Starting with the Basics

Today I had the pleasure of working with a few volunteers who will be helping me out at future concerts. Some of them had some technical experience and others just knew how to play their instruments. Therefore, in order to get everyone on the right page, I started everyone out with the some of the basic, non-technical, aspects of live sound.

One of first and most important things to take into account when mixing live sound is the room. What is the size of the room? Are the floors concrete or carpet? Are the ceilings high or low? These are all important simply because the characteristics of a room will drastically affect the sound and what you will need to bring through the P.A. In smaller rooms you must be sure that you aren’t putting to “much” through the PA system. According to Branden Prescott, no matter how much electronic processing is at your disposal to use to make a bad room sound good, it is always important to remember to use your ears when mixing live sound. I cannot stress how important it is to be able to listen to your mix and know exactly what is wrong with it. I started off with no experience and no external processing to help me out, which has proved to be helpful over the past few years. 

Another important factor when mixing live sound is what figuring out what instrument is more important to the others? Are the drums, the guitarists, the bass, or the vocals? As you might have guessed by this list the vocals aren’t an instrument; however, they are a key factor (obviously) when it comes to performing arts. According to Peter Lantz, the vocals are the most important part of the mix and need to be clearly heard no matter what setting you are in. Vocals need to be loud, clear, and be able to cut through the entire mix. Sometimes in order to achieve a good vocal mix, you have to cut other things out of the pa such, which might sound like a bad idea but it usually goes unnoticed in smaller rooms.

Have you ever been to a concert and left thinking, “Wow, the drums sounded amazing!” Well, I am one that loves to hear and feel the drums; however, you have to be sure that you aren’t over powering the rest of the band. When I am mixing in smaller and mid sized rooms I usually only put microphones on the bass drum and the snare drum. The main reason that I do not put microphones on the cymbals or toms in small rooms is because of the added noise and feedback that it can cause. I  only resort to putting microphones on the cymbals and toms when it is a larger room where they can’t project their sound fully. Drums should remain the driving force and feeling of a bands sound in a live concert and should be as loud as you can get them without drowning out the vocals.

When it comes to the bass and guitars, I usually put microphones on them no matter what; however, depending on the room size, I rarely put them through the pa. The main reason I keep a microphone on them is so I can put their guitars in the bands monitor mixes. The only situation that I end up putting the guitars through the pa system is when I am in a huge room or if I am working with acoustic guitars that are not very loud to begin with.

Although, there are many things that contribute to successfully making a band sound good live, these are just a few key pointers that everyone should take into account when starting as a armature sound engineer. Stay tuned for future tips and tricks for becoming a great live sound engineer.