Live sound - what you need to know by Rob Howick
Abstract (summary)
Audio
engineer Rob Horwick is interviewed about touring, including selecting the
right gear, problems that come up during sound check, recording bands live, mixing a band that insists on loud stage volume, and
accuracy of mixing an
artist's CD.
Full Text
How do
you select the gear you take on the road?
Sometimes
it has to do with, depending on the artist your working with, and depending on
the style of music they have, and of course it depends again on what size of
venues you're going to be playing, and how much trucking is available and so
you, a lot of times I just take that into consideration. There's one or two
types of speakers I like to use overall but 9 times out of 10 it comes down to
the artist and the type of situation you're in.
What
problems do you listen for during sound check?
Definitely
you're listening for more so the room. If you are on a tour, the band is pretty
much set in the way they're going to play a performance or a song. So you need
to see how the speakers work within the room and listen for different
reflections off hard surfaces and see how much is being soaked up by soft
surfaces.
What tips can you offer for recording
bands live? What problems
must be overcome?
Try to
isolate your sounds as much as possible and use really high quality microphones
because it makes a huge difference. Problems to overcome: a lot of it would be
the bleed into the vocalist's microphone or into any other microphones on the
stage from other instruments... that is a huge problem.
How do
you mix a band that insists
on having a loud stage volume?
I've a
lot of times I've just made up my little own baffles or as it were, a comb for
a microphone and something you can attach either to the bass or the mic or the
mic stand itself. You might want to make another box shape or a fan shape that
surrounds the microphone but it also lets the tone of what you're listening to
come through. Especially for amplifiers, it will work great. That and a
Plexiglas booth around the drum kit will work. Try to make it look hip and cool
and the kids will love it. If they insist on a loud stage volume, then as long
as you get the vocals up out front, then you just have to fill in the sounds
that are coming from the stage. Each room is different of course, so some
nights you may have to pan a guitar only to one side of the PA because it is so
loud coming of the stage from stage left and so you have to pan it to stage
right.
How
accurately do you mix to an
artist's CD? Do you listen closely and try to mimic the album or do you try to
find ways to make a live
experience different?
That
depends on the artist themselves, depends on how much free rain they give you.
Some artists insist that they sound just like they do on the radio, while other
artists are open to if you have ideas on special effects or different
instruments being prominent in a mix
for a certain song. Some artists are very willing to let you do that to a point
and other artists are very stern and want it to sound just like the record they
slaved on for 18 months or whatever so you have to respect that. They're the
ones paying the bills.
Word
count: 564
Indexing (details)
Narrow
subject
Live
Performance, Live
Recordings, Sound
Engineers, Equipment
Selection, Volume, Mixing
(Recording), Editing, Sound
Recordings
Broad
subject
People
Title
Live sound - what you need to know by Rob Howick
Publication
title
Volume
Issue
Pages
66
Publication
year
2001
Publication
date
Feb 2001
Year
2001
Publisher
Norris-Whitney
Communications Inc
Place of
publication
St.
Catharines, Ont.
Country
of publication
Canada
Journal
subject
ISSN
1186-1797
Source
type
Magazines
Language
of publication
English
Document
type
Interview,
Instruction/Guidelines
ProQuest
document ID
756573650
Document
URL
http://search.proquest.com/docview/756573650?accountid=144516
Last
updated
2012-09-17
Database
International
Index to Music Periodicals Full Text
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