As a mixing engineer for various bands, I have struggled at times to pull my mix together. Maybe I didn’t get enough sleep, maybe I had a stuffy head, or didn’t manage to remove the giant ball of wax that had been building up in my ears for the last year (just kidding!!). Either way, every mixing engineer has a hard time every now and then.

I can think of one instance where I had been struggling with a singer. I couldn’t get the e.q. right for his vocals. I spent most of the evening kicking myself, wondering if I had enough sleep, or a big ball of wax in my ears. When all of a sudden a very famous singer walks onto the stage to sit in with the band. Not even 5 seconds after he starts singing, I had his vocal punching through the mix and sounding awesome! WHY?

Both singers had used the same microphone, compression, and effects. Why did I struggle with one and not with the other? The answer is simple.

One of them had crafted their skill over years of practice, and knew how to use a microphone.


What I want to explore in this article is, what artists can do to make their sound better, when working with sound engineers.

After years of traveling on the road with national touring acts and doing club gigs, I have seen many techniques used on the stage by artists. These techniques have dictated the overall listening experience, and drastically affected the quality of their mix. I have heard horrible mixes from national touring artists and club musicians equally. But the ones who have the best sound have adhered to certain stage practices.


If a band wants to sound the best that they can, the number one thing they can do, other than practice, is provide their sound engineer with good quality sounds. We’ve all heard the analogy about polishing feces of various creatures. Well, this is no exception.

A great mixing engineer behind a $200,000 mixing board can not tune your drums, guitar, bass, or even the vocal. Nor can he make your dead drum heads and old guitar strings new.
A well tuned drum set, is the key to a great drum sound. The same goes for a great sounding guitar rig.

Often times a guitarist will dial in his tone at home by himself, with lots of beefy low end, and sparkling highs. This may sound great at home, but that bassist is gonna provide lots of beefy low end. So, it’s a good idea to think of your real estate in the sonic spectrum.

I know it’s an awesome feeling when the dust is blown off your black leather pants, by your 20 foot tall, hot pink Marshall cabinet. I’m having a, “Back To The Future” flashback of Michael J. Fox being blown away by a 10 foot tall speaker, playing guitar!!!

Or we’ve all seen concerts where there is a wall of Marshall cabinets. The actual truth is, that only one of those speakers is plugged in at most of those shows. Lenny Kravitz has a wall of guitar cabinets, but what few people know is that, behind that wall is a few combo amps, that he switches between.

If you place a vocal microphone in front of a very loud guitar rig, I hope you can sing louder than that guitar amp can, because that mic is picking up that guitar amp too. So is the snare microphone, and every other microphone on the stage. If you want your guitar, vocal, or any other mic’d instrument to come through the mix really clear, then turn it down or turn it around.

Many guitarists are now leaving their guitar amps underneath the stage, or placing them facing backwards somewhere backstage. Drastically reducing stage volume and interference with other microphones.

Drummers can use clear drum shields. This also reduces stage volume, and reduces bleed to drum microphones from other instruments.

IEMs (In Ear Monitors) Not having stage monitors means less sound on the stage. It also means less battle for the sound you want.

How often have you seen this scenario: Guitarist turns up his amp so he can hear himself, then the keyboard player turns up his keyboard amp, the drummer now wants more bass guitar in his wedge, and the singer now needs his vocal louder than it will possibly go without squeeling!!!!

With IEMs everybody can get what they want, and the stage is now pretty quiet.

Basically this whole article is about making sure that bands give their sound engineers a good quality, discreet sound. In my experience, the bands that reduce stage volume have the best sounding shows. Now, of course raw talent is the #1 ingredient, but us geeks focus on what we can do technically.


We look forward to rockin’ with you at your next show, and we’ll have a tight mix for you!!!


Noah Waldron