Should I Quit Live Sound? 

Early 2024 I decided to start becoming a freelance audio engineer, previously I was an employee at a private company. Almost a year has passed, I have felt the highs and lows of my new career. For the past few months I've been like the busiest person in the world (which I'm happy about because I also have a lot of income) but for the next few months I haven't had much of a schedule and almost nothing. just this morning I was thinking about leaving the live audio and returning to work as an employee. but I watched your video and I realized that it turns out I'm not the only one facing this situation but probably almost all freelance sound engineers feel it too. In the end, I can only learn more, pray, and hope that one day I can live a stable life doing what I love, audio engineering. Cheers to all audio engineers out there. God bless us all.

I have been involved with live Sound Engineering for over 40 years. I loved it when it was Analog.. Then.. Venturing into Digital.. The New Era started off Exciting for me until Dante got thrown into the mix.. Networking became the next standard. I am 70 years old and, Now fighting with my brain waves. I started with Behringer and, the X Air 18.. Then to AVID D-Show Profile board with Dante. Then Midas systems. Then seeing the Active Speaker systems being incorporated with Dante Cards has made me pull the rest of my hair out of my head. I still appreciate the Digital boards but, Now that Dante is in the mix I want to detach myself from doing anymore Live Sound Engineering.. I had to chuckle when I saw your title to this video.. Then I took the time to read everybody's feelings.. Only to realize.. I'm not alone at feeling like I am not suited to continue to battle my mind over the brain sucking continued education. I guess It's time to pass the wand to the younger generation of Sound Engineers. Digital is good but, Now doing IT applications with Dante is another thing. I am a musician and, I will just retire with that.. I am going to leave the Tech side behind.. I have sure loved all your videos and have learned a lot from them.. I will continue to cheer you on Andrew !

And after watching the video to full, i think its realy important to talk about stuff like this and i realy apreciate you doing it

The best sentence spoken at the end. I came to it over the years. ‘You can change jobs, but that won’t change the work. You can change jobs because of people, but that won’t change the people."

I just love it when an artist comes in and they have some weird setup that they have made up to overcome an issue that they’ve had or to get a particular sound. 😊.

BRUH the "yup, PA works, everyones happy" resonated with me. Thanks for the content brother.

After the pandemic so many local PA companies in NE Scotland went under. The story I kept hearing was they couldn’t repay the hundreds of thousands of pounds they’d borrowed from banks and just shut up shop. A lot of those people went back to 9 to 5 jobs. The end result for me was… the phone didn’t stop ringing, I was picking up all their gigs now and business has been booming ever since. Your hearts either in it or it isn’t, and I hope that doesn’t happen to me after 20 years of loving almost every minute.

Every time I get a bit disillusioned with doing events, I watch back one of the videos of a show I’ve done and see the life long experience I’ve helped create for the audience and makes me remember I could be digging a hole on the side of a mountain some place. One experience that has stayed with me is at the end of a gig I overheard a woman talking to the band saying how great the night was and it was probably the last time she would see them as she had a terminal illness. And yeah, sales… nope 🤘🏽

Never has a youtube video hit more than this for me. I've been working as a foh engineer for 3 years. And it's been fun, but ended up eating me up inside. I've trown in the towel cause my passion for live music. It got simply boring for me. I've done many different genres, but it became the same thing everytime. And as a musician in my spare time, it affected my passion for playing with my best friends. My friends and music is what gets me up in the morning. When I realized it affected that, i had to quit. Thank you for making this video!

Such a valid conversation. I think as I've started to work more and more in the industry I'm definitely starting to see what I enjoy and what jobs I can always find enjoyable and the things I will say no to more often. The thrill or reward of making a good show or the patrons enjoying their time is what makes it all worth it.

heart stopped for a moment.. Good to hear that you aren't quitting. Keep up the great work! Bra jobba! ;)

I work full time as an IT Helpdesk Tech and then part-time on nights and weekends as an audio engineer for a venue. I can confirm that a lot of the skills do overlap as far as networking, troubleshooting, and general knowledge of computers and electronics. I've always wanted to do IT, but I'm also a musician. I knew that being a vocalist wouldn't be my career, but I wanted to learn more about music and singing, so I added a music minor to my degree at university. Being in the music department brought me in contact with the audio and video engineers for the auditorium, and I started helping out on the AV team for some added scholarship money. They added a music technology degree to the department while I was there and the dean asked me to change my major to be one of the first music tech graduated, but I was already too far into my degree at that point. But I was still very involved with the AV team and was the sound engineer for a lot of shows and ensembles while I was there. That experience got me the part-time audio engineering job I have now, and I am very grateful for it. I love audio and I don't think I will ever leave it if I can, but I don't know if I would be able to make it my full-time career for all the downsides that you mentioned in your video. I'm very happy that I get to work in audio and in IT, and at my IT job I take care of the smaller scale AVL needs that my company has because of my experience. Both IT and AVL are great fields. Do whichever makes you happiest, or both!

hey Andrew, i appreciate this one a lot, had an accident at work one of the speakers fell on me during a strike and i broke my femur (really showed how dangerous our job can be ) at the end of the day we still do it cause we constantly learning and we love sound and i like what you said about being a freelancer totally agree , keep up the great work.

Thanks for the cool vid! interesting to hear someone spell out what many of us have been going through these last years. I think the shortage in experienced Techs we have since corona is because a lot of our colleagues were forced into other jobs and never came back once we could do shows again. now for me personally, I diversified a bit. I work 30% in a regular Job that has nothing at all to do with the event industry. This helps with the pressure of filling your books with gigs, since the most essential costs can be covered with a regular, fixed income. I don't think I would quit the event world any time soon (because I just love a good show, music or corporate), but the biggest reason for me to do so would be the issues of being a tech and having kids (and a partner who works on an even worse schedule and planability as a midwife). So Thank you again for your content, ill be sure to come back for more.

Im currently going through a bad period of mental health and its killed all my confidence in my ability to mix. My stupid anxiety brain is currently winning sp this video hit, particularly hard. I love being a live sound guy but i need to pair my love for that and keeping my mental health in check

Its funny how deep down we totally relate to what your saying if we can be free to talk about the stuff that really affect us especially the emotional and mental part it can really go a long way to help us keep the fire burning

Fargo friend here : Balance in this industry is so incredibly important. After many years of working audio I've started to develop my own rhythm of filling my free time with personal music projects or studio work. I've found that have both studio and live options let's me achieve the creative prospects while also practicing very real life technical things. It's tough out there, and especially in an industry where the rates don't necessarily reflect the world's financial growth. But at the end of the day it's such a rewarding expertise. Like you said, it's nice being our own "boss" so to speak. Saying no is important just as much as having a full schedule

Just finished a U.S. - Canada tour where I was constantly praised and even shouted out in show reviews for my ability to get solid impact without the room being too loud as well as my solid work ethic and people skills yet I have nothing on the books into next year. The fact of the matter is even after so many leaving the industry after the pandemic there are still way too many of us. Too many accept long hard work days for low pay usually because they don’t know any better. This is lowering what people will pay and is getting rid of top quality people that actually have a knack for working the system to the room and not just being an IT tech that knows how to plug in a microphone. Also need to mention the percentage of venues that are basically for DJ’s vs true live music is insane. Some of the larger venues can’t even keep mic cables functional yet they make tons of bar money from EDM DJ’s…

I was a sound engineer for 5 years before the pandemic. I absolutely loved it and would've done it forever probably if it weren't for the pandemic. I achieved so much for myself and got such satisfaction from the job, loved working with the bands, got to do an EU tour and everything. After the pandemic, when at first I was so excited to finally get back to the live sound work and get my life back on track. Suddenly, I started viewing everything differently, all that stuff that comes with working in the industry, the hours, the dealing with promoters/advancers, the festival shifts where you're working until you puke in the hot sun shifting big speakers around a field all day etc I suddenly started really not enjoying it as much as I did before. It had re-framed everything in my life that I had worked harder than I ever worked before, only to be left without work due to no fault of mine. It kinda ruined it for me. I would happily still be doing the job if it was only turning up to the venue and mixing bands but it's not that. I wanted to go back to when Music was fun and not an obligation, I think I've seen a quote that if you make your hobby, your job then yes it can be incredibly rewarding but it can also rob you of what you originally found fun about it in the first place. I had pursued Music as a career since I was 13 and now I was 31, after deciding to quit, it really messed with my identity as I've always been the "music guy" to everyone ever so if anyone is considering quitting, realise that there may be mental health struggles from it if you find music and sound engineering as a core part of your being. After thinking for a while, I decided that I was happy with my list of achievements and could draw a line under me doing music "professionally" and I retrained into coding, attended a bootcamp and I now work a gaming studio working in a field that I had always dreamt of working but never thought I would've had the skills to do. It was expensive and a massive life overhaul but a year and half on from starting my new career, I feel more in control of my life financially for the first time in 4 years and I get a lot of enjoyment from working a creative job with a bit more stability and flexibility to suit my life. Just wanted to share my expereience, I know it's a long message but loving the content Andy, glad to see you're still killing it and creating this space for aspiring, current and ex engineers. p.s fuck sales

Well when your young its ok, but when you get older what about pension, what about health care,what if you get sick or break a bone and can't work, what about getting married and having a family and never being home. The one thing I missed most was not being there to watch my family grow birthdays christmases etc...... A lot of sacrafice for a big gamble of a payback. I wish you well on your journey...

Man I’ve been working in live sound for 10+ years and I go through a very similar thought process every time I think about quitting. How you describe the joy and pain of freelancing really spoke to me. I have also tried full time but I love saying no too much and don’t feel motivated without a purpose for work. The freedom is worth the lack of security for me at least for now. No matter how burned out and fed up I become I’m only ever one good gig away from being in love with my job again. Thank you as always for your honesty it’s fantastic to have someone like you bringing your perspective to RU-vid ❤

Just left a job at one of the big audio rental places in England. I was only casual staff so I could choose when I wanted to be available for shifts and use it to fill gaps in my diary, but man, even going there three days in a row was draining. It felt like groundhog day, get on the same train in the morning, work with the same people, do the same stuff. Honestly, I don't know how full time employees in any job do it. Totally freelance sound engineer now, working in a handful of famous venues in London and with some wicked bands. Sure, I dread January every year and it would be nice to have a weekend off to see family or friends but the feeling of being free of contracted hours and having some variation day to day is so worth it

Hi Andrew, your eloquent and well constructed videos are excellent; this one rang particularly true for me. Having been a sound engineer running mainly multiple radio mic systems for theatre, your comment about long, tedious conferences rang true although, for me, it was “yet another”pantomime. So, I did pack it in and went to university to study medicine. Six years later I qualified as a doctor at the age of 39. I don’t regret the decision to give up sound engineering despite having really enjoyed my time behind the mixing desk. So my message would be, it’s almost never too late to change career if you really fancy a change!

I wouldn’t quit. I may shelve the occupation temporarily to explore other occupations. Knowing that you could always come back to it. Never stop learning. :-) good luck with your choices.

I recognize everything you said! I dropped out of doing sound in broadcast in 2019, was feeling burned out. Decided to something else, security systems.. on my first day, after 30min i thought this sucks haha. Kept going for a while to see if the feeling would change but eventually went back doing sound, as a freelancer now and i have been enjoying it every day!

one reason I wanted to quit live sound was just the stupidity of the digital live sound console market. It really feels like all the big players like, yamaha, avid, digico, are all just fighting over who can deliver the worst console at the highest price. HOW IS 4-BAND EQ PER CHANNEL ALL THEY CAN GIVE!?!? why not 6? why not 8? why can't I send a mix bus to another mix bus? WHY DOES DIGICO STILL NOT HAVE A DUGAN AUTOMIXER BUILT-IN!?!? it's all a scam. I'm waiting for desktop and laptop computers to become so fast running, realtime kernels that we can mix massive shows in software with 16-samples of buffer latency and never drop a single sample.

Im not thinking about quitting, but i feel you on the conference gigs, they suck the life out of me too.

Interesting thoughts. I am in my late 60's and worked as a freelancer recording engineer in the Netherlands for the Dutch Radio and private commissioning. The music industry has changed rapidly over the last 20 years with the advancement in digital technology. Also the audiences have changed in Europe being not all that critical and quick access to online options for streaming etc. All these advancements are mechanical and only tools to achieve a faster result at less cost. So where does one go from this point to a more healthier working environment? If you are prepared to be open minded and have the willingness to investigate all options, like moving to an environment where quality and creativity is appreciated, then do it (p.s. do not consult with peers or family for ''approval''. Wish you all success!

Great video. Great topic.

Never worked as a full time freelancer. But I worked A/V for a company for 7 years right out of college. Lots of running sound for talking heads, party bands, theatre, etc., and also permanent install work during the slower production months. The work weeks would range from 30-100 hours with little ability to regularly plan life outside work. Not too bad for a bachelor, but as a family man with a 2 year-old, I was pressured into finding a new career. I remember typing “acoustics” and the name of my city into google and found an acoustics consulting firm that I applied to and eventually got a job at (so anyone reading this knows, I do have a college degree though it is a music degree and not an engineering degree like most consultants in my field have). The first year at that firm, I made the same amount working 40 hours/week as I had working the ridiculous amount of hours at my A/V production company. Now, 13 years later, I’m an established acoustics consultant working mainly in industrial noise control. I love this work which is ~70%/30% office/in-the-field work, doing noise surveys, making 3D noise models, and developing noise control to meet project noise limits. I also run sound at a church as a side hustle which allows me to do this thing I’m good at and also gives me that “creative, high stakes, do or die” environment I love. Life is good.

really great video mate thanks

I'm a Sound Guy and Recording Engineer. I try balancing things out. I also find it that doing live sound sometimes people don't take their production serious. The list goes on. I'm glad to be independent to take on jobs when I want to and sometimes may be quit. Inconsistency with bands is a major issue!!!!

You missed one option and that's starting a youtube channel! ;D Noh seriously bro, your video's are such a great help to the comunity. As a starting sound engineer I have found great comfort and knowlage in them. Thank you!

Im watching as I am leaving my day job of 25 years to do audio full time. I have been doing both for a decade, I now have the work load to just make a living doing what I love to do... Audio. yes its not a 9-5 and being in the industry for a decade (starting from nothing to full production company). "They" all say I am crazy for leaving my day job, and maybe but its my life and I have to live it and its live for Live !!!!!! Side note: YES Corp events SUCK the life from you I would MUCH rather have a band to mix !

I finished up getting out of live and studio because of location restrictions. I dont really miss the industry, but the technology side has far outrun my pace to keep up, so what little gear I have been left has become a hobby studio.

A lesson I learned early in my career: if you wake up in the morning and look in the mirror and think "I don't like this anymore", it's time to look for another place to work... For you, IT is a great transition. I'm in IT and I have been passionate about sound as a hobby for many years. There is quite a bit in common. Electronics is another hobby of mine.

I'm thinking about quiting right now. since thing starts back, I'm doing around 200 events a year, no sleep, almost no more music gigs.... I have money now, thats not a problem... but man, at what cost? thats too much to keep going this way.

Left the festival’s since the Db range was killing me and when wear back the ME hat had to waits week until everyone started mastering their stuff, now back as a FHO Corp events good $$$ but at my pace

MMMmmmm affirmation Great stuff Andrew 🤗

I left much of my life sound to reduce Chaos I'm my life. I now work a 9 to 5 maintaining AV infustructio and managing AV for private functions. Mynday now consists of corperate politics and calling up people like you to come do this corperate gig. There is not a day where I don't think about leaving and going back to live sound. The good part of this is the hours are 9 to 5. Monday to Friday. And that leaves me the chance to go to shows and pick and choose A1 and A2 work on shows that I want to do rather than need to do.

I've been grapping with quitting live song for a long time. I've been doing it for about 18 years. The thing I find myself up against is just the anxiety that goes along with it. I've kind of pivoted a bit to video. I still do live sound, I have a monitors gig this weekend, in fact. Sometimes, I'm anxious for weeks leading into a live sound gig, even though I've done it thousands of times at this point. Whereas coming into a projection mapping gig, or media server programming gig or whatever, even if it's really complex, I don't have that same anxiety. For some reason, doing live sound these days sends my anxiety through the roof, especially since the pandemic.

I really feel all the reasons you listed for staying in live sound. I myself either couldn't imagine doing anything else, even though i just started 2 years ago, very very small and i often feel like i'm stuck (which is not the case. This year i mixed a band at fckin Wacken. Thats really a dream come true!). But i think you missed out on one point: The people! Artists and sound/light guys are a very special breed of people that i really resonate and enjoy working with. Even though there are sometimes (not often) very annoying people, i'd prefer them any time over some corporate a**holes, or boring office-people. 😁

my business is both live sound and repairs, because i can't rely on the income from just one source, i also intend to get into building custom cases for audio & lighting gear because where i am the shipping on that stuff is phenomenally expensive.

Not so fun fact: After only 5 years of being a full-time freelance event tech with focus on sound engineering, I have reached a level at which I feel that other people don't do it as good as I do… but they are getting to places I'll never get to. It's like with everything, the quality of your work is only one of many factors. Actually I came from IT. I did software development, among other things. The work environment and workflows in IT can suck tremendously. I would never go back. It made me sick, literally. Many of the obstacles aren't sound guy obstacles but typical problems of people working freelance. How to get enough time off, how to make sure you get vacation with your family. How to make enough money from not too much work. How to find the balance between boring jobs (like corporate events) and jobs giving you goose pumps (like this gifted vocal trio in a church). Someone once said a very true thing to me: The most important word as a freelancer is: “No.”

Ohhh, yes. A life is needed, and no long days and much driving.

In my 20's I was working customer service jobs (retail, restaurants, etc.). They were very consistent, but what I hated the most about it was how little control I had over my own schedule/life. Now that I'm in the freelance world, and ultimately doing something that I dreamed of in my 20's, the one thing that bothers me is the inconsistency. I keep on thinking to myself, "Maybe I should go back to school, and get a cushy corporate job." But ultimately, I know that I would hate it. The thought of having to repeat the same Monday through Friday grind just sounds like torture. I always felt like I was never built for something like that, and even though I'm still getting used to the inconsistency of freelancing, I've never felt as much myself as I do now.

Great video. I think we all reconsider our jobs during the busy periods after a lack of sleep and after eating shit for a few weeks. I definitely do anyway. But at the end of the day we love what we do and I think it’s some sort of caveman instinct of building big things the pyramids and the satisfaction of it all coming together. Don’t think I could go back in an office again. Tried IT for a while and even just the colleuges you work with are just no the same.

I will keep on going as a Live sound engineer and DJ because the only way you can succeed in life is to sacrifice everything

Love the video, links won't work: after typing the email address, an error pops up, no matter what link I access. I started some years ago and slowly growing because this is not my main occupation, it's more like a side job. I love it. Can you hire me, please?

Thanks

What if I will tell you that besides all the reasons and working as freelancer, I do a nine to five normal engineer working type, in a big international company, and the freelancing makes me breath in another world, sort of parallel withe the one of day by day work... That could be something extra for your reasons of why I joined the freelancing in audio engineering. I could not relate more to your reasons... it's the way I feel doing what I am doing right now, with ups and downs and all sort of new things to do for every type of event I am part of. You will NOT quit until you will be force to do so because of some random reasons.

yes

Yea you know why its vaible ? the same in my job, its hard to work with artists, burnout is also one thing, and at some age other things become more important , like work life balance, because there is only work work balance.

ooo, what instrument did you play in the band??

nice

IT is crap these days. I got into it 'For the love of the game' decades ago but corporate crap have killed my interest in that business. These days I do TV/video including a lot of audio and I find the people a lot nicer than the IT MBA droids. I'm actually drifting towards the sound side which I find fun and mostly filled with nice people.

I quit in2016….PEOPLE

There are more reasons to stop, wife, kids, home, your body, and so you will get there. You did not choose the job, the jod choose you, its your burden, cary it to the end. 🙄👍👍👍👍

Yes. Go away

19 hrs days in awful film industry15. Years . Had bad work dreams for 9 yearsafter.