Life as a Soundman

Life as a soundman is nothing shy of stressful, but for those who love the job, the stress is worth it. Soundmen are the ones responsible for maintaining the sound and technical equipment that are used for a musical show. They control microphone levels, various sound effects, the loudness of each instrument and more. In essence, a soundman’s job is to make a group sound the best it possibly can, and there is a lot weighing in on that.

People in the business typically complain about one thing – whiny band members. The fact is that if something goes wrong in a show, the soundman is the first person that is going to get the blame. Thus if you plan to pursue this career, it may be a wise idea to develop a back bone and a not-so-caring attitude early on.

Given that you can handle the complaints though, your main task in this job would be to have a thorough understanding of what is going on with the various equipment needed. This isn’t something you can just dive into, so you might look into a vocational schooling program to give you the proper education for the job. In just a couple of years you should be able to pick up on the basic function of just about everything.

Life as a soundman also involves being a bit of a mechanic. You have to know how to fix your equipment at a moment’s notice, which means that you have to know the technologies behind it. Be sure to familiarize yourself with common troubleshooting techniques so that a show does not go on hold for long.

Soundmen need to be observant beyond equipment though. With this job, you have to know what relevant music of the time is selling so that you can immolate that with the group you are working for. This means that you need to turn on the radio and find out what is hot and what people are really into nowadays. Then your job is to manipulate the equipment that you use on a daily basis so that it does just what it’s supposed to do.

In the end, life as a soundman can be rough. You have to haul around heavy equipment, be ready to fix any problem that may arise, and listen to complaints just about every day. Is it all worth it though? It is if you love the job in the first place. Express your creative side by being a soundman. That might be just the job for you.