(DIY) live sound engineering (1 Viewer)

[outoftheblue]

I'm doing sound for a friend who's putting on a gig next week. It's an indiepop, slightly shambolic affair, and it's just a PA in a room above a pub, so it's nothing too complex. But it'll be my first time doing sound, or the first time outside of a rehearsal room anyway. Any tips or basic guides or Things Definitely Not To Do would be much appreciated. (Did TYM used to have an article about this, or am I making that up?)

 

[RED(tape)MENACE]

You should read this : http://www.soundcraft.com/download.asp?filename=pdf/palz/guide_to_mixing_brochure.pdf

What will be going through the PA? What's the instrument line-up?

 

[outoftheblue]

You should read this : http://www.soundcraft.com/download.asp?filename=pdf/palz/guide_to_mixing_brochure.pdf

What will be going through the PA? What's the instrument line-up?

Thanks for that link! I'm going to make several cups of tea and plough through it

There's four bands playing, so there'll be variously keyboards, guitars, a xylophone, violin and cello. There's also a drumkit. Would you put that through a PA in a (relatively) small room?

 

[ernesto]

Thanks for that link! I'm going to make several cups of tea and plough through it

There's four bands playing, so there'll be variously keyboards, guitars, a xylophone, violin and cello. There's also a drumkit. Would you put that through a PA in a (relatively) small room?

maybe an overhead or just the snare. other than that for a small PA/room is feedback avoidance. bit of spatial separation when more than one of each instrument so like pan gtr 1 bit left & gtr 2 bit right. goes a long way in my experience. using monitors or just 2 big PA speakers?

never mic'ed a cello. violins are a bollix. watchout for feedback and never let them use their own DI boxes

 

[RED(tape)MENACE]

For my money, and sepecially in a small room, put as little through the PA as humanly possible. Get the band to play a bit, and only mic what absolutely NEEDS to be louder.
Make SURE the mics are behind the main speakers. Make sure there's no mics pointing at the main speakers.
By the way : good luck. This could be a nightmare first time for ya, mate

Did that link talk about getting the gain right?
Make sure all faders and gain/trim (usually the knob at the top of each channel) are at zero.
Wind the fader for the channel in question up to '0'.
Hit the 'PFL' button.
The main meters should now be dancing in time with the instrument/incompetent you're concerned with.
Wind up the gain (gently, damnit!) until the signal is peaking a little below 0 on the main meters.
Happy days.
Pull down that fader and move on to the next one.
When you've gotten the levels right for all the mad crap on the stage, you can start pulling up faders and getting your mix.

N-JOY.

 

[aoboa]

Cello - oh dear.
Possibly the worst instrument to have to do.
Nightmare to mic, prone to horrible feed back cos it resonates like a bastard with kick drums and bass guitar.
If you do manage to get it through the pa - I'll bet it won't sound anything like a cello anymore.

 

[RED(tape)MENACE]

Yeah, and them f-holes are honky bastards.
Knightmare.
Maybe it'll have a built-in DI.

 

[ElRoadio]

get a loan of some boundary mics if you can. I find them pretty good for live recording as they pick up a nic balance of the band and crowd and give a good open sound.
Beyer MPC 65's are class!

 

[outoftheblue]

For my money, and sepecially in a small room, put as little through the PA as humanly possible. Get the band to play a bit, and only mic what absolutely NEEDS to be louder.
Make SURE the mics are behind the main speakers. Make sure there's no mics pointing at the main speakers.
By the way : good luck. This could be a nightmare first time for ya, mate

Did that link talk about getting the gain right?
Make sure all faders and gain/trim (usually the knob at the top of each channel) are at zero.
Wind the fader for the channel in question up to '0'.
Hit the 'PFL' button.
The main meters should now be dancing in time with the instrument/incompetent you're concerned with.
Wind up the gain (gently, damnit!) until the signal is peaking a little below 0 on the main meters.
Happy days.
Pull down that fader and move on to the next one.
When you've gotten the levels right for all the mad crap on the stage, you can start pulling up faders and getting your mix.

N-JOY.

Yes, the nightmare potential has occurred to me

Right, so, I think I'm fairly as prepared as I can be. The only thing I'm not too convinced of is doing monitor mixes (there's two monitors), but it's more the mechanics of actually how to do it rather than getting the levels right etc.

The cello does need to be mic'ed up. I have a Rode NT-1A here. Would it be worthwhile bringing that along or would that just cause more problems?

Thanks again for all the suggestions!

 

[aoboa]

If it was me (and considering the location) I'd avoid the Rode and just stick a 57 on it.
You're gonna get too much spill into the nt1a from everthing else.

 

[RED(tape)MENACE]

Yeah, what he said.

Monitor mixes :
Use one of the aux sends on your desk.
Then you can use the aux send knob on each channel to send the correct amount of each instrument to each monitor.

 

[RED(tape)MENACE]

Where/when is this on, by the way?

 

[outoftheblue]

Brilliant, cheers to you all again. I'll dig out my SM57 for cello emergencies.

Where/when is this on, by the way?

Heh, a couple of people have asked that. Does this mean there's an audience in Dublin for tweepop? I hope so! It's in Nottingham on Thursday. MJ Hibbett & the Validators, Pete Green and Monkey Swallows The Universe are playing (they're all on the rather ace Fortuna Pop! label).

I'll let you know how it goes. I know engineering is probably best left to people who are qualified to do it, but I like the idea of having a sort of DIY guide to making things sound pretty good.

 

[outoftheblue]

Pah. After all that, an engineer actually turned up. What a waste of effort, my apologies. I owe you all a drink. Maybe I'll get to do it some other time.

 

[RED(tape)MENACE]

Haha, glad it went well anywayzz.