MidiMike

Obviously when you are live and there are a number of performers and hopefully a lot of listeners depending on you for a great performance, any change in the house mix can be immediate and usually have unintended consequences that you cannot predict accurately.   Any change to the stage mix once the main speakers are pumping will not be known by the sound engineer.   If you accidently send a lot of delay to the monitor for example, it will confuse timing of players and can lead to feedback and other audio beasts raising their ugly heads over and over.  From the house board you will not be able to pinpoint where the beasts are coming from and what starts them – or calms them down for that matter. 

A lot of those buttons look alike and in the dark it is easy to move something unnoticed.  A number of times I have sneaked up on stage and listened from a few different positions to see what the band was hearing on stage.  Then I could usually identify how to deal with that beast. 

In the studio I can study some of the situations and find a solution when I can rewind and stop and try something and if that doesn’t work I can try this toy we just got in at the music store that is supposed to be wonderful and will solve all my mixing needs.   With the audience primed and ready for a show, it is better to make smaller adjustments and see how it affects everything and then adjust a little more.  If the location of the sound board is good representation of the venue and sounds pretty good, enjoy the view and mix as the band and performers deserve.  I try to reinforce guitar solos in the mains, and I mean really inforce the solo.  I make it so everyone will hear it, while keeping the other performers at a good foundation level.  I make sure I turn it back down as soon as the solo is over.   If there is a second vocalist, sometimes they do not have the power of the lead vocalist and might have a limited range.  It can be hard to boost them to the level of the lead vocalist even if they are using the same equipment.  Getting them loud enough in the monitor is usually the biggest challenge.  You don’t want to leave a microphone turned up a lot in the monitors that is not used very often.  It will pick up other instruments and sounds on stage and then push them back into the monitors…. It will probably not be loud enough to trigger feedback in the stage monitors, but it could create a boomy or foggy sound environment on stage and will make it harder for all performers to keep tight performances. 

I also like to add effects to a live performance. If the band is playing cover tunes for example, I try to match the effects on the vocals and percussion sounds with those on the original recording.  I usually keep the effects out of the monitors but have had situations where it went over well.  More often than not, it makes it more confusing on stage.  In either case, I make sure that when the song or section is over, I turn the effects level off.  If the band members talk into the microphones during a musical break, they will be clear and understandable in the audience during the address.  Then right back up when the next song or section begins.

When setting up the channels on the mixing console, I try to group instruments to make balancing all tracks easier.  I keep vocals together, and try to represent placement on stage. If there is a lead singer center stage and a back-up vocalist left right and the drummer also sings, I have the channels on the snake match their positions when looking at the stage left to right, for example.  If there is only one singer and I have open channels I do not need, I try to separate the vocalist from other channels in use so it is easy to find and easy to adjust.  You will probably change the lead vocalist channel more than any other.  The typical band might have a soloist – guitar or keyboards for example, and you will change the volume faders during the night.  But you will probably not change the delay patch or change reverb on instruments.  The vocals can benefit from minor changes throughout the night. 

Think about it… the guitar player and keyboard player change their sounds literally from song to song.  The vocalist does not have that luxury.  Change the effects to enhance the vocalist.  Too often sound gurus find one effect and use it all night.  If you are not comfortable with creating or even changing effects with the available or on-board FX, that is understandable.  Maybe we will cover that in later sessions if members find it helpful.  If effects are new to you or you have not mixed a whole lot of events try the following simple strategy; add effects to the instruments that need it and not to any other instrument, and keep the volume of the effects subdued in the house mix.  It should not overpower the stage sound or ‘dry‘ signal.   Use short reverbs and delays for most applications.  I bring in the effects into an open channel if available, rather than using the FX return knobs.  This way I can easily see the level of the effect, I can route to the vocal group or bus if I choose and I can EQ effect independently.  This to me also makes it easier to turn down the effects during music breaks or announcements.