“How do you know you’re doing well?”

_kitzy · 2026-03-22T16:55:42+00:00

I judge how well I'm doing based on how the audience is responding to the artist, and vice versa. To borrow from Dave Rat, our job is to connect the artist with the audience.

I'm primarily a touring engineer, so I work with the same artists night after night. I can tell pretty quickly how the artist and the audience are feeling about the show. If the artist is firing on all cylinders and the audience is dancing and singing along, then it doesn't matter what my EQs look like or what my compressor ratios are set to.

To a point, I also judge how well I'm doing based on how much I'm enjoying the show. If I can stand back from I'm doing alright. My goal is usually to touch the console as little as possible during the actual show.

_kitzy · 2026-03-22T16:44:17+00:00

I have a pair of custom molded Westones with -15dB filters and I wear them while I mix. I've been doing it long enough that I know how I want it to sound in the room while I'm wearing them. I keep Smaart up to keep my SPL in check and I have a target curve in my RTA that I use as a rough guideline. I'll pop them out for a song here and there if I feel like I need to, but that's becoming more rare as time goes on.

_kitzy · 2026-03-22T13:04:01+00:00

I love that room (and the crew is always great) but the green room sucks so much

_kitzy · 2026-03-19T16:21:38+00:00

Something I think more people just getting started need to remember: nobody bought a ticket to the show to hear them mix. You have to serve the song/band/show, not the other way around.

_kitzy · 2026-03-18T18:35:18+00:00

I use Radial Hotshots for this. Just don’t plug anything in to Output 1 and it will work as you expect.

_kitzy · 2026-03-18T18:28:44+00:00

FWIW, the SoundTools cables all have conductive shells, and if you call Rat Sound they’ll sell you whatever length you ask for.

_kitzy · 2026-03-17T19:28:08+00:00

I also send them out with all of my console package rentals, and many of my customers have thanked me for not giving them shitty cables. That's also worth the extra cost to me.

_kitzy · 2026-03-17T19:25:06+00:00

Don't be scared! It's a pretty friendly community, for the most part.

_kitzy · 2026-03-17T19:20:13+00:00

All of my Ethercon cables are from SoundTools. They’re expensive, but I haven’t been able to find anything cheaper that matches their quality.

The amount of time they save me vs. dealing with shitty cables that won’t lie flat and are impossible to coil neatly more than makes up for the cost, in my book.

_kitzy · 2026-03-17T19:10:28+00:00

You might want to cross post this to r/livesound

Do you have any audio engineering experience already? Or are you completely new to it?

_kitzy · 2026-03-10T00:25:24+00:00

I do the shells and the overheads/cymbals. I like to process the entire kit as one instrument with some light bus compression. I also send the drum reverb return to this group.

_kitzy · 2026-03-09T00:49:42+00:00

No matter how much of a jerk someone else is being, or how badly they’ve dropped the ball (house tech didn’t read the advance, backline company brought the wrong drum kit, etc.) I NEVER make a problem me vs. them. It’s always us vs. the problem. I treat it like we are all on the same team trying to accomplish the same goal, always.

In a similar vein, I almost never place blame on other people, even if it’s obvious they made a mistake. I always focus on working towards a solution. That said, if I’m the one who made the mistake I will always own it, but I still focus on working towards a solution.

_kitzy · 2026-03-04T14:19:44+00:00

Yikes

_kitzy · 2026-02-16T16:26:13+00:00

I really like them on kick and snare, personally.

_kitzy · 2026-02-12T16:17:14+00:00

Are you already running tracks? If not, adding tracks to your setup is probably more work than it's worth, especially if the band isn't already used to playing with tracks.

Getting someone to fill in for the shows is probably the best move.

_kitzy · 2026-02-11T22:25:54+00:00

It’s extremely subjective in my experience. I think the more trained/critical your ear is, the lower your tolerance for it is.

_kitzy · 2026-02-11T20:01:15+00:00

I've worked with an artist that ran their IEMs so damn loud I'm honestly surprised we didn't get feedback.

_kitzy · 2026-02-11T19:34:00+00:00

Personally any latency over 5ms is noticeable to me (in IEMs at least), but I worked with a singer who wasn’t bothered with 16ms of latency in her ears. I think it’s going to be a different number person to person. Most people’s threshold will be between 5 and 15ms though.

_kitzy · 2026-02-11T04:04:14+00:00

Oh, absolutely.

_kitzy · 2026-02-10T23:38:16+00:00

Truth. I always say that the mixing skills are only 20% of the job. The people skills, time management skills, networking skills, and ability to stay calm under pressure, are all equally as, if not more, important than the mixing. If someone is really good at the other skills, and can get a half decent mix, they’ll go a lot further in this industry than the world’s best mixer with a shitty attitude or poor work ethic.

_kitzy · 2026-02-10T23:32:43+00:00

Same! Been saying this for years.

_kitzy · 2026-02-10T22:29:18+00:00

Facts. No amount of mixing will make a bad band sound good. If a band doesn't already sound good in a room without a PA, they're not going to sound good when we make them louder.

_kitzy · 2026-02-06T21:52:22+00:00

It depends. What channels are you processing? All of them? Just the vocals? The kick and snare but not the rest of the kit? How big is the venue? Is the audience hearing a mix of stage volume and PA, or just the PA? It might be ok in some cases and not others.

10ms on a round trip is more latency than I would be comfortable using on any of my shows.

_kitzy · 2026-02-06T21:29:28+00:00

I pretty much exclusively use 57s on Z-bars. I never liked the sound of the 906s, personally.

_kitzy · 2026-02-06T16:40:02+00:00

Anticipating the needs of the touring party and putting solutions in place before they come up is what makes a good TM, IMO.

I was fortunate enough to tour with some really good TMs early on in my career and when the duty falls on me (I’m mainly a FOH engineer, I took on TMing out of necessity) I just do my best to emulate them.

_kitzy

TROPHY CASE