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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
I’m asked on a relatively regular basis what gear I’m using in the field, so I figured I’d post it here. Audio Interfaces Roland OCTA-CAPTURE (8-channel interface. Since the preamps are digitally controlled, Smaart can track when you’ve adjusted a preamp level, which is helpful) Behringer UMC404HD (4-channel interface, and bus powered unlike the Roland so …
I was recently reading a forum discussion about whether an external mic was necessary when using a mobile app for RTA / spectrum analysis. It had occurred to me that the physical dimensions of the device might cause some significant spectral variance as the device’s orientation changed relative to the source. In other words, the …
Thanks to everyone who tuned into the webinar. We had to move pretty quick to incorporate all the requested topics, but we got them all in, and we had a great time. Full video is below:
I’m going to show you how to quickly estimate alignment delay values in your head, which is a hell of a party trick if you’re at… a system optimization party? This might seem mathy, but it’s not. If you passed middle school math, you can handle this. We’re going to look at the delay needed …
Just for fun, we’re going to have a little Zoom webinar to cover some of the basic principles and operation of a dual-channel FFT audio analyzer. It’s going to be free and quite informal, so come by, check it out, ask questions, have a good time. You don’t even have to dress up. When? Saturday, …