How To Mix Live Music Chapter 15 - Faders & Groups — Transcript

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1. 0:07This is another session about how to mix live music.
2. 0:10Thanks for joining me again.
3. 0:13We’ve set input gains, High-pass filters, EQs and pan.
4. 0:19Now it's time to focus on the faders!
5. 0:22How to balance the sound of a band,
6. 0:24and keep listening and tweaking as the performance progresses!
7. 0:30By the way, I know we haven’t yet talked about AUX buses,
8. 0:33and monitor mixes for the performers.
9. 0:36But don’t worry, that will be in the next chapter!
10. 0:41If you look at the scale printed beside the faders,
11. 0:44you will notice that it is not linear.
12. 0:47As the fader pushes up,
13. 0:49the distance between each 10 dB line becomes greater,
14. 0:54until you reach -10 dB in the center position.
15. 0:58From then on, the scale is linear.
16. 1:02So this is the region where we should be operating during a performance:
17. 1:07between +10 and -10.
18. 1:11When you bear in mind that a 6 dB increase
19. 1:14will double the sound pressure level of a channel,
20. 1:17you don’t want to be making fine adjustments
21. 1:20in the lower half of the fader scale!
22. 1:23So with the master fader at a safe low level,
23. 1:27raise the input faders to 0 dB.
24. 1:30Then bring the master fader back up for a good listening level.
25. 1:35Take a listen to the whole mix while the band plays.
26. 1:39Can you hear every voice and instrument well enough?
27. 1:43Do they all blend well?
28. 1:46If some channels are too quiet,
29. 1:49don’t increase their fader level at this point:
30. 1:52reduce the other faders a bit instead.
31. 1:55Keep your eye on the Stereo Master level meters:
32. 2:00they mustn’t reach the red peak.
33. 2:03If they do, the level of some channels will need to be reduced.
34. 2:08If you find the need to reduce a fader below -10 dB,
35. 2:13then consider to decrease its input gain by 10 dB,
36. 2:18and raise the fader back up.
37. 2:21This is easier on the TF mixer,
38. 2:23where the gain is adjusted in exactly 1 dB steps.
39. 2:27Another obvious advantage of TF
40. 2:30is that the faders are 100 mm rather than 60,
41. 2:34allowing smoother level adjustment and fine tuning.
42. 2:39If you find there is only one channel that is too quiet,
43. 2:42and it’s awkward to reduce 23 faders rather than raise just one,
44. 2:48then check the quiet channel’s input level.
45. 2:52If its gain can be safely raised without lighting the red indicators,
46. 2:58that will avoid the need to raise the fader much above 0 dB.
47. 3:03You see, it's good to keep that buffer between 0 and +10,
48. 3:07in case a channel needs to be temporarily boosted
49. 3:10during a solo or a quiet passage of music.
50. 3:15A live music performance is a constantly changing thing:
51. 3:19the perfect position for the faders in one moment
52. 3:22will not be ideal for the next song,
53. 3:25or even for the next verse or chorus!
54. 3:28The key to making a good mix is to keep listening and watching.
55. 3:34A good band will vary their arrangements for each verse,
56. 3:38chorus, bridge and so on.
57. 3:41You need to watch, listen, and adapt.
58. 3:45Listen for the small changes to the keyboard or guitar parts,
59. 3:49and adjust accordingly.
60. 3:52Maybe the verse requires the keyboard to be more prominent,
61. 3:56and the chorus relies more on the guitar to supply the energy.
62. 4:01Maybe backing vocals need to be pushed louder during a bridge,
63. 4:05and a saxophone fader pushed up for a solo.
64. 4:08Keep your eyes on the stage.
65. 4:11If you see a musician doing something interesting, but you can’t hear it,
66. 4:16then adjust the faders!
67. 4:19Do all the adjustments in steady and in small steps.
68. 4:23Re-evaluate the mix balance every time the music changes
69. 4:27between verse, chorus, bridge or instrumental.
70. 4:32Keep a constant ear open for feedback,
71. 4:36which is most likely on the vocal mics or quiet acoustic instrument mics.
72. 4:42If you start to hear a howl or squeal,
73. 4:46identify the source by using PFL or cue in your headphones,
74. 4:54and bring the fader down a few dB for a few seconds until the danger is past.
75. 5:00Don’t mix with headphones on:
76. 5:02try to experience what the audience is hearing!
77. 5:06Just use headphones to identify the problems with individual channels,
78. 5:11such as feedback or distortion, or if some other noise develops.
79. 5:17Now let’s talk about Fader Groups.
80. 5:20You’ll see on MGP32X the four grey faders to the right side of the console.
81. 5:26And on TF series you will see there is a GROUP fader layer accessed
82. 5:31by pressing the two INPUT FADER BANK keys.
83. 5:35The point of these is to use just one or two faders to adjust the level
84. 5:40for a large group of channels all at the same time.
85. 5:44For example,
86. 5:45assign all drum, bass, guitar and keyboard channels to one group,
87. 5:51and all vocals and solo instruments to another group.
88. 5:56Then it will be easy to adjust how the core of the band
89. 6:00blends with the singers and soloists.
90. 6:05Also, it makes it easy to switch off the sound from many channels at once,
91. 6:09if they are not needed for a portion of the event.
92. 6:13Here’s how to make a group on MGP32X:
93. 6:18For the band channels,
94. 6:20push down the “1-2” switch, and push up the “ST” switch.
95. 6:29For the vocal and solo channels,
96. 6:31push down the “3-4” switch and push up the “ST” switch.
97. 6:37For the Group channels, move the faders up to 0 dB,
98. 6:41push down the “ST” switch, and adjust their pan controls,
99. 6:45so you've got hard-left for 1&3, and hard-right for 2&4.
100. 6:52When they are switched on and faders are up, they are ready:
101. 6:56moving faders 1 and 2 together
102. 6:59will change the level of all the band channels!
103. 7:03Now the signal is flowing from the input channels to the GROUP channels.
104. 7:08And from the Groups to the Stereo Master.
105. 7:13On the TF series, there’s extra flexibility with 8 groups,
106. 7:20and they are digitally controlling the levels of the other channels.
107. 7:24Hence the name “DCA”: “digitally controlled amplifier”.
108. 7:30So we don’t need to be concerned about them being mono or stereo,
109. 7:34or with additional routing and panning:
110. 7:37the status of the input channels will remain.
111. 7:40We just need to add channels to groups,
112. 7:43and each channel can be in more than one group.
113. 7:47So you can be creative with your assignments.
114. 7:51For example, have DCA 1 for all your drum mics, DCA 2 for bass and guitars,
115. 7:58DCA 3 for keyboards, then DCA 4 for all the band channels together!
116. 8:05And still you have 4 additional DCAs free for other channel combinations.
117. 8:11Select the DCA channel,
118. 8:14then choose on the touch-screen which members it will have.
119. 8:23And look, when you have selected the DCA members,
120. 8:27they are shown on the left side.
121. 8:32So it is a great way to handle your mix:
122. 8:35all the groups and the members of the selected group
123. 8:38on the same fader layer!
124. 8:41We call this “DCA Roll-Out”.
125. 8:44It’s a favorite way of working for many professional sound engineers.
126. 8:51With Fader Groups, it is easy to respond with the music:
127. 8:55you can emphasize the dynamics of the band.
128. 8:58If you sense a big build, you can push the “Band” group a little,
129. 9:04then pull it back down for the next section.
130. 9:07If there is an a capella section, push the vocal group.
131. 9:11If there’s a long drum solo, you know what to do.
132. 9:15turn the group off. Only joking!
133. 9:18You just make sure you don’t end up pushing everything way above zero!
134. 9:25To keep the output level under control,
135. 9:27try to never have all the Fader Groups above zero at the same time!
136. 9:34Keep an eye on the main Stereo level meter.
137. 9:37You should expect to see it bouncing around
138. 9:39in the orange zone for much of the time:
139. 9:42between 0 and +10 on the MGP analog mixer
140. 9:47or between -20 and -9 on TF series.
141. 9:52Just avoid ever lighting up the top red indicator.
142. 9:59Learn to flow with the music, bring the band to life,
143. 10:03make it more involving for the audience.
144. 10:06But actually, one key to making a good sound for the audience
145. 10:12is to first make a good sound for the band!
146. 10:16That’s what we’re going to talk about in the next session:
147. 10:19using AUX buses to make a monitor or fold-back mix.
148. 10:24See you again soon!