Halion
New member
Yesterday was my third time I did some live-mixing of a band. Damn that's hard and not fun. First time was a few months back in a bar that had their stuff together. Good mixer, monitors, all the cables laid out nicely, multicore mic-box. It was just a matter of plugin' in, 1 song for the soundcheck and everything was set. The setup was: 1 lead vocal, 1 backing vocal, 1 acoustical guitar on some songs. The rest didn't go through the mixer. Little bit of trouble with the acoustical guitar, and the backing singer had virtually no control over his voice (worst dynamics every) so I had to be carefull with the fader.
Second time was at the same bar, but this time with better musicians. However, the third singer had bad dynamic control aswell. Same problem, could make her punch through the mix on some parts and she was way to pronounced on some other parts.
Third time was yesterday, at a different bar. 1 word: hell-squared. No monitors. Cables (but all broken). Mixer way behind the band. Too small a stage. Lucky thing the band brought 2 monitors and some cables or they would have been screwed. I brought 1 mic just in case. Good thing too because the trumpet player forgot his.
All in all, everything was setup right about half way through the gig. Never mixing there again.
And mind you, I am a 19 year old student with some studio exp, but hardly any live exp.
Second time was at the same bar, but this time with better musicians. However, the third singer had bad dynamic control aswell. Same problem, could make her punch through the mix on some parts and she was way to pronounced on some other parts.
Third time was yesterday, at a different bar. 1 word: hell-squared. No monitors. Cables (but all broken). Mixer way behind the band. Too small a stage. Lucky thing the band brought 2 monitors and some cables or they would have been screwed. I brought 1 mic just in case. Good thing too because the trumpet player forgot his.
All in all, everything was setup right about half way through the gig. Never mixing there again.
And mind you, I am a 19 year old student with some studio exp, but hardly any live exp.
I'm laughing with you, not at you.