Passion Pit
Gladys Knight
Sound Co
All Tech Sound & Production Services
Venue
The Westin Copley Place Hotel
Boston, MA
Vintage Live
People often say that FOH mixing more and more resembles studio production, which is true in some ways, yet in other aspects is about as far from the truth as you can get.
These days, more often than not, you’ll find a recording system at the mix position, whether it’s a hardware capture device like the JoeCo BlackBox recorder or a DAW running Pro Tools, Logic, SONAR or PreSonus’ Studio One. And other than vocal microphones, many of the instrumental mics used onstage are pretty much the same as you’d find in any well-stocked studio, with the exception of the studio technique of doubling-up with a second distant mic (usually a large diaphragm condenser model) used for room ambience. Not much need for that in a live situation, where we have so much ambience that somebody needs to figure out a way to seal it in a can and sell it to our studio counterparts. Meanwhile, back at the console, on-board effects and a plethora of plug-ins take the place of outboard racks in many cases — although not always so, as evidenced this month’s cover shot of the impressive FOH setup for the 2013 Muse tour.
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Rick Camp Opens Live Sound School
For years, students interested in learning about sound reinforcement had few options, usually limited to attending an audio program that was 95 percent devoted to recording, and barely touched on working in a live performance setting. Now veteran FOH engineer Rick Camp has developed Master Mix Live, a school devoted to training people in the art and science of live sound.
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Mixing Muse’s The 2nd Law Tour
The English trio Muse — comprised of Matthew Bellamy (lead vocals, lead guitar, keys), Christopher Wolstenholme (bass, vocals, keys, rhythm guitar) and drummer/percussionist/synthesist Dominic Howard, with the addition of keyboardist/percussionist Morgan Nicholls on their live performances — offer an engaging blend of electronica, metal, classical and space rock. So it’s little surprise that “no matter how many shows I mix for Muse, I never get bored!” declares the band’s front of house engineer Marc Carolan. “It’s a very involved mix, and you can jump genres quickly, sometimes within a song.”
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Understanding Capacitance and Electron Flow
Last month, we looked at conductivity and electricity, the lifeblood behind our industry. Without electricity, and conductors to direct it, there would be no professional audio. We discussed what defines electrons, electric and magnetic fields, and how electrons moving inside of conducting materials give rise to resistance and the famous Ohm’s law equation, V = IR. That article was focused on the internal effects of electrons inside the crystal lattice of a conductor. This month’s article now turns to the realm of how the electric and magnetic fields characteristic of electrons influence several other aspects of the conductors we use in professional audio.
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Double-18 Subwoofers
When you start talking about big sound, ground-stacked double-18 subwoofers are pretty much the standard of the industry. And whenever you’re on that topic, the subject soon turns to “How many do you need?” This isn’t to say that there are other variants that can do the job — ranging from double- and quad-15 boxes to massive systems with one, two or more 21-inch drivers, but if anything defines the foundation of large event product today, it’s the double-18 sub. And one of the easiest ways to upgrade an existing sound rig is to add a couple — or more — ground-stacked subs.
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Mackie DLM Speakers
Last year, when Mackie first showed its DLM series with three powered, DSP-driven speakers. I was intrigued. Here were two extremely compact two-way systems with a 12-inch or 8-inch LF driver paired with a coaxial 1-inch exit compression driver, 1,000 watts RMS of biamplification (2,000W peak), a built-in, two-input digital mixer with line/mic inputs, 3-band EQ, 16 DSP effects, multiband feedback destroyer and memory presets for storing mix configurations. Also in the line is the matching DLM12S, a powered single-12 subwoofer.
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Waves NLS Non-Linear Summer Plug-in
In recent years, most of my work is performed at seated shows rather than at large outdoor or indoor events with festival seating. At seated events, promoters want to sell as many unobstructed view floor seats as possible to maximize the dollar return from each show. And with live performance becoming the most popular (and lucrative) sector of the music business, the motivation for optimum financial return has reduced the amount of space allotted to FOH mix positions. It’s also driven productions to mandate lower shipping costs and fuel expenses. This has resulted in the ascendancy of smaller, lighter digital mixing systems over the larger and heavier analog consoles (and outboard racks) on a majority of tours.
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