman

My last band had the same soundguy for every show we played. He did a really good job and actually made changes during the set to keep things sounding right. Most other soundguys Ive worked with set it once and then head to the bar for the rest of the set.

Certain clubs get reputations for having great sound engineers...good news travels fast.

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Its not always the soundmans fault...Also to blame are guitarists who insist on having a 100-watt full stack taking up 1/3 of the stage in a club smaller than a 1-car garage. Thats one of a soundmans nightmares...bands with way more amp than they actually need and who will not turn it down no matter what, even at the advice of the soundman who works there fulltime and may actually have more of an idea on how to get the best of of the room/venue/sound system compared to someone who just dropped in there for a few hours, but acts like they know more about the venue than the people who work there. Don't get me wrong, there are bad sound guys, but I have also seen decent sounding venues and soundmen sound like crap because some "wannabe who has yet to be" thinks they know everything and won't let people who actually have a clue do what they are supposed to do...

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RAMA LAMA FA FA FA

We are really hard on soundmen in most places. As a band its OUR responsibility to make sure we sound optimum for our fans. Not some guy pushing sliders. JMO.

CC

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Of course I do, my wife runs the sound board for us for most of our gigs. When sound is run by a third party we have been lucky enough to get to know the most often used sound crews in this area. We have played often enough they know us and we have a good relationship with all of them. We have 6 different people that sing lead and 3 guitarists and everyone has at least one solo so someone has to be on the board at all times. On our biggest shows we have a soundman that has worked and toured with national acts to run the board. We are not a set it and forget type band anymore. We used to be when we were a 4 peice but now we have 9 people and a horn section.