Subscribe on iTunes, SoundCloud, Google Play or Stitcher.

Support Sound Design Live on Patreon.

In this episode of Sound Design Live I talk with touring FOH mixer and system tech Sean Quackenbush about how he got the job on the Brandi Carlile tour, his input and output setup, system tuning process, and secret weapon to make the Avid Venue Profile sound like no other profile you’ve heard before.

75% of touring is not so much the skill you have, it’s can you get along with these people that you’re going to be in a bubble with.

Sean Quackenbush

Notes

1. All music in this podcast by Rudolf Smetana.
2. Roadie Free Radio
3. Brandi Carlile
4. Software: Smaart
5. Hardware: Galileo 408, Venue Profile, Telefunken M60, SIM3, Audix TM1, Telefunken M80, Sennheiser 914, Audio Technica 8300, Radial PZDI, Neve 511, Neuman 105, Sennheiser 935, Shure 901 and 902, Sonic Farm Creamliner 3
6. Sean’s system tuning checklist
   1. Measure left main solo. EQ to match target curve.
   2. Measure left sub solo. Observe phase relationship.
   3. Measure right main solo. EQ.
   4. Measure front-fill solo. Time align to Main.
   5. Listen at front rows to set front-fill level.
   6. Measure combined systems.
7. Quotes
   1. 75% of touring is not so much the skill you have, it’s can you get along with these people that you’re going to be in a bubble with.
   2. I came from a company where they handed you a 58 and a DN360 and you just talked into it and just carved it up. That’s how you EQed a PA.
   3. Once everything is phase aligned you’re like, Oh wow, all of that EQ I used to put into the 58 at a graduation is gone. You put on a high pass filter, turn the mic up, and it sounds better than if you had spent 3 hours trying to make it sound like that.