williamconifer
New member
I know this is a bit off topic but I'm sure alot of you also mix live sound and have experienced this.
I mixed a 10 piece R&B band 2 weeks ago at an outdoor festival. 1st night, 2nd act of the night. No sound check. The head engineer got me to a "starting point" on his board and I took over. After about 8 songs I got everything dialed in. There was a compressor I didn't know about that was ducking the bass guitar and the sound company did not EQ the mains at all, So I had to hunt down some harshness around the 6k area. Screwing around with the mains eq live always makes me uneasy.
Any way I felt the mix was really good and the over all sound was really good for the 2nd half of the show. Evidently the band is very unhappy. The lead singers were in the crowd during song 4 and didn't like what they hear. And long time fans made comments on the poor sound. One person noted not hearing a specific trumpet solo, which blows my mind since I was totally on that channel during that solo. It was exactly where it should be in the mix.
Some of the complaints are justified due to the lack of sound check but others are just out of left field.
This is an age old delima. The band only hears their moniters. They take the soundman's opinion as to the sound with a grain of salt because who is going to complain about themselves. So they talk to their spouses who are just as biased or their friends and fans who all give subjective opinions. So the sound man gets shit on. I'm new with this band and fairly new mixing a live band of this size so my reputation is at risk.
What can I do (as part of my craft) to give my band an accurate representation of the sound? Obviously there needs to be a live recording done as a document. What is the best way to do this kind of recording? I'm thinking mini disk or a small portable DAW. What would work better and should I go with stereo mics or line out of the board?
any thoughts, experiances, sympathy?
thanks
Jack
I mixed a 10 piece R&B band 2 weeks ago at an outdoor festival. 1st night, 2nd act of the night. No sound check. The head engineer got me to a "starting point" on his board and I took over. After about 8 songs I got everything dialed in. There was a compressor I didn't know about that was ducking the bass guitar and the sound company did not EQ the mains at all, So I had to hunt down some harshness around the 6k area. Screwing around with the mains eq live always makes me uneasy.
Any way I felt the mix was really good and the over all sound was really good for the 2nd half of the show. Evidently the band is very unhappy. The lead singers were in the crowd during song 4 and didn't like what they hear. And long time fans made comments on the poor sound. One person noted not hearing a specific trumpet solo, which blows my mind since I was totally on that channel during that solo. It was exactly where it should be in the mix.
Some of the complaints are justified due to the lack of sound check but others are just out of left field.
This is an age old delima. The band only hears their moniters. They take the soundman's opinion as to the sound with a grain of salt because who is going to complain about themselves. So they talk to their spouses who are just as biased or their friends and fans who all give subjective opinions. So the sound man gets shit on. I'm new with this band and fairly new mixing a live band of this size so my reputation is at risk.
What can I do (as part of my craft) to give my band an accurate representation of the sound? Obviously there needs to be a live recording done as a document. What is the best way to do this kind of recording? I'm thinking mini disk or a small portable DAW. What would work better and should I go with stereo mics or line out of the board?
any thoughts, experiances, sympathy?
thanks
Jack
