Vagodeoz
One-Man-Band
Nah, don't worry, everyone makes mistakes (and thanks for the compliment to my english
)I did took most of the suggestions and the rest I might take them, but I want to try them first, that's my point.
About PA, I just arghhhh feel like I have this huge oportunity to show them an orchestra with PA actually CAN sound good! Their last show was outdoors and the mayor sound company of my city did the sound, and they did a total fuck-up!!!
First, it was outdoors, and in this time of the year we get truly horrible winds. Well, the guy didn't use a single microphone with a built-in windscreen, and he didn't put any external windscreen. So it was outdoors, with shitloads of wind, and microphones without windscreen. You can imagine the results (and if you can't, it's very very loud low frequency buzzles and feedback like hell).
The piece they were playing was "the concert of aranjuez", which has a lead acoustic guitar. It was being played by the greatest bolivian guitarrist ever (Pirai Vaca).
When there was way too much wind and the feedback was irritable, then he had to stop playing (while the orchestra kept going) and put his hand around the SM57 (without windscreen) waiting for the wind to stop.
Then the mikes... they did some weird ass shit with the microphones. They did like a regular stereo take, like 3 feet above the ground in front of the orchestra, let's say 90 degrees between them, and in the middle they added two more, so they had 4 microphones at 30 degrees each...
That is a new overwhelming technique, or I'm a total retard but I haven't seen such a pointless thing. However, they picked up the strings nice, of course until the PA guy EQ'd the shit out of it leaving them sounding painfully awful. And winds and brass you could barely hear them, not to mention percussion.
So I see this guy who is in charge of the mayor local sound company,and the guy is an idiot, I know him, he is a manager of a local band... A MANAGER!!! not even producer or engineer... so the guy doesn't know shit about sound....
So I just have this huuuuuuuuge urge to lift that fader up...
So I see it like this: With lifting a finger I can get PA. I'm almost sure that if I use PA I can make it sound better very easily. I think the main problem (soundwise) is the lack of brigthness, especially in the upper strings. On that recording I made it really sounded dull, so I added a shitload of 8k and voila! It doesn't sound like the BSO, but it certainly sounds better.
However since I'm ALMOST sure I can make it sound better with PA, I will double check that on the soundcheck. If I can't make it sound better, I will tell the director that the orchestra makes enough noise by itself. He doesn't know anything about EQ or sound, he just knows that I somehow made his orchestra sound way better on the recording than they do alive. After he heard it he barely belive it was his orchestra playing.
So given the circumstances and all... still think no PA?
Edit: I just remembered why I wanted to PA the percussion, becouse the director told me that he was going to put "acoustic panels" on the back of the orchestra to reinforce the percussion.
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Vagodeoz
One-Man-Band
The gig/recording went smoothly
I told the director I wanted to PA a little of the percussion and he also suggested the woodwinds and the piano solo, and then we added a little bit of everything (the main pair). The pianist didn't want her piano to have PA since she said that if there was feedback, she was going to stand up in the middle of the theme and leave (even if every other mike had more chances to get feedback than the one in the piano).
Anyway, the director was very vert happy with the sound!!!
That concert was on monday, yesterday they were playing again in another theater and he asked me to do the PA too I couldn't do it since I had another work to do, and that other theater didn't have any of the PA stuff this one had (I just had to take the oportunity).
I just wanted to do this one to show him it can sound decent.
So thanks everyone for your suggestions!
Now I have the multitracks in my pc and I'm mixing them, I will post some samples for suggestions in the MP3 mixing section in a couple of hours when I have them a little more worked.
Thanks again!
Edit: Here it is.
I told the director I wanted to PA a little of the percussion and he also suggested the woodwinds and the piano solo, and then we added a little bit of everything (the main pair). The pianist didn't want her piano to have PA since she said that if there was feedback, she was going to stand up in the middle of the theme and leave (even if every other mike had more chances to get feedback than the one in the piano).
Anyway, the director was very vert happy with the sound!!!
That concert was on monday, yesterday they were playing again in another theater and he asked me to do the PA too
I couldn't do it since I had another work to do, and that other theater didn't have any of the PA stuff this one had (I just had to take the oportunity).I just wanted to do this one to show him it can sound decent.
So thanks everyone for your suggestions!
Now I have the multitracks in my pc and I'm mixing them, I will post some samples for suggestions in the MP3 mixing section in a couple of hours when I have them a little more worked.
Thanks again!
Edit: Here it is.
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Vagodeoz
One-Man-Band
Little update. After giving the recordings to the orchestra people they used again the phrase "doesn't sound like our orchestra!" (in the good way)
So they liked what I did with the PA and they want me to do my "magic" again, this time on a 3000+ people hall
So you will have to give me a hand with the mic placement for that one It's not going to be just to reinforce the sound a little bit, it will be real PA, so I don't think a mail stereo take would do it...
I'm also recording this concert, so I guess this time I'll take my pc and record through my Delta 1010Lt.
I'll get the gear list from the PA company and paste it here. But for now I got a little info from their website. They don't say any models or quantity but they do say brands:
Mixers: Midas, Yamaha, Crest, Allen & Heath
Power Amps: Crown, Crest, RAM Audio, QSC
PA and monitoring: EAW, Meyer; Das Audio, RCF.
Line Array: DAS Audio
Processors: Klark Teknik, BSS, Lexicon, Yamaha, Rane, Furman, Altair.
Microphones and BDs: Shure, Sennheiser, AKG, Whirlwind, Klark Teknik.
In Ears Monitors: Sennheiser, Shure
Cables and Snakes: Whirlwind, Proco, Horizon.
Most of the brands don't even ring a bell for me, since I'm used to another level of equipment (cheapass).
I think I'm going for Allen & Heath for mixer, Line Array (to avoid feedback as much as possible), but no idea about Power Amps, any suggestions?
(in the good way)So they liked what I did with the PA and they want me to do my "magic" again, this time on a 3000+ people hall
So you will have to give me a hand with the mic placement for that one
It's not going to be just to reinforce the sound a little bit, it will be real PA, so I don't think a mail stereo take would do it...I'm also recording this concert, so I guess this time I'll take my pc and record through my Delta 1010Lt.
I'll get the gear list from the PA company and paste it here. But for now I got a little info from their website. They don't say any models or quantity but they do say brands:
Mixers: Midas, Yamaha, Crest, Allen & Heath
Power Amps: Crown, Crest, RAM Audio, QSC
PA and monitoring: EAW, Meyer; Das Audio, RCF.
Line Array: DAS Audio
Processors: Klark Teknik, BSS, Lexicon, Yamaha, Rane, Furman, Altair.
Microphones and BDs: Shure, Sennheiser, AKG, Whirlwind, Klark Teknik.
In Ears Monitors: Sennheiser, Shure
Cables and Snakes: Whirlwind, Proco, Horizon.
Most of the brands don't even ring a bell for me, since I'm used to another level of equipment (cheapass).
I think I'm going for Allen & Heath for mixer, Line Array (to avoid feedback as much as possible), but no idea about Power Amps, any suggestions?