Mixing a metal band in a live situation
- Thread starter Arsnova
- Start date
arv_foh
Brian K
I forgot to mention:
When people (musicians or audience members) try and tell you how to do your job, tell them to fuck right off
When people (musicians or audience members) try and tell you how to do your job, tell them to fuck right off
Alot of really good info here, I've a few things to add.
If you get a good drum sound,everything else will slide on top. I find a big drum sound with loud clear bass makes even the shittest of guitar tones sound nice. The sickest guitar tone in the world will sound shit with poor sounding drums.
Talk to the band about their on stage sound/volume. Alot of times they're clueless as to what level they should be at and just go for it. If you leave them play for a minute then stop them and ask what they can and can't hear, work from there. Comfortable bands- just like in studio, perform alot better. In turn the sound is better and everyones happy. Clever stage set up in smaller venues can go along way to keeping levels down and monitors at a minimum, Like how is the drummer supposed to hear whats going on if the ampsare pointing away from him and are 5 feet in front of his kit?
Ride the guitar faders between vocal and instrumental parts, bringing the guitars down a hair during vocal parts can really make the vocals pop out and if you ride the faders back up then no one will even notice that the guitars were a fraction quiet.
Boost the mids on a guitar solo instead of just cranking the volume a little of both I find is just the ticket for making a solo stand out.
If you watch the musicians you'll quickly get a feel for when they'll do stuff, after a while you can catch almost every solo or scream before it happens and keep on top of things, rather than boosting a solo 10 seconds in and everyone noticing. also saves your gear if you can catch that loud scream before the otherwise quiet as fuck singer goes for it
I also second that people who try and tell you your job can fuck off. Without knowing the venue, band and having been present at sound check they've no idea what issues you're currently dealing with- especially in regards to vocals. 9/10 times if you walk into a venue and the vocals are buried, it's not the tech thinking thats how they should sound, its the crappy technique of the vocalist causing feedback at stupid low levels so telling him the vocals are quiet isn't likely to help.
Also, just a pet hate of mine. Turn off reverb and delay on the vocals between songs, sounds stupid as fuck when someones talking to the crowd and the effects are still on.
I love mixing live, Best job I've ever had. Metal is tough but since its what I started with I find more popular music so much easier. If you care about how the bands sound and try making it as good as possible it can be sooo rewarding. Those gigs where you get bands with good gear, who have gig experience who can play well are an absolute pleasure
If you get a good drum sound,everything else will slide on top. I find a big drum sound with loud clear bass makes even the shittest of guitar tones sound nice. The sickest guitar tone in the world will sound shit with poor sounding drums.
Talk to the band about their on stage sound/volume. Alot of times they're clueless as to what level they should be at and just go for it. If you leave them play for a minute then stop them and ask what they can and can't hear, work from there. Comfortable bands- just like in studio, perform alot better. In turn the sound is better and everyones happy. Clever stage set up in smaller venues can go along way to keeping levels down and monitors at a minimum, Like how is the drummer supposed to hear whats going on if the ampsare pointing away from him and are 5 feet in front of his kit?
Ride the guitar faders between vocal and instrumental parts, bringing the guitars down a hair during vocal parts can really make the vocals pop out and if you ride the faders back up then no one will even notice that the guitars were a fraction quiet.
Boost the mids on a guitar solo instead of just cranking the volume a little of both I find is just the ticket for making a solo stand out.
If you watch the musicians you'll quickly get a feel for when they'll do stuff, after a while you can catch almost every solo or scream before it happens and keep on top of things, rather than boosting a solo 10 seconds in and everyone noticing. also saves your gear if you can catch that loud scream before the otherwise quiet as fuck singer goes for it
I also second that people who try and tell you your job can fuck off. Without knowing the venue, band and having been present at sound check they've no idea what issues you're currently dealing with- especially in regards to vocals. 9/10 times if you walk into a venue and the vocals are buried, it's not the tech thinking thats how they should sound, its the crappy technique of the vocalist causing feedback at stupid low levels so telling him the vocals are quiet isn't likely to help.
Also, just a pet hate of mine. Turn off reverb and delay on the vocals between songs, sounds stupid as fuck when someones talking to the crowd and the effects are still on.
I love mixing live, Best job I've ever had. Metal is tough but since its what I started with I find more popular music so much easier. If you care about how the bands sound and try making it as good as possible it can be sooo rewarding. Those gigs where you get bands with good gear, who have gig experience who can play well are an absolute pleasure
Morgan C
MAX LOUD PRESETS¯\(°_o)/¯
Don't have much to add from an engineer's perspective, but as a musician, the best mix I ever had was with the amps pointing back towards the stage, and nothing but vocals in the monitors. So the band is just hearing themselves (yes the guitars and bass might be a little quiet, but most people will be listening to themselves, the vocals and the drums so it actually helps), then the PAs can get mixed however you want.
Nebulous
Daniel
Yeah, I also seem to prefer as a musician to hear just a touch of myself with the drums and vocals being most prominant.
JamesNorman
Member
- Oct 8, 2009
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I personally tour with one metal band and work on a metal night at one set venue every week.
In my mixes for my touring gigs the first thing i do is i tend bring the master fader down during soundcheck/linecheck leaving me some head room for when i have the band sounding good to push the system abit, trying to make them sound like the 'fattest' band of the night. We use triggers for the kick drum so i dont bother wth a kick mic, however i drive it with alot of top/sweepable top mid(if desk allows) and low so its got punch but has click to help cut through the guitars. Then the snare i drive by bringing the top round slightly from flat bottom mid slightly over flat and the top mid and bass back a bit. Then the toms i tend to drive with some top-mid for the attack and low so you can feel them when they are hit, howver this is rough and is always tweaked to blend with the room and sound on that night. Then i run kick, snare, toms to a group, which is then sent from the group into my compressor/gate send it back to a sperate channel in the desk, this allows for abit of overall drum eq at the end. None of the mics run to the main mix, i just send the overall compressed/gated drum track through.
For guitars i like to scoop the bottom-mids out slightly coz this adds alot of 'mud' to the mix, and drive them with alot of bottom end and top-mid, seperating tones between guitars. We use a Mesa Dual Rectifer and a Marshall Jcm 2000 so the tine differ anyway. I also mic up different speakers on each cab. They run compressoer in a rack on stage so no is run from my side.
As for bass i tend to drive this some of top/top mid and some bass, this helps to add a twang to the bass thats help its cut through and sit nice with out the bottom end filling the room.
We run samplers that i run through mids this allows them to stand out from the rest of the mix
I also run vocals through top mid, however he a screamer, so just give him the sm58 little gain check and hes set for the night.
For the venue i work at this depends alot on the band i get in. Metalcore/deathcore bands i do the same as my touring band. however the general idea is the same.
When using a kick mic i totally take the bottom mid out a drive it with low end and top end till it has a nice clciky tone.
In my mixes for my touring gigs the first thing i do is i tend bring the master fader down during soundcheck/linecheck leaving me some head room for when i have the band sounding good to push the system abit, trying to make them sound like the 'fattest' band of the night. We use triggers for the kick drum so i dont bother wth a kick mic, however i drive it with alot of top/sweepable top mid(if desk allows) and low so its got punch but has click to help cut through the guitars. Then the snare i drive by bringing the top round slightly from flat bottom mid slightly over flat and the top mid and bass back a bit. Then the toms i tend to drive with some top-mid for the attack and low so you can feel them when they are hit, howver this is rough and is always tweaked to blend with the room and sound on that night. Then i run kick, snare, toms to a group, which is then sent from the group into my compressor/gate send it back to a sperate channel in the desk, this allows for abit of overall drum eq at the end. None of the mics run to the main mix, i just send the overall compressed/gated drum track through.
For guitars i like to scoop the bottom-mids out slightly coz this adds alot of 'mud' to the mix, and drive them with alot of bottom end and top-mid, seperating tones between guitars. We use a Mesa Dual Rectifer and a Marshall Jcm 2000 so the tine differ anyway. I also mic up different speakers on each cab. They run compressoer in a rack on stage so no is run from my side.
As for bass i tend to drive this some of top/top mid and some bass, this helps to add a twang to the bass thats help its cut through and sit nice with out the bottom end filling the room.
We run samplers that i run through mids this allows them to stand out from the rest of the mix
I also run vocals through top mid, however he a screamer, so just give him the sm58 little gain check and hes set for the night.
For the venue i work at this depends alot on the band i get in. Metalcore/deathcore bands i do the same as my touring band. however the general idea is the same.
When using a kick mic i totally take the bottom mid out a drive it with low end and top end till it has a nice clciky tone.
