Classic Tracks

Read up on how some of your fave songs were recorded.

http://mixonline.com/classic-tracks/

Mixing Al Green

Well this has to be one of the hardest mixes ever.  With 40 channels of audio, and heaps of spill going everywhere, it's really hard to control the sounds.  If I could leave all the vocals out it would sound really good.  But the vocal mics all have heaps of drums spilling into them, meaning that you lose all the clarity in the drums.  When you turn up the vocal channels the reverb on the vocal also adds to the drums reverb, plus the indirect sound of the drums in the vocal mics makes for mushy drums.  So lots of compromising has to be done as far as reverb levels and drum levels go.  Also we have to remember that vibe is good.  Try to get across the feeling of being at a live concert without it sounding too crappy.

 The other thing to deal with mixing a live concert as I've mentioned in other posts is to remove all the mud from the sound.  With loud PA systems and foldback on stage you get a lot of general low to low mid frequency wash that just muddies up the sound.  So this needs to be removed, sometimes at the expense of the induvidual sounds.  But that's part of the trick of making things mix well together.  Soloing a particular instrument and making it sound good on it's own usually does not mean it will sound good mixed in with all the other instruments.  So you need to treat each element in the context of what everything else is doing.  I've gone through and edited the tom tracks and the percussion tracks cutting out sections where nothing is going on on those channels to reduce unwanted noise.

The other thing throwing me into turmoil is learning to use the automation on the SSL.  It's great having this so you can record all of your fader moves. In such a large band with so much going on it's good to be able to shift the focus and also help in reducing the mud and spill, and the automation is very handy for this.   But when you don't know the automation system very well you get yoursef in all sorts of trouble with faders jumping all over the place.  It's a good way to scare people into thinking there is a ghost in the room, but not a good way to get a mix done when time is so limited anyway.  In the long run it saves time because you can keep going back finessing the mix, so it's worth the pain learning how to do it.

Fort Scratchley

We went to Fort Scratchley in Newcastle to record a forum on coal.  We had five guests on stage plus our presenter Geraldine Dougue.  We did it inside the function centre, not around the canons.
That's our gear in the bottom piccy.  We were trialling a system of radio mics made by Lectrosonics.  That's it over on the right with the little laptop.  The roadcase under the laptop holds a single rack unit device which contains 6 receivers for the radio mics.  The laptop holds the software which lets you monitor all the mics' activity and modify frequencies.  Other gear - little mixer on left for providing talkback to Geraldine.  2nd mixer for the PA system, then splitter racks and compressors, and then the 3rd mixer was for mixing the recording.

Boyer Lecture Live

Today I recorded General Cosgrove delivering his first lecture live in front of all the important people.  We recorded the 1st lecture in the studio as a backup, but the the live version is now currently going to air as I write this.  All the subsequent lectures will be the studio versions.  You can podcast it from the Radio National website.

There is no gig which you want to stuff up, but this is one of the ones you REALLY don't want to stuff up.  This is a big event for our Network.  So I had 2 recorders going, each recording to flash card and hard disk so that there was no chance of not getting a recording.  I put my own mic on the lecturn, so that we didn't have to listen to the horrible gooseneck mic which was feeding the PA.  My mic was a Neumann KMS105.  Plus we had a lapel mic on the General as a backup in case the microphone fell over or something horrid.  My recorders were the SoundDevices portable hard disk/flash recorders model 744 and 722.

I didn't stuff up luckily.

Then we had to run upstairs and compile the program and get it loaded into the autoplay computer.  I was sitting in the studio playing it from another computer as a backup in case the autoplay didn't work.

Then I freaked out when the producer came running in saying it wasn't the right program going to air.  But really it was, she was just having a moment.

Garage Hymnal at Work

I recorded Garage Hymnal at the ABC the other day.  It was fun being able to record friends.  It was a full on day.  They are an 8 piece band and we only had till 3pm to get 6 songs down.  That is not a lot of time.  It wouldn't be unusual to spend till 3pm getting set up for a band that size.  So it was a speedy set up and record.

The instruments were - drums, bass, 3 guitars, keyboards/piano.
They have two female lead vocalists.
I put all the instruments in the large recording room together and the vocals went in the isolated booth so that they didn't get lots of loud instruments spilling into their mics.  I put baffles around the drums to get some isolation from the rest of the band.  Then the band all played together and and did 2-3 takes of each song before moving onto the next.  All the vocals were recorded live with the band.

Some pics thanks to various band members.

My channel list.  For a setups this big it's good to be ultra organised and work things out before you get into the studio on the day.  I had several of these printed out so I could easily keep track of where everything was going.  The last 6 channels were only for an option if they decided to do some unplugged stuff, but they didn't, so we went the electric band, using up to channel 26.  Plus I added in 2 DPA mics for the acoustic piano, plus a mic underneath the snare drum as well as the one on top.  The other change was to use a 414 on one of the vocalists and an 87 on the other.  It's sometimes good to use different mics on different singers so that you get a slightly different sound quality which makes it easier to blend in the mix.

ACO recording

Every house engineer now and then has to baby sit a studio for a hire without actually doing any engineering.  I've done that this week.  The Australian Chamber Orchestra are using our orchestral studio for a recording with the Swedish record company - BIS Records.  I'm the on call house engineer this week with nothing to do.  Well, I did help them set up and I turn up every day and make sure the lights and air conditioning are good.

I don't mind occasionally doing brainless work.  It's a nice mental break to not have to have anything to think about except be on call to help out if needed.  It's always good to see how other engineers work as well.  As a sound engineer I believe you never stop learning.  There is always a different way to do things.

The orchestra are recording a buch of flute concertos with a flautist whose name I don't know.  It's good to have details sorted out isn't it...  the ACO consists only of strings by the way, with a guest flute player.

1st violins, 2nd violins and viola sections each have 2 spot mics - Neumann KM143 which are a wide cardioid pattern.

The 3 cellos and 1 bass are spotted with KM140 which are a standard cardiod so have more rear rejection than the 143.

The flute is being mic'd with 2 KM143 on a stero bar just above the height of the flute, approx 3 feet from the flute, panned hard left and right.  I thought that was interesting to mic the solo instrument with a stereo pair.

Then there are 2 KM 130 omni mics as a wide stereo pair out front about 3m high pointing down to the centre of the orchestra.  But because the flute player is facing the orchestra for the recording, she has her back to theses mics, so there is another stereo pair in the midst of the orchestra, facing the front, pointing down at the flautist, and about 1.5 m apart.  These are DPA 4006 omnis.

Dangerous Ideas BBC Forum

During the first weekend of October I spent the whole weekend at the Opera House recording several sessions of the Festival of Dangerous Ideas.  One of them was for the BBC program The Forum.  It was quite an interesting program about Australian stereotypes.

You can hear the program by clicking here.

Microphones used were the Neumann system made up of the KM100 phantom supply, with an AK40 cardioid head, with a gooseneck inserted between the 2.  These sounded really good.  Each person also wore a lapel mic for if they ever went off mic.  When mixing this I was constantly riding the levels of each person, so that only the person talking at the time was at full volume to eliminate as much echo as possible.  You have to be quick with the fingers doing this and sometimes you miss the start of a person's sentence, but it's the the risk you have to take.  If you leave everyone's mic up at full volume there is just not enough clarity in the voices.

You can hear one of the voices is quite echoey as the woman didn't have a very loud voice, meaning that the PA operator had to keep pushing her louder through the PA, causing her to not sound as direct as the others. It's one of the problems with doing these things.  If people don't speak up, as I have written about in a previous post, it makes things very difficult to mix.

Microphone Technique

Every sound engineer's worst nightmare - people on stage who refuse to speak up. They think that as soon as they get a microphone put on them, they start speaking like they are only talking to someone right beside them. WRONG!!!!!  A microphone is not your voice, it is there to support it.  People on stage giving talks need to project if the microphone is going to do its job properly.

It is impossible to mix sound properly if the you don't speak up.  Why?  The quieter you speak, the more we have to turn the microphone up through the PA system, meaning more chance of feedback.

Feedback is that ringing sound you hear in the sound system.  It can be quite painful.  It is caused when the signal picked up by a microphone, is amplified and put out through a speaker, which is picked up by the microphone and amplified and put out through the speaker, which is picked up by the microphone and amplified and put out through the speaker, which is......

The best way to avoid feedback is by not turning the microphone up so much.  So if the person on stage talked louder, you wouldn't need to turn the microphone up so much, so you wouldn't get feedback.  Simple.

So if you ever have cause to be in front of a microphone please project your voice and the sound engineer will love you a lot.

Big desks I work on

1. SSL Duality

2.SSL C200

3.SSL Gseries

Check everything before going live

Whether you are mixing a live show, church service, broadcast, doesn't matter what, check all your audio sources beforehand.

And this does not mean a few days before.  Check it immediately before.  Just because it worked on Tuesday doesn't mean it's working on Sunday.

How many times have you been somewhere and a video comes up on the screen and no audio?  This happens far more often than I am comfortable with.

Check it beforehand.  Are all the connections right?  Has someone unplugged something without you knowing?  Is the audio output on the computer set up properly?

Do you use radio mics?  Check them.  Are the batteries dead?  Is the receiver picking up the signal properly?

Do you need to play a CD in the show?  Have you checked the CD player actually reads the CD and audio is coming out?  Does it cue up properly so that when you push play there is not 5 seconds of silence first?

Check all mics to make sure they work and are coming in on the mixer where you are expecting them to.

Please people, no more gaps.

Always check the connectors

That's today's tip of the day.  Here you can see one headless engineer plus one engineer with a head in the orchestral studio trying to work out why we couldn't get level to tape on four channels.  That's the SSL C200 digital console, looking out through the glass to the large room where orchestras and people go.  Out of the picture were me, with a head, obviously trying really hard to help because I was taking photos, plus another engineer who also has a head, also helping out with the situation.  That's four extremely skilled sound engineers trying to work out the solution to the problem.  Naturally we were trying all the difficult things, like going deep into the depths of the software configaration for the digital connections.  But the answer was simply that the cable wasn't in properly.  Lots of time could have been saved if we'd thought of this first.  But on the positive side it was a good exercise in dealing with the highly complicated software which goes with this desk.

Hot Tips for Church Sound Operators

Back in 2002 I wrote an article about doing live sound in church for a really cool online magazine of Christian articles . The website was gracenotworks.com, which you can still find, but hasn't been updated for many years. It had some great design features, like the little pixelated sheep up the top which wiggles when you move your mouse over it. Plenty of things to click on. Anyway, I came up with some simple tips for chuch sound operators which I still advocate...

.: Be one step ahead of everything at all times. The sound operator must be continually on the ball. Always watch what’s going on up front and be ready for it. Having someone talk into a microphone which isn’t on should NEVER happen.

.: Be listening at all times. This sounds obvious, but needs to be said. Is the speaker clearly audible? Can all of the instruments be heard in a pleasing balance? (It is hard to hear what is going on if you sing while mixing.)

.: Practice mixing. Take some time to experiment outside the service. Get your church band to come and jam so that you can practice. Try things that you are too scared to try in a service.

.: Familiarise yourself with equalisation (tone controls). Play a CD or sermon tape over the system and hear what boosting or cutting different frequencies sounds like.

.: Familiarise yourself with the sound of the room. Play a CD and walk around. Is what you hear at the mix position similar to what the congregation hear? Do you need to compensate for this in your mixing?

.: If your system sounds like it has gremlins in it, get your church to spend some money getting it fixed up. It is important to have a system which works properly.

.: Having said this, you need to know how to use your system. Know how it is set up so that if anything goes wrong you can get around it.

.: Communicate well with the musicians and speakers about their sound requirements. Aim to make everyone comfortable, and this will result in a much smoother service.

audio language lesson 3

The audio language is filled with a lot of numbers. I've already taught you about 87's, 57's and 58's.

Microphone manufacturers love using numbers to name their mics. I think they should use names like Nigel, Herman and Nancy. But no, instead we all have to try and remember a bunch of numbers. Here are some more you should know, which are standard additions to studio microphone cupboards.

This lovely egg is the AKG D112. Just call it the D112. Commonly used for micing kick drums.

This is the Sennheiser 421. It sounds great on toms for a really fat sound. Great for brass as well. Just call it a 421.

This the AKG C451 B. This is used commonly for micing hi hats, and sounds great on strings as it's got really nice high end detail. Drop all the letters and call it a 451. You can see people singing into older models in old 80's film clips too, but they are not commonly used as vocal mics these days. In fact people would look at you rather strangely if you stuck it up as a vocal mic.

And finally, the AKG 414. There are several different models, but we just call them 414's. Great for anything - vocals, acoustic instruments, guitar amps, floor toms, overhead mics for drum kits.

Cooking With Sound Part 2

Today's lesson - mud.

Cooking with Sound

Earlier this year I posted some behind the scene pics of making a short film which I did the filming of. Well it's finally up on youtube. Pick the shot where we forgot to turn the lights on. What a bunch of amateurs! And spot my cameo appearance at the end.

How to heal an ear infection

I've been reading the internet lots about ear infections lately, since mine have been such an issue.  An interesting internet sourced piece of information - most ear infections are viral, not bacterial, so taking antibiotics is useless, in fact, often does more harm than good because they lower your immunity and increase the risk of a relapse.  

Here are some non drug methods I've read about or tried for curing my middle ear infections since the two lots of antibiotics I was on didn't work. 

1. put a garlic clove or piece of ripe onion in your ear (not so small or far in so that it gets stuck or touches the ear drum, that would be very bad.) Apparently the fumes have germ killing abilities.

2. Drip some coconut oil in your ear.  If you suspect you have a perforated eardrum best not to do this.  Coconut oil is supposed to have anti viral and antibacterial qualities.  Also good to take it internally.

3. Dilute some oil of oregano in olive oil and rub inside your ear canal.  Not so much that it drips onto the ear drum as it's extremely potent.   Oregano oil is also meant to be anti viral and anti bacterial and good to take a few drops a day internally for immune system.

4. acupuncture - I've had good results with acupuncture for health issues before.

5.  See an osteopath.  If your neck and back muscles are all jammed up this can impede the drainage of the eustachian tube.  I felt a huge improvement in my ear drainage after a treatment.  I mean osteopath in the the Australian sense, not the American sense, they are different over there.

So I've been trying a few of these things.  My ears smell like a tropical herb garden at the moment.

old jobs #1

I've been working for nearly 15 years now in professional audio.  I've done a whole bunch of different types of jobs in my time, ranging from live sound for theatre, music recording, mixing and production, arranging, radio production, and lecturing in recording techniques.

One of the first jobs I ever did was working on a professional production of "The Mikado" in Brisbane and the Gold Coast as the radio microphone operator. This meant being backstage for the show, fitting mics to people, doing changeovers during the show and constantly monitoring the systems to make sure no one went on stage with a dead mic.  Here's some pics from the production.

Before the show I had to go into dressing rooms and put mics on people.  The big thing was to not be able to see the mics, so there were a bunch of different techniques used.  If someone had a wig or a headband we would just stick it to their forehead poking out from the wig a little bit.  Guys with hair got the "pen job".  This took a little while to master.  It involved getting the tube of a ball point pen, with the innards removed.  Take a tiny rubber band which was only about a centimetre in diameter, and wrap it around the end of the tube several times.   Put the the head of the mic inside the tube and grab some strands of hair just above the persons ear and poke them inside the tube as well.  Then flick the rubber band off the end of the tube so that it is now attaching the mic to the hair.   Sometimes this can be rather painful for the person and needs to be done several times before you get a secure fit without it hurting like crazy.  It's best to have the mics attached to the head so that if the singer moves their head they never go off mic.

John English was one of the stars.  I didn't have to put his mic on but after the show I had to go to his dressing room and rescue his mic from his headband which was dripping with sweat.  It was gross.

During the show there were many transmitter changes.  SG didn't want to hire enough mic transmitters for each person, so they had to be shared around, which meant I spent the whole show running around grabbing transmitters out of people's costumes as they came off stage and putting them in other's as they were about to go on.  Some of the changeovers were so fast I literally had to stick my hand down people's pants the moment they got off stage, no time for modesty, then run and find the next person as they were about to step on stage.  It was pretty tight.  At times I was sprinting from one side of the stage to another to make the pack change in time.  The stage hands knew when I was coming and kept the way clear.  There were also quick costume changes of the actors as well which meant pulling the packs out of one costume and putting them in another as the person was changing their clothes.  This was sometimes a really complicated operation involving several people as some changes needed to be done in about 30 seconds.  And you don't want to be the one responsible for someone missing their cue on stage.  Yes, hectic things go on backstage of the theatre world.

audio language lesson 2

If you are going to do any live sound you need to know some basic microphones so as not to look like an eeediot.

58 - short for Shure SM58 - this is probably the most widely used live vocal mic.  It's tough, rough, can be dropped, spat into, thrown around and still work.  Almost.  Whether it actually sounds the best is another argument, but it has pretty much taken the market.  You need to know a 58 when you see one.  This is it, typical ice cream shaped mic.

This next one is a 57.  Short for Shure sm57.  Also widely used in live sound and in studios for instrument micing, mainly guitar amps and drums.  It gives a really bright grungy sound for guitar amps.  On a drum kit you will see it very often on snare drums and toms.  I don't think they the best sounding drum mic, but probably what gets used the most because that's what everyone has and you do get a good result.

So, now if anyone talks about 57's and 58's, you'll be all clued up.

great mistakes #13

Quick lesson in speaker design – they have a great big whopping magnet in them.  Ok that’s enough.

 

Back to the good ol Jupiter’s Theatre.  RF and I had to change a speaker one afternoon.  We climbed up on the catwalk high above the stage.  I stayed safely behind the rail, while RF swung out over the stage to access the speaker.  The is was before the days of strict OH&S so no harnesses or anything.  We didn’t need to change the whole cabinet, just the speaker inside.  Anyway I was there to grab the dead speaker from RF once he unscrewed it and hand him the new one.   Catwalks are made of steel.

 

I thought I’d put the new speaker down until I needed to hand it to RF because it was quite big and heavy.  That magnet was huge.  And then it was like a slow motion film with RF reaching back over to me and yelling “NNNOOOOO  DDDDOOONN”TTTTT  PPPUUUT  IIIIT   DDDOOOOOOWWWN”  (sped up version is “no don’t put it down”)  Too late.  Stuck.  Great whopping magnet and steel catwalk.   Bad.  I couldn’t get it off.

Oud

Last week I went to St Stephen's Newtown to record oud with jazz piano. Jo Tawadros was playing with Matt McMahon on piano, plus some percussion and clarinet.
We had our new Sadie LRX to record with. It's great because it's tiny and lets us record 48 channels via USB to a laptop. No more lugging around huge mixing desks or racks of preamps and huge hard disk recorder.

On the oud I had a Schoeps CMC5-U cardioid mic.

Piano had DPA 4021 piano kit mics.

Percussion and clarinet had Sennheiser MKH40s.

No free food.


That's the oud with the percussionist behind.