Benn Jordan “needs to hear” Sexual Eruption by Snoop Dogg during soundchecks
“They’d be like, ‘Don’t you want to, like, play?’ And I’m like, ‘No, no… I need to hear Sexual Eruption out there.’”
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What’s your go-to soundcheck song when checking and tuning a PA? Something you know well, right? Something that’s going to test the sound system, perhaps? Well, Benn Jordan has revealed his soundcheck song of choice… Sexual Eruption by Snoop Dogg.
The peculiar soundcheck song of choice, which also has a censored version called Sensual Seduction, was revealed during the latest episode of My Forever Studio, a MusicTech podcast in which producers, musicians and artists discuss their dream studio setup.
In the episode, Jordan, a music journalist and musician as part of the band The Flashbulb, tells hosts Chris Barker and Will Betts about his process for achieving the right acoustics in the studio.
He and Barker agree that playing a familiar, uniquely mixed track through low-budget monitors, while turning up the subwoofer, is often the best way to identify any frequency issues, emphasising the importance of getting subliminally tuned into how music sounds on the monitors, regardless of their quality.
“Snoop Dogg’s Sexual Eruption is my go-to song when I tour,” adds Jordan.
“That song is mixed kind of weird. Like, there’s a bass and a sub-bass beneath that. And if you have any sort of crossover from your monitors to that subwoofer, it always shows up in that song to me.
“So that song’s always my go-to when tuning an audio system,” he says. “Even on tour, which is really funny, because every sound check, I would play Sexual Eruption for my soundcheck, and they’d be like, ‘don’t you want to, like, play?’ And I’m like, ‘No, no, I got my mixer up here. As long as the monitors work, I’m fine. But I need to hear Sexual Eruption out there to make sure that we don’t have muddy bass.’”
“You’ve got promoters going, ‘Are you sure we booked the right guy?’” Laughs Barker.
What makes a song suitable for sound-checking?
For musicians, a good soundcheck song is like a sonic blueprint, ensuring every instrument and voice is finely tuned for the performance ahead. It’s about dynamic range, covering deep bass to crisp highs, while representing the full spectrum of instruments and vocal types.
Consistency is key; no sudden volume jumps or instrumentation changes. The song should be just the right length – long enough for thorough adjustments but not overly time-consuming. Familiarity helps performers assess sound quality effectively. Flexibility is also pretty crucial; the song should span various musical styles and dynamics to fine-tune settings for different performance sections.
My Forever Studio is a weekly MusicTech podcast, created in partnership with Audient, on which guests in the form of artists, producers and musicians are asked to reveal their dream music studio. There’s no going back with the space, location choice and contents they include, and each guest’s only allowed to include six items. It may sound like an easy decision, but it’s really not.
Listen to the full episode with Benn Jordan below:
Find all episodes of My Forever Studio on MusicTech.
