MIXER’S JOB

It is the job of the mixer to be the leader at the load-in. The mixer is expected to have the answers and if he doesn’t, then it is his job to get them as quickly as possible. It is not the job of the mixer to physically load the show in. A crew is hired to load the show in. It is the mixer’s job to stay one or two steps ahead of the load-in crew so that, as they finish one task, another is lined up and ready for them to start. Usually the load-in crew is not part of the build crew, so they have no knowledge of the system that is being loaded-in. It is always a good idea to have a house person on the show build, but it doesn’t always happen. If you have a house person on the build, he or she can keep you from making big mistakes. Even if you have a house person, though, mistakes will have been made. As the mixer, it is your job to correct the mistakes and to keep the load-in progressing.

Inevitably, all of the planning you did and all the paperwork done will end up being changed. It is common to get to the theatre and find out the designer wants the speakers hung in a different place, and that means your bundles are now all wrong and your amp racks are wired wrong for the new placement. It is all just part of the process. As the mixer, you have to know your system well enough to know how to adjust it quickly for any changes and do it gracefully. It is a bad idea to get bogged down in the minutia of loading-in. It is enough to tell your crew to run out some bundles and explain to them the destination of the bundles. You do not need to get too involved with the path of the cable runs or how they are going to run them or how many people it will take. There will be one person on your crew who is considered the house sound person. If you communicate your needs to this person, you can let that person do the work for you.

It is much more important for you to make sure the crew can find the equipment it needs and the equipment is in the building. It is important for the mixer to communicate with the shop and have the shop send down equipment needed in a timely manner so it doesn’t slow down the load-in. The mixer also needs to communicate with the house electrician to explain the plan for the load-in and the schedule and goals. The house electrician needs to know that you need two extra people to do something specific so he can call in the people for you. He also needs to know when the designer wants to do quiet time. He will also want to know when you think you can cut down your crew.

The mixer will spend a lot of time working on the FOH setup. This is their world and most mixers are very particular about how it is set up. I know of one mixer who likes to build all of his FOH racks in 12u racks so he can sit in a normal chair while mixing, while most other mixers put their consoles on 16u racks and prefer to stand and mix or sit in an engineering chair to mix. My preference is to have a higher mix position so I can choose to stand or sit, depending on how I feel. Some mixers also like to sit lower because it keeps their ears in the same plane as the audience. There really is no right or wrong, but there are times when the theatre dictates the height. Some theatres would make it impossible to sit in a normal chair to mix and see over the audience, while others would require it to keep the mixer from being too close to the ceiling.

The next issue is about where to put the script. Older analog desks, like the Cadac, had the capability to add a sliding stand for the script. This made it easy for designers to move the script out of the way when they needed to work on the desk. More modern digital consoles make this much harder. On almost every show I have worked on this is a major discussion, and I have yet to see a perfect implementation of a script on a digital console. The DiGiCo SD8 is pretty good because it actually has a shelf area for the script, but that is the only desk that has thought about the problem. Over the past few years I have started using the script in electronic form on a computer. I place a 17" LCD monitor on an arm that can be kept out of the way and then I place a wireless numeric keypad on the console that can flip through the pages in the script. The keypad is very small and leaves the console open for the designer.

The mixer will need to bring some tools to the load-in. Some mixers have large work boxes filled with tools and are ready for anything, while other mixers are minimalists and bring a limited assortment of tools. Some mixers have their own Porta-Band Saw to cut Schedule 20 pipe to size, while others will borrow this from a carpenter. The same goes for hammer drills and other power tools. It is a good idea to have some tools, but the mixer is not necessarily responsible for having every tool. After all, we are not carpenters. A mixer is expected to have the basics, though.

Tools are bulky and heavy. When you work a gig and you have to transport your tools, it is important to know what tools you will really need so you can carry as little as possible. There is no sense in carrying an impact drill unless you really need it. A torque wrench is great to have, but not always crucial. Some tools are must-haves that we all know about: a Leatherman or a Gerber, a flashlight, a headlight, dikes, a knife, gloves, a Sharpie. There are other tools that are just as critical but not as common. There are three items that have lived in my backpack for the last ten years. I never leave home without them and I never do a gig without them. These three tools are so small that I don’t even notice I am carrying them and I can slip them in my pocket on a gig and carry them around all day without feeling weighted down. As far as I am concerned these are three of the most essential tools you can have in your toolkit. The first is the Noise Plug by GTC Industries. The second is the Tone Plug by GTC Industries. The third is the SoundPlug by Vizear.

There’s a moment at every gig where something doesn’t work. You load-in all morning and set up 20 microphones for the band and some wireless mics, and you go to do a scratch test and inevitably the first thing you have is someone’s scratch doesn’t work. This is a perfect time to pull out the Noise Plug. The Noise Plug is a pink noise generator built into an XLR connector. It has a red LED on the top and it runs on phantom power so you do not need a battery. You can use it to check your lines. Plug in the Noise Plug and turn on phantom power and you will see a red light, which tells you the line is good. If the line is bad you can trace back through your signal flow until you find the problem. You can also use the Noise Plug’s pink noise generator to test your system if you are using a desk that does not have a built-in pink noise generator.

Now that your inputs are working, it is time to deal with your outputs. This is where the SoundPlug comes into play. If you send noise down a line and hear nothing, then pull out the SoundPlug. The SoundPlug is a piezo speaker built into an XLR connector. The top has a soft rubber opening that fits nicely into your ear. You can plug the SoundPlug into the output line and stick the SoundPlug in your ear and listen for your signal. The SoundPlug does not require batteries and comes in very handy when someone shows up at the last minute and wants an audio feed for his camera and insists he is not getting signal. Just plug the SoundPlug in and if that person hears the signal, then the problem is on his end.

After checking your inputs and outputs, it is time to do some basic system testing, which means it is time for the Tone Plug. The Tone Plug looks just like the Noise Plug, except it has a small button that selects between 11 functions. The Tone Plug has five sine wave test tones at frequencies of 100, 250, 400, 1 k and 10 kHz. It also includes a 40 to 2400 Hz signal, and a short multi-frequency pulse for adjusting speaker time delays, reverbs and echo units. There is also an amplitude sweep function that helps you adjust compressors and limiters. The Tone Plug is truly an amazing sound system multi-tool. Throw these three plugs in your bag and take them with you everywhere.