Audio Engineering Checklist: What to Settle Before You Commit to a Sound Plan

Most audio decisions are made too early and in the wrong order. A producer picks a microphone model because it looks right on camera, and only later finds out that the room has a hard floor, bare glass and an air handling unit that hums at a steady pitch. Before you commit to any sound plan, walk the space with someone who will be mixing in it. Clap once, speak at normal volume from the presenter position and listen for slap echo, boom and background noise.

I have rigged cameras in enough studios to know that the best lens in the world cannot rescue a picture whose sound is poor. Viewers forgive a slightly soft shot far sooner than they forgive speech they cannot follow. So the first item on the list is simple: confirm that the space can be made quiet enough, and find out who controls the lights, heating and ventilation while you are on air.

• Visit the room at the hour you will actually record or broadcast
• Note any ventilation, fridge or lighting noise that cannot be switched off
• Check floors, walls and ceiling for hard reflective surfaces
• Ask who can silence the space during takes

A microphone plan follows the people, so list them. A seated panel of four needs a different approach from a presenter who walks between a desk and a screen, or a guest who has never worn a radio pack. Write down how many voices are live at once, who might interrupt, and whether anyone will stand, turn away or lean on a table. Each answer changes the choice between fixed, boom and body-worn microphones.

It also changes the margin for error. A lavalier clipped to a jacket can rub against fabric, while a fixed microphone punishes a speaker who drifts off axis. Neither is wrong, but each needs a person who knows its weakness and watches for it. When you speak to an audio engineer, bring the running order and the cast list, even if both are provisional. Tom Ellery on our team always asks for them first, because a plan built from names and movements is far easier to defend than one built from equipment.

• Count simultaneous speakers, not total speakers
• Mark any guests who are new to wearing a microphone
• Flag walking, standing or demonstration segments

Monitoring is the part of the checklist most often left blank. It covers what the engineer hears, what the director hears and what, if anything, the presenter hears in their ear. Closed headphones in a noisy gallery tell a different story from nearfield speakers in a treated control room, and a mix that sounds fine in one can fall apart in the other.

Ask where the engineer will sit, how far that is from the stage and whether they can hear the room itself as well as the feed. At a live event, the sound in the hall and the sound going out on air are two separate mixes with different needs, and one person rarely does both well without help. Be clear about whether you want one mix or two, and say so before the quote is written. It is also worth agreeing which feed the director listens to, so that notes about sound and notes about picture are given against the same reference.

• Confirm headphone type and listening position for the engineer
• Decide whether the room and the broadcast need separate mixes
• Agree what the director and presenter will hear

Speech is only half the job on many programmes. Music beds, video clips, stings and audience reaction all arrive from different sources at different levels, and each one needs a place on the desk. List every playback element, who triggers it and in what format it arrives. A clip supplied without a clear note on its loudness is a clip that will either jump out of the mix or vanish beneath it.

Then think about the things nobody has scheduled: a guest who arrives late, a phone that rings, applause that lasts longer than the running order allows. A sound plan that leaves no spare channels and no spare radio frequencies has no room to absorb any of this. Ask your engineer how much headroom the setup carries, in channels, in spare microphones and in spare batteries, and treat a confident answer as worth more than a long equipment list.

• List every playback source and who triggers it
• Ask for spare channels, microphones and radio frequencies
• Confirm batteries are changed on a fixed schedule

The last part of the checklist concerns what you receive at the end. Decide whether you need a clean stereo mix, separate stems for dialogue and music, an isolated recording of each microphone, or all three. Editors and post houses can only work with what exists, and a feed that was mixed down live cannot be pulled apart afterwards. Say which deliverables matter, in what file format and by when, so the engineer can record the right things from the first minute.

Agree too how problems will be reported. A short written note after each session, covering anything that clipped, dropped out or was fixed on the fly, saves the edit suite an afternoon of guessing. It costs the engineer five minutes and tells you whether the plan worked. If a supplier is reluctant to discuss handover in advance, that reluctance is useful information in itself, and better learned before the work than after it.

• Choose between stereo mix, stems and isolated tracks
• Fix file format, naming and delivery date in writing
• Ask for a short written note after each session