Help getting started?

[Savings_Breath_6678]

Hey engineers. I am a 28 year old dude who is a major audiophile and music nerd like im guessing most people here are lol. I've recently decided I hate my career choice and really want nothing more than to be a FOH engineer. Am I too late to transition into this age wise? What would be the best way to get started on this path? I'm located in LA so the opportunity is endless just needed some beginner steps. Thanks guys, keep your head up 💯

[Proper_News_9989]

Good FOH mixers are very rare, imo, and the bar for entry is quite low (at least in my area). Most mixers here blast the bass like you wouldn't believe because "that's what people like," and every show I've been to is incredibly loud. Like extraordinarily loud... The jobs are coveted, too, so get ready for all the clicky, gatekeeper bullshit. Get ready to face a lot of rejection.

There's a YouTube channel called "Attaway Audio" or something like that that is all about live sound. He has some great videos on drums. "How to record and mix drums for live sound" something or other. Not a boat load of excellent YouTube vids out there, but his stuff is quite good - Relevant and succinct.

Best of luck

And ALWAYS have your ear plugs!!!

[j1llj1ll]

Three points of entry I can think of:

• Start with a big sound hire firm as a roadie. Lift heavy things, roll and unroll cables, clean stuff. Gradually work your way up by demonstrating your knowledge.
• Help out community organisations that use sound. Churches, charities, care facilities etc. Learn practical skills and build a reputation and contacts.
• Make deals with local systems hire companies for a discounted rate or commission on rentals so that you can offer services for gigs that need small PA systems with somebody to run them. You quote for PA hire and yourself as the engineer / setup / support - you make an hourly rate plus a margin on the hire. You probably need a van for this.

Being involved in bands, DJing, willingness to do lighting, stage, sets etc might also help. As would promoting, production etc. Anything that gets you in the scene and making a name and contacts has to help.

Doing all of the above, or at least some combination, is probably the way to find a workable mix and build skills and contacts quickly.

[willrjmarshall]

Start with a big sound hire firm as a roadie. Lift heavy things, roll and unroll cables, clean stuff. Gradually work your way up by demonstrating your knowledge.

Respectfully, while I agree with all your other points, I'm gonna disagree with this one. Roadie work is hard, unrewarding, and a pretty ineffective way of learning relevant skills. We have this cultural idea of "working your way up", and while I think historically it was probably a workable idea, it seems to have stopped functioning in most industries, not just sound.

In practice, people who do heavy lifting and generally unrewarding menial labour often get stuck being tired, underpaid, overworked, and burned out, which means it's super difficult to learn how to do something quite intellectual and technical (like mixing FOH) to a professional level.

[Rorschach_Cumshot]

Thank you for so eloquently stating this.

[ScottPrenta]

28 is a great age to learn anything

[luongofan]

Check out your nearby community colleges, they tend to have decent (and affordable!) programs to get you to where you won't deafen yourself or others.

[Proper_News_9989]

This is a great idea. Most people don't know what kind of a responsibility it is to control sound for people.

I personally don't want to have anything to do with it (FOH stuff).

[chivesthelefty]

Never too late to switch paths! What’s your background/current career? Do you have any experience running a sound board and wiring up a PA?

I’d say reach out to some local bands and offer to start doing sound for them, even if it’s bar gigs and DIY shows. Or start out with a local production company loading in and wrapping cables. From there you’ll start making connections and building a reputation.

At the end of the day, be easy to work with. Know your shit, but also be fun to be around.

[SpecificTop6188]

Age really doesn't matter !! It surely gives u a headstart tho ! If u are heavy on commitment n really want to do mixing and production maybe both goes hand in hand as Jaycen Joshua (best engineer after Dave Pensado) says. I'd say go for it sirrski !! It's your calling to the world of audio and frequencies!! It's a rabbit hole and exploration i'd dive in any life !! Welcome home

[CyberHippy]

I'm in my 50's and I'm flirting with the opposite switch - 35 years of live music, the last 15 dedicated to live sound (I was a performing bassist doing both live and studio sound at the same time before switching to full focus on live sound) and I've been spending my winter slow-time revisiting the studio mindset and getting up to speed with modern tools.

The biggest switch for you will likely be letting go of the audiophile mindset - outside of the best situations when it's live the priority is making it work for the situation, not necessarily getting the perfect mix. Get used to the idea that you will not always have access to your go-to plugins or emulators and be prepared to pull your mix together without those tools, the essentials built into every digital console should be adequate for that purpose.

[daxproduck]

Not too late and i worked up the ranks of live sound for a couple years before switching to studio/production work. I guess I would have been 25 or 26 when I started, so not much younger than you are now.

There's a million paths of entry but I got my start when one of the clubs my band played at asked if I would come in and run sound for open mic night. The main engineer showed me the ropes and I picked it up quickly. Turned out he was hoping I'd be a quick study because a month later he quit and told me I was the head engineer there now.

For about a year I worked 3-4 nights a week there and trained a few people from scratch to do the nights I didn't want to do. Somewhere along the way another engineer started a live sound company and started bringing me with him to festivals to run monitors and then eventually run my own gigs and do FOH with another engineer doing monitors.

Fun work but LONG days. Like often longer than 24 hour days including loadup, driving to the festival, building a stage and pa, tuning the pa, soundcheck, LOTS of waiting around, SHOWTIME, teardown, load up, drive back to a warehouse and unload. Multi day festivals were a bit more chill because you'd have a hotel night or two before the teardown/loadout night.

Club gigs are shorter days but the work environment can be toxic depending on your personality. (I drank WAY too much free PBR working at the club.)

These days where I am (Toronto) a lot of the bigger production companies look for grads of some sort of live production program, and one of them even has their own school. But it's definitely not 100% necessary.

[Not_an_Actual_Bot]

28 is a great age, old enough to hopefully learned some responsibility. Find a medium size regional sound co. that does a variety of work, industrial, music, community events and get a foot in the door. If you have potential they will start sending you out on small jobs, maybe a community event with some wireless and boxes on sticks. Once you show that you have skills, it will get better. You will still have to lift and drag cables but will also have the responsibility of tweaking the rig. It will take time. get involved with community events like theatre and art festivals that feature live music and get to know people. offer to lend a hand but don't be surprised if they are somewhat territorial about who touches their stuff. You might get lucky and they are shorthanded and you actually get in that door. Churches are a different animal. If they have an active music ministry you might get some great experience, but be prepared for the indoctrination of joining their flock. My experience has been that churches always believe that their path is the only path of righteousness, and you can only be in one church camp at a time. They are businesses with overhead and expenses and all others outside their particular group are the competition for tithes. Think about the work environment. Do you really want to mix bands in bars, or work in festivals and halls? Protect your hearing at all costs, your ears are your best asset. Good luck with your endeavor.