TRAVON SNIPES / MONITOR ENGINEER ( LEFT ) AND WILLIE LINTON / PLAYBACK ENGINEER ( RIGHT )
BOUTIQUE SOUND ONSTAGE
WITH POST MALONE
Professional Sound catches up with Post Malone ’ s monitor engineer , Travon Snipes , between international legs of The Twelve Carat Tour to chat about the gear requirements , sound specifications and artist ’ s comfort that make a show like this happen .
By Manus Hopkins
When you ’ re the monitor engineer on a big artist ’ s stage , you ’ re essentially responsible for the artist ’ s comfort as far as sound is concerned — meaning it ’ s no easy task , and can be a daunting one . Obviously , a large production in an arena or stadium involved loads of people doing incredibly important tasks to make sure the show runs smoothly , and that the audience is happy with what they see , hear , and feel , but when it comes to how the artist actually performs , few have as much as responsibility as the engineer
38 PROFESSIONAL SOUND who controls what the artist is hearing . That station is called the hot seat for a reason , Travon Snipes , monitor engineer for Post Malone tells Professional Sound .
“ My job is solely to make sure Post [ Malone ] is comfortable on stage ,” Snipes says . “ That ’ s it , and you ’ ve got one guy , we ’ re all there because of him , and if he ’ s not happy , if he doesn ’ t perform well , it all comes back on me somewhat in terms of what he hears . There are other elements that I can ’ t control , but in terms of what he ’ s hearing and how he performs , that ’ s my sole job .”
Post Malone , né Austin Richard Post , and his crew had a busy fall and winter , touring across North America on The Twelve Carat Tour on the back of Post ’ s 2022 album , Twelve Carat Toothache , before heading off to the Middle East for a run of shows there , and starting off the new year with a string of dates in Australia and New Zealand . Luckily for the crew , this means the shows on different continents look much the same as the North American dates , and there isn ’ t a whole lot of extra preparation Snipes needs to do .
“ We ’ re not changing much , he says . “ It ’ s pretty much all the same gear for me , the same board . It ’ s like an extension of the [ North American ] tour .”
It was in Australia that Snipes originally started working with Post Malone , so for him , getting back down under brings a particular kind of excitement .
“ It ’ s definitely like a reunion , thinking back on that first time getting that call ,” Snipes says . “ It ’ s going be a nice experience to go back to where it all started and just kind of reminisce on the first call and the first show that we did out there .”
Snipes ’ journey to the main role he occupies now involved a lot of different projects and different jobs , working with a plethora of well-known artists .
“ I have had the privilege of being a front of house engineer , monitor engineer , and production manager for quite a lot of different artists ,” he says , recounting the early days of his career in the fields of music and professional audio .” I started as an intern at Music World [ Entertainment ], which is Matthew Knowles ,