Anyway....on to a live mix.

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Ford Van

Ford Van

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I tracked a live show I was mixing back in August. This band decided to use some of the songs for a "get a gig" demo.

This is about a 3 hour mix.

Generally, when I post these live mixes, the way they were tracked is that all the mics go to a console (in this case, a A&H GL 2200 channels 1-14), direct out to Alesis HD24. HD24 outputs to another console (in this case, channels 17-30 of the same A&H console to be use for the live mixing).

So, I get an un-eq'ed input to the HD24. But, I don't get to play around with mic placements, and generally, I have to use fairly conservative levels on stuff like the drums, bass guitar, and voice because they might be all over the place volume wise, and using compression to tape is mostly out of the question.

So, I record this stuff blind.

Anyway. This probably needs a bit more tweaking, but we shall see what the band thinks after they sit on it overnight. They come back tomorrow to tweak this one and mix two others.



Enjoy!
 
Drums and bass sound pretty good. lot's of kick in the drum. Real punchy with the kick and snare. Fit's well. Since it is a live mix, I don't really know what to say. Guitars are not all there, but in a live situation, that is probably normal. I like the way the bass sits. It has tons of presence.
For a live mix, I'd say good show. One guitar? Not much you could do if it is. It would probably overpower the rest of the mix if it was louder. Vocals actually have good presence also.
I'd say they put together a good show, and it was captured, and mixed well. For live shit, it has a lot of sound. Very good overall volume on everything.
 
I agree about the guitar. I think it could stand to be a tad brighter and louder, but, the guitar player didn't like that idea. Go figure.

We have to be VERY careful about stepping over any of the drums. LOL He INSISTS on being heard loud and clear. I am betting he comes back tomorrow saying that the drums are not "punchy" enough. LOL

We shall see.

I do think I could make the guitar sound better, and I might do another mix after we are done with it sounding more like what I would want. This is a client, so I give them what they want.
 
I've done a lot of live sound ED and that sounds shit hot. I know you're double patching to get the non destructive mix to the HD, I never had that luxury in the past and every mix is suited to the venue, not the recorder. I really like this your overheads sound great in relation to everything else. Doesn't sound too wide as it shouldn;t in a live situation. You nailed this. You're starting to impress me :p

seriously good job
 
Ford Van said:
I agree about the guitar. I think it could stand to be a tad brighter and louder, but, the guitar player didn't like that idea. Go figure.

We have to be VERY careful about stepping over any of the drums. LOL He INSISTS on being heard loud and clear. I am betting he comes back tomorrow saying that the drums are not "punchy" enough. LOL

We shall see.

I do think I could make the guitar sound better, and I might do another mix after we are done with it sounding more like what I would want. This is a client, so I give them what they want.
Click to expand...
I would say, too much guitar, and it wouldn't sound live. It would have to step on something, and they want a particular product, so, got to go with that. It's not a bad guitar by any means, just sounds live.
 
Actually, I hate his tone. It is over saturated for this kind of music. But, when he is here, it is more "The amp must have been acting up" type of comments. ;)
 
here's what I was doing 5 years ago live Ford Van, I didn't have yout luxury of reamping if you will to different chanels. This all came into an Allen & heath GL2200 the mix was made for the venue, not for the recording. Recorded tro mini disk from the board. The venue was Dublin Olympia, all stalls and 3 floors of higher people.... I was on the ground floor at the back with 2 pcm 80's and 10 channels of DBX 266xl's..there were also 4 B(bad word) autocoms I didn't use.

As you'll hear the vocals fry in places, again it was sound for the venue, not the desk

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I hope you realise my pain brother
 
Yiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii, sho she she shong. Mo neeeeeeeeeee ci ma nooooooooooooooooo.

Heh.

Yeah, I feel your pain.

This sounds pretty good though considering how it was done!

I hate the kind of live recording I usually do. If the freakin' band would just pay me to do a PROPER setup and sound check for a live recording, I could turn out world class shit I am sure!

But, usually, I have to do it this way, and hope that later they might want to attempt a mix.

Budgets for recording in my area are rediculous. Bands don't really make that great of money playing shows and GOOD musicians are usually broke as hell!
 
nice recording man, I love live recordings.
The guitar is a bit muddy, the bass is somewhat loose, or lacks a bit punch, maybe its because its so low, I`m listening through cans so you`ll have to excuse me.
The drums sounds great, the vox are nice and dry.

Great work man :)
 
Noramlly, I start from the bottom up to try and be fair to everyone who wants my two cents. Tonight, Mr. Van Halen producer I am doing things differently so I find myself lending my ears on a completely different sound to the same Engineer, so here goes...
The drums sounded compressed. Was the cymbal the drummer was hitting just after first guitar solo and again towards the end a splash? Sounded like it, and sounded way too compressed, as well as the overall drum sound. For a "live" sound it didn't remind me of a live sound. Sorry, my humble ears again, but I'll tell you honestly what I heard. I heard pretty cool tunes going through a board with a very good mix. I didn't hear a lot of the 'live' mistakes and nuances that one usually associates with 'live', maybe excepting toward the ending final note. This is all respect toward your abilities, but to me it sounds like you did your job too well on getting the instruments and players down, but without capturing any on the crappy stuff like hall reflection and audience vocalizing that normally happens in a live situation. Again, my ears only, but that is honestly what I hear.
 
Let's see. No distant mics at all.

The compression is for a very good reason. Without it, the drum would not be able to be upfront like how the drummer wants to. Let's just say that he sometimes got a little "aggressive" in his attack! Yeah, that splash is annoying as hell. But, we only worked this mix for about 3 hours, and that is a little thing compared to some of the other problems that needed addressing.

I should throw up a "faders up" mix with nothing else on it for you guys to hear. Maybe I will.
 
All faders to unity, no eq/dynamics/effects. Just a little panning on the overheads and toms.

 
FV,
Sounds pretty much what I'd expected & a lot better than many, many live records I've been fool enough to buy over the years.
I use "801 Live" as a bench mark for live recordings. BUT lines were taken from amps to make up the majority of sound on that album. Obviously things were mic'd as well. The result is, as I said, a benchmark for my ears.
I REALLY don't like whatever it is the guitarist is using to get her/his sound.
Hey, if they want the drums upfront - or if no one in the band will gainsay the drummer that's their issue, you're just doing the job.
Maybe there should be a new thread - Live albums that actually sound good - the shortlist.
Thanks for giving me a chance to listen in.
Cheers
rayC
 
What bugs me the most about this particular song is that it was the first song of their set, and at the beginning, you can hear the lead vocal mic just start to feedback a couples of times.

Also, the levels were a bit hot on the kick, snare, overheads, bass guitar, and vocal. All of them clipped going to the HD24. There is some nasty shit going on here that I could deal with, but they just don't have a budget. I mean, they have at MOST a budget for 10 hours to mix three songs. While not the quickest I have worked, it is damn close! When you factor in mic setup time, and the actual "recording time", this is a pretty smokin' fast demo. LOL

This is a demo for them to give to club owners. I think it will sound good enough. After we are done, I might dig in a little more and see how far I can take it.
 
Ford Van said:
All faders to unity, no eq/dynamics/effects. Just a little panning on the overheads and toms.

Click to expand...
Now this mix is not so good. I hear drums and bass, but vocals are buried big time. Although, I am digging the bass. Good and bumpy. :D
The good mix is so much better. No real comparison.
 
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