What’s a “Line Check”?

A “line check” is the process of making sure that all of the microphones, cables, and direct boxes on stage are working before the show or soundcheck starts. You can do this by having an associate with a cable tester and pink noise generator go to the stage and tap on the mics, test the cables, and plug their noise generator into all the DI boxes while you listen to the channels on the board. If you find any faulty cables, mics, or DI boxes, this will allow you to swap them out before the band plugs into them and tracking down issues becomes more difficult. Doing a line check before every gig is definitely worth it.