Sub Gigs, Mic Mutes & the Art of Mixing Live with Jesus Hernandez

This week you start things off digging into the craft that separates good gigs from great ones. You’ll get the playbook for prepping and surviving sub gigs, learn (again!) why a splitter snake earns its place in your rig, and sort through the real options when you need a mic mute switch that actually works. Then you wrestle with a question every working band faces today: are fan-posted videos helping your brand or hurting it? It’s the kind of practical, in-the-trenches breakdown that reminds you to Always Be Performing, whether the camera’s rolling or not.

Then guest co-host Jesus Hernandez joins, and you trace his path from a Portastudio kid to the engineer bands trust with their sound, along with the philosophy he’s built along the way: you’re serving people’s ears, and the console is your instrument. You’ll hear why you should ask a band what they want to sound like before you touch a fader, why learning to mix yourself turns your engineer into a producer, and how routing a digital mixer keeps everything simple when the power flickers. He shares the gear that’s earned his trust, hard-won war stories from the road, his time subbing as a bass player in Nashville, and life on tour with a Phil Collins and Genesis tribute. By the end you’ll be listening to your own gigs with sharper ears and a hungrier inner critic.

• 00:00:00 Gig Gab 539 – Monday, June 22nd, 2026
  • June 22nd: National Chocolate Éclair Day
  • Guest co-host: Jesus Hernandez
• 00:01:32 Prepping for and playing Sub Gigs
  • Ultimate-Guitar’s Pro Charts…now with lyrics!
• 00:04:25 The benefits of splitter snake
• Listener Questions
  • 00:09:55 Mark-What’s the best MD Mic Switch?
    • D’Addario Mic Mute Infrared Mic Sensor
    • Optogate
    • Radial HotShot DM-1 or HotShot MD
    • LILYP4D Mic Mute
• 00:20:25 Mark-Are fan-posted videos good or bad?
• 00:24:36 SPONSOR: OneSkin. Get 15% off OneSkin with the code GIGGAB at https://www.oneskin.co/GIGGAB  #oneskinpod
• 00:26:54 Guest Co-host: Jesus Hernandez
• 00:28:20 Lady and the Tramp Start taught him to record multi-track
  • Then the Portastudio
  • Tascam Multitrack Recorder
  • Jesus became the go-to guy for recording bands and fixing sounds
• 00:34:27 A2 at a local theater
  • Then the A1 went on vacation, and Jesus became the A1
• 00:35:38 Then a jazz club
  • Sound reinforcement at the most basic level
  • Ultimately what you’re trying to serve is people’s ears.
  • Use your eyes to serve that purpose.
• 00:37:38 Recording was rough at first, but you learn!
  • Making recordings with a live performance in mind
  • Let it Be…Naked
• 00:41:24 Ask the band: what do you guys want to sound like on the recording?
  • “Take a picture of the band, then paint on top of it!”
• 00:32:36 For live sound: how do you find out what the band sounds like?
  • Before arriving: listen to the band’s records (or the band they’re covering)
• 00:47:26 When doing sound, consider yourself a band member
  • “Playing the console” – The mixer is an instrument
  • I’m controlling the arrangement
• 00:48:50 Singing the praises of bands that can set levels on stage
• 00:49:20 A band whose levels are ALL over the place
  • So bad the band was sent home after the first set.
  • You have to be your hardest critic
• 00:53:25 Learn to mix yourself, then your engineer can go from problem-solver to producer!
• 00:55:26 “If the power goes out at the mixer, you’ll still sound good”
  • Fixing it at the source
  • The night the power-flickered and factory reset the mixer!
  • PreSonus StudioLive
• 01:00:19 Keeping it as simple as possible
  • Soft-patching, routing, matrixes, oh my!
  • Learn how to route a digital mixer
• 01:06:39 The downsides of strictly analog
  • But you learn how to ring out frequencies
  • Fix low-end feedback by popping in/out the polarity button
  • Rick Carmona (From “No Peace At All”), the engineer who mentored Jesus
  • Every business is in the customer service
  • Davis Thurston on Gig Gab
  • The engineer has multiple customers: the band, the audience, and the staff at the venue
• 01:13:38 Bands vs. Reunion Gigs
• 01:18:25 Bringing an analog mixer…and no snake!
• 01:24:50 Soca Music
• 01:26:00 Time for some war stories
• 01:31:46 Subbing in Nashville as a bass player
• 01:08:21 On the road with Face Value, Phil Collins & Genesis Tribute Band
• 01:37:24 Jesus Hernandez Home Studio
• 01:38:23 Gig Gab 539 Outtro
  • • Follow Jesus Hernandez
    • IG: @jesusandthecomplaintdepartment
    • Jesus is my Sound Guy
  • Contact Gig Gab!
    • @GigGabPodcast on Instagram
    • feedback@giggabpodcast.com
    • Sign Up for the Gig Gab Mailing List

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