Tom Abraham, who mixes for
Marilyn Manson, Suicidal Tendencies, Mötley Crüe, Garbage and
Alice In Chains, with whom he is currently out on tour.
Another key technique along these same lines is to minimise the number of microphones on stage, period. Abraham replaces guitar amps with DI and
Palmer speaker simulators as
often as possible, adding a SansAmp to the bass DI.
ENTIRE INTERVIEW:
"I've dealt with a lot of artists of a high-volume nature," is the euphemistic manner in which Tom Abraham responds to the question of SPL vs sound quality. Those artists include Marilyn Manson, Suicidal Tendencies, Mötley Crüe, Garbage (who Abraham says are not thought of as a loud rock band "but certainly are in concert") and Alice In Chains, with whom he is currently out on tour. The key to achieving balance, he says, is with a combination of creative compression and high-mid frequency control. "My theory is to use a lot of frequency-dependent — or what you'd call 'dynamic' — compression and EQ," and usually limit it to guitars and vocals, as opposed to across the mix bus, he explains. "The point is that the input is not always compressing equally all the time, but rather only on certain frequencies. It's one of the most important but least-used techniques, in my opinion." He attributes that to a live sound environment that hasn't completely left the analogue domain, where the idea of bringing individual processing per channel on tour was prohibitively expensive; plug-ins and onboard DSP lets you treat individual channels easily and with a degree of automation.
Crucial to the idea of dynamic compression is to hit what you're processing hard — very hard. Abraham says the ratios depend upon the nature of the console, but he has gone as high as 50:1 on a DigiCo console, and upwards of 100:1 on the Digidesign Venue. "It all depends on the desk's [compression] algorithm," he says.
The way high-mid frequency attenuation is addressed was illustrated when Abraham was "forced" back to analogue on a recent stint with rockers Mötley Crüe. He relied upon an XTA D2 frequency-dependent compressor to keep Vince Neil's vocals above the guitars. "It's the best hardware I've ever used for this type of application," he says. But even analogue requires a stiff arm, with the ratio set to "thermonuclear" and a very fast attack, he says. "I high- and low-pass [the vocal channel] and set the compression to only take out the low-mids and de-ess. And you're only compressing the loudest thing this particular input is generating at any given moment. By applying it to only certain instruments at only certain frequencies, you're subtracting the annoying stuff, keeping the useful stuff and that helps to manage the overall level."
Other insights from Abraham include the necessity of becoming operationally familiar with the songs of the set. "I'm constantly riding the vocal mics, both because I know what's coming and because anything can happen," he says. And he cautions never to leave unused vocal channels open. I close them on the fader, so you don't hear it clip," he says.
"Stage volume going through those microphones can quickly cause the volume to get out of control in the house."
Another key technique along these same lines is to minimise the number of microphones on stage, period. Abraham replaces guitar amps with DI and Palmer speaker simulators as often as possible, adding a SansAmp to the bass DI. If the band can use D-Drums, all the better; if not, he'll apply onboard gating to drum channels, as well as soft-gating guitars and bass to avoid electrical humming or buzzing between songs. Silence, to the extent that it can be achieved on stage, is the ultimate dynamic. The quieter it can be at certain points, the more pronounced the dynamics of the music at a lower overall volume.
Abraham is also a proponent of using a real-time analyser (RTA). "You especially want to watch the 1.5kHz to 5kHz range," he says. "Run pink noise through the whole spectrum, but watch for anything poking out of that range especially. This is the area that hurts like hell in terms of volume — a distorted guitar at 106 to 109dB A-weighted will rip your face off between 2kHz and 4kHz — so, if you see it poking through the curve, tuck it back on the EQ." However, to avoid eviscerating the guitar sound, he suggests putting the RTA into sixth- and 1/12th-octave modes, and looking for the high-mid frequency spikes. "That way, you can nail the offending frequency more specifically with a parametric EQ, but without taking out the guitar's desired nastiness," he says.
We've had a great run of hard rock bands in recent years, from the Strokes to the Arctic Monkeys — the Kinks would approve. Rock music should be loud. Fortunately, it can also still sound great.
http://www.performing-musician.com/pm/dec07/articles/mixingmetal.htm
there's lots more info on these things, do a little homework if you care.
all i'm saying is, there's a lot of good info out there, don't just stick your head in the sand.
it's out there, if you really want to know.
