Andy

I am a huge fan of Virtual Soundcheck.

If you have a digital console and are not using this feature, why aren't you?

I've used it countless times to do the following things:

Tweak the sound with and without the band members offering suggestions. You can work on any part of any song, any instrument as long as you want, AS THE BAND PLAYED IT. You can't do it to this level during a soundcheck, as the band really isn't going to play the way they do during the show at soundcheck. And can you get them to keep playing a specific part while you "experiment"? Try that and see how long they wanna do it! Plus, how can they come out and hear what they really sound like? It's a great thing. Tweaking eq's, experimenting with effects, it's simply one of the best ways to improve a band's mix.

Recently, we took a band of seasoned veteran players who swore they would "never go on in-ears" and now have them on ears. And now they'll never go back. Why? Well, like most musicians, they get a chance to try in-ears, and it's done wrong, and then they don't ever want to try it again. With Virtual Soundcheck, we can take their performance, build a mix exactly to their liking, then they can play along with it as long as they need to until they're happy. Get them the right in-ears, take the time to do it right, use Virtual Soundcheck, and it's amazing what can be accomplished.

Build custom "board mixes" for the players. A nice mix for the guitar player with his guitar and vocal out front, another one for the drummer with the drums and bass up loud. They can listen and improve their performance. If the players have their own multi-track software, give them the files and they can listen to whatever they want at whatever mix they want. Figure out why some part "sounds weird" during the show, etc. Fabulous learning tool for them.

Lots of reasons to do it, so get doing it!