What do you play during sound check?

Dpoirier

Fractal Fanatic
I'm not always sure it's a good idea to play something from the evening's set list during sound check. Sure, there are clear advantages (you do the sound check with the material you'll be playing during the evening), but I frequently find myself in situations where there is already a fair bit of an audience during sound check... and I like to keep them guessing as to what material we'll play.

Any thoughts?

I like the sound check to include (in a short sequence) both extremes of what I'll be using throughout the evening: a bit from my softest preset, and a bit from my loudest lead tone. But I'm considering playing riffs (using these presets) that have nothing to do with the evening's set list. Not sure what, though.

Re-reading my text, above, it seems more like "thinking out loud" and less like a question... but any input would be great (as long as it excludes any references to Rick Astley)
 
Our band has three lead vocalists so most of the sound check is making sure we can hear ourselves when we sing, so we do parts of songs we each sing as well as harmony parts. We play in bars so do not get much time for a sound check. Don't mind giving a tease of a few songs!

As the guitarist I have to run by the seat of my pants during the first part of the first set!
 
No attempt to top an earlier post but with four lead singers priority is given to that. I play guitar with piezo and midi. So there three sound checks just for me. I do try to play things other than band material. I'm aware it could be a teaser but I'm subversive like that but the bands reaction sometimes is fun.
 
I like to bust out Electric Funeral during soundcheck, but usually only the bass player joins in hehe.
 
The other guitarist and I are both huge Metallica fans, so we each bring a different Metallica song to soundcheck every gig. It's fun to see what the other guy is going to do.

As a band, we do something with 3 part harmony and/or vocal layers so we can check levels. Dead-eye Dick's "New Age Girl" works pretty well.
 
we typically will play a song that's in our last set. If not we choose a song or two that was left off the set list or put on as an extra.
Our gigs are usually about 3 hours of music so if we play a song that's set for later in the night I think it works out fine. People never know the difference. I prefer to sound check for a while though. We will usually play two or even 3 songs. One with me and the other singer on vocals to make sure the sound guy has enough to dial us in properly.
 
It seems like lately the sound check is our first song (or three), so we just get going with the setlist. There is the obligatory, beat the bass drum, now the snare, etc. before...for my turn, I play my loudest patch for the 15 seconds I'm given. Usually I'll talk to the soundman prior to getting on stage to let him know that I'll be playing several patches that sound very different so he might want to start off with the channel eq relatively flat at first.
 
We jam on Twist which has enough vocal content to get our mics leveled and the instruments leveled. And it's simple so we can listen and play it well enough. Like this, but yea...we're not them :)

 
I actually soundcheck with Creed's "Higher" or Nickelback's "How you remind me" just to see if I can get a chuckle from the band or Soundman.

A couple bands I work in try to find the silliest song to soundcheck with.
 
Whatever seems shaky to play in front of an audience, or something new that needs reps.
 
We use a med tempo song with a full harmony vocal stack. To get the drums, vocals, guitars stacked up.

I sound check the Fractal briefly in solo to check my preset changes, efx levels, boosts, clean vs. dirty and so on.
 
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