Have to say, I agree with Hootenanny here, it should be possible to get balance into a group without having knobs to twiddle. After all, a good full orchestra manages it. I'm not arguing that in a busy pub where you are the only band on all night and you're an electric blues band that you shouldn't be plugged, but there seems to be an obsession (particularly amongst the men) for plugging events up even in small venues and even when everyone is doing only two numbers and it's pretty much pure folk.