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Refusing to soundcheck is not conducive to being invited back I would say! Have you ever played the same venue twice with that band, @KKJale?
It kind of keeps the momentum of the event going while we're half singing, half asking the engineer for what we need.
We're not precious though, as long as the singers have enough pitch info we'll just let the engineer do what he does best and let it evolve throughout the set.
I don't mind soundchecks but it's something I like to be over as quick as possible when theirs punters there watching. If we are doing a club or corporate gig before the doors are open to the punters then I quite enjoy a nice lengthy drawn out one. After 30 years of gig'ing I like to think we have a handle on where to set things volume wise on stage. 90% of the time we have an engineer out front even in pubs so the FOH mix is their problem, all we need to do is basically set out backline at a volume that gives him a fighting chance of being able to mix the gig
Monitor wise everyone's using their phones to set their IEM's with the exception of 3 singers I work with in 3 different bands who all basically want the same thing .... their vocal as loud as possible in their wedge and little else
I did a load of festival work over the summer in all kinds of bands and there really isn't time for any kind of proper soundcheck between changeovers .... and most guys (including my own company) generally dot a lot of wedges around a festival stage and aren't generally set up to provide a load of stereo sends for IEM's with wifi control .... so I revised the design of my original IEM box to include personal control over my vocal level and guitar level regardless of what the festival engineer is doing. If I have control over those 2 things and can hear a bit of everyone else then I'm happy.
Here's a club setup & soundcheck condensed into 1.50 mins
Club gig where we're headlining, I like a soundcheck because it helps us feel like it's "our" night and we own the venue for the duration, which is a nice confidence boost.
If we're supporting, I'd rather just have a quick line check. Because if half a dozen bands are all having soundchecks, it's just a waste of time, doesn't have much value and I'd rather just pile our gear into the backstage area and go to find food/ relax/ see friends.
We've been playing together long enough, and the core of our sound is just drums, bass, guitar and 3x vocals across the front. We've got a sampler that we use to add incidental sounds to songs, but frankly it's not a show stopper if it turns out the DI the venue plug it into has a dead battery.
One thing we did learn to do is an extended intro to our first song - starts with drums, then bass comes in for 8 bars, then guitar, then lead vocals and backing vocals don't start until the chorus. So if the sound guy is on the ball, he gets a chance to quickly dial in some sounds as each player comes in. And if he's not on the ball, we have bigger problems which all the soundchecks in the world wouldn't fix.
Bandcamp
Spotify, Apple et al
At festivals a quick line check is typical, a good (but not all) engineer will have a mix dialed reasonably by the first chorus for most bands. Some pro/semi pro bands will start with something simple like a bass/drums intro and then bring in the other instruments a few bars apart before the singer starts. This gives an excellent chance for the engineer to build the mix without the audience noticing.
It's always harder for the unusual bands that have 5-6 different acoustic stringed instruments that have different line levels and miced flute/squeeze box, hand percussion etc. and 5 part vocals. That takes some experience behind the festival desk.
To some extent it's just making sure everything works and in pubs sometimes you have to be creative in a small space about where your gear goes so you need to know if you can hear yourselves.
I'd cheerfully have long soundchecks but I've rarely been in that position.
The kind of gigs I tend to do with my covers band we are usually restricted for time. We play a lot of weddings and corporate events, but due to the fact that every member of the band has day jobs we normally can't physically get to the venue until around 7pm. We stipulate in our contract that we will have background music on before 7:30pm, so everyone in the band focuses on getting the PA up and running for 7:30pm.
I play guitar and run the sound from stage.
Depending on the event and room we may do a soundcheck, but that will be a verse of a song maximum. I just like to get the bass and the drums balanced nicely (that's half the battle in my book).
If we don't do a soundcheck I have a good idea where things need to be fader wise on the desk, we also use a digital desk (Presonus 16.4.2) so I also have quite a few venues saved as a scene on the desk. So its normally in the ball park mix wise.
The singer tends to wander out front and fine tune the mix during the 1st song. Monitor wise we are all on IEM's so that never changes regardless of the gig.
we usually get a nice soundcheck..
everyone called up one by one.. then the whole band together to sort the FoH and our individual monitor mixes..
this year though we've been playing some festivals where we only got a line check..
the plan is simple....
the first song is an easy one that's up and at it.. the solos at the have no fixed length..
during the solos we communicate individually [and very quickly] with the monitoring engineer to tweak the sound on stage..
when we have something we can work with we'll end the song and crack on with the rest of the set..
you don't work too hard on the stage sound at a festival because it's never that great..
simply because the stage is soooooo huge you never really get that 'glued together' sound you get in smaller indoor venues..
unlike a great many though.. it is worth pointing out that I am blessed when it comes to sound guys and stage crew..
the guys that look after us live are generally superb..
our best line check ever was this year at a big festival at The Loreley, Germany..
we build [amps, drums, keys etc] before hand on small stage risers..
they mic you up on the risers.. the band before us comes off stage right and they wheel us on stage left..
connect our mics to the cables on stage and we're ready to go..
it took about 20 minutes to get the previous band off, us on and have a very quick line check..
10 minutes later we started the first song of the set...
the crew backstage and front were amazing