Sound Engineer For Live Sound, just want to bounce questions off you. Options

[soon2be]

I'm very interested in making music but right now live sound is more important for me to know. And even though Im learning the baby of basics when it comes to making music and sounds on the computer I want to be able to focus more on live performances. So I need to be able to bounce some simple questions and have them anwered in simple terms.

What (to you, the answerer) is the most important quality in a live sound engineer? What is the first thing I need to focus on?

I know things here and there from listening and watching but I dont have a starting point, so therefor I dont know which way is up. I dont know if there is a way up really because the more you know the better huh?

[soon2be]

Thank you for the tips.
Anybody else?
Anything. Any information for me to know, the better.

[TKO]

Thank you for the tips.
Anybody else?
Anything. Any information for me to know, the better.

Yeah, your ears are definitely your most valuable equipment. I feel it´s very important to get familiar with how various instruments sound an acoustic environment WITHOUT ANY REINFORCEMENT. This should be your reference point when starting to amplify things. When these instruments are brought to a venue, you should get a feel for room acoustics and how the room alters the sound. I can´t emphasize MIC CHOICE & PLACEMENT enough, it´s amazing what moving a mic an inch does to the sound it hears. Do a lot of experimenting in this area. One more important thing: There are lots of different musical styles out there. Listen to a lot of different music on records and go to all kinds of different gigs, as an engineer you might get thrown anything from ethnic acoustic bands to death metal and you need to understand how various musical styles should sound to the audience. Be true to the source!