If you’ve ever been to a large concert, then you know how important the sound quality is. Is it too loud? Is it distorted? Is it a solid-sounding mix that adds to the excitement of the live concert?
There is a lot going on while mixing a live show. The larger the show, the more rehearsed the show is likely to be, with special considerations all throughout the performance. The fan likely doesn’t know what’s going on during the show, but there is actually a lot happening during the set.
There can be a hundred inputs involved in a large show, with cue tracks, live playback tracks, click tracks, lighting cues, and all kinds of submixes and special effects along the way. There are wireless mics, hardwire backup mics, and the endless changes during the actual show. The FOH mixer has to coordinate with the monitor mixer as well, in addition to fully understanding the flown system, the subs, the sophisticated arrays with different area coverage, the digital boards, and much more.
If you are in a small club, then the approach is much different. As the size of the venue increases, so too does the complexity of the job of mixing in order to give everyone in the building the best possible sound quality available. Then there is always the opening act, or multi-stage events, etc. Sometimes there is a separate console or portion of the console for the opening acts. Sometimes not, and you have to share the mixing chores with a touring engineer. We’ll take a closer look at each of these scenarios in this section.