Managing a touring lineup

Touring lineups rarely stay fixed. Someone has a wedding on date 4, your regular sax player can’t make the back half, the drummer’s flight changes. This page covers how to keep a run staffed as the lineup shifts, without re-staffing every show by hand.

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Staffing a run

The building blocks are the same ones you use for any gig, applied across a set of dates:

1. Create the shows for the run (a gig template with your canonical positions makes this quick), and group them into a tour.
2. Send one availability request covering the whole date range, filtered to the positions you need.
3. Staff each show from the responses on the Crew → Staffing tab. As members accept, the crew calendar shows their commitments. Review overlapping bookings and travel time before finalizing each show.

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Handling subs

For a show your regular can’t make:

1. Open that show’s gig.
2. Review the original assignment and record the decline or remove the person from that show.
3. If you configured invitation backups, check whether the next person has already been invited. Otherwise invite a sub and wait for acceptance.

Attach the relevant setlist and any charts to the show so the sub sees exactly what they need.

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Per-leg variation

If the back half of the run features a different rhythm section, you don’t need one fixed lineup:

• Send availability requests per leg, filtered to that leg’s positions, and staff each leg from its own responses.
• Keep a running bench: every time you sub someone in, note them for next time. By the next run you’ve got a known-good list of subs to call.

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Rotating lineups

For shows where you alternate two players across the run, don’t pre-pick a default. Send an availability request to both for the full date range, then staff each show against who’s actually free. The crew calendar surfaces it.

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Conflict detection

When you go to staff a member, Soundcheck flags two kinds of collision inline:

• Booked elsewhere: the member has already accepted another show at an overlapping time (a conflict block on the crew calendar).
• Marked unavailable: the member set themselves off for that date.

Review the available conflict details before you commit. These indicators are scheduling warnings, not a universal hard block on booking. Confirm travel and turnaround time with the crew member; a clear calendar alone is not a promise that two calls are practical.

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Per-leg payouts

If legs pay different rates, set the performance fee per show rather than baking a number into the template. The template carries the position list; the dollar amounts live on each gig. See Gig payments.

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