'official live sound thread'

[fade_2_black]

last week we played a show in a big concert hall and we had really a lot of difficulties with monitors

do you use ear monitors?
are those recommended for drummers who plays fast blast and gravity beats?

I mix a lot of bands that travel with IEM kits. I'd rather deal with IEM than some shitty monitors at a small venue - if they have half-decent buds you're both eliminating room and technical complications/limitations as well as opening up the stereo spectrum to help with getting the best monitor mix possible.

IEM for drummers is very common - and if you either have a reliable touring engineer or playing venues with half decent house engineers then you shouldn't have any problems. It can be expensive to get up and running if you're wanting to get a wireless IEM kit but having said that, being a drummer, you can very easily go wired. Have a look at the Radial H-Amp - takes NL4 speaker level and outputs to headphone level. The only other thing you may want to consider is some sort of protection circuit - I know Ultimate Ears offer a little in-line limiter system with their buds - just as a precaution.

 

[SonicCulture]

Have a look at the Radial Phazer / Phazerbank. Cool units designed specifically for this purpose - phase alignment of multiple mics on a single source.

Thx man, looks like a cool unit. Radial stuff is great!

 

[slo77y]

heres a thing i did last weekend and i wanted to share with you guys:

i mixed a band at a festival which i also record at the moment and they trust me, so they let me do this:

i took a decent interface with low latency (rme digiface) and ran the guitars with an impulse...(actually a mixture of impulses that were pre-selected, phase-aligned and EQd)
straight out of the FX-Send from the amps. We used a little splitter at the end of the pedalboard chain before it runs back into the head.


its an impulse i specially designed for that purpose... live sound. it has a big bandwidth and a lot of low mids and relatively few high mids and highs, in regard of the fletcher munson curve at about 100db.

what can i say: faders up and PERFECT. i didnt reach for guitar-eq the whole show, it just sounded plain perfect from the start. the sound crew that set up the pa-system couldn´t believe how good it sounded (having listened to 10 bands prior with the usual 'stick a 57 somewhere' live micing method) and everyone else also was very satisfied.

another benefit of this is that the players on stage dont have to worry to knock over the mics or the mics moving by jumping on stage etc. they can adjust their cab as their personal monitor and can adjust volume during the show... etc.

i even sent the impulse'd signal to the wedges and there were zero complains about sound / latency etc.

it just works and i think i will run my guitars in that manner from now on.

no more bleed on guitar channel, no more sound change during the show because of the mentioned facts, no more feedbacks through guitar mic, etc. i just love it.

 

[FischmungaXTR]

heres a thing i did last weekend and i wanted to share with you guys:

i mixed a band at a festival which i also record at the moment and they trust me, so they let me do this:

i took a decent interface with low latency (rme digiface) and ran the guitars with an impulse...(actually a mixture of impulses that were pre-selected, phase-aligned and EQd)
straight out of the FX-Send from the amps. We used a little splitter at the end of the pedalboard chain before it runs back into the head.


its an impulse i specially designed for that purpose... live sound. it has a big bandwidth and a lot of low mids and relatively few high mids and highs, in regard of the fletcher munson curve at about 100db.

what can i say: faders up and PERFECT. i didnt reach for guitar-eq the whole show, it just sounded plain perfect from the start. the sound crew that set up the pa-system couldn´t believe how good it sounded (having listened to 10 bands prior with the usual 'stick a 57 somewhere' live micing method) and everyone else also was very satisfied.

another benefit of this is that the players on stage dont have to worry to knock over the mics or the mics moving by jumping on stage etc. they can adjust their cab as their personal monitor and can adjust volume during the show... etc.

i even sent the impulse'd signal to the wedges and there were zero complains about sound / latency etc.

it just works and i think i will run my guitars in that manner from now on.

no more bleed on guitar channel, no more sound change during the show because of the mentioned facts, no more feedbacks through guitar mic, etc. i just love it.

Further to this, I always try and use an emulated line out from any guitar amp for live stuff, whether that's out the back of the amp or through one of those DIs with speaker emulation. Works extremely well on Marshall JVMs.

 

[arvoitus]

heres a thing i did last weekend and i wanted to share with you guys:

i mixed a band at a festival which i also record at the moment and they trust me, so they let me do this:

i took a decent interface with low latency (rme digiface) and ran the guitars with an impulse...(actually a mixture of impulses that were pre-selected, phase-aligned and EQd)
straight out of the FX-Send from the amps. We used a little splitter at the end of the pedalboard chain before it runs back into the head.


its an impulse i specially designed for that purpose... live sound. it has a big bandwidth and a lot of low mids and relatively few high mids and highs, in regard of the fletcher munson curve at about 100db.

what can i say: faders up and PERFECT. i didnt reach for guitar-eq the whole show, it just sounded plain perfect from the start. the sound crew that set up the pa-system couldn´t believe how good it sounded (having listened to 10 bands prior with the usual 'stick a 57 somewhere' live micing method) and everyone else also was very satisfied.

another benefit of this is that the players on stage dont have to worry to knock over the mics or the mics moving by jumping on stage etc. they can adjust their cab as their personal monitor and can adjust volume during the show... etc.

i even sent the impulse'd signal to the wedges and there were zero complains about sound / latency etc.

it just works and i think i will run my guitars in that manner from now on.

no more bleed on guitar channel, no more sound change during the show because of the mentioned facts, no more feedbacks through guitar mic, etc. i just love it.

Cool setup. More info on those impulses please, i'm curious on how they sound. Or a live video?

 

[JonWormwood]

Cool setup. More info on those impulses please, i'm curious on how they sound. Or a live video?

+1

We use impulses live but the more typical sounds like a guitar cab setup

 

[Mashreef]

can anyone tell me how good are the DBX active Di for the live purpose???

 

[slo77y]

i´ve made 2 quick mp3s for you:

drums + mono guitar track with s_preshigh: https://dl.dropbox.com/u/13121955/EBH/s_preshigh.mp3
drums + mono guitar track with my impulse: https://dl.dropbox.com/u/13121955/EBH/myimpulse.mp3


in a studio listening situation, the s-preshigh of course sounds better, but in a live situation the fletcher munson curve bends my impulse to just about the same as the s-preshigh.

the second one is the actual signal i have on the foh

 

[fade_2_black]

slo77y, nice stuff. I've thought previously about using impulses live but never given it a go. I have a couple of JDX amp DIs that are pretty nice, similar concept to the H&K Redbox and Palmer PDI where the unit basically sits between the amp's power section and the cab. The cool thing about the JDX is it is a reactive load - meaning the impedance and back-EMF from the cab plays a big part in the end signal you see at FOH.

A while back I found this review for an Inquisition show I mixed - I used two JDXs and no mics. Sounded sweet.
http://www.steffmetal.com/unmasking-the-ritual-inquisition-live-in-auckland-nz-kings-arms-june-2012/

 

[Mashreef]

hey i want some live impulses

 

[arvoitus]

i´ve made 2 quick mp3s for you:

drums + mono guitar track with s_preshigh: https://dl.dropbox.com/u/13121955/EBH/s_preshigh.mp3
drums + mono guitar track with my impulse: https://dl.dropbox.com/u/13121955/EBH/myimpulse.mp3


in a studio listening situation, the s-preshigh of course sounds better, but in a live situation the fletcher munson curve bends my impulse to just about the same as the s-preshigh.

the second one is the actual signal i have on the foh

Thanks a lot man! The s-preshigh is my favorite impulse for practicing or tracking, so i know how it sounds.

The s-preshigh sounds mid scooped compared to your impulse. Your impulse might be a bit too boomy for my like, but i can imagine how it would work in a live situation. Should blend perfectly with the kick drum and bass guitar with leaving plenty of space for vocals.

 

[slo77y]

most PA systems nowadays have a low-mid scoop at about 100hz-400hz (subs crossing to tops), with a line array its even worse if u dont have something like L'Acoustics. the whole idea behind it is that it will NOT sound like that in a live situation. having mixed a lot of live shows i notice that somehow the bigger the venue, the more the low-mids disappear at high volumes... hard to describe. today you have a lot of concerts where there isnt real "meat" in the sound, you just have that 50hz kick going and guitars ripping off your face but not a lot of the "fundamental pitch" area. this of course is purely subjective but thats what i notice on most modern pa-systems. so my impulse complements that right from the start. if it should be too boomy, you just scoop out a bit at 250hz ish, and it will again be perfect but first show with it was just faders up and instantly perfect.

 

[Sloan]

Just got home from doing this live broadcast, i'm doing monitors, it was a great show. 4 bands, good crowd, hard work!

http://www.livestream.com/musiccityroots/video?clipId=pla_7dffbe87-fcdf-4079-9cdd-d3d2f58e64a8

 

[fade_2_black]

Looks like a cool show bro. Some face light wouldn't hurt though! I wish I had more vids of shows I've done, should try find some..

 

[Sloan]

Looks like a cool show bro. Some face light wouldn't hurt though! I wish I had more vids of shows I've done, should try find some..

yeah, i hope next time we setup a follow spot or something. the stage here is movable so we do not have fixed lighting, it all goes with the trusses wherever we move the stage.

I'm hoping they get the rest of the video up sometime, there were four bands total and it was a really good show with a good turnout. Only $10 for a ticket, so a great deal too!

This will be a monthly thing this year, so hopefully it will get smoother, I wasn't aware of some of the things they were doing like how fast the announcers/interview sections were coming in or even the jam at the end, but that's just party of it, haha.

 

[fade_2_black]

Just set up a small website detailing some of my experience as a FOH engineer. Let me know what you guys think!

www.keirleFOH.com

 

[Trevoire520]

How do you like those E903/905's compared to the usual suspects man? Always thought about picking one up but it's hard to find anyone who's used them!

 

[fade_2_black]

How do you like those E903/905's compared to the usual suspects man? Always thought about picking one up but it's hard to find anyone who's used them!

Dude, they're awesome! The 903 is now discontinued and hard to find around my ways; Sennheiser found a stack of them when they moved warehouse last year and let me have a play, I absolutely love them.

906/903 is my go-to guitar combo now, was using 906/421 live but the 903 offers a bit more bite that works well alongside the body of the 906 in high cut mode.

I use this for all my metal gigs:
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10151406929442745&set=oa.373961666034767&type=1&theater

 

[fade_2_black]

Oh, and 905 is great on snare. I'm pretty sure I still have snare mic shootout tracks I did once, I'll see if I can fish them up for you to compare.

 

[if6was9]

Many of you guys using those latin percussion clamps?
http://www.thomann.de/gb/lp_592an_the_claw.htm?sid=c971331fa7721fbf711647f99f5b75f4

http://megamusicstore.eu/image/cache/data/items/101615-500x500.jpg


Thinking about picking up 4 of them. A venue I work in occasionally has then and use them on everything. Keeps the stage very tidy and they're great for working in tight spaces. They're good for cab micing, snare micing, mounting on kicks and I think they'd be fantastic for mics for acoustic instruments on vocal mic stands. I do sound for a 4 piece with 4 vocals and changing acoustic instruments it'd be really nice to have these for micing those aswell as taking their DI's.