Live Tricks / Tips

Everyone has their "thing" that they do that makes them special. What is one of the tricks you have learned throughout your career that is outside the normal audio engineer routine? What is the reason that it works for you? Why would it work good for someone else?

For example, this may include:
Mic Choice
Mic Placement
Monitor Placement
Ways for isolation on stage
Drums - Gated? Triggered?
Anything really!

I figure we are all here together and we may as well learn from each other. :-) Happy Posting!

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Permalink Reply by Chris Thom on December 14, 2007 at 5:56pm
Rob -

It's just all a matter of how different people approach things. It sounds like the way you do it works for you so that's all that matters.

I'm curious to hear the e901. Because of my Shure deal I always use a 91 and I'm getting a little tired of it. Unfortunately, Sennheiser is very tight with their AR program.
Permalink Reply by Matt McClure on February 24, 2008 at 8:34pm
Something that I've seen nobody mention is soundcheck time. I toured with several of your country "favorites" for 12 years, and I've heard nobody mention psychology as their number 1 trick. As a live guy, you should have the PA and or Wedges tuned (depending on your responsibility), and hopefully all lines checked prior to anyone entering the stage. I tried to keep my soundchecks to 5 minutes or less when at all possible. I realize their are circumstances from time to time that require more attention, but in general this rule held true. Bands typically don't like to soundcheck, and things certainly change from check to showtime......including how they are playing their axes, to how the venue fills with people. Don't wear out your guys, and you will be very popular! Pay as much attention to prep as you can, and be prepared for anything going wrong. I always told the new guys that you don't get paid for "when everything is going right", you get paid to know what to do "when everything falls apart". Knowing how to react in any situation is key, and keeping the guys/artist happy is a major key to earning their trust and confidence.
Rob FacelliPermalink Reply by Rob Facelli on February 25, 2008 at 2:51am
One nice thing about the church gig is that the band rehearses for about an hour and a half prior to the service, so I typically don't even do a soundcheck. I'll get my sounds while they rehearse, which is really better anyway because, as you said, they play differently all together than they do solo.
Permalink Reply by Kirk Thompson Producer/engineer on November 28, 2011 at 9:25pm

I like what you said.  

you don't get paid for "when everything is going right", you get paid to know what to do "when everything falls apart"

 

 

Permalink Reply by Steven Leonard on February 26, 2008 at 1:52am
One "tip" I like to do came about from mixing IEM for guitar players. I found it always hard to get a good guitar sound in the ears, especially in a highly reflective room. What I started to do was blend a mic signal with a direct signal from a "HK Red Box ". This approach works specifically well for IEM players that like the "one in, one out" way. The Red Box gives a "in your face" sound that lacks any stage noise and, when blended with the onstage mic, provides a nice balanced guitar sound perfect for IEM.

Another common trick I use a lot outdoors to fatten things up is to take something like an acoustic guitar, or the background vox subgroup and send it to a stereo pitch shift. Ill hard pan the signal to the left with -1 cent and hard pan to the right +1. This spread things out, and is very helpful outdoors.

As far as Drum Micing tips I like the 52/91 combo.on kick From the posts above no one seems to be big Audix fans, though I myself like the sound of the D2 and D4 on toms. I also heavily compress the snare (57 or b57).

Hope this helps someone.
Cool Site. Thanks Bret!
Steven
Rob FacelliPermalink Reply by Rob Facelli on February 26, 2008 at 3:21pm
One thing I've noticed with the boundary mic in the kick is that if you don't gate it you get a little bottom snare action in it as well.
Permalink Reply by Sue Rarick on January 12, 2009 at 3:04pm
This is probably way off base. But I am having the darndest time trying to get an answer. So maybe someone here has an answer.

I perform solo doing vocals/guitar/harmonica. I would love to be able to free myself of the mic stand and wander about. The problem I am having is finding out if there is a wireless mic that I can do vocals AND use the harmonica. I use the hung around the neck holder for the harmonicas.
Permalink Reply by Kirk Thompson Producer/engineer on November 28, 2011 at 9:40pm

I don't claim to have all the answers Sue but the only way I could recommend for you is to do the wireless for your guitar and go with a wireless mic package and a Countryman head mic.  Only thing is you have to deal with no monitors and can't get close to foh speakers.... Not ideal but would work....

 

Ray DrydenPermalink Reply by Ray Dryden on January 28, 2009 at 11:11pm
So has anyone gone completely old school in a great room and used 1 or just 2 mics for the whole kit. I never found a live stage that would alow it without baffles. I have had great success using a drum shield stuffed with auralex all around the bottom 2 ft. inside. The plexi can be harsh without some dampening, use a kick, snare, and 1 large diaphram for overhead. If the drummer has a good balanced kit with a bit of compression on the overhead it can work very well. Aside from drums any system has got to be tuned properly for anything to sound right. I like to listen to the human voice, it is always easy to tell if the system is natural and it's rare if they are. I use noise to get me in the ballpark and then it's up to the ears to do the rest so I protect my ears these days.
David TurnerPermalink Reply by David Turner on August 3, 2009 at 7:03pm
I try, if possible, to get the singer to sing to me without a microphone so that I can hear what I am supposed to be reproducing. I then try to recreate that as closely as I can with whatever tools are available to me at the time.

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