Depends on the size of shows you are doing, whether backline volume will affect your foh mix.
If you are mixing in a small theatre room or a hall then backline volume can and will affect the sound out front.
I mainly do arena/stadium shows so it doesn’t affect me at all. I find that Virtual Soundchecking in conjunction with Solo-in-Place for shows where soundcheck time is tight, it is the single most useful offering since the invention of total recall.
A lot of people think that it is a gimmick, something pointless that bears no actual correlation to a real band playing on a stage. In some scenarios this may be true if you have a small room and a really loud backline/monitor sound. The ability to infinitely loop every single input to get the most out of your dynamic processing, your eq and ultimately the most important thing, ‘the speaker system’ is in my eyes invaluable.
Lets not also forget that it provides an excellent training tool for engineers to actually have a go at mixing a show. They can do it on headphones, in the warehouse with a set of big speakers or even on a showday when everyone else is in catering post soundcheck.
Virtual Soundchecking and the ability to save your various mixes as scenes on a console with total recall is providing us all with more opportunities to be creative, adventurous and more bold in our approach to mixing live sound, Just as studio guys have been doing for years!
Dont knock it until you’ve tried it, is the advice i tell the naysayers!
Graham
http://www.TotalLiveSound.com
