Sounding Good

Be Prepared - Your Equipment

Buy your own vocal mike and cable. Listen to a lot of them and pick the one that complements your voice. Listen to Shure SM58's, and 4 or 5 more.
Have your guitar set up by a professional. Talk to them about what you need and what you like. Have them check the action and the intonation. Try different strings until you find a set that you like.
Transducers and Electronics.
Tuners, AB boxes, quiet cords.
Effects - Reverb, Echo, Flanger, Chorus, EQ, etc.
Have spares, especially for all your cables.

Before the Gig - Rider, Stage Plot, etc

Send a rider and stage plot with the contract.
- How many channels do you need?
- Will you require venue to provide mikes and direct boxes or bring your own?
- Do you need A/C or phantom power?
- Do you have special staging/lighting requirements?
- Are stairs or other obstacles a problem?
Follow up on the contract rider with the venue.

The Soundcheck

Get to know the sound people. Learn their names.
Describe how you'd like to sound to them,
then
- Evaluate sound system and basic EQ.
- Plug everything in. Check levels, headroom. Show your loudest volume.
- Leave spare cables, guitar strings, picks, and batteries out, just in case.
- EQ and distortion check of the front end.
- Monitor Check. (Only as much as you need...)
- Ensemble check if necessary.
- Walk out front and listen to the sound yourself.
- Leave time to tune and warm up your voice.

The Gig

Annoted set list with solo and effect cues for the sound tech.
Do you have water, picks, harmonicas, spare strings, etc?
Make sure the Emcee knows who you are? Talk the intro with them.
A set list or cheat sheet if you need one.
Know what time it is (all the time.)
Why do we take breaks? (Leave time for product sales...)

Problems

Miscommunication.
Who forgot to bring what?
Leave yourself time to work on Plan "B"
What can you simpify in the chain.
As a last resort, just mike it or plug and play.

What's the Buzz

Are you using shielded cables?
Are your balanced lines balanced?
Is it a ground loop? Try lifting them.
Did you check your batteries lately?
Headroom check? Strive for unity gain.

For help with your questions and more in depth discussion you can check out this web based bulletin board for live sound.
Someone else recommended to me the following online resources as excellent fundamental references for audio practitioners. <http://www.rane.com/digi-dic.htm> is a "comprehensive reference on all things audio." <http://www.rane.com/library.htm#rnotes> provides "comprehensive information on everything from 'how loud is it?' to solving grounding problems." While many are about specific Rane products, there are several excellent notes on basic subjects such as Grounding and Sound System Interconnection (note no. 110). All are in PDF format, while some of the basics are also in HTML for online reading.

Visit other handouts used at the 1997 NE Regional Folk Alliance Conference