Unless you happen to
be a big-name band, you probably won't get enormous
amounts of time to check your sound, so you'd better
use what you get to good effect. It may sound
obvious, but check that your PA system, backline amps
and cables are doing what they ought to - get each
band member to try his instrument or mic very
briefly. You're not interested in levels or quality
yet, just whether clean sound is coming through.
Never forget that one of the main causes of an amp
not working is that little matter of switching on at
the mains, and even so-called pros sometimes forget
that you have to push a fader to get volume. Start by
pushing all the faders up about 3dB, then pull one by
one until you're happy that the sound is good at that
frequency for the venue.
Punters, although very
useful in terms of paying to listen to you, are a
nuisance in acoustic terms - they don't just soak up
alcohol, they also soak up a lot of your PA's top
end, so, if you're soundchecking in a totally empty
venue, you'll either need to aim for a toppier sound
than you really want your audience to hear and leave
it set like that (advisable when you're playing as
well as mixing), or gradually increase the top end as
more and more of your adoring fans fill up
(hopefully), the venue. You'll also have to add more
reverb when the punters pile in because they'll
"deaden" the venue's natural acoustics and
make your sound flatter, particularly on the vocals.
First check that
you've got a good kick drum sound (if you're miking
it) - it needs to be punchy and tight, so spend as
much time as you can on it. The snare drum is
obviously an important part of your kit, so you'll
want to get it sounding right. Position the mic at
the rim of the drum, a couple of inches above it, and
point it at the centre of the skin. Both floor and
rack mounted toms should be treated in much the same
way, miking from the edge, pointing towards the
centre. Mike the hi-hat from above, angled down
towards the edge of the top cymbol.
At the majority of
gigs you really don't need to mic the ride and crash
cymbols as they'll get picked up by the mics doing
the rest of the kit. If you really insist, then one
or two mics on boom stands, positioned about one and
a half feet above the kit should do the job.
Next bring in the bass
and try to match it to the surroundings - some venues
need a deep bass sound, others a much more toppy
tone. If you're miking the kick drum, match its level
with the bass; if not, match the bass level to the
kick drum.
Now bring in the other
instruments, one by one, and set their volume to
correspond with the bass and drums. Guitarists'
backline amps will always be too loud initially, it's
just a fact of life, and a hell of a fight will ensue
to get them to turn down. Now try a bit of an
instrumental number, and tweak your instrument levels
on the mixer to get a good overall balence. Always
leave some head room on lead instruments so you can
bring them up for solos or instrumental numbers. Do
this by bringing up the backline level and backing
off at the mixer until you think you've got enough
room to manoeuvre.
Now you can bring in
the vocals, lead first, then backing vocalists if you
have such animals. It's very important to make sure
the vocals are cutting through the mix above (or at
least at the same level as) the instruments, and can
be clearly heard right to the back of the venue.
There's nothing less professional than a band whose
lead vocals are just an indistinguishable mumble.
Vocals will almost certainly need some EQ adjustment
on the desk - sweep EQ, particularly with swept lower
and upper mid ranges, can be very useful for voice,
but you'll have to make do with what you've got. You
want a fairly toppy sound without too much reverb for
the best cut-through.
For short soundchecks
you'll need to pick a couple of numbers that contain
all your vocals and instruments as well as variations
of tone, to give you a reasonable picture of the
overall sound. Play these through now and you should,
hopefully, be at the stage of only needing to make
fine adjustments to your balance. If you've got a
sound engineer, all well and good, he can make the
final tweaks; if you haven't, it's sensible to send
out one of the band to have a listen, and a wireless
transmitter on one of the instruments can be a boon
for this.
Having got your front
of house sound sorted, you'll now want to get some
foldback on the go. It's a good idea to do this with
the main PA still switched on because, in a smallish
venue, you're going to be able to pick up a lot of
info about your sound from the front of house
speakers and you won't have to whack up the level on
your monitors to feedback territory.
Most feedback problems
are microphone related - the most common causes tend
to be over-loud or inadvertently-positioned monitor
speakers. If you start getting feedback, the first
thing you've got to do is find out where it's coming
from, so disconnect your monitor speakers one by one
and if the feedback goes away, which it probably
will, the first thing to do is alter the foldback
speaker or mic positions. If this doesn't work, you
may have to reduce the monitor level and suffer
all-night moans and groans from the vocalist whose
mike and monitor are causing the problem. If the
feedback's coming from the main PA, once again the
first thing to do is try moving the speakers or mics
slightly. This should have some effect, but may not
be enough to get shot of really serious feedback.
You'll then have to resort to identifying the mic (or
occasionally instrument), that's at the root of the
problem, cut it's volume, and reduce overall gain to
match.
Some bands choose to
use graphic equalisers to cut feedback by notching
out the offending frequencies, but this can have a
serious effect on your overall sound, particularly if
all you've got is a five or seven band graphic on
your mixer-amp. A 30-band equaliser will give you
more scope to just cut the frequency that's at fault.
See also: The Soundman
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