AUDIO
PREPARATION IS KEY: THE SECRET TO( MOSTLY) STRESS-FREE LIVE SOUND ENGINEERING | Erin Parisi
Jeff Hawley’ s note: I am excited to present a special guest article this month for the‘ Audio with Jeff Hawley’ section featuring Erin Parisi. Erin is a seasoned audio engineer and was most recently the American Music & Sound WAVIT( Women in AV / IT) marketing intern, recently promoted to a marketing manager position on the team. Let’ s dig into some of Erin’ s tips on lowering our live sound mixing stress levels while raising the overall sonic success level. Take it away, Erin!
In my years as a front of house sound engineer, one of the things that repeatedly resulted in my best work was a focus on organization and preparation leading into shows. Over the years, I saw engineers that seemed overwhelmed, confused, unsure of the details; and these red flags often led to poor communication, attitude, lack of accountability, and the worst of the worst- human errors during a show. In observing this, I made it a personal mission to be as organized and prepared as I could leading into every show I was involved in. After all, the FOH sound position is one of a great deal of responsibility
Erin Parisi
and pressure, and the more prepared you are leading into a show, the less stressed you will be( and the more successful)!
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I’ ll be honest, I came into my first big FOH position feeling somewhat under-qualified for the role... and perhaps I was undervaluing myself and my capabilities, but I was a young engineer with not a lot of experience at that position, and I worried I wasn’ t ready. I’ m sure many worship volunteers can relate. But I also knew I could learn anything I put my mind to, given just a little time. Luckily, the learning curve was fast. I certainly made some mistakes, but I learned from them each time. Perhaps it was my anxiety from feeling under-qualified, or perhaps a fear of failure, or maybe it was just a tendency to being a bit obsessive-compulsive, but I became obsessed with show prep and organization. And many times, I found it saved my show. And, all these years later, even after gaining so much in experience, I’ m still just as obsessed with being organized on my show and stage prep.
I had everything on and off that stage labeled, from the patch bay and snakes and cables to the audio locker and the storage room. And in a pinch, it meant that my team( or me) could trace a line or find something we needed in a hurry. Occasionally, some engineers would
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