Ph: (03) 9889 1999
Mob: 0419 993 966
info @ bssound.com.au

Keep It Simple, Stupid!

This is my favorite piece of advice with regard to Live Sound. 
It also goes hand-in-hand with my other favourite saying: 
Less is Best.
My point is that, the more you do in changing something, 
the more likely you are to mess it up. In the area of mixing 
for live sound you are asking for trouble if you use 
excessive amounts of eq or effects.

Example/Mistake number 1: drums; boosting lows & highs 
by 12db and cutting mids by 12 db, a very coloured sound 
with lots of "doof" & "crack" but a lot of the "meat" 
(and power) in the sound will be lost by the lack of mids.
I suggest the same boosts and cuts, but at 3 or 6db, it will 
be a less coloured but more rounded/natural sound.

Example/Mistake number 2: vocals; adding too much 
presence/hi-mids in an attempt to bring out clarity. 
Any eq more than 3db for a vocal mic (where you are 
wanting maximum gain) is inviting problems with front-of-house 
feedback and you will also be emphasizing sibilance.

Example/Mistake number 3: Too many channels going 
to reverb; In my opinion only close miked acoustic 
instruments need reverb: ie; Snare, toms & percussion 
(such as congas). If more than half the band has reverb 
on it, the result will be a big washy mess. 

Example/Mistake number 4: reverb on vocals; use echo 
instead, echo is a more spacious/distant effect, allowing 
the direct/dry vocal to sit forward in the mix.

MIXING EURO - POP MUSIC, PART 2: 
REVERBERANT DELAY, A SPACIOUS VOCAL

Last month I discussed how I mix the caberet sound that is Euro-Pop.
And now finally, the all important vocal:

Now the most important component of the sound. The vocal. It has to
be larger than life and very loud. 
Step one as  described earlier is to tune the PA for 
maximum vocal level. 
Step two is eq to suit the voice, either 2kHz presence for male vocal 
or 1kHz to boost the chest voice of a female vocal. 
Thirdly, a huge spacious effect. 
My favourite is what I call Reverberant Delay. This is not delayed
reverb but an audible delay that also feeds back into your reverb.
To achieve this, the delay must return in a channel rather than an
auxiliary input. This is so eq and reverb can be applied to it,
modifying it to a realistic but huge echo effect. Roll off the tops
of the delay with a 3dB cut to 4kHz and a 6dB cut to 10kHz, dial up
the reverb send on the delay channel to about 5, use a delay of
anything between 260 to 340 ms with about 30% feedback (2 or 3
audible repeats). On your reverb machine, choose a large hall type
reverb of about 2 seconds with no pre-delay. This is fine for a
contained drum and accordion reverb and perfect to transform the
delay into a cathedral type echo that seems to hang in the air well
behind the vocals.

MIXING EURO - POP MUSIC  

PART 1: THIS IS NOT ROCK 'N ROLL

I would like to show how mixing Euro-Pop music differs from 
mixing regular rock n' roll. In my experience the following methods 
apply to Italian, Greek, Croatian, Polish and Russian Pop-
Rock & Caberet shows.

First of all the stage layout; This will be in three layers: drums
& backline at the back, rest of band mid-stage, main attraction
right up front. The band may be local, but the main attraction will
possibly be 2 or 3 overseas singers and probably their musical
director with accordion or keyboard.

Foldback:
As expected main vocal is most important; but for the whole band. I
usually use a pair of wedges, set at the front corners of the stage
facing in almost side ways. Nowhere near the singer (who will not
stay in the one place anyway) but this allows for a high level of
main vocal volume across the whole stage.
Next priority is the M. D.'s instrument, musically this will drive
the band. In a 2 send foldback situation I would use a pair of
sidefills set mid-stage and not bother with a drumfill.

The Mix:
Now to mic up the rest of the band. Chances are everyone in the
band sings and my first compromise with a 16-ch PA is to use less
mics on the drums.
My first trick is to use a Y-lead with the tom mics, enabling me to
be able to squeeze the drum kit into 3 channels. (Kick, Hats, Toms)
The sound of drums within the Euro-Pop genre is not as predominate
as in contemporary rock n' roll. Listen to some early Beatles or
Rolling Stones for an example. Snare & Hi-hat crisp and thin, Kick
drum and toms should thud, not thump, reduce mids but don't add
tops. Spill from the snare into the tom mics should provide enough
reverb on the snare.
Bass guitar should also remain relatively dull. If you try to
achieve definition with a bright, stringy sound it will only crowd
the mix. Tonally the bass and kick should sit underneath the rest
of the band. 
The Mandolin and Accordion in East European music are the
equivalent of Lead Guitar. Mandolin is easy. Generally it will be
set up with a decent pick-up plugged into a guitar amp. Mic the amp
(or if using a D.I. take a line output from the amp) so that you
get any and all effects that the player may use. Boost the mandolin
channel at 4kHz and 10kHz so that it cuts through the mix without
needing excessive volume. 
Accordion will require some patience on your part. Usually this
instrument will be entirely acoustic and, in addition, the band
will probably want a massive amount of it in foldback. Give the
accordion some presence with a slight boost around 2 to 4kHz on the
right-hand (melody) mic. If the accordion player is one of the band
members you probably won't need a left hand mic as the bass line
will be taken care of by keyboard or bass guitar. However, if he or
she is one of the stars, then definitely consider a second mic for
the left-hand bass. The left-hand side is the end that moves in and
out. Tricky. Try putting the mic in front so it picks up the sound
from the bellows of the accordion. Add definition to the bass sound
with a slight mid-range boost at about 700Hz.
Electric guitar is mostly secondary compared to the mandolin or
accordion, so keep it low in the mix except for the occasional
solo. Tonally it should sit in the mix below the mandolin but above
the accordion and vocal. If there is one keyboard player I
generally try for a single line out of his/her set-up. It's a
pretty safe bet that any lead or solo work will involve a louder
patch and this part of the mix will generally take care of itself.
If you have two keyboard players on stage, it is your lucky day.
The one closer to the front of stage has replaced the acoustic
problem of piano accordion. Use 2 D.I. boxes for a stereo sound as
this keyboard should dominate the band mix most of the time.


The vocal. It has to be larger than life and very loud. This is
what I call Caberet; Volume-wise the band sits lower than the
vocal.
Next month I will describe the effects I use to achieve the
larger than life vocal.

Tuning the PA: 

It is essential to achieve a "flat" eq, and therefore maximum vocal
volume. This is my favoured method. Have the kick drum, 
and all vocal mics in position and turned up, (kick drum mic
because it will be in line with the centre of the room and at the
very rear, therefore sensitive to standing wave antinodes.

Regarding standing waves; these are sound waves that inconveniently
have multiples of their wavelength match the width, depth & height
of a room. Therefore they resonate. To eq a room effectively you
need to find these and attenuate them. The "worst" parts of these
standing waves are the antinodes which generally occur near
boundaries (walls, rear of stage) and also any centre line through
the room. Chances are that your kick drum mic (the one mic that you
want to pick up good clear acoustic bottom end) is going to be
right there! 

Take another mic & set it up on the dance floor if this is a caberet
or multi-cultural gig (yes, way forward of the stage, this where the 
singer might spend most of the evening). 

Make sure that the eq is flat on all these channels but
with the high pass filter (50 or 80 Hz cut) in, except for the kick
drum mic, this is the one that will pick up bottom end standing
waves. 
Next push the masters up on the desk, forcing the PA into
resonance, when you hear a frequency start to feed, locate it on
the graphic and pull it all the way down. OK, like me you haven't
got perfect pitch, so pull the masters back a fraction and then,
one at a time, push up likely frequencies on the graphic until you
hear a match. Bingo, that's the one, pull it all the way out. Now,
repeat the process; push up the masters until the second frequency
(standing wave) starts to resonate, pull back just a fraction and
play with the graphic till you find this one. however this time
only pull it maybe two thirds (probably 9dB). Repeat for a third
time, but pull it by an appropriate amount (probably 6dB).

Hopefully, you have now found and dealt with all the standing
waves, but you may have also discovered that some of these resonant
frequencies occur in between those offered by the graphic. If so
choose the lower frequency as that's the way the acoustics will
change when the air in the room warms up with people/audience.
Now we start over to find the feed-back frequencies. Push up the
mic channels and masters again. Put on a cassette or CD at a
moderate volume to get the speakers and therefore air in the room
moving. Go back to the graphic and, one by one, push up each fader.
Those that feedback need to be pulled by 3 to 6dB depending on
their severity. With luck, no more than half of the frequencies
require attenuation, the less is best rule definitely applies here.
Be warned though that if you colour the eq with boosted hi & low
end or reduced mids (the rock n' roll smile), the PA may sound
nicer but you will lose the maximum achievable vocal volume.

Finally, to double check that the PA is eq-ed to suit the room,
with the above mic.s still live, let the cassette or CD rip with a
short burst of music at high volume. Any resonant frequencies that
hang in the air need to be found on the graphic and attenuated a
little bit more.
 

Painters & Dockers (with friends on stage)