So I might get a super unexpected crack at taking over the sound booth at my new job. My experience with audio mixing/equipment is minimal but I know tech and seeing as the key feature of the sound room is a Soundcraft SI Expression 3, the current sound guy thinks the experience will translate well enough.
That said, anyone have any resources or advice to crash course me in audio mixing/soundboard use?
When setting up for a session, set the channel faders at 0, then use the gain knob to set a baseline, safe volume. If you set it right, the average DB at this level should peak out around -3dB. If you're using something like a Mackie DFX-12 or really any other mixer with an integrated LED VU meter, it should be peaking near the top of the green. This'll give you some good headroom. If you can calibrate it with a 0dB 1kHz tone generator, all the better.
Mute any channel that doesn't have anything plugged into it.
Find out what your outputs are and learn how to adjust them. Calibrate them to a tone too, if you can.
Some people will say you can't mix with monitors, but if you're in the mixing booth and the sound isolation is good enough, you should be fine. Put on headphones if you get bleed from the recording booth.
I don't have fancy book learnins like that there Victor fella, but here's what I've got for you.
Get yourself a roll of white tape(electrical tape is fine, but make sure you can write on it) and always mark your channels every time you change them. Personally, I go layer 1 above, layer 2 below(and rarely do I use more than two layers, with the exception of drums). It's easier to find a labeled channel than remember what arcane combination of stuff you've put to what channel, or to menu dive when you need to find out in a hurry.
Along with muting any blank channels, also mute a channel whenever you're adding or removing something. Saves the big buzzes and pops that can damage equipment.
Learn how to properly mic drums if you're going to be working with them. It pays off with better sound.
Don't be afraid of your EQ. Learn to use it, and you'll improve your sound.
And hell, don't be afraid of the board. The SI Expression is a pretty nice board, and it's pretty easy to set up and use.
I don't know what your exact job entails, but if you have an audience, don't make the mistake of trying to set up from your desk. It's a pain in the ass, but you need to listen to the sound from where the audience is located, because it will not sound the same from your booth or wherever else your desk is. You can mix with monitors, but you can't fix audience sound with monitors, because it ain't the same sound. Due to the audio environment in the venue, what sounds great on your monitors might sound like muddy garbage in the seats.
Keep notes. Write down your fader panels and what they're for, write down what equipment you're using, write down everything. Especially if you're working with performers on a regular basis, write down a baseline to set them to - a sound guy who knows what a performer needs and has it ready to go is worth their weight in gold.
If you're doing bands, make sure you pay attention to the setlist. Tick off what's been done, so you can keep track of where you're at and what you'll need to be doing next.
Never trust mic batteries will last. Always have spares.
Learn to wrap cable properly. Practice, learn to do it quickly. Take care of your cables, they'll take care of you. And label all your equipment boxes, if they're not already, and make sure everything goes back in the same case it came from. So much road gear comes in identical cases, and trying to dig through 10+ identical cases to find the one thing you're looking for is a pain in the arse.
Get a good compartmentalized tool kit with shit you need - batteries, plugs, a good flashlight, that sort of thing. Make it yours, and make sure people keep their damn hands off it - that's how shit goes missing.
If you're doing live work, make sure you ring out the room. Even if it's not in a room. That means taking your mic(or mics), positioning it roughly on the stage, then pushing hard as it will go till it starts feeding back. Then go to your EQ, and figure out what freq is freaking out, then pull it back until it doesn't. And then push it a little harder, until you're nice and even. This doesn't eliminate feedback, but it allows you to squeeze every drop of sound you can out of your mics, even if you're jumping from a speech to a heavy metal thrash band. Make sure you do it again from time to time, things can change in a room which slightly changes the hot-spots.
Don't be afraid to drop the hammer if anyone fucks with your gear. I've had bands where, after I've already set them up, I've stepped away for a moment, and next thing I see, some asshole from the band messing with the desk. No. Bad. Verboten. Fuckoff. Don't be afraid to tell them so.
Set up a talkback mic, if there isn't one already. SO much easier for talking to your performers than trying to barge your way through to get near enough to shout.
Make a bunch of reference CDs with songs you know well, across all situations you'll likely encounter. It's easy to set up with someone talking into a mic, but insufficient if you're setting up for a band by doing that. You're a sound guy, get some music cranking. There's a ton of guides and reference out there for making your own.
Never trust a gear list or requirement list. Someone always shows up at the last minute going "Oh, well we need an extra di for our best mate's cousin's mandolin to play with us" or whatever. Treat it more as a rough guide, than a guarantee.
EVERYTHING goes through the board. No exceptions. If you can't control it, don't fucking have it.
Don't forget to pay attention. Don't get lost in the desk, and forget about the room. You're not mixing for perfection, you're mixing for the people.
Don't fixate, don't get tunnel vision. Don't worry about making one thing sound perfect, if it means that you don't get everything working together.
As a bit of a tip for resources - don't shy away from religious sites. For example, Hillsong might be dirty bastards, and supremely annoying evangelicals besides, but their sound guys know their shit back to front, inside out and sideways. For some reason, a lot of churches have crazy good sound techs.
And finally - don't trust your eyeballs, use your earballs. It's as much an art as a science, and a mix that looks perfect on the board can still sound like hot wet arse.
Everything Churba wrote was spot on. I did not record in a studio so I don't know Victor's work.
I did sound years ago with a very experienced engineer doing live shows, I will add my thoughts to those already listed.
The guy I worked with would get to know the flow of the production, when the talent was approaching the stage he would depress the mute button and hold, only when they were almost in position would he release. This would save the lav mic clunking as they walked up stairs.
The board looks intimidating until you learn the layout, then it is very intuitive.
I don't know what your exact job entails, but if you have an audience, don't make the mistake of trying to set up from your desk. It's a pain in the ass, but you need to listen to the sound from where the audience is located, because it will not sound the same from your booth or wherever else your desk is. You can mix with monitors, but you can't fix audience sound with monitors, because it ain't the same sound. Due to the audio environment in the venue, what sounds great on your monitors might sound like muddy garbage in the seats.”
^ This. Try to play a recording of the performance as you walk around the seating area, listen for dead or hot spots and adjust speakers accordingly. This is important when switching from music to a performance.
Your sound will change when the audience is in it versus the sound check, so be prepared for that.
And be sure to write down all your adjustments before you leave every night, in case someone messes with the board when your gone (like cleaning person dusting it). Marking all your adjustments on white tape next to the control will help you easily spot any changes. Important when doing the same production on multiple nights.
If you can manage it - a backup mic of every style checked and ready to go to save time if one goes down (maybe dead battery, maybe something else – you don't have time to futz with it in live shows).
Like many things in life, you don't know you did not know how to wrap cables until you learn the proper way. This skill has treated me well throughout life.
A trick with bands and monitors. Throughout the sound check they will sometimes want their monitors turned up, and then up again after a few minutes, and again. When this is happening mute their monitor for about 5 seconds, they will look at you pissed like “WTF”, just hold your finger up and act busy. Then turn their monitor back on. This changes their baseline expectancy and most times they will ask you to turn it back down because it is too loud. Also with monitors, don't let them pressure you into peaking your equipment.
Lastly, arrive as early as possible, you never seem to have enough prep time before a show.
Everything Churba wrote was spot on. I did not record in a studio so I don't know Victor's work.
Vic is spot on, he knows his stuff. He knows some fucking arcane shit I'd never even dream of. I can run a live, but he's got me beat on basically every aspect of theory and studio work(at least, what doesn't cross over.
Everything Churba wrote was spot on. I did not record in a studio so I don't know Victor's work.
Vic is spot on, he knows his stuff. He knows some fucking arcane shit I'd never even dream of. I can run a live, but he's got me beat on basically every aspect of theory and studio work(at least, what doesn't cross over.
Everything Churba said was spot on too. I've run a live maybe a handful of times, so he's got me beat by a long ways on that front.
Everything Churba wrote was spot on. I did not record in a studio so I don't know Victor's work.
Vic is spot on, he knows his stuff. He knows some fucking arcane shit I'd never even dream of. I can run a live, but he's got me beat on basically every aspect of theory and studio work(at least, what doesn't cross over.
Everything Churba said was spot on too. I've run a live maybe a handful of times, so he's got me beat by a long ways on that front.
This is because showing up that early makes you lazy because you think "Ay, I got plenty of time to sort this out. I'll go hang out tonight."
Nah, not quite. The reason it seems to work that way in sound, it's because you get everything done at a leisurely pace, and once everything is almost done, that's a whole bunch of extra time for you to discover everything that went wrong, a third of which will require fixing immediately(some of which you did lazy the first time because you had time to correct it), the other third of which will spontaneously go wrong while you're fixing something else, and the final third will be things that you screw up after fixing everything, because you had time to fiddle with it in hope of getting it just right.
Comments
When the animation block grows up.
Also this:
https://t.co/LU6D0tVi4T
https://twitter.com/DungeonsDonald
Interesting to see what's going on around the world, right now.
http://epicnerdcamp.com/
http://www.threepanelsoul.com/
That said, anyone have any resources or advice to crash course me in audio mixing/soundboard use?
When setting up for a session, set the channel faders at 0, then use the gain knob to set a baseline, safe volume. If you set it right, the average DB at this level should peak out around -3dB. If you're using something like a Mackie DFX-12 or really any other mixer with an integrated LED VU meter, it should be peaking near the top of the green. This'll give you some good headroom. If you can calibrate it with a 0dB 1kHz tone generator, all the better.
Mute any channel that doesn't have anything plugged into it.
Find out what your outputs are and learn how to adjust them. Calibrate them to a tone too, if you can.
Some people will say you can't mix with monitors, but if you're in the mixing booth and the sound isolation is good enough, you should be fine. Put on headphones if you get bleed from the recording booth.
Get yourself a roll of white tape(electrical tape is fine, but make sure you can write on it) and always mark your channels every time you change them. Personally, I go layer 1 above, layer 2 below(and rarely do I use more than two layers, with the exception of drums). It's easier to find a labeled channel than remember what arcane combination of stuff you've put to what channel, or to menu dive when you need to find out in a hurry.
Along with muting any blank channels, also mute a channel whenever you're adding or removing something. Saves the big buzzes and pops that can damage equipment.
Learn how to properly mic drums if you're going to be working with them. It pays off with better sound.
Don't be afraid of your EQ. Learn to use it, and you'll improve your sound.
And hell, don't be afraid of the board. The SI Expression is a pretty nice board, and it's pretty easy to set up and use.
I don't know what your exact job entails, but if you have an audience, don't make the mistake of trying to set up from your desk. It's a pain in the ass, but you need to listen to the sound from where the audience is located, because it will not sound the same from your booth or wherever else your desk is. You can mix with monitors, but you can't fix audience sound with monitors, because it ain't the same sound. Due to the audio environment in the venue, what sounds great on your monitors might sound like muddy garbage in the seats.
Keep notes. Write down your fader panels and what they're for, write down what equipment you're using, write down everything. Especially if you're working with performers on a regular basis, write down a baseline to set them to - a sound guy who knows what a performer needs and has it ready to go is worth their weight in gold.
If you're doing bands, make sure you pay attention to the setlist. Tick off what's been done, so you can keep track of where you're at and what you'll need to be doing next.
Never trust mic batteries will last. Always have spares.
Learn to wrap cable properly. Practice, learn to do it quickly. Take care of your cables, they'll take care of you. And label all your equipment boxes, if they're not already, and make sure everything goes back in the same case it came from. So much road gear comes in identical cases, and trying to dig through 10+ identical cases to find the one thing you're looking for is a pain in the arse.
Get a good compartmentalized tool kit with shit you need - batteries, plugs, a good flashlight, that sort of thing. Make it yours, and make sure people keep their damn hands off it - that's how shit goes missing.
Soundcraft mixers have a bunch of good videos that tell you all about their gear and give you some guidance on how to use it.
If you're doing live work, make sure you ring out the room. Even if it's not in a room. That means taking your mic(or mics), positioning it roughly on the stage, then pushing hard as it will go till it starts feeding back. Then go to your EQ, and figure out what freq is freaking out, then pull it back until it doesn't. And then push it a little harder, until you're nice and even. This doesn't eliminate feedback, but it allows you to squeeze every drop of sound you can out of your mics, even if you're jumping from a speech to a heavy metal thrash band. Make sure you do it again from time to time, things can change in a room which slightly changes the hot-spots.
Don't be afraid to drop the hammer if anyone fucks with your gear. I've had bands where, after I've already set them up, I've stepped away for a moment, and next thing I see, some asshole from the band messing with the desk. No. Bad. Verboten. Fuckoff. Don't be afraid to tell them so.
Set up a talkback mic, if there isn't one already. SO much easier for talking to your performers than trying to barge your way through to get near enough to shout.
Make a bunch of reference CDs with songs you know well, across all situations you'll likely encounter. It's easy to set up with someone talking into a mic, but insufficient if you're setting up for a band by doing that. You're a sound guy, get some music cranking. There's a ton of guides and reference out there for making your own.
Never trust a gear list or requirement list. Someone always shows up at the last minute going "Oh, well we need an extra di for our best mate's cousin's mandolin to play with us" or whatever. Treat it more as a rough guide, than a guarantee.
EVERYTHING goes through the board. No exceptions. If you can't control it, don't fucking have it.
Don't forget to pay attention. Don't get lost in the desk, and forget about the room. You're not mixing for perfection, you're mixing for the people.
Don't fixate, don't get tunnel vision. Don't worry about making one thing sound perfect, if it means that you don't get everything working together.
As a bit of a tip for resources - don't shy away from religious sites. For example, Hillsong might be dirty bastards, and supremely annoying evangelicals besides, but their sound guys know their shit back to front, inside out and sideways. For some reason, a lot of churches have crazy good sound techs.
And finally - don't trust your eyeballs, use your earballs. It's as much an art as a science, and a mix that looks perfect on the board can still sound like hot wet arse.
I did sound years ago with a very experienced engineer doing live shows, I will add my thoughts to those already listed.
The guy I worked with would get to know the flow of the production, when the talent was approaching the stage he would depress the mute button and hold, only when they were almost in position would he release. This would save the lav mic clunking as they walked up stairs.
The board looks intimidating until you learn the layout, then it is very intuitive. ^ This. Try to play a recording of the performance as you walk around the seating area, listen for dead or hot spots and adjust speakers accordingly. This is important when switching from music to a performance.
Your sound will change when the audience is in it versus the sound check, so be prepared for that.
And be sure to write down all your adjustments before you leave every night, in case someone messes with the board when your gone (like cleaning person dusting it). Marking all your adjustments on white tape next to the control will help you easily spot any changes. Important when doing the same production on multiple nights.
If you can manage it - a backup mic of every style checked and ready to go to save time if one goes down (maybe dead battery, maybe something else – you don't have time to futz with it in live shows).
Like many things in life, you don't know you did not know how to wrap cables until you learn the proper way. This skill has treated me well throughout life.
A trick with bands and monitors. Throughout the sound check they will sometimes want their monitors turned up, and then up again after a few minutes, and again. When this is happening mute their monitor for about 5 seconds, they will look at you pissed like “WTF”, just hold your finger up and act busy. Then turn their monitor back on. This changes their baseline expectancy and most times they will ask you to turn it back down because it is too loud. Also with monitors, don't let them pressure you into peaking your equipment.
Lastly, arrive as early as possible, you never seem to have enough prep time before a show.
This is because showing up that early makes you lazy because you think "Ay, I got plenty of time to sort this out. I'll go hang out tonight."