#drummer | MidiMike

Posts Tagged ‘#drummer’

Live Sound Reinforcement Series Chapter 15 – And the other 20%

Posted: May 18, 2015 in Live Sound Reinforcement Series, music technology
Tags: # mixer, #atari, #audio, #band, #bass, #digital, #drummer, #drums, #FX, #guitar, #keyboard, #Liveband, #livesoundreinforement, #microphone, #Midi, #midimike, #mixingboard, #monitors, #music, #musician, #performance, #performer, #piano, #recording, #recordingstudio, #reverb, #runningsound, #signal, #singer, #sound, #Soundengineer, #soundman, #speakers, #stage, #studio, #studioengineer, #synthesizer, #tech, #vocalist, #vocals, #Yamaha

I am famous for doing things the easy way and if I can, as cheap as possible. Now that does not mean forget quality and versatility. It means I won’t spend money on gadgets that I don’t need. I try to run as clean a mix as possible, and making sure everyone gets heard. If they are up there ‘playin it‘, I want the audience to hear it. In reality, it doesn’t take a lot of gadgets to accomplish those two major things; make it sound good and loud enough for the venue, and put all instruments/vocals/strings/spoons or tambourines, I don’t care what it is…. in the mix. As a band member, hiring sound guys and their rigs, a number of times after sound check and a few songs of the first set, my microphone was turned down so low, no one could hear me even in-between songs. I could not get the sound man’s attention, or anyone else’s for that matter because no one could hear me (and as a keyboard player I was usually in the back corner of the stage in the shadows Ha!). So eventually I just adjusted the microphone stand down toward the floor in front of me. It is easy to hit the wrong button or turn the wrong knob; happens all the time.

Remember that the sound guy cannot hear what is really happening up on stage. Sometimes you THINK you can. But you as the sound engineer should be the first person to know what is going wrong when it does. Keep an eye on all performers – they will look to you first. As a performer and studio guy, I could tell when the guitar player broke a string, or if the drum head split and when or if the drummer had too much to drink on his birthday gig. Things will go wrong but a lot of the time it is the sound guy. You make an adjustment and grab the wrong knob. They all look alike in the dark part of the venue or room. The consequences can be anything from a non-event to a full blown crisis, depending on which knob you grab. Obviously for the extreme crisis, you will know right away what happened and will probably be able to correct quickly.

It is the slow creepy ones that will get you. Two songs later something changes on stage and chaos begins.

I suggested we set up the mixing board so the FX Returns are plugged into open channels so you can control their volume with the faders rather than the FX Return knobs. I always turn the effects down in-between songs. (you also get EQ and other benefits) This makes it SOOO much easier to see in the dark clubs. I also use the sub-groups to assign drums, vocals, and other groups of mics their own fader that feeds directly to the Main Out or house out. If there is a problem with one group, you can quickly test by adjusting that sub-group fader and see if problem goes away. If not, return it to where it was and go to the next sub-group. This way you do not have to go through fader after fader searching for a bad signal or feedback loop. Once you narrow down the offending group, you will have a much better idea what the source is!

I would say most live performances the sound board is mixed to a Mono output. In smaller rooms or clubs, I loved running in stereo. I mixed for keyboard progressive bands a lot and the stereo keyboards and samplers consumed the rooms when mixed right. Not in volume——– The vocals (sometimes three sometimes five in the band) panned as well. Overkill in a way, but not much work and easy to arrange with equipment versatility. Most boards have stereo FX that can add lot to the imaging. But again, that is not the norm. So you can either set board up in stereo and have the Main Output plugged into the MONO OUT to your system, or you can mix to mono and use one Main fader or the other. That’s about it. We have covered the entire mixing board, in its basic format. Headphone outs, Tape or other inputs, on-board effects, Solo or Audition functions as well as digital features make new sections.

Live Sound Reinforcement Series Chapter 14 – Down the Signal Path Again

Posted: May 13, 2015 in Live Sound Reinforcement Series, music technology, technology
Tags: # mixer, #atari, #audio, #band, #bass, #digital, #drummer, #drums, #guitar, #Liveband, #livesoundreinforement, #microphone, #Midi, #midimike, #mixingboard, #monitors, #music, #musician, #performance, #performer, #piano, #recording, #recordingstudio, #reverb, #runningsound, #signal, #sound, #Soundengineer, #soundman, #speakers, #stage, #studio, #studioengineer, #synthesizer, #tech, #vocalist, #vocals, #Yamaha

As we continue down the signal path, we get to a new section. This is separated from the EQ section and generally uses a different color coding for the associated knobs. The next group is the Aux Sends. Each send represents an output jack that will go to external audio sources. One example would be the stage monitor mix(s). If you have two monitors on each end of the stage serving performers, you can use Aux Send 1 going to the left monitor and use Aux Send 2 going to the right monitor. If performer 1 wants to hear themselves and a little bit of performer 2 in the same monitor, simply send a lot of performer 1’s channel to Aux Send 1 and a little of the performer 2 to the Aux Send 1. If performer 2 does not want to hear performer 1 in their respective monitor, simply turn up performer 2’s channel Aux Send 2 up a bunch and do not turn up Aux Send 2 on the channel for performer 1. That was probably harder to say correctly than actually doing it.

You can use Auxiliary Sends to route a signal from any channel to external effects boxes like Digital Delays, Reverbs, and even recording devices in a pinch. You can use it to trigger light boards that have an Audio Input mode.

These Auxiliary Sends can sometimes be switched from Pre to Post. Some are fixed either way. This can also get confusing but if the channel Aux Send is in Pre mode it means Pre-Fader. The volume faders on each channel will affect the level of the signal that is sent to the House or the Main Out of the mixer and when selected, to the headphone out. It is a good idea to solo instruments in the headphones to pick or change microphone locations and isolate room noise and other performers. If the Aux is set to Pre-Fader, it means that the Aux Send levels will be determined before the channel fader has any effect. Turn the channel volume fader all the way down and you will still have plenty of signal going to the Aux Send. If the Aux Send is in Post Fader mode, the amount of signal sent to the Aux Send for that channel will be directly affected by the level of the channel volume fader. Fader off = no Aux Send level. The number of sends will vary widely. In this case, more is better!

At this point the example starts a new section. This will affect the Main Out section. This is where we can set the stereo Pan position, Mute or un-Mute the channel, and Solo the instrument for gain staging and troubleshooting during a performance. When running in stereo, general rule is very low frequencies get panned to center. After that, adjust to performance and venue. Sometimes the stage sound is very loud, and listeners close to the stage will only be able to hear that performer. Sometimes the shape of the stage or design of venue will require creative solutions using stereo panning.

This strip includes a pair of colored LED’s for signal strength and Peak warning level indicators. Occasional red for short periods of time are OK, but better to avoid as long as you have a strong signal otherwise. After we have set the various knobs correctly and have good signal strength, we can use the channel volume fader to set the level of that channel in the House mix. Channel Mutes can have different affects. Some boards Muting a channel will stop that audio source from all outs, and some might allow Aux Send 1 & 2 for monitors. See manuals for lots of details I cannot cover in these articles.

Other examples below with different lay-outs;

But here is the good news; we have just learned 75% of the face of the mixing board. Each channel duplicates what we just went over. All those knobs are now grouped logically, easily identified explained and we understand what each one is for. Here on in it is repetition for gain staging and sound check. Use Pad and 1st Gain Stage to adjust signal strength, add or subtract frequencies using the channel EQ, set amount of Aux Send to monitors and effects and set the stereo field positions as we watch level indicators and set channel volume fader. Repeat. Finished!

Next we can go over the benefits of Group Sends and the other 20%

The Personal Touch does “The Pleasure Tax” – Rare Release

Posted: May 11, 2015 in MUSIC, My Tunes
Tags: # mixer, #12string, #atari, #audio, #band, #bass, #cdbaby, #creative, #demo, #digital, #dreams, #drummer, #drums, #guitar, #itunes, #keyboard, #life, #Liveband, #love, #lyrics, #microphone, #motivation, #music, #musician, #performance, #performer, #personal, #poetry, #recording, #retro, #singer, #song, #songwriter, #sound, #Soundengineer, #soundman, #speakers, #stage, #story, #studio, #studioengineer, #touch, #vocalist, #vocals

Recently I was asked in comments (The Observer) if a song I posted was recorded at home or in a studio. I replied but thought I might expand on that a bit and also introduce another version of “The Pleasure Tax”. As my brother and I got older we kept writing poems that were now almost always designed to be lyrics. We got better. Instead of playing the bongos, I played the toy organ I mentioned and everything else from there. Here is where I get to also blame my parents again. For Christmas we all got cool toys, but many of mine seemed to be music makers; recorders, tiny piano ‘tinkley’ toys, little ukuleles and eventually guitars with plastic strings and a drum set that was made for a three year old, but you get the point. So we got better and we played instruments and my brother started playing guitar as well. We had more toys to create music so when we wanted to record them (I was probably fourteen or fifteen by the time recording was a possibility) we wanted to add the various instruments and record them all together.

Through the years, we met other musicians and became great friend – or as I seem to recall – we met great friends that were also musicians. Eventually there was a central core of serious song writers. Sometimes there would be around eight or ten core writing members. It would seem there was a competition going (and there always was!) to write the coolest or most clever or the most groovy song. And we would have friends that would stop by and jam once in a while or would write lyrics and were willing to turn them over to a group of people that would fit them , with force if necessary, with a musical arrangement, melody line and harmonies.

The rambling link to all this is when we often played a collection of each other’s songs, we more than likely played with different performers supporting a few core members. Those were exciting days! One time you would sing the song and the lead vocalist was not there. So you let an ‘orbiting member’ do the vocal melody and you sing the harmony part. Most of us played instruments and sang – especially if we wrote the song as you can guess – so if the lead vocalist also played guitar, we filled in as a ‘core member’. On one visit or jam session you performed and sang your song all by yourself to the group. In other visits you were surrounded by full instrumentation and a choir of vocalists! So here is an example of all that tied into a version of this song by a full band I toured with. You heard us play live to an audience in Texas when we played the original song “Our Bodies Move” posted earlier. We also played other original songs and snuck them into our sets. One of them was “The Pleasure Tax”. We called ourselves The Personal Touch. Ric and I were a duo and when we decided to add a female vocalist as recommended by a booking agency they decided to sign us up for out of state gigs. We got some studio time when signing up and we performed some original tunes and some cover stuff…. done The Personal Touch way. “TPT” by TPT!

So this is rare original song of mine that was recorded in an actual studio. We are a trio and there was a studio drummer. Everything else is The Personal Touch with a very new vocalist.

Live Sound Reinforcement Series Chapter 11 – What is a Channel?

Posted: April 20, 2015 in Live Sound Reinforcement Series, music technology
Tags: # mixer, #atari, #audio, #band, #bass, #digital, #drummer, #drums, #guitar, #keyboard, #Liveband, #livesoundreinforement, #Midi, #midimike, #mixingboard, #music, #musician, #performance, #performer, #piano, #recording, #recordingstudio, #runningsound, #singer, #song, #songwriter, #sound, #Soundengineer, #soundman, #speakers, #stage, #studio, #studioengineer, #synthesizer, #tech, #vocalist, #vocals

This probably won’t be the last time I will mention that I like to teach things that I have learned over the years. But I also like to learn. I did OK in school, but nothing really interested me, so I just made it through. At the right time in my life, I found music. From my parents, TV, brothers and back then AM radio, I absorbed all the songs I could. Back then they did not pre-package and filter music in the same way they do now, You could hear unique styles and among the commercial sounding and cookie-cutter pop tunes there were really talented songwriters and performers. Recordings were also hit and miss, with wide varieties of textures. We were still waiting for “stereo” to come out. Fun times!

I bring part of this up to say the following: I am just a guy. I have no formal training, I haven’t gone to technical schools,

I have not worked with national major players and unless you hang out in my town, you probably do not know the names of the bands, writers and performers I have been blessed to know. I wish you did.

I also know a lot of very smart guys that have all the answers and references ……

Then there is the group that THINK they have all the answers but never get things to work or things sound bad and get worse as the evening goes on.

The best way in my opinion to truly know what you have learned is to teach it to someone else. (if you can!)

I do not think another series about which knob you should turn, which special new box you should buy, which new instrument will get you to the next level, or which processor do you add to a particular instrument is going to add to what is already out there. I would like to give you a feel of options and let you figure out on your own why ‘it doesn’t work’ or if ‘it sounds bad and gets worse’. As described in earlier my LSR series, a number of live sound tragedies could be avoided if the sound engineer understood the challenge from both points of view. Too many sound men and women mix to the House. It is extremely important to mix for the Stage as much as the House. More on that later.

Once you know why it is not working or not sounding as good as you want, you will be able to fix or improve the mix much quicker. There are tricks that will help there as well. I picked up a few from here and there, started writing songs with my older brother, bought a 4 track reel-to-reel and a couple Radio Shack microphones (that were great and I still have one in my mic case!!). After that of course we needed guitars, drums, organ, and I am still living at home. I had to figure out how to get them all to work together because back then I was the ONLY person I knew that had anything like recording equipment. Necessity is the Mother of Invention and I kept going until I figured it out. Once friends and their friends knew I could figure their stuff out, I got to know a lot of musicians. Then I got into sales. One thing leads to another.

Setting up the sound gear for a live gig, the beginning part before you even plug in the equipment, creates the foundation you will need to have a problem free event. IF we understand what the foundation is there to do, the building or pyramid can get as tall as you want, and you will not have to worry about it crashing down on everyone around you. Here is where we need to focus or channel in on the foundation itself and the ways to build a strong audio reinforcement base. This is why I truly believe if I can learn it, so can you. Next series we will talk about the other type of audio channel.

“The Touch” – Understanding Humans

Posted: April 15, 2015 in MUSIC, My Tunes
Tags: # mixer, #atari, #audio, #band, #bass, #demo, #digital, #drummer, #drums, #guitar, #keyboard, #life, #Liveband, #love, #lyrics, #Midi, #music, #musician, #performance, #piano, #poetry, #recording, #recordingstudio, #retro, #singer, #song, #songwriter, #sound, #Soundengineer, #soundman, #story, #studio, #studioengineer, #synthesizer, #vocalist, #vocals

Ideas from songs can and should come from all sorts of things. I try to observe experiences from other people. Too many writers base their material on their own personal experience. This is powerful but has serious drawbacks. One has to experience nirvana or tragedy in order to write about it. This can be limiting unless you have a very tumultuous life. Not good for health and well being of the artist. So I try to empathize, sympathize and understand the thoughts, mood and feelings of others as they experience life changing events.

I had been a musician with limited access to toys for most of the early years. Lots of time and not much cash or resources available. That did not stop me from observing others, and in fact probably offered me the time to observe. Anyway, a friend of mine and I were walking around and I noticed a person in a wheel chair. There was another person behind pushing the chair, but something seemed a little unusual for some reason and I kept watching the pair. IWE naturally thought the person pushing was there to help the person in the wheel chair. They went up to one of those bank ATM’s and much to my surprise, the person in the wheel chair moved out of the way and the walking person went up to the ATM display. What moved me to write this song was the fact that I had originally assumed the person walking was assisting the person in the wheel chair. The person standing started to use the ATM and they searched by hand for the braille instructions! The person walking was blind, and being assisted by the person in the wheel chair! We can touch others in so many different ways. That lead me to the lyrics and a better understanding of human beings. Not just their ability to assist others in ways we might not think of, but also how we (I) perceived something and came up with the wrong conclusion. I use a phrase that describes that effect; Many people have the correct observation but come to incorrect conclusions. This song, the lyrics and the music, mean a lot to me personally. I truly hope you find something here you can relate to.

http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/perigee

What I Do At Night – The Driving Song

Posted: April 8, 2015 in family, MUSIC, My Tunes
Tags: # mixer, #atari, #audio, #band, #bass, #daughter, #demo, #digital, #dreams, #driving, #drummer, #drums, #family, #guitar, #keyboard, #life, #Liveband, #love, #lyrics, #Midi, #mixingboard, #motivation, #music, #musician, #performance, #piano, #poetry, #recording, #recordingstudio, #retro, #runningsound, #singer, #song, #songwriter, #sound, #Soundengineer, #soundman, #speakers, #stage, #story, #studio, #studioengineer, #synthesizer, #tech, #vocalist, #vocals, #Yamaha

http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/perigee

**This is MidiMike’s daughter. I help my dad out with his blog. I wanted to tell all of you that this is, by far, my favorite song that my dad has ever written. If you stop to listen to any of the original tunes, I would highly recommend this one!! Thanks.**

And now a message from my dad:

On most of my tunes, I play all the instruments and sequence the drums and other sound effects. I usually sing lead or I have my wife take the vocal lead. Once I started working in music stores selling instruments and sound equipment, I asked friends (and customers at the time!) to come over and lay down guitar solos or I might have a guest vocalist. What I do at Night was one that we did ourselves. I play all guitar parts and the back up vocals. I think at this time I had graduated from a Yamaha MT4X (I think they were called and this was a 4 Track double speed cassette recorder) to the Alesis ADAT. So now I had an amazing 8 tracks to record on! Actually I needed one track to record the SMPTE time code so the Alesis ADAT would sync up to the computer (now I actually have a PC and put the Atari in deep storage). I can go into this details on this system for a later post when I am feeling nostalgic, but it allowed unlimited MIDI tracks on the PC or Atari and connect to the playback of the ADAT.

The song itself reflects my thoughts on a number of topics. I really like to drive. I don’t have a fast or luxury car. I just like to drive. When I have some free time or just want to think, I often find myself cruising the local country side. I would listen to music while driving and that sometimes adds to the frustration. Most of the music you hear on commercial radio is garbage or re-packaged songs and ideas I have heard for the last few decades. Like a lot of us struggling artists and performers, we see a bunch of bands with lots of air-play and they are just so-so. OK music, but nothing special. As a songwriter, I get so tired of the same theme or idea in every song on the radio and they seem to get played non-stop.

One line reflects this fairly well…. ” so I turn the radio over to the right, playing the same songs as the other night”. Originally titled – “Rainy Day”, What I do at Night has become one of my favorite driving songs. Enjoy.

Slick As A Dream

Posted: April 1, 2015 in family, MUSIC, My Tunes
Tags: # mixer, #audio, #band, #bass, #daughter, #demo, #digital, #dreams, #drummer, #drums, #family, #guitar, #keyboard, #Liveband, #logical, #love, #lyrics, #Midi, #mixingboard, #motivation, #music, #musician, #performance, #piano, #poetry, #recording, #recordingstudio, #retro, #runningsound, #singer, #song, #songwriter, #sound, #Soundengineer, #soundman, #speakers, #stage, #story, #studio, #studioengineer, #synthesizer, #vocalist, #vocals

Plain and simple, the lyrics are about my daughter. As a proud parent, I am often overwhelmed by the innocence, beauty and unlimited potential when holding a new-born in your arms. Not to get weird here, but there is nothing like it. As I cradle, rock or talk baby-talk, it is difficult not to think about the new life I am holding, how fascinating they are and to drift into thoughts of what will happen in their future and how we can make that path easier. This song also features Gary Jefferson on vocals. You will hear him a lot on my tunes, and he was the vocalist in the demo recording the band did in the studio. He has pulled me into a number of projects and I often ask him to help me with mine. There are so many musicians I depend on and work with regularly. I will introduce you to them and the work they have done in future posts.

Most of the music is sequenced along with the drum tracks, I play the rhythm guitar parts and had a friend come in for the guitar solo, while my wife adds back-up vocals. All grown up and with children of her own, the meaning of this song gets deeper and closer to the heart every year.

“Slick as A Dream” (c) MSK 1988

Slick as a dream, this beauty machine

Sharp and so cold, young – just as old.

Moving so sweet you can feel the heat

Smiles of sorrow can’t wait ‘til tomorrow.

One thing you’ve learned: love has to be earned

Pain must be shared, embraced if you dare.

Nightmares are gone, but she carries on

Can’t forget her, love lasts forever.

Tender love cries slowly hypnotize

The helpless day now melting away.

And if you dare she’ll become aware

Give those who bleed whatever they need.

She knows exactly who she is.

And exactly what she needs.

Live Sound Reinforcement Series Chapter 8 – Changing a Live Mix

Posted: March 23, 2015 in Live Sound Reinforcement Series, music technology
Tags: # mixer, #audio, #band, #digital, #drummer, #drums, #guitar, #keyboard, #Liveband, #livesoundreinforement, #lyrics, #Midi, #mixingboard, #music, #musician, #performance, #piano, #recording, #recordingstudio, #runningsound, #singer, #song, #songwriter, #sound, #Soundengineer, #soundman, #speakers, #stage, #studio, #studioengineer, #synthesizer, #tech, #vocalist

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.

Live Sound Reinforcement Series Chapter 7 – Fix It Before You Mix It

Posted: March 16, 2015 in Live Sound Reinforcement Series, MUSIC, music technology
Tags: # mixer, #audio, #band, #digital, #drummer, #drums, #guitar, #keyboard, #Liveband, #livesoundreinforement, #logical, #lyrics, #Midi, #motivation, #music, #musicequipment, #musician, #performance, #recording, #retro, #runningsound, #singer, #song, #songwriter, #sound, #Soundengineer, #soundman, #speakers, #stage, #studio, #studioengineer, #tech, #vocals

This is a good time to walk around a little if you can. If you have a helper that can baby sit the board for a while, slowly walk around the venue. Listen to the various instruments as you walk to different sections and notice how each area sounds as you pass in and out of range of the main speaker clusters. Listen again for areas that ‘drop out’, especially in the main audience areas. Talk to the host. Make adjustments and respond to their suggestions. Interact with the audience if you are good at that sort of thing.

Bring all that listening back to the sound board.

What adjustments can you make to improve the house mix? Is a player sounding great when you are right in front of the stage but fades quickly if you are back further or at the bar? Does the kick drum or one of the vocalists sound muddy and hard to hear clearly. Listen to each instrument again. Use the headphones and solo tracks do they sound muddy in the headphones too? If so, you might need to change the EQ settings or other audio processors, change microphone location, REPLACE the microphone cable!, put rings on the drum heads to stop heads from long ugly tones, hey, there is a lot of stuff that goes into making the band or performance sound good.

It can go wrong. I have gone up to drummers during sound check to ask them if they have any objections if I tune the drum heads for them before the gig. Far too many drummers don’t know how to do this and far too many more don’t know that you even can. If the kit is out of tune and generates all sorts of random harmonics and overtones, there is no way to get it to sound ‘awesome’. It can sound loud and it can sound full, but it will never sound good.

I have probably upset a few performers as well by asking that they tune their instruments before we start playing. One of the benefits of also being a musician in a number of bands is I can tell when something is out of tune. I don’t think I can get drunk enough that playing out of tune is a good thing, but there obviously are a few out there. If they cannot tell the difference that is worse than being too drunk, but we all sound and play better when everyone is in tune. Some bass players can’t tell any more so you have to politely step in once in a while.

In a large club in front of a packed audience, the lead vocalist roared into the microphone, ” I ain’t got shit in the monitors, sound guy, I got nuthin’ up hear at all…”.

I responded with a simple but effective test that I could do from way out in the audience. I reached up to the main faders and yanked them down completely before he got to the “…… sound guy, I got nuthin’ up hear at all…” part.

So he ended up with the band now reduced to stage volume. As he was saying …’sound guy …’ He was booming through the on stage monitors at an amazing decibel level. He apologized to me and the audience when I turned the mains back on and we rocked out the rest of the night. The house was loud enough that he could hear them more than the mains and he was not used to that feeling. That the sound guy would not have the vocals loud enough in the main mix and he would need to hear the monitors really loud on stage. He ended up really happy with the mix and did not have to scream all night over the band stage volume. Keeping things solid can include a number of unexpected challenges that are better met head-on, but these business relationships should also be kept friendly and cooperative.

Have spare cables for everything, even if the sound system does not use it. Power cables for devices and amps. Adapters for audio cables. Tape, markers and paper. I bring guitar cables and a few spare mic cables everywhere. Batteries. Small hand tools. Power outlet tester. Flashlights. Drum head tuning keys. Zip ties, the list could go on but session after session, someone will need those things for the show to go on and you will be the champion pro. You gain cooperation and trust for the next gig. Win win.

We all know the saying about weak links. When you have so many components – each connected with cables and software and processors, it can take a while to troubleshoot the system when you have a failure. Yes failure. If you are the sound guy or gal and things don’t work or it sounds bad, YOU are the failure! There are basic steps you can take and I can describe them in a generic way, but that type of advice will not apply to every system out there. No two clubs or sound companies have the same sound equipment. The best advice is to keep the number of links in any chain as low as possible. The more links, the more of them that could be or eventually become weak. It is not always practical to have a spare of every component, but finding local music and sound stores open in your area is getting tougher. If taken care of properly though, most professional PA equipment available today will last a long time. More on “Maintenance and Tips” in a future SLR series.

Lessons from the Studio

Posted: March 11, 2015 in Cover Tune Tuesdays
Tags: # mixer, #audio, #band, #digital, #dreams, #drummer, #guitar, #keyboard, #Liveband, #livesoundreinforement, #lyrics, #Midi, #music, #musician, #performance, #recording, #runningsound, #singer, #song, #songwriter, #sound, #Soundengineer, #soundman, #stage

In Euphoria at this time, I am the keyboard player and I do some back-up vocals and percussion.

I get to set up in the recording control room and listen to the studio speakers for monitors. I can look through the glass and see the other players; drums in isolation booth, guitar amp and bass rig in separate areas with go-bo’s and sound partitions avoiding spill-over. Vocalist was in place in booth, but we are doing scratch vocals now for the most part to keep the musicians on track. The studio is using reel-to-reels back then, but they are great machines and the board is more than I had gotten my hands on at the time. To let you know I was the performer here. I was not the engineer and I kept my mouth shut. [OK, maybe that was a hidden lesson if we think about it!]

To set up the story a little, when Euphoria plays live and the guitar player breaks a string (in our band this happens all the time and even our BASS GUITAR player breaks strings regularly!) we have to stop the song. The guitar players will grab another guitar or change if needed……

And no matter where we were when we had to stop playing the song, we started from the same place and continued the song to the end. So when we came into the studio, we knew what songs we wanted to record and in what order, but we also knew which part of each song should be on the demo. We did not want to record a bunch of full songs all the way through. When we were ready to record, the vocalist would call out what song and Verse 1 and 2…. Chorus 2……., Verse 3, Solo – then Verse….. Whatever it was that we wanted to record. We did not play all the way through and then have the tape ‘cut’ to those areas; it is all we recorded. We caught the sound guy off guard. He must have initially thought we were going to go way over time. As it happened, we did all the cover tune sections we wanted and had time over to play with an original tune the guitar player was working on.

Oh, yeah, there is still a lesson for the recording engineer in all this. He told me during a number of conversations (I asked about stuff after all, but I tried not to back-seat-drive the recordings) that he had struggled for two years on getting the drum booth tight. He had changed the drum heads multiple times. He bought more and more expensive microphones. He used the latest gates and processing gear. He moved everything up, down and sideways. He changed soundproofing a million times.

Here is what he said to me that day, “All this time I thought I didn’t have the right drum booth and gear. It wasn’t until tonight that I figured out that I just did not have the right drummer!”.

Unfortunately the other band members would not let me tell the drummer that for a long time in fear his head would get really big and explode!

Journey – Separate Ways

Black Crowes – Hard to Handle

Yes – Long Distance

Yes – Changes

The Who – Can You See the Real Me?

Shooting Star – Last Chance

Queensryche – Jet City Woman

MidiMike

Available on iTunes and CD Baby

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MSK original Songs

Posts Tagged ‘#drummer’

Live Sound Reinforcement Series Chapter 15 – And the other 20%

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Live Sound Reinforcement Series Chapter 11 – What is a Channel?

“The Touch” – Understanding Humans

What I Do At Night – The Driving Song

Slick As A Dream

Live Sound Reinforcement Series Chapter 8 – Changing a Live Mix

Live Sound Reinforcement Series Chapter 7 – Fix It Before You Mix It

Lessons from the Studio

Archives

Available on iTunes and CD Baby

Social Media

MSK original Songs

Posts Tagged ‘#drummer’

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