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Adventures of a new live venue engineer


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A local venue placed a craigslist ad looking for an entry to mid level "live audio tech". Despite me JUST starting my first job in three years since I finished school six months ago, I still applied. Three nights per week are the only days they have live music. This month, there are six shows out of fourteen possible dates.

I know the pay is gonna be bollocks compared to what this brand new job is and I'm going to work hard, but I'm not daunted. I don't need a ton of income, plus it would be nice to have an in at this venue. My band would like to play here at some point. :smileywink:

And of course the knowledge. Wow, could I ever use some knowledge. Mark at Audiopile knows people local to me and has given them my name, but they haven't needed someone with my *ahem* level of skill as of yet.

I'll need to weigh everything out obviously. My acoustic duo is also starting to do more gigs, so I need to make time for that. but if the sound gig has solidly planned dates, then I can work around that as needed.

Crossing my fingers for at least a call back. I was kind of funny in the email, too:

This is my dream job! And part-time is fine with me.

 

I'm in a band (I'm sure everyone says that), but really I am. We don't play out very often by choice, so most of my weekends are free.

 

I have a strong ear for balance between instruments and am always striving for that in my own group.

 

The over-under cable wrap is the ONLY way to coil cables, isn't it?

 

Please contact me for an interview!

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RiddimRyder wrote:

Good luck! Hope you get it ....

Funny on the over/under - my band members just can't get the hang of it. They leave the cables for me and I prefer it that way
:)

Thanks. Yeah, they aren't allowed to coil cables in my group either.

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agedhorse wrote:

Why send in stereo? (Hint, unnecessary waste of time and redources

It appears though I misspoke. I'm planning to use 21-22 L (reverb) and 23-24 L (delay), not L&R for both input channels. Tonight was just 21 L and a single effect. I labeled the scribble strip for that channel FX in big letters. I adjusted the input of the Lexicon to where the meter would rarely get out of the -6 range, then adjusted the trim for channel 21 to where it was not clipping, then the main fader to unity. I would then adjust the two vocal mics #5 aux to add some of the vocal plate effect I chose. Channel 21 was muted in between songs. :)

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That makes sense about the competition for prevelance at the same approximate frequencies.


agedhorse wrote:

 

Sometimes you have to mix the band down to the loudest instrument coming off of the stage. It's a good skill to acquire.

 

It was something I was trying, for sure. As with another recent "high volume on stage" band, the bass guitar didn't even need to be in the mains. I ran his fader to zero, but left it unmuted so the drum monitor could still hear.

I have a sneaking suspicion we are underpowered as far as amps/speakers are concerned. It's not THAT loud. It seems like a couple (maybe four for wider coverage?) mid to high end powered speakers could do fine in that room. I know for sure stage right's 10" main was unplugged last night. Who knows for how long.

I'll get a complete rig list next week.

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agedhorse wrote:

Sometimes you have to mix the band down to the loudest instrument coming off of the stage. It's a good skill to acquire.

Often that instrument is highly directional so you are tempted to put some in the PA for coverage - good way to start a volume war with yourself facepalm.gif. IMO float the vocals over the stage volume and if there's room bring up other stuff. No prob with leaving a fader or 10 at -infinity biggrin.gif.

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If you are using full boost of cut and getting those RTA results, you are trying to correct time domain issues in the frequency domain. Something else is responsible and you are using the wrong tool for the job.

We have discussed this topic before in depth, if would be worth a search.

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agedhorse wrote:

If you are using full boost of cut and getting those RTA results, you are trying to correct time domain issues in the frequency domain. Something else is responsible and you are using the wrong tool for the job.

 

We have discussed this topic before in depth, if would be worth a search.

 

What Agedhorse said above plus something to think about.

If you need to get 3dbs louder at a given frequency you need to double your wattage. If your horns were down 10 dbs at 10k and you boosted to fix it what happened?  Say your horns were at 20 watts when this measurement was taken. Boosting it 10 dbs did this.

3 dbs louder needs 40 watts, 6 dbs boost takes 80 watts, 9 dbs 160 watts, and the other DB maybe 40 or so watts. This is now putting 200 watts at 10khz to keep up with the rest of the pa system. ( Of course program dependant ) Something is really wrong here.  Could be where you measured from. The program material you used or the horns can't, by design , go that high. ALSO, Could the microphone in your cell phone just not read this high of a frequency? Your really dumping a lot of current into those horns. I would take that boost out until you find out what exactly is going on.

That high of a boost is never a good idea from a current to driver stand point. I normally only cut what I don't like in a system. Never boost a eq.  I also wonder if the horns you have require CD Horn EQ to sound correct and the crossover your using doens't have it. Research CD horn eq.

Dookietwo

 

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One quick thing you could try as well. Turn on your pink noise. Quickly mute it. Watch the display to see if there is frequencies that stay up longer than others. The ones that stay longer than the others may be caused by room build up of these frequencies at this measurement location. Pull down on the eq these frequencies. The trick is to have all bands go down even. This is a old trick to even out room problems. Or at least identify them.
Dookietwo

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