Really appreciate the last tip, 85% of it is good gain and the mix, that’s where I came in and for a few years not even knowing what a compressor was or much else, but somehow it worked.
With gates and compressors, understanding attack and release times and how they affect the tone helps in controlling the transients and sustains. And set the make up gain to zero, compress 2:1 to 2.5:1. Keep in mind attack times on compressors feel like they work differently then they do on gates. Think of a fast attack like throwing a door open quickly when signal reaches threshhold, and this acts quicker on the transients. While release times determine how the tail or sustain sounds or feels.
I wouldn’t bother with a gate on a lav mic unless there a bunch of people on stage and you’re just wanting to turn down whoever isn’t talking. It’ll help hide compression-induced feedback, but only until the AC kicks on (or something else raises the noise floor) and then it’s squeal city. Plus, it sounds weird in the recording.
I once spent an entire Sunday morning working with a guitarist whose battery in acoustic guitars pre-amp was going dead. The volume was weak and extremely distorted. She spent the entire time telling me there was nothing wrong with her guitar and I didn't know what I was doing. Even after plugging her guitar into the other guitarists channel and his into her channel proved that it was her guitar she continued to argue the point and asked the Worship Leader to put someone else on the console (which he refused to do). It sounded so bad I ended up just turning her guitar channel off completely. And yes I suggested placing one of the SM58s on a stand to mic her guitar to get us thru the morning but they adamantly refused. The next week the Worship Leader (her husband) told me that the battery was indeed essentially dead due to some wiring fault in the pre-amp that had been repaired, but stated I should have been able to tune the sound system to compensate for it. I told him he was crazy if he thought you could tune a system around a bad input like that. Needless to say, when his contract ran out both of them were let go. Neither of them ever apologized and still bad mouth me to others about it.
Was it a Taylor? I have a friend that's having that same issue. Luckily she's not as stubborn. But I feel your pain, so many musicians think running a sound board is just moving a few dials and calling it good.
@@dannycobra9339 Honestly, it's been so long since it happened I don't remember. They had two identical guitars and they both had that problem. The Worship Leader had his repaired but didn't think to have his wife's identical guitar checked. I do remember that it was a common failure on that specific model of guitar and was covered under warranty, but he was too lazy to worry about it until it failed. I was so glad to get rid of the two of them. It's been six years and neither the old WL or his wife have been able to find a Church that is willing to put up with them. The volunteers that replaced them were not nearly as musically adept as they were, but they were so much easier to work with. They always asked what they could do to make things sound better and thanked the Sound Crew after almost every service.
Mixing in the headphones. I hate it! The only thing I really use headphones for is hearing what an individual part sounds like. And really, I only use one headphone. I keep an old headphone with one end broken off so I just hold it to one ear. I listen for a couple of seconds to train my ear to it and put the headphone down to listen for it in the mix. That's the sound I adjust - the one that's in the mix, not the one that's cued in the headphone. "Temporary Threshold Shift" I'm going to have to remember that term. This is something I've always been aware of and have worked to keep my hearing as neutral as possible, kind of like a wine or food taster that has to clear their palette. I have an established SPL range that works for the congregation that I aim to stay within so things remain consistent. I also play unfiltered canned music between services. If the music in between services sounds weird, then I did something wrong in the mix at the previous service and got used to it. I listen to the canned music until it sounds right and start over at the next service trying not to duplicate the same error.
I listen in solo mode too, but doesn't forget the context of the part. When I treat vocals, I have the goal of a believable voice sound and when there are more than one vocal part, I change the setting after this, that multiple vocal parts will match together. I modify the instrumental parts to match with the vocals and I use the equalizer first to get a good sounding part and when this part doesn't work in the context, I change it. Some changes are about the low end. When the bass guitar covers the bass, the piano got a low cut and maybe some cut in the midrange, to left space for the vocals. Acoustic guitar when recorded over pickup needs some cut around 4 kHz and cheaper ones also some at 1 kHz and in a complex arrangement I would cut frequencies below 800 Hz.
Thanks for the video. Ive been on an adventure for a couple months as a green horn mixing my own recordings. I feel im getting ahead of the game quickly with your help. I could probably even mix live music at this point, okay maybe not quite yet.
it's a gain stage after the compressor. If you turn up the input gain before the compressor, the compressor's ratio pushes down on the additional input level. But if you turn it up after the compressor, you get the increase without more compression
Yes correct , the blend is the real goal . I Like that gritty guitar 🎸 tone , sooo nice 👍🏽 . You mentioned playing with the delay , would you still use this effect in an untreated room with hard surfaces ?
@@colonelsanders1617 I was going to say the same thing... lol.. The quieter parts were louder... I totally missed that so were the loud parts.. oh well... But I wasn't brave enough to publish my guess.
