Sound Design Live

Build Your Career As A Sound Engineer

FOH Mixing: EQ it till it sounds good

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In this episode of Sound Design Live, I speak with FOH mixer Scott Adamson who has toured with some of my favorite bands including Passion Pit, Haim, Matt Kim, St. Vincent, and Sleater-Kinney. I ask:

  • How do I become the next Scott Adamson and pursue a career touring as a FOH concert sound mixer? What would be your first steps if you had to start all over again?
  • What are some of the biggest mistakes you see people making who are new to FOH mixing?
  • What’s one thing that you wish everyone understood better that would make show set up so much easier?
  • What’s in your work bag?

sound-design-live-FOH-mixing-eq-it-till-it-sounds-good-scott-adamson-headshot2If it doesn’t sound good, EQ it till it does.

Notes

  1. All music in this episode by Daniel Mintseris.
  2. Scott’s free courses: The Top 5 Live Sound Tips for Stage, How to Use a Mixer – the Master Control for Live Sound
  3. The biggest mistakes by people who are new to FOH mixing:
    1. Volume: There’s a big difference between making it sound big, and it being loud.
    2. EQ, especially on outputs (tuning a PA). Tip: Look at your system EQ in the high-mids.
    3. Pushing the outputs of the console super super hot.
  4. Quotes
    1. A lot of sound engineers want to share their information with people that are interested.
    2. The hardest thing to do was to stick with it.
    3. More than anything, what I feel has helped me is to just focus on being nice to people.
    4. If you are on top of your patching, everything goes fine from there.
    5. You always have to use your ear and do what sounds good and not what looks good on the screen.
    6. EQ it till it sounds good.

sound-design-live-FOH-mixing-eq-it-till-it-sounds-good-scott-adamson-concert

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.