Month: August 2019

Make It A Double: Inside Approaches to Parallel Processing

Make It A Double: Inside Approaches to Parallel Processing

One of the earliest studio mixing tricks that I learned was parallel processing – running the same signal through several mixer channels and processing them independently. There are a few variants of this technique, the most common being parallel compression. For example, the first application I saw of this was when a studio engineer double-patched …

+ Read More

Trimming the Fat

Trimming the Fat

My mixing technique is largely subtractive in nature (remove things from the mix that don’t need to be there). If I’m getting a lot of hi hat bleed through the other drum mics, I’ll pull the hat fader back. I’ll high pass, low pass, and mid-scoop mix elements that aren’t contributing necessary energy (or contributing …

+ Read More

RCF HDL6-A Outdoors

RCF HDL6-A Outdoors

This past weekend, I mixed an outdoor concert with RCF as the PA sponsor. My colleague has been planning on investing in a new compact-format array system for a while, and this event proved the perfect occasion to do a test drive. A trim height of 17.5 feet on an SL100 and a coverage area …

+ Read More

Line Array Bench Test and Gain Setting

Line Array Bench Test and Gain Setting

RCF is a production partner on an outdoor rock show I’m running this weekend. They sent along 12 of their HDL6-A line array cabinets along with four SUB 8004-AS subwoofers. It’s a killer little rig that packs a punch, with some smart engineering – stay tuned to next month’s issue of Live Sound International for …

+ Read More

Understanding LF Headroom in Arrays

Understanding LF Headroom in Arrays

Modern line array elements have very narrow vertical dispersion at high frequencies, which allows us to manipulate inter-element splay angles to manage overlap and therefore power addition. However, at LF, dispersion is very wide (approaching omnidirectional) and the elements overlap regardless of splay angle. Thus, all boxes in an array contribute to LF headroom over …

+ Read More