Why it's not your time to mix.

When you’ve been working as an audio tech for a production company for a few years, it’s easy to think you should be mixing by now.  You’ve put in the time, and you’ve done the grunt work, when is it going to be your turn?

This is a common misconception of aspiring sound engineers who see working for a production company as a straight shot to mixing. 

A lot of people believe the road to mixing starts by getting on tour working for a major sound company.  They start with a job on the audio crew for a major label artist as an audio tech (PA tech, stage patch tech, monitor tech, etc) and expect that in a certain amount of time, they should be mixing FOH or Monitors.

The problem is thinking that the path to mixing is a straightforward one from shop tech to sound tech to mixer.  It is rarely as clear-cut as that.

Working for a sound company is a great way to get your foot in the door and break into the business.  If you have no other prospects, then by all means seek out one of the major touring production companies and apply for a job.   

If you want to make a living doing live sound and would love to get on the road, a job with one of the touring audio production companies is a great way to do that.  There are a variety of positions from System Engineers to PA Tech, Stage Tech, Monitor Tech, FOH Tech, RF Tech, etc.  Most people start as a PA or Stage tech before moving on to positions as System Engineer or RF techs after they gain some experience and show an interest.

If your goal is to be a mixing engineer, you need to get yourself in front of the people who would hire you. 

Working as an audio tech on tour can do that but it requires more than just waiting for your chance.  There will be opportunities to mix. Support acts often need someone to mix FOH or Monitors for example, and it is possible to turn these opportunities into future mixing gigs when done correctly.

Engineers who have used these moments as a stepping stone to full-time mixing gigs approach it in a completely different way than those who remain stuck as PA techs who just get to mix the opener.  (This is something I address in my Pathways to Pro Audio program.)

There is no direct line from PA tech to mixing engineer.  Many people who spend years working for touring sound companies with the hopes of landing a mixing gig grow frustrated because they keep doing the wrong things.  Instead of making the right moves to get the mixing gigs, they expect that duration of employment alone should automatically mean they are next in line. If mixing is your goal, you need to take a different approach to managing your career.

The skills and traits that make someone an amazing System Engineer, PA, or Monitor tech do not necessarily translate into being a great mixing engineer.   

Technical abilities aside, the job of a band’s sound engineer requires a lot more than pushing faders and getting great sound. Being a great mixer does require a certain level of talent.  Just because someone can instantly identify frequencies feeding back or put up a system quickly and correctly doesn’t guarantee they can mix a great-sounding show.  It also doesn’t automatically make them qualified for the role of band sound engineer.

The job of a band’s engineer requires certain personal skills in addition to technical ability.  Solid communication and interpersonal skills as well as being able to navigate band politics are paramount to thriving as a mixing engineer.  The position can require you to be one part sound engineer, and psychologist, parent, mind-reader, referee, or any number of other jobs not listed in the description.  Personality and professionalism play a huge part.

Because of the level of responsibility that comes with the job, established artists generally require their FOH Engineer to have a mixing resume or a qualified recommendation from someone they trust.  It’s not unreasonable to expect that Taylor Swift or Beyonce are going to want someone with a strong reputation as a solid mixer and a long list of mixing credits when selling out stadiums worldwide.

Even artists doing smaller-sized tours need to be sure that the person they trust with their sound, is capable of doing the job.  

At times, breakout artists have hired aspiring engineers without huge mixing resumes while they were still up-and-coming artists.  Some of these engineers were able to keep up with the rising success of the artist and meet the new challenges of larger and larger scale tours, while others could not and were replaced with more capable engineers. The engineers who were retained didn’t get there by luck, they’ve usually spent years building and honing their mixing skills elsewhere.

If your goal is to be a mixing engineer, you need a more strategic plan than just working for an audio company and waiting your turn.  A solid background in the fundamentals of audio and mixing is a good place to start but from there you need to build your mixing experience, establish a strong network of people who can and will hire you, develop your professional and personal skills, and make the most of the opportunities that you get.  It can sometimes take years for aspiring engineers to realize this. While some continue working as an audio tech for a company with the expectation that after a certain amount of time, they will be just be handed a mixing job, the mixing jobs will continue to go to those who have engaged in a more determined approach.

_{If your goal is to make a career out of live sound and mixing, I can help. Click HERE.}

_{By: Michelle Sabolchick}