Sound School
Posted: Wed May 27, 2009 9:04 pmI was one of those who attended the audio tutorial run by Scott (the award-wining guy) last Tuesday. It was primarily mixing desk training for Coaches but a lot of what he had to say was very relevant to all of us. I thought it would be worth mentioning the sorts of things that we talked about and some ideas we had.
1 The room has a large and unfixable effect on the sound. Size, shape, lining materials, ledges etc all modify the sound heard by the audience, and the guy at the desk can usually NOT remove all this. It is live music and you have to live with it.
2 The kind of amps on stage and where they are on stage affects the sound. We aim to get all players on stage to be able to hear each other at a reasonable volume WITHOUT foldback where possible. This eases the load on the foldback and gives a better ambience on stage. We will be experimenting at Underwood to see what can be done.
3 Foldback has limitations, especially as we have no separate EQ at Underwood, so you cannot expect CD quality sound from the wedges.
4 The current method of the mixer talking to the players is better than nothing but having a Stage Manager whose role is to work directly with the players so the mixer does not need to get involved any more than necessary is even better. This may sound complicated but if the players trust and obey the stage manager, and if the stage manager knows what he is doing, the band changeover should be quicker and smoother. This will be a work in progress for some time, I think.
As you can see there is more to playing than cranking your amp as high as you can stand and shutting your eyes. OK, I'm exaggerating but when we are performing we need to adopt some 'professional' attitudes to make it all work. Hopefully the skills that you learn when performing at jams and concerts will add to your stagecraft at other gigs you play.
So don't have a go at someone who is only trying to get things right. Listen and learn. And ask questions. We now have some of the answers.
Cheers,
1 The room has a large and unfixable effect on the sound. Size, shape, lining materials, ledges etc all modify the sound heard by the audience, and the guy at the desk can usually NOT remove all this. It is live music and you have to live with it.
2 The kind of amps on stage and where they are on stage affects the sound. We aim to get all players on stage to be able to hear each other at a reasonable volume WITHOUT foldback where possible. This eases the load on the foldback and gives a better ambience on stage. We will be experimenting at Underwood to see what can be done.
3 Foldback has limitations, especially as we have no separate EQ at Underwood, so you cannot expect CD quality sound from the wedges.
4 The current method of the mixer talking to the players is better than nothing but having a Stage Manager whose role is to work directly with the players so the mixer does not need to get involved any more than necessary is even better. This may sound complicated but if the players trust and obey the stage manager, and if the stage manager knows what he is doing, the band changeover should be quicker and smoother. This will be a work in progress for some time, I think.
As you can see there is more to playing than cranking your amp as high as you can stand and shutting your eyes. OK, I'm exaggerating but when we are performing we need to adopt some 'professional' attitudes to make it all work. Hopefully the skills that you learn when performing at jams and concerts will add to your stagecraft at other gigs you play.
So don't have a go at someone who is only trying to get things right. Listen and learn. And ask questions. We now have some of the answers.
Cheers,