Live sound - Essential equipment

When preparing for a live sound gig, there are some things you need to be aware of. Some gigs are obviously smaller or larger than others so you need to be sure you have everything you need to make the gig run more smoothly.

When you have the rider and are more or less sure of the lineup, you can more or less gauge what type of equipment you will need.

At every live gig, there are different requirements, you may need more of some things and less of others but here below I point out the things that are necessary at every concert.

What do you need?

1. Mixer.

Obvious right? But what I mean is that you should be aware of how many tracks the band will need and the size of the mixer required for the gig.

The size of the mixer varies if you’re mixing a 16 track rock group or a 24 track special show with different line-ups. Also be aware of extra tracks for FX returns or playbacks for example.

2. Enough monitors

Make sure that everybody on stage can hear themselves. So be sure to bring enough monitors. It will be a pain both for you and the band if there are monitoring problems.Having a great stage sound will let the gig run more smoothly and the band will appear more confident, resulting in a better live sound.

3. Decent P.A.

You won’t need a huge JBL Vertec line-array for a small club so plan accordingly. When talking to the equipment rental make sure you specify the size of the venue and type of the concert.

The professionals who work there will usually be able to gauge how big your system will have to be. Sure, they might make it a little bit bigger than they really have to in order to charge more, but it’s safe to say they’re(usually) trustworthy.

4. Outboard equipment.

In addition to the mixer, the FOH engineer must have a decent selection of outboard equipment to help him mix. When working with analog mixers, this means having a huge effects rack with compressors, gates and multi-effects.

But when working with a digital mixer such as the Yamaha’s or the Roland M-400 all the compressors and effects are built-in making the process of inserting them a breeze.

For example, working with a rock group and an analog mixer in my opinion you will need at least:

Compressor/Gate for the kick drum.
Compressor/Gate for the snare. You can often get dual gate/compressors that you can use and save space in your effect rack.
Gates for the toms.
Compressor for the bass.
Compressors for the vocal, if more than one then use the compressor on the lead vocal.
3-4 different types of effects. Drum reverb, plate reverb for vocals and tap-tempo delay are my favorites and the ones I use the most.

5. extra cables

cables Lastly, because with Murphy’s law watching closely everything that goes on in the live sound field, make sure you have backups of everything. And more often than not, that means cables. Bring more cables than you think you will ever need, because you will need them.

So when you’re packing for your next live sound gig, prepare yourself and make notes of what you will need. Do you have a big enough mixer? Enough monitors? Will your P.A. be enough? Keep all these questions in mind and follow these guidelines and you’ll do great.

What do you guys think? Am I forgetting something? Something I’m not mentioning? Let me know! What's your essential equipment when going out mixing?

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