UPDATE: This article appears in The Ultimate Guide to Creative Mixing on the Digico SD5. In this video, I describe how I used macros to create efficient shortcuts in my mix on the Digico SD5 as head of sound for the Out of This Word tour for Ringling Bros. Circus. In it, I show you how I created macros to save the session, control Qlab, dim the lights and screen brightness, open the chat window, easily satisfy producer notes, create an explosion of reverb, and unmute hidden channels. When I … [Read more...]
Use a Ducker to Get Your Vocals (and your kick!) in the Pocket
UPDATE: This article appears in The Ultimate Guide to Creative Mixing on the Digico SD5. Have you ever had to mix some really dense backing tracks that made it impossible to find a place for the vocal? When I was working on building the mix for the Ringling Bros. Out Of This World tour I ran into exactly this problem. Not only did I have a very mid-range dense arrangement, but there was an equally dense sweetener track mixed in at the same volume. The musical director was asking for more … [Read more...]
Give Me MORE Kick! This effect saved the day.
UPDATE: This article appears in The Ultimate Guide to Creative Mixing on the Digico SD5. I kept getting asked to turn the kick up, but it was never loud enough. Eventually, it sounded like a kick drum solo with the rest of the band as backup. I was struggling with how to make the mix work when I discovered the Audio Enhancer effect on the Digico SD5. Through experimentation, I found that if I inserted the Audio Enhancer on the SM52 Beta channel with a setting of 2.3kHz on the crossover and … [Read more...]
How to Update Snapshots on the SD5 in the Middle of a Show
UPDATE: This article appears in The Ultimate Guide to Creative Mixing on the Digico SD5. In this video I describe how I used snapshots to automate my mix on the Digico SD5 as head of sound for the Out Of This Word tour for the Ringling Bros. Circus. In it, I walk you step-by-step through how I implemented snapshot creation, global scope, recall scope, update selected, auto update, cross fades, add to group, relative groups, update group, recall times, and midi list for Qlab control. One of the … [Read more...]
Help, I can’t hear the vocal! Waves Vocal Rider Plugin to the rescue.
UPDATE: This article appears in The Ultimate Guide to Creative Mixing on the Digico SD5. The biggest struggle in building the mix for the Ringling Bros. Out of This World tour was in figuring out how to get the Ringmaster's vocal to cut through an already busy mix. At most times the arrangement included several other instruments competing for the mid-range where I needed the vocal to sit: electric guitar, horns, drums, and any number of synth patches. I initially thought the problem was that … [Read more...]