51m0n

Heeeeyyyyyyyyyyy, just like Fonzy....

Firstly the main problem in most venues is the acoustics suck. If it were up to me there would be at least some decent bass trapping, and broadband absorption. That would make evryhing else so much easier. Second most spaces have a definite maximum volume before you can't get a good mix. I saw suicide support Iggy pop last year, and even in a big auditorium hey went beyond the limitbofhe venue. How? The whole place was vibrating and resonating - literally panels on the walls were trying to tear themselves free and making a terribly detrimental racket as they did so. So firstly, just because you have x amount of gain before feedback' dont think you must use it all. Second do tune the pa up with a mixture of good reference material and pink noise to get a pretty even response, not too hyped. Watch for harsh top end an eq it out, or mushy bass, bin anything nasty. Then rig up all he vox mic an tune the eq further to be rid of any feedback. In his Case he didn't understand frequency separation when mixing, leaving a huge low mid/upper bass build p of mush. Careful use of high pass filters at 80 to 120 hz on everything but bass and kick would help. Sucking a load of 250hz out of he kick, and below 80hz out of he bass can help these fit. By it is different for every venue, ban and gig. So the thing is to use your ears. If it sounds great in the mix, then its good. Learn to eq in the mix, not soloed, as its the mix that counts

Another +1 for the Senn 835 or 845 - good quality, robust enough and decent rejection

But are you using ASIO drivers? I dont think so if you're using Direct Sound....

[quote name='TimR' timestamp='1351949540' post='1857191'] Once you have managed to get "Everything louder than everything else." turn the whole lot down. Most bands are now far to loud due to low cost powerful gear. More watts mean more headroom, not more volume. If your punters are standing along the back wall, or not dancing down the front with the band, then it is too loud. [/quote] Cant agree with this enough! Brilliant point well put. I saw Plux's band play last night in a club in Brighton. The PA was massive, floor to ceiling type thing. The sound was utter utter dross. The band couldnt hear themselves on stage (depsite a binch of monitors), the punters were subjected to a wall of noise so loud that the cider in my glass was vibrating like it wanted to go for a walk. I know I am old, but i really appreciate great sound, and this was awful, the high frequencies were hars, the low frequencies were mud, there was no, 0 , seperation in the low end between bass, kick and guitar, it was just unpleasant mud. Even playing back CDs this rig sounded dreadful, but as a live rig it was apalling. And painfully loud (and I've enjoyed Motorhead, so I know loud can be good too). Irt was 'tuned' as a club rig for this kind of playback, but typically over egging the pudding, massive subs with no definition or punch just pouring out huge dollops of unpleasant WRMMMMMMM WMEMMMMMMEMRMRMMM, which meant that the kick, and bass were indistinct lumps of sub. Nasty fizzy mid tops with really harsh timbre. The dufus doing sound really didnt have a clue what he was doing, it was pitiful. On a positive note (and this is scraping the barrel) there was only one spike of feedback the whole night. We are thankful for small mercies....

If its a small room then look out for a (very rare) set of TDL Studio .75m , tiny transmission line, I guarantee you will hear the bass (right the way down there). I have a pair in the boudoir, perfect for those Barry White moments

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-HcKrd3K8_A

For the cash you'll struggle to beat an old (pre Richer Sounds buy out) pair of TDLs - RTL3 or G30 if you can find them, better yet the Studio1 is a great speaker. If you see a pair of G30s on ebay though, tell me, cos I want them

[quote name='Happy Jack' timestamp='1351857972' post='1856203'] So tell me more about getting the kick drum to sound +++ AWESOME +++. [/quote] [quote name='Truckstop' timestamp='1351859827' post='1856249'] Erm, is that serious advice or pisstaking?! Ha ha I don't want to end up with the bass drum sounding like Scorpion! Truckstop [/quote] Its something of a pisstake in that it is too much of everything.....

Tune the kick drum to its lowest fundamental frequency (this is actaully really good advice). Mic it with a mic pointing at the beater Cut some low mid (around 200Hz usually) - in fact cut all that mud Add some Lo 9around 60Hz Add some 4Khz to 8KHz (hell all of that you have) Jam it through a hard kne compressor with an attack around 50ms and release around 100ms, ratio 6:1 threhold so its giving you about 9 to 12dB GR on every hard strike Turn it up 12dB too loud in the FOH... Drink 3 pints to shoot your top end hearing down in flames , then eq the top end back in to help (especially good after 15 years doing FOH since you already have no upper frequency hearing to speak of). "Hello Wemmmmbbllleeyyyyyyy!!!!"

Low cut the keys, guitar, bv's, lead vox, snare and any drum overhead you have. Main EQ (a little graphic usually) for feedback - first investment you need to make is a serious set of 31 band graphics, one for monitors one (stereo ) for FOH. Use that to surgically remove feedback requencies. Done right this will get you something like 6 to 12dB of added volume before feedback. You dont need to use all that volume, stay sane for the sake of the punters, but the more headroom you have before feedback the better. Aim the gguiatr amp and keyboard amp at their respecive faces, at 90 degrees to FOH. The use FOH to provide the sound of their instruments to the audience. Position them at opposite sides of the stage [b][i]always[/i][/b] with amps facing in as side fills. Any backchat from them and fire them as unsuitable fo rthe gigs you are looking to get. No second chances. I'm a git aren't I The punters are all that matters here, no room for huge egos (not even one). The punters care about the following (in order of importance):- 1. Lead Vocal 2. Lead Vocal 3. Lead Vocal 4. Lead Vocal .... n. Lead Vocal Seriously. Everything else is there to support the song. Sound engineers tend to think that punters think like this:- 1. Kick drum 2. Kick drum 3. Kick drum 4. Kick drum 5. Vocal They are wrong....

Oh and for full vintage effect dont be afraid to pan the entire kit to one side (check out Rigor Mortis)

Love The Meters. Its not as dry a recording as you might think. Yes the instruments sound quite dry (bit of room on the drums, could well be a kit recorded with as little as two mics, more likely just four I think), but there is a fair amount of room on the vocals, probably either a plate or a real reverb chamber . Drum sound is typical 70's funk, super damped skins (get your drummer to put his wallet on the snare to get that close to this), and a totally unhyped kick drum (you would never get away with that plop kick sound in a contemporary band, but its just exactly right for this). Tiny bit of a spring reverb (might be a plate) on the guitar and thats it I reckon, its there but its just so small, bit more when the guitar is taking a bit of a break though. The sense of dryness is more the lack of instrumentation, and the space given to everything. Its far cleverer than just nopt using any reverb or delay ambience. There is not a hint of the need to hype the top end, all the normal culprits fo rthis obsession (guitar, vocal, cymbals) are really kept under control, which just makes everything sound far easier to listen to. They are so unafraid to keep the mojo in the mid range and not try and get into a war for presence in the mix. Masses of saturation though, lots of hard driven tape and mic-pres to get that sound. Yes you can do it to digital today for sure, but you have to aim for it from the get go and not get distracted with the far wider available frequency response availalble on digital than on cheaply pressed 45's in the 70's. Its fair to say that this stuff almost entirely mixed itself on the way to the tape, i doubt they did much but bring up the faders and ride them a bit for the mix. A little very gentle eq-ing and that plate/chamber verb on the vocals and its time to party.... Just a tonne of mojo going on in there though!

Just as a sm,all point. ANyone struggling with the sound of their gear really ought to look into the room acoustics before shifting big bucks on a newfangled shiny toy to try and fix the issue. A small investment for a measurement mic (assuming you have a cheap audio interface to your computer already) and some time and effort with a free bit of software (Room EQ Wizard) can tell you whether or not you are flogging a dead horse by buying more expensive kit. Its not difficult to sort out, although it can be harder to get acoustic treatment passed her who must be obeyed. DIY basstraps and broadband absorption will be cheaper than new speakers and amp, especially if you have pretty serious kit already, and the difference to the sound will be far greater and more even across the room. All that surgically targetting the 'listening sweetspot' and what have you - sorting out the room makes the sweetspot much much larger too.

Oh thats horrid, it doesnt go with live drum'n'a'bass style music at all. Luckily for you I'm here to point out the error of your ways for you, and by means of payment for this happy circumstance and free advice you can send me that terrible looking bass, I shall PM you the address forthwith.....

[quote name='stevie' timestamp='1348141490' post='1809859'] Overdriving the power amp can destroy speakers by pumping more power into the speaker voice coils than they are designed for. Using a distortion pedal - or overdriving the preamp - won't. So clipping is not just clipping. [/quote] No. This is a myth, its just not the case. You are confusing overdriving amps and pushing a speaker beyond its ability to handle either the heat build up or more likely the excursion the signal into it is asking it to produce. Clipping is clipping is clipping in fact.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=79I3tYxBuOg&feature=related&noredirect=1

I try and make sure I do something musical 3 times a week outside of the rehearsal room. Be that composing, generating little bits to help other people in the band nail things, mixing, writing for the blog (oh pants I have a blog post to get done - dayummm), or yes practicing. I tend to be so busy that my time for sitting down and practicing stuff has to be very much toward a set goal for rehearsals or upcoming gigs, so I dont get time to work on general playing improvements any more (not for years actually). But my bass is hanging up by the bed, I pick it up and play it every day for a few minutes (maybe up to 20) just keeping my fingers going playing some riffs, grooves, and yes, arpeggios even, but its nto really practising so much as just keeping my hand in. Years ago I used to practice far more constructively, but then I didnt have kids and a day job, so that was easy

[quote name='chrismuzz' timestamp='1351594931' post='1852960'] Totally, the VLE is actually such a valuable tool, should be on everything! [/quote] You wouldnt be siurprised to hear that a low pass filter is one of the first things a mixer will put on the bass in a mix then - it might surprise you more to find out that they are also used on guitar, drums (not overheads so much) , backing vocals, reverb returns, keys and who knows what else, alongside high pass filters on all the above in order to 'bracket' sounds nicely into a mix. Proper use of a low pass filter on pretty much everything can really help.

Should have that lot done in a week or two then

So he's taken a blowtorch to it then? I bet it stinks!

[quote name='krispn' timestamp='1351535112' post='1852328'] I'm currently using a Effectrode PC-2A and talk about a magic box! I'm not a slap player but do occasionally like to hit it like I love it but it's done me wrong. The Effectrode only has two knobs and a limiter/compressor switch but it can do a wide range of compression - it's not mega complex and has no lights but the positive qualities it brings to the tone of what ever I play it through (PA, sh*tty peavey practice amp or decent combo) is worth the money. A P bass with flats going into this is just heavenly! The PC-2A is a big warm hug of a pedal which evens out the attack without choking the dynamics of my playing. I'm recording this weekend and we're gonna try it with acoustic guitar, vocals, electric guitar and bass - a total work out I can't say it's the best comp out there but it's perfect for my needs. [/quote] Another very interesting compressor this, it is to the La-2a wqhat the Cali76 is to the 1176. That is to say it is trying to get very close to being an La-2a in a pedal. As such it is a very idiosyncratic, and desirable compressor. Its a tube circuit, but the compression is optical, how closely this pedal follows the compression characteristics of a real La-2a I dont know, that is hugely dependant on the characteristics of the light emitter component and the photoresistor. What is in this pedal isnt the same as the original device at any rate. An La-2a has a fixed 10ms attack and a very musical release curve, whereby in 0.06 seconds it gives 50% release and from 0.5 to 5 seconds it then completes the release. This is pretty unusual, and a huge part of the La-2a 'mojo'. An La-2a is a lovely lovely warm, musical sounding device, if this is close to it then I bet it sounds lovely in a very different way from the Cali76. In my ideal world I'd have the Cali76 transformer version into one of these. The Cali76 to tame the peaks, this to even out the levels. Scratch that, in my ideal world I'd have the latest rack beasts that are based on the original devices, rather than pedals, but these would get pretty close I think....

Just listened back to last nights rehearsal and editied out the good bits and sent them on to rest of band. Well and truly chuffed with the progress, especially as some of the ideas are pushing someone out of his comfort zone and he is reacting very very well to the challenge. Happy days!

That is the funky stuff alright. And showboating and getting your groove on whilst playing a solo is absolutely Kool and the Gang with me Very very ToP FRP stylee tone. But I would hazard a guess he has dialled up the VLE and VPF to noon thinking they were flat there. Because thats the kind of mudfest you get when you do that. If it was a bit less extreme I would have liked it even more!

I set my compressor up at least once a week, depending on what I'm playing.... Once set up for what I'm doing I leave it alone for the rest of the evening though. Having the lights to back up the knobs is vital IMO. I set a compressor up differently for every instrument in every mix that I put compressor on (hint, I use a lot of compression in a lot of ways to do lots of things, all of which make it sound better). Compressors are the closest thing to a magic talent switch that there is if you know how to use them when mixing