mike257

This is one reason I've always avoided using Optogates on vocal mics. You can't avoid spill on stage, it's going to be there (to some degree) no matter what. I remember having a real eye-opener with it years ago when doing a mix of a live multitrack from a band I'd been touring with that had five open vocal mics on stage. I had all of the instrumental elements sounding great, really clean and punchy. As soon as the vocal mics came in to play, there was so much stage spill that everything went to bits, but cutting them in and out sounded so unnatural because all the spill still came back in with the vocal and changed how everything sounded. I ended up going back to the drawing board with that mix, starting with all the vocals open, and building everything around that to sound natural. I generally start a live soundcheck with all vocal mics open now, because that stuff is going to be in there no matter what you do, so you have to work around it and factor it in.

I only tend to gate channels that need it for a sonic reason. I'll usually gate kick drums and toms to get a tight, controlled sound but I'll rarely gate a snare because you lose a lot of the expressive detail in the playing - ghost notes etc. I'll leave toms open too if the musical style benefits from it and the tuning/sound of the drum allows for it. I'm always wary of gates on sources with a wide dynamic range because it's so easy to cut off things you want to keep. Pedalboard hum is something better fixed at source. They also wouldn't be part of my approach to prevent feedback. A gate only closes when there's no signal above the threshold. If you have open mics feeding back when they're not even being presented with a signal that would open any gate you set, you've got bigger problems to address in how that system has been set up. I've had a quick look at the article you linked. It mentions a couple of keys points - positioning of the speakers/wedges relative to the mic, mic choice, proximity of the mic to the source - but it doesn't mention what is often the biggest issue, which is the general stage volume the vocal is competing with. If you're trying to get a vocal clearly heard over a band, and you're getting in to feedback territory trying to do that, the band might be too loud for the space they're in. One of the key elements of putting a good mix together is understanding that if you can't hear something, it's not always about turning that thing up, it's about making a space for it to sit in. Turning something else down is often the answer!

I'm pretty sure Lennon's "How Do You Sleep" is the original diss track, aimed squarely at his ex-bandmate!

Yes, yes you are.

You can get water based or oil based haze, both of which behave differently with different types of smoke detectors. In touring venues, it's normal practice to isolate the smoke alarms in the room during the show, so that haze/smoke can't trip them, and that's written in to risk assessments and safety plans. If you're going in to function rooms, pubs, whatever else, they may not be set up to do that and you'll likely meet some resistance.

Well, after a lovely tour in October with a full crew of top-notch people, we're currently back to the two-man setup on a European support run for a few weeks. After migrating the band on to IEMs for the UK headline tour, where we had FOH and monitor engineers with a dLive at both ends, I've had to figure out how we make that work in our stripped down setup to keep the production value up for the lads on stage. We're back on my SQ5 for this tour and we're squeezing every last drop of it's capabilities out of it now. Freed up a few buses in our FOH engineer's existing showfile and I'm now running four stereo IEM mixes and four wedge mixes from an iPad (whilst tour managing and guitar teching 🤣). Not too many compromises had to be made, all things considered. We've managed to keep the on stage shout mics integrated for comms between band and crew, and I have a spare IEM system fed from a matrix that I can send any mix to if we have an RF issues on someone's frequency. My IEMs are fed by the solo bus that the FOH and I are sharing between us for mid-show listening. It's taken some shuffling around but it's working really well and is pretty dialled in after the first week of shows

I'm at 98 so far this year, 24 left to go in the diary!

Cracking photo! I wasn't at the sound desk for this one - I've been doubling up as tour manager and backline tech for most of the year but I've got a full crew out for the headline tour so just wearing my tour manager hat and not pushing faders or wrangling guitars at the moment. Mostly swearing at Excel sheets and crying at the amount of emails in my inbox 🤣

I'll show them that photo, Jacob getting some serious height on that jump there 🤣 Glad you enjoyed the show, sorry I didn't get to say hello!

Didn't even know they did a Waves card for it! How's that working out? Sadly no mixing desk at all for me still - it's been a two man crew all year on my current gig (me as TM/tech, and our FOH engineer) but heading out on a proper touring run for three weeks with a full team, so I can just wear my TM hat. Just wrapped two days of production rehearsals, currently 2:20am on the tourbus having a wild night with my laminator and a pack of chocolate hobnobs on our way to Nottingham Rock City. It's all glamour, this job 🤣

Sounding lovely in rehearsals today. You're in for a treat!

I'm not sure what it says for how welcoming a space the forum is for them that Juliet hasn't logged in for two years, and Cici hasn't for almost a year!

Thus proving my point that @Misdee seemed so affronted by. Many corners of the music industry are not welcoming places for young women. More visibility of artists (like Ms DeTiger) that they can see themselves in will give them the confidence to be more present in those spaces, and help build the belief that they belong and can build a career. This forum is full of grumpy old men. There are few, if any, young female bass players here and it's no surprise given some of the commentary here. Thankfully, the majority of members, grumpy as we all are, appear to be on the sensible side of this conversation.

I've worked in live touring for over a decade and by and large, it's an absolute sausage-fest and not representative of the population as a whole. When I've spoken to young female techs and musicians, one of the big things I hear about is the lack of role models, or I hear that having a role model/mentor who they could relate to was a hugely important part of their journey. When I hear incredibly talented and capable women telling me they're leaving the industry because they're finding it hard to thrive in such a "boys club", it tells me something is seriously wrong. Having people (like Blu - although I hadn't come across her before this thread) who are visible and setting that example is, as I said, a positive thing. Your reply suggests you don't think encouraging people from more diverse backgrounds in to the creative industries is a good thing. Why is that?

There's a real, tangible gender inequality in the music industry (speaking as someone who works in it) and the more positive role models there from all demographics and backgrounds who can actively and visibly use their presence to show young people who might not otherwise see the creative industries as a viable career route that it's actually possible to follow your dreams and make a living out there, the better. If a bunch of young girls see Blu amongst the sea of typical blokes with guitars and think "maybe there's a space for me here after all?", then that's a positive thing. Doesn't sound like nonsense to me. As a dad of two daughters, and having given work and experience opportunities to many of my wife's students when she spent 10 years teaching in another male-dominated creative industry, I'm acutely aware how important it is for people to have role models they can relate to, and the difference that can make in how they perceive their ambitions and their chances of success. Honestly, it's sad to see such a negative reaction to someone trying to put positivity out in what they do.

I made use of some of that dead space on the rack ears with mine. Fitted it in a Gear4Music shallow 3u, drilled out the rack ears for a Powercon input and thru connector, put a 13a socket on the front so you could charge your tablet from it (pictured with a USB charger left in), and a 13a socket in the back for the router. All the electrical connections were made with Wago blocks inside a junction box velcroed to the back of the mixer. Router was a little TP Link Nano, also fixed to the back of the mixer with heavy duty velcro. The rack case had a zipped pouch in one of the lids, so kept the power cable, mini jack cable, and a cheap Android tablet all in there so you had everything to run it in one box. Worked a treat!

Love to see you're out and about keeping busy mate! Not much mixing console action from me of late. My regular gig taking up most of the year is tour managing and not getting near a console. Did a weekend of Euro festivals - Lowlands and Pukkelpop - some long and challenging travel days but a cracking couple of gigs. I did drop in for my last show of the summer looking after monitors for Peter Hook at the weekend, which is always a pleasure. Another nice Digico package from Solotech on this one.

I was production manager for last year's ATG. Sadly not there this year, but it's such a great festival (as is it's mildly less mathy counterpart, 2000trees). Run as a real labour of love by people who are driven by their love of the music there.

It's pretty much just 13 years of me and Matt nerding out over audio gear, I didn't think anyone else even ventured in 🤣

A really fun one today.... Radio 1 session at Maida Vale with one of my touring clients. Always love coming through here, can't help but think about the list of names that have walked through these doors before us. Even found a video today of Nirvana set up in the exact same spots as us in this room, back in 1990. A great afternoon tracking, followed by a fun mix session with myself, the band's FOH engineer, and the lovely team from the Beeb, on their 72-frame SSL 4000G. The session goes out on the Jack Saunders show next Tuesday!

Any audiologist or custom IEM/earplug manufacturer will advise that because your ears continue to grow throughout your life, after 4/5 years your fit won't be sealing properly and you'll need new ones. If they're 19 years old, I'd definitely look at getting a fresh pair!

I can well believe it - I know a couple of the Embrace guys, and I've toured with other bands who came up around that scene/that time who are all working other jobs and fit occasional bursts of recording and touring in around it. One frontman from a successful/recognisable UK indie band I've worked with runs an asbestos removal company!

Across the majority of the music industry, you make better money as touring crew than you do as a member of the band. Obviously a successful band stands to do much better in the long run when all the long term income streams like publishing etc are taken in to account, but a lot of artists never hit the point where it's that big an earner. You'd be surprised at the size of venues a band can be touring and still not be earning enough to do without having an additional source of income.

It's a good few years since I've been playing in a band regularly, but I tour as a tour manager/engineer/backline tech, so I've been lucky enough to "play" on some bucket list stages, but just to an empty room in soundchecks (or a couple of notes very quickly to a full room during a changeover for line checks 🤣) The absolute best one has to be jumping on stage with a couple of crew and a couple of our band members at Anfield before a support slot to have a quick 2 mins jam to check monitor levels because we didn't get time for the band to do a proper soundcheck. It was the first stadium show I'd done, so to do that in my hometown was a nice little buzz!

If you're just putting vocals through the system, a sub will do nothing for you. They're meant to reproduce frequencies lower than you'd want to hear from a vocal mic. The powered monitor you have isn't a particularly loud or punchy one. If you're trying to get vocals heard across the room, a couple of passive speakers on stands driven by your Behringer will do a better job, but those Behringer units aren't exactly super powerful amplifiers either. In addition to adding some speakers, I'd also look at reducing the volume of the backline in the room. Bands that are struggling with vocal levels in the practice room are usually playing too loud. I always found rehearsals improved significantly when everyone dropped their volume down. You can hear with more clarity, your ears get less fatigued (and less likely to be damaged!), and you're more likely to pick up on details in the arrangement and performance than if everyone is thrashing away at full belt. If it's your own practice room, I'd also look at some sort of acoustic treatment. Cleaning up the sound of the room will do wonders for clarity in a small space. Heavy drapes hung on the walls to dampen reflections would be a good place to start.