Both of these things require a certain amount of education and experience. 

Whether you get formal education, experience on the job, or self teach yourself with hours of youtube videos, you can get a really good understanding of the equipment and the basics of mixing, but nothing, other than experience, is going to prepare you to get the best mix.

It doesn’t matter how big the show, every gig under your belt will teach you something. Every one of our crew will tell you they learn something everyday. Whether that be how to use a feature of the mixing desk differently, or mixing a genre of music that they’re unfamiliar with, there is something new to take in each time.

All of these little experiences build up to give you a knowledge base that you can call on time and time again in your career as a sound engineer. The more experience you gain the bigger the show you will feel confident mixing.

All of our team had to start somewhere, for me it was at school (back in the 90’s) doing the sound for assemblies. Some of the other guys started with the sound for their own bands. I pursued my career by studying sound engineering at college and continued into West End theatre. 

However you develop your own career, it’s important to know how your equipment works, its limitations, as well as how to mix a show, before you can attempt to to take on the sound for a festival.