Mixing with a Left/Right Mono System

[bluemando]

This question assumes a properly designed Left/Right + Mono sound system. And in this case the environment is a 1200 seat venue with a contemporary Christian worship band.

Anybody have consice instructions or "doctrinal verbage" that would be useful in training FOH opperators on how to correctly pan and assign sources?

For example:

- Drum Kit; assigned 2 kick mics, OH pair, snare, Tom's, Floor Tom, HH, Ride.

- Mono Rhythm/Lead guitar; assigned a pair of mics (on & off) the cabinet.

- Stereo Lead guitar; assigned a pair of mics (on & off) each of 2 cabinets

- Stereo Keyboard; (also, what, if anything, would you do to patches to enhance the stereo image, especially for synth pads)

- Mono Lead Vocals

- Mono BGV Vocals

- Mono Rhythm Acoustic Guitar

- Stereo Rhythm Acoustic Guitar

- Mono Violin; 1 only

- Mono Mandolin; 1 only

Any ideas on EQ to help with seperation in the overall mix?

Also, in this facility, with Digital consoles and plugins - it seems that a LOT of compression and de-essing is used. The main worship leaders are very into Cold Play and they are striving to get really great guitar tone & big rock drum kit sounds. I wonder if too much compression is stealing the life out of the mix. Any thoughts on that?

Thanks for you input, very best regards,

Tim G

 

[shiben]

Also, in this facility, with Digital consoles and plugins - it seems that a LOT of compression and de-essing is used. The main worship leaders are very into Cold Play and they are striving to get really great guitar tone & big rock drum kit sounds. I wonder if too much compression is stealing the life out of the mix. Any thoughts on that?

Thanks for you input, very best regards,

Tim G

That to me sounds a lot like a "you have to be there" question, doesnt it? I know we would throw compression and various cutting a lot, and we rarely lost life in the mix, so it could be operator skill?

 

[waynehoskins]

Quick observation. It's not usually too much (too deep) compression that squashes the life out of a mix, but too fast compression. Watch those time constants.

For panning, I don't go too far off center for most things. Toms I'll pan as far as 3:00, overheads could be hard. Stereo guitar amps I'll pan pretty hard, same for stereo keys. Vocals get no farther than 2:00 either side. I usually mix on headphones at my church (one of the rare cases where it actually works), so I pan things to where they are on stage, according to the headphones.

Good guitar tone is all about the guitar, the pedal chain, and the amp. My music minister plays stereo electrics quite often, through a largely homebuilt pedal system (it's a hobby he's developed in the last year), to a Princeton and an AC15 (or maybe its an AC30, I forget). The two amps complement each other nicely.

 

[FMEng]

Stereo micing on physically small sources (like kick and guitar cabs) and then summing both mics to the mono bus is just asking for comb filtering due to phase issues. I would avoid assigning both mics of a stereo pair to the center channel. Narrow panning of them to the stereo buss can have the same result. Every stereo pair needs to have the mono sum carefully checked. If the sum sounds bad, it IS BAD.

I recently assisted with a live studio broadcast with an internationally known jazz group. The group's tour engineer decided to go with just ONE overhead mic and a kick mic on the drums. The drummer allowed him to place the OH closer to the kit than typical. Placement was critical for a good balance, but the result was some of the best sounding drums I've heard in awhile. The absense of comb filtering from multiple mics was startling. This generally wouldn't work for amplification of rock and roll, but it illustrates that, many times, less is more.

Time spent getting the right mic in the right place is usually better than just throwing more hardware at the problem.

 

[pmolsonmus]

Time spent getting the right mic in the right place is usually better than just throwing more hardware at the problem.[/QUOTE]

+1

 

[Stookeybrd]

Like others have said, get your drums tuned and get the guitar to the tone you want it at without even touching the PA. If the correct sound isn't coming out of the amp, its not going to come out of the PA.

Also, there is a misconception that using EQ will be the solution to a bad mix, when in reality setting your levels and gain structure correctly cleans up a mix better than anything else.