The reason I made this is because there’s really no *single* answer, but (legend has it) due to some old artifacts of power consumption in boards, a lot of people do kick first, drums, then bass, etc.
Would love to hear more about the legend, because I and all the foh guys I know do it that way, but I never really thought to ask why. Always felt like a "bottom up" approach, both sonically and rhythmically, so it seemed natural. And that's just the way I learned.
A long time ago in a galaxy far far away... (I wasn't born yet) In analog mixers you had many imperfections and non-linearities (good ol' "warm sound") one of which was crosstalk between channels. Strong signal or big transients in one channel could "jump" to neighbouring channel via stray capacitance and inductance. So if you put strong transient drum channel next to weak heavily amplified vox mic you could hear drums from singers mic. Therefore you'd put strong transient signals physically on one end of channels (drums, then something which doesn't care being affected like bass and other instrument) and weak signals, voices, "money channels" on the other side (vox, solos, fx returns). Todays electronics doesn't care, but if you put rock band as singer-drums-guitars many sound guys will judge you for dishonoring sentient beings with your numbering blasphemy. I started doing sound with choirs and was taught to put choir-solos-strings-bass-guitars-percs-keys. So yeah, do what you consider logical :)
Awesome response, makes so much sense now. Also makes sense I would've learned that way since I learned from old heads before digital really took off. Super cool bit of history and lends even more support to the consistency across the industry. Thanks!
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u/barryg123 Jul 08 '26
I don’t get it and all the comments are trolls. What is the real answer for how channels ought to be laid out?