Author: Daniel Quick

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Back to the Basics: Building your Mix Part 1

This week we are starting a new Back to the Basics series talking about building your mix. I’ve been asked before about how I consistently can produce good mixes and it comes from the process I go through to get to each mix. This week we’ll talk about what I do before rehearsal starts, next week we’ll talk about my rehearsal process, and then the last week we will talk about what I do during the show to keep my mix fresh and vibrant. The key to reading this, or any of my other posts for that matter, is to make sure to translate what I’m saying to your situation. There are so many different ways to do things in this digital age of soundboards just find the solution that not only fits your equipment but also your environment/culture. If it works for me that doesnt mean it will work for you because there are so many variables in each room and with each piece of gear that most tips don’t directly work in every room. With that in mind, let’s dig in to how I build my mix each week live or while I’m in the studio.

One of the best things you can do before you even start mixing is to take the time to understand every bit of your soundboard. Do you understand what each button does? Are you able to make last minute patch changes? Have you taken the time to create a template that, for all intents and purposes, zeros out your console before each use? Just like with analog boards, it’s better to start with a clean slate with basic settings already set and ready to go. From time to time, if you find yourself making the same changes for each mix then add that to your digital template. Not only do templates reset all those unique changes you made last week that you probably won’t need this week with an all new band but it keeps you honest as an engineer as you have to through things again and tweak EQs and such each week. It’s also important to completely understand what tools you have at your disposal (i.e. – onboard processing/FX and outboard equipment) but how to access and use them in a moments notice so you’re not wasting valuable rehearsal time figuring out a setup issue. Even in the studio, if you are having gear issues and can’t get them resolved quickly because you don’t fully understand the setup you are using you are going to have to refund some studio time.

Building on that foundation of understanding your console is spending time improving your template with multi-track recording. There aren’t many professions where the simulator actually can get you pretty close to actually mixing the show in real time (don’t forget about the stage noise from the band). If I have trouble with dialing in the drum sounds or want to try out a new plugin it’s so easy to just pull up some playback and start experimenting. There is nothing quite like some seat time behind your console to help you not only get some practice actually building a mix but more importantly get a mix locked in and then walk around your room to see what things sound like. Personally, I think taking a walk should happen quite a bit in the rehearsal process but also regularly so you can keep an ear on your PA. Sometimes things break and you don’t notice immediately. During one of my volunteers walk around the room he heard a weird noise from one of our boxes and when we went up there to take a look we noticed that the cone was separating from the frame and we checked out the rest of the PA to find this epidemic that was about to surface (we ended up replacing every driver in our PA). If we never leave our booths while we mix we might miss a catastrophic problem. Worse yet, your mix may sound great at the booth but sound super boomy in other parts of the room. You can’t mix for the whole room if you’ve never walked around to hear what it sounds like. After you’ve mixed in a room you can get an idea of what your room will do to your mix but it’s still good practice to walk around during a rehearsal. In the same way live that you need to walk around the room, in the studio you need to hear your mix through different mediums like headphones, cell phone speakers, car stereos, etc. The point here is to make sure to keep your perspective as large as it can be so your mix sounds great no where you’re standing or what you’re listening through.

The last thing I wanted to talk about this week is the need to prepare as best you can for each event. One thing that I do regularly is look through the event or service plan or a recording schedule and make sure you have an internal knowledge of the plan and more importantly the content you’ll be mixing/recording. A lot the content I mix is based on artist released music so I usually take some time to listen to the artist recording of new songs that come down the pipe. I find it’s easier to anticipate needed mix changes if I know when the solos happen verses when it’s just an instrumental or perhaps if there is big bridge with a synth line that needs to be at the top of the mix if I have a general knowledge of the content in play. If needed touch base with your band leader and figure out what they might be expecting from your mix/recording that night so you can be sure to pay extra attention to the details mentioned. In addition to preparing my mind I find myself making sure my gear is in tip top shape. Are there software upgrades available or firmware updates for wireless systems or consoles/recording equipment that will help your gear run as best as it can? Are the updates for any production computers either completed or turned off so there are no interruptions during the event or session? We recently purchased a new wireless system and had a few issues and reached out for some support only to find out that the wireless mics themselves have a firmware now that needed to be updated. Sure enough, after they were updated most of our issues have been solved and the rest just needed to be worked through. The new firmware also brought some new features that we were able to immediately start using. Most of the boards we are using today are digital and have software that does get updated regularly by manufacturers. Most of those updates fix issues and some even bring you new features. Be sure to take some time and look for these software updates if you haven’t checked in awhile.

That is it this week. I truly hope you read something new or saw something in a new light that inspires you to be better prepared for your next job. Next week we’ll dig into how I mix during rehearsals or recording sessions and go over our rehearsal process at CCC. If you have any questions you can comment below, leave a comment on facebook, or email me at daniel@studiostagelive.com. If you’d like to receive an email when new content is posted just subscribe at this link and a message will be sent to your inbox when a new post is up. See you all next week!

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From the Booth: Episode 4 – June 17th, 2017

After such a long series with probably the most writing I’ve done since college (almost 30 pages) I decided to pull out my recording archive and do another From the Booth post. Now that you know a bit more about my waves setup you can hear the kinds of results that produces along with a great mix from my master buss through the ole L500. I was also a bit heavy handed with the FX that week but it works out because you’ll get to hear why I think the on-board verbs and delays on the L500 are some of the best out there and why I don’t run any in within waves…I simply don’t need to. I hope you enjoy the break, if you have any comments regarding the mix please comment below or drop me a message on facebook.

Here are the particulars for this recording:

  1. This recording is from our summer baptism services in June. I love mixing these as the crowd is always energetic and I get to push the PA a bit. It was also father’s day which is why I was in a cubs jersey. No, I don’t get to wear that on a regular basis.
  2. The audio you hear is from the broadcast mix of the FOH console. This mix is built from my master bus with the FX turned down just a bit to help them sit better in a studio environment and that’s it. It’s not a perfect mix for broadcast but it does a good job at translating a mix designed for an auditorium down to a mix suitable for personal viewing.
  3. You will see 4 videos in a matrix.  The top left video is my Smaart machine. The green is real-time, the orange is a 10 sec average of the real time, the red (if you even see it) is what is coming out of the console (you’ll typically only see if there is an issue with our gear which I don’t believe there was). The SPL number is 1 minute average which is how we measure the services. The top right is the broadcast video feed. Bottom left is a camera showing what I’m doing (I apologize for the glitchiness, I was having some camera issues but I did get the new angle showing a bit more of what I’m doing). The bottom right  is basically what I see, that camera is looking over my shoulder.
  4. This is a regular weekend service and as such I’m directed to keep worship at or around 92 dbA in the one minute average with a ceiling at 95 dbA. The applause does schew my numbers a bit as you’ll see in the RTA but if the energy is there, I’m not going to lie I let the band drive it a bit.
  5. Here is the general layout of the SSL L500+ that I’m operating.  Top left bank of faders generally sits on my drum inputs and drum FX feeds and can access my mixed outputs if need be.  The Left bank at my waist (left hand) is used for instruments and tracks and access my main outputs and groups if I need to check on something or make an adjustment.  The bank in front of me (right hand) is almost always on the VOX page of the console which also has my VCAs which allows me to quickly make larger mix changes. Please don’t hesitate to ask questions in the comments if you’d like to know more.
  6. There is a Waves SoundGrid running and I just finished a 9 week series outlining my basic template for that system. You can find that here.
  7. Song names are listed on the youtube page and all credit goes to the band for the performance, the song authors, and to God for allowing me to work with such a great team.

If you like what you see and would like to receive an email when new content is released please feel free to subscribe at this link! Also, if you have any questions about what you see, please feel free to reach out to me in an email at daniel@studiostagelive.com and I’ll do my best to answer your question.

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Waves Multirack: Bus Processing

Well it’s the last week of our Waves Multirack series. This week we will be looking at the processing I use with my group busses. On my console, nothing is directly routed to the master. This is done for many reasons but organization and the possibility of group processing is the main reason. For the band inputs everything comes in normally, than is routed to my group busses (i.e. drums, instruments, tracks, vox, and fx), and from there routed to the broadcast master and master bus/aux sub. I don’t do any outboard processing to the FX returns but I do attenuate them in the broadcast mix which is why they are split from their respective groups. However, I do a small amount of group processing on the other four groups which is what I’ll be covering today. Once again, this is what is needed for my situation and is at best a suggestion of a starting place for any other room/PA. Group processing should be very well thought out and carefully considered as decisions made in this arena can have major impacts on your mix as a whole.

My drum bus is pretty empty within waves. I usually just have an NLS Bus plugin on it to complete the NLS chain appropriately within waves. Putting the NLS on the bus simulates the audio actually going through the physical bus of the chosen console and you get some nice summation of all the harmonics you’ve introduced. This does require that you assign each input channel to a VCA and that the bus itself is also assigned to the appropriate vca. Additionally, if I ever feel the need for some group compression to help glue the drum set together I’ll either pull up my SSL Bus compressor built into my console or I’ll pull up the API 2500 or  VComp within waves to pursue that further. More often than not the SSL compressor has the desired results and I can stop there. From time to time I’ll drop in a C6 for F6 and start with some of the mastering presets as a guide and tweak until I find something I like as well.

My instrument and tracks busses are treated the same way. Just an NLS plugin on there to complete the NLS chain and perhaps a compressor as well. I find bus compression on these two groups to often work against my goals for mixing. It works well on drums because I want the group of drums to sound like each other in terms of intensity and attack but with guitars and tracks, I want things to stand out when I mix them that way. I don’t want to be driving my guitar solo into a compressor. Instead I want the guitar to open up and take over. The same goes with my tracks group. If I’m pushing a driving synth into a compressor I’m basically turning everything else down instead of letting the synth grow in power. Instead with these inputs I’m more apt to adjust individual compression settings rather than the bus. But I do have a trick that I use with these two groups: dynamic, frequency based, externally triggered compression. I side chain the vocal group into an F6 that compresses the vocal range out of the instruments and tracks when someone is singing. This helps to create space for the vocals to dominate that space as much as I want. I do this dynamically so that during those solos or big breakdowns, I’m not doing anything to the group but when someone is singing I’m gently clearing the vocal range of other traffic. We aren’t talking big cuts here, between 3 and 5 db will do the trick. I’ve found that when I do this, this allows me to really nestle the vocals down with the band instead of having to push them so far on top. Because the vocals are the loudest by far in just about any mix, this allows me to not need to push them quite as hard to get the clarity that I need for my mix. If you’ve never tried it, just give it a whirl. You can do this with any compressor that can be externally triggered and frequency selected. Remember, we basically want to just attenuate the vocal range out of the instruments and tracks inputs. Here is a link to a chart I reference when I’m setting things up that gives interactive information on the right when you move your mouse around the chart. I would recommend setting your multi-band compressor of choice up, turning it on, and then moving the frequency around a bit and seeing where it’s most effective for you. The content of your mix can really drive where you need to compress to make room for the vocals so take the time to set this correctly and check on it from time to time. 

Lastly, in regards to the vocal bus, there isn’t much else different here except that I have inserted a Q10 to replicate the findings of an X-FDBK run. If you haven’t heard of X-FDBK I’d check it out. You just drop in on the channel or bus that you want to remove feedback from, turn it on, and let it do it’s thing. Now, I usually do this a few times so I can know how far I can push the processor before it goes hog wild and just turn it all down. In my setup I took my lead vocals mic, dropped it in the middle of my room, pointed it back at the PA, and did a feedback run. After getting reliable and consistent results I turned off the plugin and replicated the cuts with a dsp light EQ plugin capable of doing tight slices, in my case, the Q10. This is because X-FDBK uses a lot of active processing because if you want it to, it can remain active. I leave it in line but just disable it so the resources are released. However, before you go live with this on a weekend or during an event you are going to want to A/B it on and off and make sure it’s not making cuts that are heavily noticeable. In my case I created the setting and turned it on and off during a playback recording and found it hard to really notice a difference. What I did notice however is a drastic improvement in feedback protection which has really come in handy. Mileage may vary and from time to time I’ll make another measurement and adjust as necessary to make sure this is never more than it needs to be. Lastly I have the NLS Bus inline to do its thing. You can play with which model you want to use with each bus but it makes more sense to me to stick with one model for all that you process to help glue them together a bit. However, this is really more of an opinion than a sense of right and one. Try both ways and see which works best for you. 

Well that’s it. My last set of suggestions. What ways do you guys/gals improve your mix from a bus standpoint? I am always open to hear new ideas. In fact, a lot of the more unique things that I do, across the whole band, are ideas that I’ve combined and improved from suggestions over the many years I’ve been mixing. Let me know in the comments below or email me at daniel@studiostagelive.com what unique things you do that really help. Lastly, there has been a few asking if they can get my preset files for my whole input list or even my multirack showfile. I will be sending those out to my subscribers here in about a week or so when I get the stuff compiled. If you are not a subscriber please go to this link and sign up. Not only will you get those files but you’ll get an email each week when new content is available on this blog. See you all next time!