The primary responsibility of the FOH engineer is to control what the audience hears during a live performance. This task involves mixing multiple audio sources form on stage and faithfully reproducing them in a balanced mix through the PA system and in the absence of a dedicated audio team, can involve governing all audio technical responsibilities.
My main aim while engineering a live show is to take care of all of the audio technical tasks in a controlled and efficient manner, allowing the artists to focus their full attention on their performance. Time-management is of paramount importance and I always aim to allow for adequate time to make adjustments if the performers aren’t completely satisfied with their set-up.
A large portion of my experience to date consists of providing live sound for small to medium sized venues where I usually operate on a lone basis. Working alone has the added benefit of being fully in control of the entire audio technical set up whereas working with an inexperienced audio team can introduce as many problems as it aims to solve.
I take special care to combat any potential issues such as feedback; a phenomenon that’s sure to take from even the best live performances. Compensating for venue acoustics is yet another important aspect of live sound that often gets overlooked and it plays a fundamental role in how the performance is carried from the stage to the crowd.
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