13 ways your sound guy can make you sound bad

A pilot who was getting harassed going through airport security got a little frustrated by it. Trying to provide some helpful context to speed the process along, he held his hands in the air and said, “look, I’ve already got everything I need to bring down this aircraft”. That did not go over well, but the point stands. Pilots don’t really need any specialized gear to crash an airplane. As the sound tech: neither do you. So here are the top thirteen ways you can crash the plane if you want to, using just your hands (no specialized outboard gear required!):

1. Start your mix with the piano and build it out from there.
2. Mix with your eyes not your ears.
3. Don’t pay attention to who is singing melody and who is singing backing vocals.
4. Stay behind the mixing board the entire time.
5. Mix on headphones.
6. Play professionally produced tracks as intro music.
7. Flip the polarity on your left and right channels of music.