Every musician knows that to reach the masses, their sound must be amplified. Without proper amplification, a musician should not hope to create widespread impact through their sound.
To attain amplification, musicians must rely on an audio technician. An audio technician permits the musician to reach a quality and decibel level that they could not attain alone. A musician who has tirelessly worked to hone their skills is at risk of never being heard without a quality relationship with their audio technician.
This relationship between the musician and technician should bridge the divide between sound booth and stage. It’s helps create a powerful sound and it’s absolutely necessary.
It’s easy to mentally isolate ourselves to the stage as a musician or to the sound booth as an audio technician. Even the best equipment from both the audio and musician side can still fail to reach a premier sound quality without partnership. We need to bridge the gap between the technician and the artist because the relationship between the two is what truly creates art.
To do this, both players need to put in effort. The musician should be prepared and able to communicate their ideas helpfully to the technician. Specifically, musicians should be able to articulate what they want their sound to be like. They should speak up if they hear anything out of line because honesty is important in a relationship. Musicians also need to be patient in the soundcheck process. An audio technician may be building the mix for the full band and can’t attend to smaller needs right away. They know what they’re doing—they haven’t forgotten about you. Give some time before re-introducing issues they’re already aware of.
In response, the audio technician should understand the soundboard from a technical side, but approach it from an artistic side. This helps the technician better understand the perspective of the musician in order to best represent their sound. Even listening to the musician’s produced tracks beforehand can lend hints for a musician’s live sound mix. On a non-technical side, casual conversation makes the gap seem less prominent. Before soundcheck or after, it’s helpful to foster a friendship that isn’t centered around work. Especially if you both are in a longer term partnership such as at a local church or on tour. Steps like these help develop trust and bridge the gap
