How To Do A Virtual Soundcheck

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Landon Evans

Freshman
Dec 30, 2015
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www.landonevansband.com
Howdy,

I need some help here. Trying to figure out a better way to do soundcheck a for our band.

We we are a five piece country band. Though we do play some venues with a house PA and sound engineer, the majority of gigs for bands our level require us to provide our own PA and run sound on our own. We had a good sound guy, but he just moved out of state. This has left me (frontman) as our default sound guy. In addition to the fact that I know next to nothing about running sound and music tech, it's fairly difficult to listen to how we sound and adjust levels when I'm singing and playing guitar. Generally I just play guitar (with my wireless system) and move around the venue to get the music set, then go back up and sing while our steel guitar player listens to the vocals.

If I'm understanding correctly what a virtual soundcheck is, I think that would be a good option for our situation. I could just set all the pre-recorded levels for the room, and then the band could play live and just have the merch girl check and make sure it sounds okay. I don't know really where to start on getting this accomplished though, so any advice or resources would be greatly appreciated.

My main question is does this require a laptop, or can I just record and replay using a flash drive? We use a Behringer X32 rack. I don't own a laptop, and really don't want to buy one. I have a nice Mac desktop and an iPad, and I really would have no use for a laptop other than this one application. As a broke college kid, I can't afford to drop money on a computer for just this purpose; I've probably already spent around $8,000 on music equipment for the band in the past year.

Any help on how to get started with a virtual soundcheck is appreciated. Thanks!
 
Re: How To Do A Virtual Soundcheck

You could use a Raspberry Pi for recording/playback multitracks.

The problem with a virtual soundcheck is that since your band is playing in fairly small places the acoustic sound from the stage (aka. stagenoise) where you and your friends perform adds quite much to the total sound and therefor making it hard to use 'virtual soundcheck' properly.

My advice would be to tune the system at a rehearsal or two so that CD's sounds good/great first. Then tweak the system during so that everything sounds right as for your template.

If you have done this properly then you should be able to play the same CD's at a venue and tweak the eq so it sound as good as it did 'at home'. Now the sound should be fairly similar to what you had at rehearsal.

If it doesn't sound similar when the band is playing then the room is causing you problems. Since each venue is different there might be some final tweak needed due to the stage noise in a specific room.
 
Re: How To Do A Virtual Soundcheck

Robert Lofgren said:
The problem with a virtual soundcheck is that since your band is playing in fairly small places the acoustic sound from the stage (aka. stagenoise) where you and your friends perform adds quite much to the total sound and therefor making it hard to use 'virtual soundcheck' properly.
Click to expand...

I would record your own sound when performing live on the USB flash.
Then after you listen in the room and you are convinced it really did sound good, start with these best recordings the next time doing soundcheck.

Try to use recordings made with the same (yours) PA system.
Without anyone playing, a recording of the biggest venue would be the best start.

Virtual sound check can be very nice but I don't expect it to be your solution...
 
Re: How To Do A Virtual Soundcheck

To get a true virtual soundcheck you need to have a multitrack clean recording that you can patch back into the board and mix as if it was the live band. This is most commonly done using a digital board and/or software package that is able to capture the live tracks. I agree with the above that in a small venue the stage wash becomes part of the mix and it will be difficult without it to get the proper balance.

Here is how I do it.

I capture all of the tracks as the band plays a song with ProTools directly from the Dante stage boxes. I then change the input patch to use the tracks instead of the stage boxes. I can then play the tracks repeatedly and not only mix, but apply eq, compressor, gate, verb, etc.

The few things you must consider:
The missing stage volume
No bodies in the audience to absorb anything
They will ALWAYS play louder when the adrenaline gets pumping.
 
Re: How To Do A Virtual Soundcheck

Steven Alves said:
To get a true virtual soundcheck you need to have a multitrack clean recording that you can patch back into the board and mix as if it was the live band. This is most commonly done using a digital board and/or software package that is able to capture the live tracks. I agree with the above that in a small venue the stage wash becomes part of the mix and it will be difficult without it to get the proper balance.

Here is how I do it.

I capture all of the tracks as the band plays a song with ProTools directly from the Dante stage boxes. I then change the input patch to use the tracks instead of the stage boxes. I can then play the tracks repeatedly and not only mix, but apply eq, compressor, gate, verb, etc.

The few things you must consider:
The missing stage volume
No bodies in the audience to absorb anything
They will ALWAYS play louder when the adrenaline gets pumping.
Click to expand...

true virtual sound check is only useful in larger halls where stage volume is less of an issue. Think small theater or larger. I've occasionally run the tracks through the monitor rig as well to get closer, but it's still not really the same.

For smaller venues it's simply another tool to get you closer to a good result more quickly. It's definitely not a magic bullet.
 
Re: How To Do A Virtual Soundcheck

brian maddox said:
true virtual sound check is only useful in larger halls where stage volume is less of an issue. Think small theater or larger. I've occasionally run the tracks through the monitor rig as well to get closer, but it's still not really the same.

For smaller venues it's simply another tool to get you closer to a good result more quickly. It's definitely not a magic bullet.
Click to expand...

Brian, I have watched Scovi do something really cool. Seems indulgent but it's a great learning opportunity. Since he's tracking his band in Pro Tools he has a virtual sound check source every day, but he went another step - he has DIs inserted at different points in the instrument (gtrs, bass, keys) signal chains, and then has ReAmp boxes as well. He can play the performer's dry signal back into the processing chain and amplifier on stage. For drums, he sent a stem mix to the Really Big Drum Fill. When done with any wedge or side fill monitors it makes for a fairly realistic approximation of having the band on stage. Lots of channels going both directions.

Recreate the cacophony on stage and look at the various arrival times at high gain open mics (the star vocal, for instance) with Smaart...
 
Re: How To Do A Virtual Soundcheck

My band consists of vDrums, Bass DI, Rhythm guitar Kemper DI (stereo), and a 1x12 lead guitar cab with a Plexiglas shield around it. Our virtual sound check is pretty darned close.

Most bands this wont be the case as pointed out by others due to the stage volume of amps in the room and acoustic drums.

It has been my experience that the best use of virtual soundcheck isn't the soundcheck at all really. It gives me the opportunity to work with the channel eq and efx outside of a gig where I have time to try different approaches to see how it sounds and then put these ideas back into a full mix to see how it makes things sound.

When someone says that compressing the vocals makes them "sit in the mix" better, it is nice to see how this works by sitting out front with a virtual band playback and changing the settings for the compressor, and turning it off and on to see how it makes things sound (as an example).

I spent quite a bit of time on the bass getting it to be more punchy and less muddy. It was quite educational.

The other issue with a real VCS is that you have to take time out from your setup or performance to do it .... and it looks kind of strange to the audience when you are doing it.

I think it makes a great learning tool and will absolutely make your band sound better, but as a replacement for an actual sound check .... not as much. The sound check is more about getting the room to sound good and to get the levels right. About the only way to do that is to do a real sound check.

Since my lead player uses a tube amp and a bunch of pedals, his level will never be exactly the same every night. The bass player's di seems to get bumped from time to time as well. Only the Kemper and vDrums end up spot on night after night with no adjustments needed.
 
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