FMP 2021 (17th May) - Soundchecking

On Monday (10/5/21), we set up the large studio for the bands to rehearse and perform in. For this, we set up the mixing desk and the drum kit. This involved taking the drum kit from the small rehearsal space, which was being used at the time. After the producers set up the drum kit, with the help of Dan and Geoff, who set up a drum riser, in order for the kit to be elevated. Drum risers are used to elevate the drummer, to make them visible to the audience as well as the band, and also to allow more resonance in the drums (O’Connor, 2020). We put microphones on the drums, and did dry takes of all the bands.

We set up the mixing desk for live production, plugging in the outputs for the microphones to the Behringer S16, which was then routed to the desk. We also plugged the Bass amplifier into a DI, this is done in order to get more control over the low end (Bass frequencies, so 100hz and below) of the bass (D.Swisher), and then the DI was plugged into the Mixing Desk. We set up the inputs, so that every instrument that the bands used was on a specific channel on the mixing desk. So the input list goes: Channel 1 - Bass Drum, Channel 2 - Snare Drum, Channel 3 - Rack Tom, Channel 4 - Floor Tom, Channel 5 - Overhead stage left, Channel 6 - Overhead stage right, Channel 7 - Bass Guitar, Channel 8 - Electric Guitar, Channel 9 - Keyboards, Channel 10 - Synthesizer, Channel 11 - Ukulele, Channel 12 - Acoustic Guitar, Channel 13 - Backing Vocals and finally, Channel 14 - Lead Vocals. We also set up monitors for the singers at Bus 1, and for the drummer at Bus 2, where we could send individual tracks so that the singer or musicians can hear themselves and each other properly in order to play in time. For example, a singer might want to be able to hear the guitars and the drums, so they know what to sing to, and likewise, the drummer might want to hear the bass guitar better, so that they can play to it.

We proceeded to soundcheck every band. This was done by having the different musicians play every instrument, one by one, to see how each instrument sounds isolated. For example we would get the drummer to first kick the bass drum, which we then would proceed to EQ, Compress and Gate, and then we would move on to the snare, toms and full kit (so overheads), We would proceed to do some corrective EQ - the act of cutting out bad sounding frequencies that would otherwise sound unpleasant or spoil the mix, to “correct” the sound - and compression to the instruments as well as add a gate if necessary. We did the same for the remaining players, each requiring EQ and compressor and a gate, except the Bass, Acoustic guitar, Ukulele, Synth and Keys, which where DIs, meaning that they were fed directly into the mixing desk, without the usage of microphone, and therefore would not pick up bleed from the other instruments. For the microphone recorded instruments, we added gates so to stop the bleed from other instruments. Bleed is when microphones pick up other instruments that are in the area, for example a bass drum microphone could pick up some of the snare drum sound. This was one of our issues that we faced when recording in a live environment, and we tackled this with the use of gates as well as ensuring that microphones with appropriate polare patterns are placed and faced appropriately and relatively close to the instruments that they are meant to be recording (Veach, 2019).

When sounchecking the singers, we had to be careful to avoid feedback. Feedback happens when a microphone and a speaker are close together, and essentially is the result of the microphone(s) picking up the output of the speaker(s), which they have already sent to the speakers. This results in the sound going in an endless loophole from the mic to the speaker and from the speaker to the mic, with certain resonances increasing in amplitude as they go round. Feedback is loud and very unpleasant, and can be damaging to the hearing of anyone nearby, as well as potentially being able to blow and damage speakers. When soundchecking singers, we were faced with the issue of the singers’ mics being close to the monitors. This meant that the microphone would pick up the singer from the monitor and send it back to the monito, creating a feedback loop. To counter that, we got the singers to speak or sing into their microphone, then used gates and EQ to reduce feedback. While it was impossible to totally eliminate feedback, we could attempt to get close, by cutting out each individual resonance on the equaliser, when it appeared. Most resonances are in the frequency ranges of low mids to highs (C,Huff). Also, setting the noise gate so that it picks up mostly the singer, and shuts off as much of the background noise, including the monitors, as possible. We were rather successful.

Once happy with how the bands sounded, we saved the mixes as presets on a mixing desk. This would enable us to quickly recall the settings of the mixes, for each individual band, when we recorded them later.

C,Huff. (). How to Remove Audio Feedback Through Equalisation. Available: https://www.behindthemixer.com/how-remove-audio-feedback-through-equalization/. Last accessed 17th May 2021.

D,Swisher. RECORDING BASS GUITAR: FROM BEGINNER TO PRO [COMPLETE GUIDE]. Available: https://www.musicianonamission.com/recording-bass-guitar/#:~:text=The%20easiest%20way%20to%20record,directly%20into%20your%20audio%20interface.&text=A%20DI%20box%20will%20help,turning%20up%20any%20unw. Last accessed 17th May 2021

E,Veach. (2019). How to Avoid Mic Bleed in 3 Easy Steps. Available: https://flypaper.soundfly.com/produce/how-to-avoid-mic-bleed-in-3-steps/. Last accessed 17th May 2021

M,O'Connor. (2020). What is the Benefit of Drum Risers. Available: https://www.electronicdrumadvisor.com/drum-risers/#:~:text=Drum%20risers%20enable%20them%20to,and%20equality%20in%20the%20band. Last accessed 17th May 2021.