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How to Be a Remarkable Sound Engineer by Being Honest

By Nathan Lively

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In this episode of Sound Design Live I talk with Kenneth ‘Pooch’ Van Druten, the FOH sound engineer for Linkin Park, Alice and Chains, Kid Rock, and System of a Down. We discuss:

  1. How Van Druten got his first job in audio.
  2. The number one skill that gets him in the door for every job.
  3. The value of microphone placement.
  4. Why speaker coverage is important beyond anything else.
  5. How to set gates using side-chains and virtual sound check.
  6. Results and trends from Van Druten’s annual hearing health check.
  7. Mixing monitors for Pantera.
  8. Van Druten’s SPL strategy for Linkin Park.
  9. How Van Druten managed to record and mix every Linkin Park show for two years solid.
  10. Whether mixing live show recordings is a viable second income stream?
  11. Good plugins for vocals.

sound-design-live-linkin-park-kenneth-pooch-van-druten-spl-speaker-coverage-gatesDetails from the podcast:

  1. All music by Linkin Park
  2. Van Druten on Twitter and Facebook
  3. Linkin Park community forum
  4. Berklee College of Music in Boston
  5. Smaart school
  6. RTA = real time analyzer
  7. Interview with John Huntington
  8. Waves Max Volume plugin, Waves 1176 compresser
  9. Miles Kennedy
  10. 808
  11. LEQ = a single decibel value which takes into account the total sound energy over the period of time of interest
  12. Quotes:
    1. “One of the things that you have to do to break into this industry is be willing to do anything.”
    2. “Often someone will ask me, ‘How’d you do that?’ And I’ll say, ‘I have no idea.'”
    3. “I worked with an engineer that made me spend an entire day moving an SM57 microphone centimeters around a guitar amp.”
    4. “The only kind of relationship I can have with an artist is an honest one.”
    5. “Being a great system engineer is a different skill set than the one I have.”
    6. “Coverage is important beyond anything else.”
    7. “The entire drum kit is an instrument. Not just the tom or the snare.”
    8. “There are situations when you just can’t win.”
    9. “I listen to 200 shows a year. It’s important to me not to listen to those at 106dB A-weighted.”
    10. “You mix at 100dB? That doesn’t mean anything.”
    11. “I don’t know if you’ve measured crowds recently. At a Linkin Park show, if there are 11 songs, there are 11 times where it goes to 107 dB A-weighted no problem.”
    12. “I feel responsible not only for my own hearing, but for the hearing of people that come to my shows.”

Takeaways:

  • Don’t wait till after college to get an internship. Van Druten started as a studio intern at a local recording studio when he entered school and by the time he graduated he was the head engineer.
  • Learn social intelligence and empathy (i.e., how to talk to crazy people) because you have to be able to get along with them before you can get the job.
  • Mic placement is important. Time spent learning it now will benefit you for the rest of your career.
  • People can sniff bullshit, don’t just say what you think people want you to hear. In a world of yes-men, you can be remarkable by being honest.
  • When talking to artists about making changes, remind them of the big picture of production quality.
  • Be precise and referential when talking sound level. E.g., “I mix at 102dB SPL A-weighted 10min LEQ at FOH 100ft from the downstage edge.”
  • The audience at a loud rock concert like Linkin Park can be louder than the show itself.
  • Mixing the live shows of the band you are working with is fun, but you won’t make much more money and it is a lot more work than you expect it to be.

Dancehall Sound System and How To Mix Music You’ve Never Heard

By Nathan Lively

sound-design-live-dancehall-sound-system-featured

sound-design-live-dancehall-sound-system“This guy doesn’t know dancehall.”

That’s what the singer’s friend said about me during sound check. We had just started and they were already giving up on me.

That was ten years ago, and honestly, he was right. And if I’d had the balls to ask, that would have been a perfect time to get to know reggae and dancehall. Sure, it would have been hella awkward, but I would have learned something and developed a relationship instead of standing there blushing.

How To Mix Into The Unknown

  1. Prioritize Balance – How much time do you have? If you are walking into a sound check, simply focus on reenforcing the sources that need it, balancing the mix, and asking the band manager or someone familiar with the music to guide you.
  2. Call A Friend – If you have a little more time, phone a colleague who can walk you through the most important elements that the artist is likely to care about. I had to do this with merengue once and my colleague spent some time explaining the central roll of the guira to me.sound-design-live-dancehall-sound-system-music-you-have-never-heard-guira
  3. Study Up – The excellent bass guitar player Michael Manring said: “Don’t just listen to the music you like. Also listen to the music you dislike and try to hear the value in it that its fans hear.” How do you do that? Start by contrasting it with your favorite music and notice the differences. What’s the most prominent instrument? For vocal driven music, is it mixed high above the rest like Celine Dion or burried in the mix like My Bloody Valentine? Are there important effects that you need to have ready like a tap delay or giant reverb? Start with what you know and work back from there.
  4. Smile – Being friendly and accommodating has helped me make it through the night on many occasions. I learned to do this by working with other people who had no idea how to help me technically, but who were very polite and professional. Because they were nice and willing to work with me, we got on and made it happen.

So, back to dancehall…

What is a Dancehall Sound System?

Fast forward ten years and I’m researching dancehall sound systems. Why? Because it’s a search term for which I’m likely to rank well, and a little bit because I’m hoping to make up for that awkward moment ten years ago.

The first thing I did was post the question to Quora and Soundforums.net. Then I shared it on Twitter and Facebook to make sure that it would get some replies. Then I read this:

In the context of Jamaican popular culture, a sound system is a group of disc jockeys, engineers and MCs playing ska, rocksteady or reggae music.

Forehead slap. Retrace my steps attempting to delete any evidence that I am as white and out of it as I am. Let’s just keep this secret between you and me, shall we? Thanks.

sound-design-live-dancehall-sound-system-music-you-have-never-heard-Buraka-som-sistemaSo, when people say dancehall sound system they must mean groups of DJs and artists playing dancehall. Thanks, Wikipedia, it’s all making sense. All this time I’ve thought that groups like Buraka Som Sistema were extolling the benefits of playing through a kick-ass sound system. And every time an artist yelled, “Sound system!” I thought they were giving me a verbal high-five. 10 years later and I’m still embarrassing myself.

Terminology in music is messy. I never really understood music genres except as an organizational tool for music stores. When I tell people that I’m a sound designer they think I work in film. When I ask for the dykes people look at me funny. Life needs subtitles.

So I still don’t know dancehall, but I’m 99% sure they want more bass. However much I have now, they want more of it. And the next time someone is talking about a dancehall sound system I won’t ask them about their favorite speakers.

Here’s one of my favorite reggae jams. Enjoy.

Learn To Become A Recording Engineer Online

By Nathan Lively

sound-design-live-learn-to-become-recording-engineer-online-featured

Subscribe on iTunes or SoundCloud.

Support Sound Design Live on Patreon.

 

In this episode of the Sound Design Live podcast I talk with the owner of Audio Issues, Björgvin Benediktsson. We discuss live sound survival, website design, and the Potluck Conference. He also talks about the Icelandic language, Sigur Rós, and how to deal with the shitty parts of working in live audio.

Details from the podcast:

  1. learn-to-become-recording-engineer-online-Bjorgvin-BenediktssonMusic in this episode by Pan and The Long Wait
  2. Björgvin Benediktsson on Twitter and Facebook
  3. Sigur Rós
  4. SAE Institute
  5. Eyjafjallajökull volcano
  6. eBooks: Recording & Mixing Strategies, Live Sound Survival
  7. Crowd Audio – The 99 Designs of mixing.
  8. Talent House, eLance
  9. Behringer Zenix
  10. Theme Forest (for WordPress)
  11. NAMM, AES
  12. Potluck Conference in Tucson
    1. Craig Shumaker: Calexico, Devotchka, KT Tunstall, Neko Case
    2. Andrew Sheps: Red Hot Chili Peppers, Black Sabbath
    3. Dusty Wakeman: Mojave
    4. Vance Powell
    5. Michael Romanowski: mastering engineer, Dredg
  13. Quotes:
    1. “Live sound is difficult, frustrating, has long hours, and often commands very bad pay. Even though mixing live sound might be an awesome job, it’s just a small part of what you do as a live sound engineer. Sometimes running live sound just sucks.”
    2. “I’m a big believer in quitting fast if you really know it’s not for you.”

Keep Calm and…Too Late: the Concert from Hell

By Nathan Lively

sound-design-live-the-concert-from-hell-keep-calm-devil-soul

sound-design-live-the-concert-from-hell-keep-calmWhat follows is an awesomely painful story of a tiny technical problem that destroyed an entire concert.

I share it with you to illustrate one of the most important points that Darryn De La Soul made in our interview: Don’t panic.

As sound engineers, you know that anyone working on live events has ample opportunity to lose their shit. Aside from the technical problems that can ruin a show, there are lots of egos bumping into each other and other elements that easily combine to create a perfect storm of emotional stress. Starbucks has spent over two million dollars on its employee training program. New employees learn how to deal with stressful situations by writing down exactly how they will respond. If a customer gets upset and starts yelling, how do you respond? Can you handle it?

Working in live audio is a lot like working at a Starbucks; a Starbucks that’s on fire, and careening down the highway at 105mph. This is a service industry and it is as much about managing people as it is about fixing technical problems. As you read Darryn’s story, imagine yourself in her shoes. What would you do?

Crackle, Snap, Pop

by Darryn De La Soul, from the January 2012 edition of FOH

I am not a Roman Catholic, but I imagine this is what it feels like to enter the confessional. To expose my sins and hope fervently for the forgiveness that will make the rest of my life livable.

What follows is a tale of woe, destruction, humiliation and anguish. I wish I could say it has a happy ending, but it doesn’t.

It all began a long, long time ago. I was young and I was cocky. I was also the newly-engaged assistant house engineer for a venue in East London.

Up until then, I’d been a studio-bod, but I’d managed to talk myself into this live job, not realizing how different the two environments were. My boss (and engineer-extraordinaire, who shall remain nameless lest my shame taint his relationships with the currently hip and famous) was due some annual leave shortly after my appointment.

Before he went away, he took me to one side to discuss the upcoming gigs. One in particular was very important — a fans-only gig for a band that was just making it. Twenty-four hours later, I had enough experience to know that this should have set alarm bells ringing, but on that fateful day, I was still green, and no such jangling occurred.

sound-design-live-the-concert-from-hell-spinal-tapFortunately for me, the band has since dwindled into obscurity, but at the time, they had just crossed the channel, having played live on mainstream French radio to an audience of millions. They were on their way back to London triumphant, preparing to give succor to their fans by holding a non-ticketed, invite-only, intimate performance for 350 of their most rabid followers.

Oh, the arrogance of youth!

On the advice of my now-absent boss, I got a freelancer in to help. Not on the advice of my boss, who recommended a “more experienced live engineer,” I called on the services of a best friend and studio-mate on the brink of starvation and in need of the dollar.

Said starving mate had much experience on the noise-making end of the microphone (he now works for a superstar in the studio), but at the time, he’d never engineered a live gig in his life. Nor has he since. I wonder why.

Anyway. The soundcheck goes without a hitch. Most of the support band goes without a hitch. Until the last song, during which an ungodly crackle, straight from the maws of Satan himself, sets up home in my system and proceeds to eat up bits of audio.

As it had only happened in the last song, and because I was a dumb-ass, inexperienced fool, I chose to ignore its presence during the changeover. With all channels now mercifully muted, the hiding-head-in-the-sand policy seemed to be working, and I got my stage rearranged in readiness for the much-anticipated main event.

The headliners amble onstage, looking every bit as cocky and pleased with themselves as a band-on-the-rise, at the end of a very successful European tour can, and should, be.

“Good evening to you, London!” cries the front man.

“Bad evening to you, Darryn!” cries the infernal crackle that has now trebled in volume and noticeability, is painful to the ears and is proceeding to devour all sound anyone would have paid money to actually hear.

The band braves it on through half a song. I brave it on through half a song. But God is getting even with me for something I really can’t remember doing, and my night of hell starts its steady decline from purgatory to the roasting fires, spewing brimstone (what the hell is brimstone, anyway?) deep into my soul.

sound-design-live-the-concert-from-hell-keep-calm-devil

To make matters worse, the devilish cackle is intermittent, but every time someone on stage moves (which, um, is quite often, really), this unbearable crackle rips through the room.

I have no idea what to do. Thus far in my month-long live career, I have fixed Röyksopp’s sampler, I have lifted a few earth switches and soldered a few cables. I have not, however, faced a situation in which God and the devil are conspiring against me in an act so unnatural, horror movies should be made of it.

In the cold light of the following day (oh, the glory of hindsight!) all I needed to do was mute and/or PFL channels until I found the channel that was exuding the aforementioned corruption and filth. In the glaring, hot, sweaty light of the moment, all I did was panic.

I froze. A rabbit in the headlights has more chance of salvation than I did that night. And then I made the error to beat all errors. I followed the advice of everyone who was screaming at me.

A little list — People Who Were Screaming At Me:

  1. The Band — from the stage, over the microphone. “F*cking sort it out! You useless c*nt!” etc etc. Constantly, and at length. Since then, I have had the presence of mind to mute the microphones of people who speak to me like that — I’m such a bad engineer, jeez, I can’t figure out why you’ve gone quiet all of a sudden?!
  2. The Baying Mob — following the example of their idols. Did I mention I was mixing on a balcony? Built purely for the mix position. Normally, this is my least-favorite mix position. On this occasion, I have never been more grateful for a physical divide between myself and the audience who, by now full of beer and anger, were turning on me. God bless the security team who literally prevented me from being lynched that night.
  3. The Band Manager — “It’s the kick drum, it’s the kick drum!”
  4. The Support Band Manager — “It’s the guitar, it’s the guitar!”
  5. Other Random VIPs who had access to my balcony — “It’s X!” It’s Y!” “It’s your aunty’s brother’s dog!”
  6. The Band — again and again, over and over.

An even littler list — People Who Were Not Screaming At Me:

  1. My half-starved studio mate, who was panicking in the background and hiding as far away as he could.

To cut a long story short:

The gig limped on for a few more devilimbued crackly songs until the band gave up and the whole thing fizzled out.

A blessed bartender (may there be a place for her at the right hand side of God for this act of charity) brought me a VERY large whiskey when events drew to their excruciating close.

I drank said whiskey very quickly, and the same made-in-the-image-of-God angel gave me the rest of the bottle.

The next day, I had some facing-the-music to do. A deluge of complaints was coming in via email and over the phone. I understand much cash was refunded. Upon investigation, we discovered that a freak, untimely accident of beer-pouring by a member of the support band had combined with the only shoddy bit of soldering in an otherwise immaculate installation. This had caused liquid, copper and the-powers-that-be to join forces, resulting in a short that only connected when someone stood on a particular part of a somewhat springy stage.

sound-design-live-the-concert-from-hell-fuck-offYes, I should have identified the channel and muted it, but I didn’t. Yes, I should have told all the “engineers” around me to f*ck off and give me time to think and investigate, but I didn’t. Yes, I should have been more in control, but I wasn’t.

But, as much as this incident still haunts my every professional move, I have come to realize a few things. The world was still intact afterwards, the earth still spun, and the laws of nature had not been abominated. What we do is entertainment. It is not the be-all and end-all of life as we know it, and if it sometimes goes wrong, then so be it. Really. Get over it. There is more uproar in our modern society over a buzzy PA than in the seemingly daily rise in petrol prices. More people complain about a poorly audible vocal than the continued instability in the Middle East.

And let the person who has never had a bad day at work cast the first stone.

Honestly, Live Audio Is Not Based On Science

By Nathan Lively

book-review-live-audio-dave-swallow-featured-image

book-review-live-audio-dave-swallowDid you hear my interview with Dave Swallow? You should. In our conversation it was obvious that he has a ton of valuable information to share, but that information is kind of hidden in his book. Let’s dig around in the dirt and pull out the gems.

Your job as an engineer is to get the best out of what you are given, even when you are given the worst.

Bored.

Swallow spends a lot of time covering information that you can find in the user manuals for mixing consoles and outboard gear. It overshadows his personal experiences with mixing, which were the parts that I found interesting AND that I couldn’t find somewhere else. If I were to edit this book, I would cut everything but the personal experience.

I found the summary of audio basics to be too brief, and disconnected from the practical goals of the book. It would probably be better served with footnotes and a glossary.

WTF Bro?

Some parts of Live Audio are just plain misleading.

For example, the section on hearing loss prevention is misleading because he says, “You can’t wear earplugs while you are mixing because then you won’t be able to hear what you are doing,” then later mentions that molded earplugs are “worth the money.” The truth is that many artists and engineers work with molded ear plugs and IEMs and enjoy slower hearing loss and a longer career because of it.

I do really appreciate this point, though: “Don’t put anything down your ear.” It reminds me of a story I heard from a friend about new military recruits that had access to medical facilities for the first time and would excessively clean their ear canals, leaving them dry and irritated. Ear wax is normal.

book-review-live-audio-dave-swallow-line-arraySome of Dave’s comparisons of point source and line arrays are also misleading.

  1. Hardly anyone uses a pure line array with all speakers parallel anymore. So the arrays he refers to are really two different versions of a coupled point source array, with different speaker types.
  2. You can aim any speaker array poorly. Swallow writes, “Line arrays tend to create strong sound reflections off the rear wall, which muddies the sound in shallow rooms.” That doesn’t make sense. You can point a point source array at the back wall and make problems just as easily as you can with a line array.
  3. When Swallow writes, “Line arrays require a very high ceiling because they must be tall to work properly,” I think, wow, that’s way too general. Firstly, most line arrays have hardware available so that they can be ground stacked. Secondly, he is really discussing the physics of array length versus frequency response, so his offhand reference to “tall” is useless. Lastly, Swallow suggests avoiding line arrays for outdoor events because, “As much as they have the ability to not lose many decibels over a long distance, the actual power of the wavefront that is formed seems to be fairly weak, rendering the sound pretty useless in anything over a slight breeze.” Is it just me, or is that confusing? If it’s not losing decibels then why would the wavefront be weak?
  4. In another example Swallow writes, “…with the point source system, you get more volume down at the front”; why? I want more explanation!

I understand that Swallow is introducing these concepts in a way that won’t be overwhelming, but you can’t just skip to the end and lead the reader to think there is nothing more to know, that things are always one way. My advice is to take his rules of thumb with a grain of salt.

book-review-live-audio-dave-swallow-humidity-hf-absorptionAnother confusing subject is the environmental effects of humidity and temperature. Swallow’s comments on directional transmission are helpful, but he makes a big deal about temperature increasing the speed of sound and having some effect on high frequencies. I read it several times and didn’t understand what he was trying to say. Here are three important things to remember about temperature and humidity from Sound Systems: Design And Optimization:

  1. The speed of sound in air is only slightly temperature dependent. A 1% change in the speed of sound occurs with either a 5°C or 10°F change in temperature.
  2. As humidity rises, high frequency transmission improves.
  3. The high frequency loss rate is highest around room temperature and increases as temperature either rises or falls around this standard.

And one more thing that is just plain wrong: “To measure a room’s frequency response, you use a real-time analyzer (RTA).” Why is this wrong? Please read this.

Meeting Ear To Ear

And then, a saving grace! Remember in my article on controlling feedback onstage when I condemned “ringing out” stage monitors? Swallow totally agrees! See? I’m not crazy. The world is crazy!

This procedure…is extremely annoying for anyone else trying to work in the room and is considered by most industry professionals to be extremely amateurish. Instead, you should understand what the frequencies do in terms of how boosting and cutting each frequency on the graphic affects the overall sound…Do not sacrifice the sound of the system just for a little more volume.

Also, Swallow’s explanation of why graphic EQs are pretty much useless is right on the money. I’ve already beaten that subject to death on Sound Design Live.

Hey, remember in my interview with Philip Graham when he challenged my assumption that dynamic mics are more forgiving than condenser microphones on vocals? Well, read it and weep Philip:

A dynamic mic can be much more sympathetic, more forgiving to a bad mic technique…

There are some sections that a good editor should have just cut. For example, in the section on using an SPL meter Swallow describes the fast and slow response settings: “If you have a fast reading, you’ll see the numbers changing very quickly on the display, whereas with a slow reading, the numbers change much more slowly.” Really? You just wasted seven seconds of my life. I can’t get those back now.

Awesome!

So where are the good parts in this book?

book-review-live-audio-dave-swallow-la-rouxThe value of Live Audio is Swallow’s personal experience. For an example in this section on how he uses Pitch Shift:

With La Roux, I use +4 on the left side and a delay of 14ms; on the right side I use -14 and a delay of 4ms. When combined with the vocal, it gives a very unique sound and sinks the vocal into the music while still keeping it loud enough to be heard.

This is gold! I had never thought about using pitch shifting in live sound before! Why can’t the entire book be like this?

When we get into the chapter on mixing is when Live Audio starts reading like great advice and less like a bad user manual. His suggestions for  equalization, dynamics, and effects processing are very helpful. Also, the section on microphone technique is useful and gave me a lot of god ideas to try. Especially his five-mic array for piano.

I really appreciate Swallow’s suggestions for critical listening. I generally try to work really fast and have been guilty of trying to fix everything with EQ. Swallow reminds us throughout the book to walk around the venue and stage when there is a problem we cannot identify.

His best tip on soundchecks is to finish the soundcheck on the first song of the set so that everything will be set to go right out of the gate. Brilliant.

I’m glad Swallow talks about panning and stereo because I’ve long wondered why anyone would ever setup a stereo sound system when only a small portion of those people in the center will hear in stereo (see What’s wrong with stereo?). Swallow answers this question by explaining that while yes, stereo panning will produce a different result in each seat of the audience, it also produces a sense of spaciousness that everyone enjoys. And now I remember that Bob McCarthy said pretty much the same thing in our interview. Basically, stereo is here to stay because people like it and there are ways to accomplish it without sabotaging your system optimization.

Conclusions

I can see how this book might be good for a stage manager or technical director who doesn’t have experience in pro audio and may want an overview of how it all works. But if you are a sound engineer, skip to the sections with personal experience and definitely read the mixing chapter. Because honestly, Live Audio is not based on science. Swallow has toured the world making music, so when he says that something works or doesn’t, it’s because he’s been there and done that.

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