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Create an Explosion of Reverb for Magical Song Transitions

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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 first heard about macros I ignored them because they seemed unnecessary. Why would I create a macro to save my session when I can just as easily click File > Save Session?

Two reasons:

  1. The 500 times that you save 2 seconds by using a macro to save your session will reduce your stress level.
  2. There are other more important problems that macros can solve.

Problem #1 – How do I control Qlab from the SD5?

Unless your Qlab keyboard is right next to you, which mine wasn’t, it’s a pain in the ass to move over to it every time you need to trigger a cue. And what if you make a mistake and you need to hit the panic button? You better make sure it’s close by.

The SD5 has a midi out on the back and you can easily setup a macro to send the correct control message to Qlab.

Problem #2 – How do I mute hidden channels?

There were several times in the show when I needed mute all vocal FX when the Ringmaster would switch from singing to talking in the middle of a song. The channels I needed where not on a visible layer and I didn’t want to create an extra snapshot so I created a macro to mute and unmute those channels.

There are probably several other ways to solve this problem, but I found the macro to be an easy global fix.

Problem #3 – How do I create an explosion of reverb?

Well, this isn’t a problem, per say, as an opportunity. There were two long transitions in the show between songs that I needed to punch up while people were clapping. I tried doing it manually a couple of times, but I was never fast enough to boost the lead vocal, backing tracks, reverb level, reverb time, reverb density, and then return them all to their previous settings in the space of 5 seconds. And again, I didn’t want to create an extra snapshot for this. I just wanted it to be a fun effect I could blast on at any time.

The way I created it was to create a new macro, hit record, and make all of the operations one-by-one manually, then save. Try it!

Pro tip: Use a comma in the macro name to insert a line break. Yay!

Use a Ducker to Get Your Vocals (and your kick!) in the Pocket

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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 sweetener and I was struggling to find a place for the main vocal. The vocal was fighting to be heard over everything else going on.

The solution: a ducker.

This is the first time I relied so heavily on a ducker to make the mix work, but it was pretty simple to set up. I simply inserted the ducker on the channels that were giving me the most trouble and set their sidechains to the main vocal. I set the reduction to as much as 5 dB, which would have been too much with that channel soloed, but you could hardly tell in the context of the entire mix and it was just the amount of help I needed to pull the whole thing together.

I used the same trick on the bass and the some of the low-end heavy synth patches to help with the kick as well.

Give Me MORE Kick! This effect saved the day.

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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 1.45 on the drive level, I could mix the kick much lower. The kick could still be heard well, but with improved headroom in the mix.

How to Update Snapshots on the SD5 in the Middle of a Show

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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 most important things you need to know how to do on the SD5 related to snapshots is how to update a snapshot in the middle of the show. There are many times, especially while building and refining a new show, when you’ll need to make a small edit. You need to continue mixing the show, though, so you don’t have time to create a new snapshot and type in a name for it or scroll back up to the correct shapshot and take care that you are updating the right elements.

The SD5 makes this very easy, but it’s also dangerous! Here’s my process:

  1. Fire snapshot
  2. Press auto update.
  3. Rest your finger next to the button. This is critical!
  4. Change the necessary elements of the snapshot.
  5. Press auto update.

The key here is not to move your finger away until you have disengaged auto-update. Why? Because every change you make while it is engaged will get written into the snapshot. So if you forget, which I did only once, and keeping firing snapshots and mixing the show, you will record all of those changes.

What if I need to go back and change one thing in every snapshot?

This happened to me more than once: You change a microphone position or another way affect the gain staging and all of a sudden 127 snapshots are wrong. Normally, you would have to go through and adjust these one-by-one or find a workaround, but the Update Group feature solves this pretty easily.

  1. Add all affected snapshots to a group. There cannot be a break in between them on the list.
  2. Enable Relative Groups.
  3. Recall any snapshot from the group, which includes the element you want to change.
  4. Make the change.
  5. Click Update Group. It will take a second if you have a lot of snapshots.
  6. Remove all snapshots from the group.

The most time-consuming process here is adding the snapshots to the group. You might think: Why don’t I just leave all of my snapshots in a group so that I can update them at any time? Well, you could do that, but then you put yourself in a dangerous position if you accidentally hit the Update Group button. The undo button does not fix this!

How to use Recall Time to mix your show for you.

In Out Of This World, the first three acts were executed with the same timing every night. There were some fader movements that needed to happen at specific times so I automating them using Recall Time. As long as I fired the first snapshot at the right time, the mix would be in sync with the show. And if for some reason that didn’t work out, I would simply skip the timed snapshots and mix it manually.

The main benefit here was that I could convert the energy from my pre-show jitters into useful work, like double checking plugin settings and refreshing my memory of upcoming cues and changes. Another less import benefit was that I could fire the snapshot to take us into intermission and immediately run to the bathroom since I had the next set to fire by Recall Time. This is important when you need to beat an arena full of 20,000 people who are also rushing for the bathroom.

Help, I can’t hear the vocal! Waves Vocal Rider Plugin to the rescue.

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UPDATE: This article appears in The Ultimate Guide to Creative Mixing on the Digico SD5.

sound-design-live-waves-vocal-rider-digico-sd5The 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 the microphone was moving around on the actor’s face, but the wireless tech assured me that it was stable and even started taping it to his face. I then experimented with some different EQ and FX settings on the Digico SD5 before I landed on the Vocal Rider plugin.

I had to jump through a few hoops to get it setup properly, but it was worth it. Why? Because it follows the music to adapt its volume changes. I used a buss of the entire band in the side-chain. That way, if the music was quiet, it would scale back its effect. No need for heroics. But if the music was loud, it would scale up. It was a big help with the challenging task of trying to combine a very dynamic lead vocal with a busy arrangement.