Here’s what we recommend: for more upbeat numbers, go shorter: 800 milliseconds is a good starting point. Live, however, too much reverb and/or delay and your mix becomes a swampland of refracted sound and muddled textures. ADDING THE RIGHT REVERBĪgain, reverb is an awesome tool that can add depth and texture not only to vocals, but instruments on your recordings. Adding compression via on-board fx settings or an outboard unit might work in small doses to “even things out” in less-than-ideal settings, or make back-up vocals hit the board at the same level without spikes, but you may be surprised at how much more immediate your lead sound becomes without the effect. You might find your live sound becomes more dynamic with the compression off entirely, relying more on your vocalists to provide dynamics through a mix of vocal technique and mic positioning during quiet and loud passages.
On-stage, if you’ve been using a lot of compression on vocal channels, try backing off or turning the compressors off completely in the mix, and A/B’ing that against what you’ve been used to. But keep in mind what they’re doing is affecting the dynamics of your music.
On record, compressors and limiters can make vocals and instruments really feel cohesive and gel together. We’re going to start sounding like a broken record, but treat your stage mix differently than your studio mix. Also, many musicians who are still adjusting to in-ears after relying on wedge monitors over the years have noted that a lot of stereo information happening at once can be a major distraction – as information bouncing between the left and right ears causes their brain to focus on this, rather than the levels in the mix and other instruments they’re supposed to be taking cues from during a song. If one earbud pops out mid-song, you don’t want critical audio information not reaching a band member on-stage because a certain instrument was hard-panned to that ear, and now they can’t hear it. Again, this isn’t a clinical listening environment, and the world’s not perfect. Mixing too much stereo information when sending a monitor mix to in-ears can also be an odd aural experience for musicians on stage.
MIXING LIVE SOUND BOOKS PDF
LOGOS MANTRAM TEURGIA SAMAEL PDF Live Sound Mixing ANGUS THONGS AND FULL-FRONTAL SNOGGING BY LOUISE RENNISON PDF The Book Store COPELAND WESTON SHASTRI FINANCIAL THEORY CORPORATE POLICY PDF Live sound mixing Just keep these things in mind and things will most definitely go more smoothly. Some Bands Mix Themselves Follwing up on the last statement, some band just mix themselves. Especially if you know the band and their material, you can be a major influence in how they sound live. But if a guitarist insists on cranking his amplifier up to eleven just because it only sounds good that way, try turning them away from the audience.Īlso, when you have a band sounding good you can focus on the creative part of the show, using effects, reverbs and delays. Good monitor positioning and semi-quiet amplifiers will help fix any problems artist have with their stage sound. Loud amplifiers In a small to medium concert venue, having the guitarists turn their amplifiers up too loud will compromise an otherwise great live sound. And if they are too far away, the sound of the monitors will get buried and masked by the stage sound. If they are too close to the artist the sound waves just travel around their feet, never reaching their ears. Monitor Positioning Good monitor positioning is critical to avoid feedback and making sure the band can hear themselves. It all depends on the genre, so decide on this one yourselves. However, it can de-emphasize the feel and natural quality of the vocal. They make sure the singer can be heard at all times and in itself is a valid technique. Over Compressed Vocals Some like to over-compress vocals in a live setting. Getting the drum sound right can often determine the quality of the rest of the show. In my opinion it is one of the most important elements of sound. It will leave no headroom if you need to turn things up later. Feedback is not a particularly good friend of the sound-tech, nor the rest of the crowd. Be Vary of Feedback This goes without saying. So next time you are mixing a live gig, remember these tips. Things will inevitably go wrong at one of your gigs but maybe some of these live sound tips might help you out. Forget about endless pages of boring acoustic theory who wants to get bogged down reading that? Not me! Instead this book tells you exactly what each knob does, why, and when to turn it.
MIXING LIVE SOUND BOOKS HOW TO
If you have an ear for music, then this book will show you how to link those ears to your fingers, and pull a good live sound out of any PA system.