Photograph from India Game Developer Summit 2010 (Lite Ed.) held in Bangalore, India, 27 February 2010, produced by Saltmarch Media. Photograph ©Copyright Saltmarch Media. Non-commercial use permitted with attribution and linkback to this page on Saltmarch's Flickr photostream. All other rights reserved.

How hard can it be? Just play with the sliders until the performance sounds great. Easy, right?

Over the last month and a dozen shows I’ve developed a deep respect for the guy or girl driving the sound desk. Faced with changing shows every day and often several different shows in a single day the sound person has to deal with diverse instrumentation, vocal setups including microphones on stands and headset microphones and often difficult venue acoustics.

Complicate things further with fold-back placement and moving performers with unpredictable feedback risks and that sound engineer is not just technical resource but an active performer in the show.

Despite our strong visually oriented perception of performance it is sound that critically underpins a show. Bad sound distracts and makes us more critical of everything, amazing sound makes us forgiving of even the ugliest performance hiccups.

Dialling in the sound is hard and every sound girl or guy sitting behind those sliders is as much a performer as the artists on the stage and deserve all the credit they hardly ever get!

The Evergreen State College 2001, John Cage, Letting it go, Sound Engineering, Arrune Chandra, Independent Learning contracts

Drumming setup highlights intricate craftsmanship in a cozy music studio with wooden walls and vibrant details

sE Gemini and z5600a for various applications, from vocals, guitar and piano to live drums and we've had fantastic results

I haven't had so much fun since I was at Abby Road with George Martin and the other George, my favorite Beatle. It's all digital these days, but my hosts gave me a channel of my own to manage.

SEA In Protools Training Program organised by Digi Design In Mumbai

professional audio equipment taken from adobe stock

Manufacturer of professional audio equipment for the broadcast, DJ, contractor, recording, sound reinforcement, and video post production industries

Colin Lay directed Grant MacEwan's Recording Arts major for almost 24 years, and was respected as a gifted sound engineer in Edmonton's music community. Photo supplied.

Drums in a dimly lit music studio showcasing craftsmanship and detail during a recording session