Livesound - Festival Mixing: Be Fast &
Efficient
Abstract (Summary)
Advice is
offered for live sound
mixers on how to manage a large, multi-band gig like a music festival. Tips presented
include suggestions on organizing equipment, ensuring that the monitor mixes
will be adequate for the musicians on stage, and creating a balanced
front-of-house mix.
Full Text
One
stage, multiple bands, no sound checks, four monitor mixes ... mixed from FOH. Sound like fun to you?
Festivals, battles of the bands, or corporate gigs with no prep time - not
ideal situations, BUT situations that can pay off big for your mixing career. So, how do you
make it work?
For
starters, make sure you're set up for a "festival patch" with the
standard "band inputs" on stage. Double up on guitar mics and DIs and
add extra XLR cable length to them. Label all those cables on the female XLR
connector itself. Sources plugged into that cable may change, but the cable
will stay the same all day.
Make sure
you spend time on your monitor mixes.
Assume somebody is going to want it loud on stage - you will be right. Once
you're done your ringing-out-the-monitors phase, take the channel that you were
using (with the channel gain already set up - strong input but not clipping),
and set your auxiliary monitor sends on that channel to 12 o'clock, then set
your auxiliary masters to an output level that verges on loud stage vocals.
This will be your monitor mix
"master level" reference point for the event.
Monitor Mixing
If
possible, have an assistant get to the bands waiting backstage and ask them
what each musician needs in his or her mix - the top three things needed to survive - and write it
down. If this is not possible, you need to think like a musician now. If there
are three vocalists, what do you think they want to hear in their monitor mixes? Vocals of course, but they
need a vocal mix where all
vocals are basically the same volume, so that they can all hear themselves.
Makes sense, right? So, on the vocalists' channels, set the vocal monitor mix send dials all to 12 o'clock.
Yes, all the same output level (I'll explain why in just a bit). Do the
vocalists need to hear an instrument? If so, which one? They will hear the
drums for tempo, so give them an instrument that gives them the pitch, like the
keyboard. They now have what they need. The keyboard player naturally needs
keys in his or her mix, and
maybe the lead vocal, but that's probably it. Set these keyboard monitor mix sends to 12 o'clock as well.
Think about each mix - what
would you need if it was you? Dial it in and go with it. Set all needed monitor
mix sends to 12 o'clock.
This process is very important to being able to actively stay in touch with
what is happening on stage during the show, as you will see shortly.
Now For
Yonr Main FOH Mix: What Do
You Want To Hear From This Band?
Hopefully
a nice even mix, so that
everything can be heard. Take all the used channel faders for this band and set
them to 0 (unity position), active subgroups included. Start with your mains at
-10.
Here's
the key, and the promised explanation: musicians want the same thing you want -
an even mix where
everything is heard. The variable is how those things come into the sound
system. Sarah sings soft, Joe sings loud, and Fred is right down the middle. We
need to blend them, and now you can create the FOH mix and the monitor mixes simultaneously using one dial per channel . .
. the input gain control. You see, what comes in to a channel determines what
goes out of that channel. We set the vocal monitor levels all the same, we set
the keys' monitor levels the same, all used mix auxiliary sends to 12 o'clock, and we set the
channel faders all the same. Now we'll use the channel input gain controls to
set the mix balance,
adjusting up or down as needed to get the mix blend. Turn Sarah's gain up and Joe's gain down to blend
with Fred, and work across the gain controls for all used channels until you
have a FOH mix blend. This
can be done quite quickly during their first tune. You see, because of our prep
work done above, when you dial in your FOH mix using the input gain controls, you're also simultaneously
dialing in the monitor mixes,
as the input level affects all of the output levels! The blend you have out
front now for vocals is the blend they also have on stage, and band monitor mixes are now set too!
The key
to festival mixing is
speed, efficiency, and multitasking. Using this method keeps the mix relationship between FOH and
the stage, and you won't lose control of either! Good sound techs stay on top
of what's going on at all times; this "festival" mixing plan will help you do
that. Meeting the bands' needs before they even ask also goes over well.
Enjoy
your next mix!
AuthorAffiliation
Terry
Neudorf is a Senior Technician with Audio Image Canada based in Vancouver.
Being involved in live
sound mixing since 1982,
Terry has worked with many label artists and travels to many parts of the world
mixing and conducting sound
operator training seminars. He can be reached at terryn@audioimage.ca.
Word
count: 871
Narrow
subject
Mixing (Recording), Recording
Techniques, Monitors
(Loudspeakers), Recording
Engineers, Music
Festivals, Recording
Techniques
Broad
subject
Title
Livesound
- Festival Mixing: Be Fast
& Efficient
Author
Publication
title
Volume
Issue
Pages
61
Publication
year
2008
Publication
date
Nov 2008
Year
2008
Norris-Whitney
Communications Inc
Place of
publication
Toronto,
Ont.
Country
of publication
Canada
Journal
subject
ISSN
0708-9635
Source
type
Magazines
Language
of publication
English
Document
type
Instruction/Guidelines
Document
feature
Photographs
ProQuest
document ID
1359817
Document
URL
http://search.proquest.com/docview/1359817?accountid=144516
Last
updated
2012-09-17
Database
International
Index to Music Periodicals Full Text
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