Updated 2024
Estimate time to read: 7 minutes

Sound engineers play a crucial role in ensuring that live performances (and worship services) go off without a hitch, and their insights can significantly enhance the experience for both the band and the audience. Here are 9 key things every guitarist should know to make the sound guy’s job easier (and in turn make your life easier).

Note: there are a few terms for sound engineers, and they all mean the same thing, and I’ll be using them interchangeably: sound guy, sound tech, tech, sound engineer, and engineer. This is the person behind the sound board, mixing the band. They are awesome and sometimes get a lot of flack from guitarists, so listen up!

Sections:

• Communicate Gear Preferences Early

• Provide Detailed Stage Layouts (or at Least Ask Where to Setup)

• Minimize On-Stage Volume

• Soundproof Your Guitar Amp

• Once You’re Setup, Don’t Change Your Settings

• Understand In-Ear Mixes vs. On-Stage Monitors

• Be Direct, but Don’t be Needy

• Be Flexible During Soundcheck

• Ask Before You Unplug

• Wrapping it up

Communicate Gear Preferences Early

Guitarists often have specific preferences for their tone and effects, especially lead guitarists. Rhythm guitarists can have the occasional effect pedal, but generally, we’re a little less needy.

Any additional pedals, amps, and other items between the guitar itself and the soundboard are what we’re talking about here. These can impact the sound tech’s work.

Informing the engineer about your gear preferences, such as preferred mic placement, amp settings, or effects usage, helps them tailor the sound to your liking, while also mixing the whole band together for a great audience experience.

Early communication helps avoid last-minute adjustments and ensures that your sound is as close to your vision as possible.

Provide Detailed Stage Layouts (or at Least Ask Where to Setup)

Once we communicate what we have and how we might use it during the service, we get to stage placement. This has to do with the way all of the above items are laid out on the stage.

Whether it’s your and amp and pedalboard, or just a mic stand, the sound guy needs to know where you want everything to go. This is important for cable length, conflicting instruments (ie. It’s generally not a good idea to place a cello next to the drums) and the engineer is there to help the band get the best sound possible.

Having a clear stage layout is essential for an effective soundcheck. This allows for better planning and adjustments before the performance, ensuring that mic placement and sound levels are optimized from the start.

Sound techs are generally flexible, so it would be a good idea to be flexible as well. Maybe you don’t like placing your amp or pedals a certain way. But if you can get a good in-ear mix and the audience has a good mix, then it doesn’t really matter. In other words, remember why we serve on worship teams. It’s not for our own ego.

Minimize On-Stage Volume

High on-stage guitar volume can make it difficult for the sound guy to create a balanced mix, as it forces them to compensate for excessive stage noise. To help mitigate this, keep your stage volume at a reasonable level and use in-ear monitors or personal monitoring systems (we’ll talk about these in a minute). This approach not only improves the sound quality for the audience but also helps the sound tech manage the mix more effectively.

This one is mostly for electric guitarists or anyone with an amp on stage.

Here’s a great example that I’ve seen first hand I would hate for it to happen to you. Everything is setup how you prefer, but the engineer says your are too loud. You’ve turned down a little bit every time he’s asked, so he just gave up.

Do you know what happens next from the audience side of the stage? You’re not in the mix.

That’s right. You get taken out of the mix altogether because your on-stage presence is loud enough to be equal to (or louder than) the rest of the band coming through the main speakers.

Now, this is a real problem for several reasons:

1. You won’t sound as good due to your guitar amp filling all the space in the room from a single source rather than from multiple speakers,

2. Your sound is muddy and not clear due to the same reason, and

3. In some parts of the room, especially if it’s a bigger room, your guitar will sound like it’s behind everyone else because it’s traveling from on stage and filling the room instead of from speakers across the front of the stage or even in the audience.

Soundproof Your Guitar Amp

Guitar amps can be incredibly loud, and if not properly managed as I discussed in the previous point, they can overwhelm the rest of the band and create a muddy guitar sound.

Some engineers recommend soundproofing or isolating amps to prevent them from bleeding into other microphones and instruments on the stage.

The first time I had a sound tech tell me this, I kinda freaked out. But I got over myself and had a decent in-ear mix, so it all worked out.

Using amp isolation cabinets, placing you amp in a soundproofed enclosure, or even behind a curtain or backstage door helps control the volume and improves overall sound clarity, making it easier for the sound tech to balance all elements of the mix.

You might not like it right away, but with the right engineer, you can still sound great.

Once You’re Setup, Don’t Change Your Settings

Once you and the rest of the team have figured out your settings, how you’ll position microphones, adjust pedal settings, and run through rehearsal, it’s important to not touch anything.

By that, I mean don’t continue to change your settings. Don’t adjust your pedals for “more drive” or “extra delay”.

The sound engineer has the entire team mixed to sound great together, and when you adjust your settings after rehearsal, it can throw the whole mix off.

I know this may sound a little nit-picky, but mixes are like fragile cakes. If you add a bit too much icing or there’s not enough icing to cover one of the cake layers, it looks terrible. The same goes for mixes.

Let the engineer do his job and keep your hands off of your guitar settings once you get through rehearsal.

Understand In-Ear Mixes vs. On-Stage Monitors

In-ear monitors and on-stage wedges serve different purposes and understanding their roles can enhance their usefulness as well as your performance.

In-ear monitors provide a controlled mix directly to your ears, reducing stage noise and allowing for precise adjustments. I started playing guitar on worship teams that used wedges, and only later started using in-ear monitors. They take a little bit to get used to, but you’re able to better personalize your mix.

On-stage monitors, on the other hand, project sound across the stage (depending on placement) but can contribute to a noisier environment overall. These are great to get a few instruments together and let them share a wedge. The sound tech can add both of your instruments into the mix with a little vocals and other instruments to help with timing, but you get to hear a mix kinda like the audience.

The downside of on-stage monitors is if the mixes of all the wedges is too loud, it may end up overpowering the main speakers.

Discuss with your sound tech and worship director/leader which system will work best for your church’s setup. Be sure that everyone is comfortable with the monitoring approach and try out some different mixes to find the best one for your team.

Be Direct, but Don’t be Needy

Sound engineers do their best to make sure you have the best personal mix possible in addition to giving the audience the best mix.

If you need more Keys or less backup vocals, tell the sound guy (for mixes and monitors that they control). Often times you may need to adjust your personal mix after the team runs through a song or two during rehearsal, and that’s ok. Adjustments are part of the mix.

What you shouldn’t do, however, is spend every second the band isn’t playing to bombard the engineer with tweaking your personal mix - a little bit higher, a little bit higher, oh that’s too high, etc.

Get a decent mix and let’s play!

The engineer has other things to do besides tweak your personal mix, and the worship leader wants to utilize the pre-service rehearsal time to run through the songs. This lead to the next point, being flexible.

Be Flexible During Soundcheck

Be flexible with an “imperfect” personal mix. Trust me, you’ll be fine.

Soundchecks are a time for fine-tuning and adjustments. And flexibility from the guitarist (that’s you) can make a significant difference.

Be open to making changes to your setup or sound as suggested by the sound guy. He can hear the master mix from the audience’s perspective. Maybe he hears something you can’t and is trying to highlight your playing by suggesting a certain type of setting or effect.

Small tweaks, such as adjusting amp settings or altering microphone placements, can lead to a much better overall mix and a smoother performance.

Ask Before You Unplug

Have you ever heard a guitarist unplug when they were still unmuted on the speakers? POP! Yeah, it hurts everyone’s ears, and a small part of the engineer’s soul dies a little (just kidding).

Before you tear down at the end of the service, make sure you communicate with the sound tech to make sure you’re muted before you unplug. This also goes for anyone else who has a direction input into the sound system.

Once you get to know your sound engineer, maybe you use hand signals to communicate everything is muted and it’s safe to unplug. I always gave a long stare to the sound guy after the service ended and he would quickly look down, press some buttons, and give a big thumbs up so I knew I was good to tear down.

Wrapping It Up

By understanding and incorporating these tips, guitarists can help sound engineers deliver a clearer, more balanced mix, enhancing the overall live performance experience for everyone involved.

Remember why we serve on worship teams: to worship and lead others in worship.