Theory and Practice

Here comes another summer — and with it, festival season. You better get some sleep while you can, because the next stop is Labor Day. As a tour manager and FOH engineer, I figured I’d offer a few suggestions to help you survive the ordeals.

Everyone likes a little kick drum in their mix. A lot of people like a lot of little kick, or even a lot of big kick in their mix. We at FRONT of HOUSE would like to present some suggestions for getting a killer kick sound without killing yourself.

If you want to keep working, you have to learn how to play nicely with others in the sandbox. Part of those skills may require that at some point or another (for whatever reason), you’ll have to work within an SPL limit. It’s a difficult task, especially with a full band on stage, so let’s take a look at why SPL limitations exist and what you can do to make the best of a quiet situation.

Contrary to popular belief, multiband compression is not the art of fitting a headliner, three support acts and their gear into a VW van. Multiband compression is a somewhat different manner of applying gain reduction to an audio signal. Understanding multiband compression requires understanding compression in general, so if you are rusty on the topic, revisit “Theory and Practice” from the February and March 2015 issues of FRONT of HOUSE. I’ll hang out here until you return…

Miking a piano on stage is a deceptively simple task. Open the lid, throw a couple of mics inside, and off you go, right? Um, no. Unfortunately, there’s more to it than that. An acoustic piano is a complex instrument capable of a wide range of dynamics and frequencies, arguably making it the most difficult instrument to capture on stage (or in the studio). There’s a million different ways to do it, but here are some proven techniques to get you started.

A power amplifier is generally designed to do two basic things: increase the power of an audio signal without changing it and control the motion of a loudspeaker. Some of the specifications associated with power amps can be a bit cryptic, so let’s clarify the terminology.

Removing Feedback from Stage Monitors

Just when I thought that club sound systems had evolved past Y2K, I get a gig at a place where the house monitor system is (I’ll be polite here) out-of-date. While the overwhelming trend for stage monitoring has moved heavily toward IEMs (even among local club acts), there are still plenty of performers using wedges. As wedges aren’t going away any time soon, let’s examine the concept of “ringing out” stage monitors.

In the July 2012 FRONT of HOUSE, we talked about using various types of fill speakers such as front fill, under-balcony and out fill speakers to augment the main P.A. system in a room. This month, we’ll discuss front fill mixing in detail so you can have an idea regarding what sources go into the front fill, how to route it and when you may need it. In short, a front fill is a speaker or small array of speakers designed to provide sound for the front few rows of a venue.

Last month, we talked about dynamic range, headroom and signal-to-noise ratios, and how these concepts relate to the metering used on analog and digital gear. Since there was a bit of brain damage involved with last month’s T&P, we’ll quickly review a few important highlights. First, Zero on a VU meter is known as “operating level.” Second, In the pro audio world, when we see 0 on a VU meter, the signal level is approximately 1.23 volts. This signal level “standard” is known as +4 dBu. Third, Digital gear — such as mixing consoles, drive processors — often use meters calibrated in dBFS (deciBels below full scale), whereby 0 is at the top of their scale. When you hit 0 on a dBFS meter you are out of headroom. If we send +4 dBu (1.23 volts) into a dBFS meter it will typically show up at -18 dBFS.

Someone recently asked me to explain dynamic range. Answering this question reminded me of a quote attributed to Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart regarding obscenity: “I know it when I see it.” In describing dynamic range, I can substitute the word “hear” for “see.” Nevertheless, my editor here at FOH would undoubtedly prefer a more concrete explanation.

Delay — a.k.a. echo — might be the most popular effect used in live sound. Sure, we use reverb, but sometimes the natural reverb of the room negates the need for adding reverb to, say, a snare drum. Delay is much more fun. You can do all kinda fun and crazy stuff with a delay, whether it be hardware or software, out- or in-board. Note to all you super-picky types: we know that, technically speaking, there is a distinction between echo and delay (delay is a postponement of a sound, whereas echo is a repeat of a sound), but most engineers use the terms interchangeably when referring to effects. I’ll have a Coke, please.