Back when I was playing steady, we never had a sound man, but we never played more than 300 seat indoor gigs. I would mix as well as possible dry, and then send the guitar player out front when the place started filling. We would tweak the board as necessary, and record all of the settings, next date at that club, we would have the EQ fairly close, and only have to play with the levels. In my next life, I hope to have someone who thinks and hears like me, and their only interest is to make the group sound great.
I have a minute to up date, I'm incredibly busy, this week its The primary
violin soloist from that river dance show, Niamb Ni Charra. She did 2500 shows.
I be running her sound at four venues this week. This past week end was a rock
fest for hotel and a fiddle fest, the past few weeks have been Pogey, Bua, Gadell, Long time courting, Don Roy, Buddy Mc Donald, all PEI, Cape Breton,
and Halifax NS. I did run into a banjo player at the fiddle fest who might order a tube pre. I'll be missing Solace but they travel with their own tech.