Electronic band — best way to do live sound? (1 Viewer)

bheem

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So I've been playing in an electronic band for a few years and we've played a lot of shows in all types of venues from house parties to concert halls to museums to clubs to festivals, with varying results in terms of sound engineering.
In the past, we've always played by sending the live synths and tracks (drum beat, bassline, etc.) to FOH with a stereo DI, and then vocals and guitar as separate lines.
Now I'm wondering if it would be best to send _everything_ separate (i.e. individual parts of the backing track would be sent separately). I don't have any experience doing live sound in a professional capacity, so I'm not sure what FOH engineers would prefer. Instead of one stereo feed, they'd have a lot more to deal with.
It would mean I'd have to buy more gear — I'd need an audio interface that can do 10 inputs and 14 outputs — but if it would mean better results in a live setting, I think it's certainly worth it.
_ALTERNATIVELY_, I could _reduce_ the number of outputs: send the vocals and guitar through the interface, mix them during rehearsal to perfection (I do mix professionally, so just trust me here), and send the sound guy a stereo mix of the entire band. This doesn't _sound_ like a good idea (every room would be different and FOH would have no control at all), but I could be wrong. We've had a range of people doing our sound, some are awful, and some are good, so the idea of being in control ourselves is very enticing but I wouldn't want to jeopardize the sound for the audience.
 
So you've got electronics, guitar, vocals?
Last electronic thing I was involved in we had what I would think is a fairly standard gig setup: we sent three stereo separates from the computer: 1. bass, 2. drums, 3. everything else. Everyone else sent their own signal on their own channels. It worked well. If there's crossover (guitar coming through your setup or whatever) then that guitar processing comes through your third channel. That's a perfectly reasonable amount for a sound engineer to deal with and allows him/her enough flexibility to do a good job for you in his/her own venue. Your single stereo out thing isn't uncommon but it doesn't give the engineer any scope. It would be harsh to criticise an engineer who couldn't make you sound good in a boomy gallery when given just a stereo out. Each channel is tested by the engineer for the point at which it feeds back. So the more separation (within reason) you can give him/her the more he/she can control the sound in the room. Just so you know, a conventional rock band would have a channel each for the guitars, bass, keys and vocals as well as several channels for the drums, depending on the size of the venue. So you certainly won't be giving the engineer any extra work with your setup. Another fairly standard thing is to make a stage plot (A drawing of your positions on stage and the locations of instruments and channels and DI and monitor requirements) and a channel list for your band. You can email this to the sound engineer in advance. Saves complications on the night or long complicated phonecalls beforehand. What's your band?
 

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