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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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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Interpreting RTA Measurement Techniques
One of the most familiar audio analysis tools for live sound is Real Time Analysis (RTA), also known as spectrum analysis. Many of us are familiar with the process. One reproduces a known signal from a tone generator (typically pink noise), sends it through a PA system and uses a measurement microphone to capture the sound. The RTA displays the manner in which the audio signal has been changed on a graph showing frequency versus amplitude. You then adjust EQ in an effort to ‘flatten’ the curve, thus ‘fixing’ the problem.
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The Good Book
Back in the day (1975, to be exact), Warner Bros. Records put out a trade paperback tome called The Book of the Road. It was a compendium of information about significant venues across the U.S., collected by Jo Berger in Warners’ artist relations department, offering information like stage plots, PA types, FOH and monitor console types with I/O counts, and relevant contact info for stage managers. It grew out of an in-house project for use by the label’s own artists when on tour, and while it never became a best-seller in book form, it caught the fancy of musicians and live-sound techs alike as a kind of Fodor’s for roadies.
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Drums, Mics and the Church
When we think of the ancient city of Jericho, we think about the Israelites marching around the walls for seven days playing their trumpets, and then the walls came tumbling down. However, historically speaking, besides the trumpets, the Israelites played many percussion instruments (drums) for those seven days while they were marching around the walls of Jericho.
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Bidding and Pricing Job Proposals
I received an email from a reader asking me to write an article about giving a bid for festivals and club gigs. Other than the few glowing comments he used to flatter me into doing this piece, his letter included other points such as: “How much detail is required on the gear we’re supplying? Sometimes it feels like I’m giving too much information, and in other cases, too little. What format should the quote be in? What should my profit margin be? How should I account for and cost-in the ‘suck fee’ — contingencies for covering things that inevitably change after arriving at the venue, like having the generator moved at the last moment and needing to pull 300 feet of 4/0 feeder cable!”
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Product Hits of Winter NAMM
The old song might say “It never rains in Southern California,” but this time it did — but only sporadically and hardly enough to dampen the spirits of the 100,000 or so attendees at the Winter NAMM show from January 24 to 28. In fact, the mood at this year’s expo carried a decidedly good vibe. With the memories of 2008’s near-depression and 2012’s year-end “fiscal cliff” thankfully becoming a distant memory, the M.I. and pro industries seemed ready to get back to business. And there seemed to be plenty of business, with a feeling of optimism in the air and from the strong turnout of interested buyers and serious attendees, a sense that good times lie ahead.
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