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Have a wisdom for best post so far
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
Exactly, reinforce the sound you have not create it with the PA.
I think a lot of musicians need to take a step back and view live music the way pub going girls in their mid 20s do.
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
Anyone who mixes heavy music and doesn't like the sound of a close mic'd bass drum has something wrong with them. I jest... I jest...
It's mainly about giving the AUDIENCE the punch of the kick drum, which means you're able to keep the bass guitar lower in the mix, which means you're not creating a room full of standing waves. It has nothing to do with the drummer wanting to hear himself, although that does happen too. Separate issue.
If a PA cannot handle a kick drum and a vocal at the same time, I am tempted to say the venue is the WRONG place for heavy music. There is a reason some venues will only have acoustic guitars and singer/songwriters.
I like toms that thwack, so I would pay careful attention to the direction of the microphones - the centre is the thwack, the rim is the tone. Balanced in between. I'd also find the resonant frequency of each tom, and REDUCE IT. Most engineers seem to boost these, I don't understand why. All you're doing is making sure that when THAT particular tom hits, the audience gets a huge resonant mess in their ears.
For vocals, I'd parallel compress, and I'd notch out some mids - around 400hz probably. I'd also have a high shelf with a bit of boost, and I'd have a gate.
Vocals are tricky. The engineer generally will keep them as low as he can get away with, in order to avoid feedback. Why does feedback occur? BECAUSE YOUR STUPID IDIOT SINGER KEEPS CUPPING THE MICROPHONE LIKE HE'S TRYING TO SUCK OFF A CAMEL!! Tell him to stop doing that. He really needs to ensure his mouth is at least 2inches away from the capsule of the microphone at all times. They NEVER understand this point though, because in their idiot minds closer equals louder.
Closer does NOT equals louder. Closer equals bass lift and feedback.
For guitars, if you're really going to mic them, then I'd shape them so that there is room for the kick and snare to poke out of. Most engineers balls this up too, because they just put the mic on any old speaker, low and high pass it, and think it's done. Fucking stupid. You're essentially shaping white-noise (which contains all frequencies) with guitar sounds. Makes no sense to leave them natural.
And guitarists need to stop boosting their mids so much. It's not big and it's not clever.
The number one problem with live sound right now is low-end. It's not the sub frequencies that are screwing up your sound. It is the lows and the low-mids. That 100hz all the way up to 400hz region. But you need to be careful. Too much EQ, and you'll completely kill the impact of the music.
Nah mate.
I don't know about you guys, but I know that a good chunk of the people who see Tacoma and bands in our scene tend to be people who are either in bands themselves, make music in some capacity, or are huge nerds for music and to them it isn't a throwaway thing - it's life and death shit.
These people may not always be able to articulate why something sounds crappy, but they know what sounds good. They have high expectations.
The only thing I would disagree with is taking out the low end on the bass - I would keep it in, but *only* on the bass (and kick drum) - that way they sit under everything else and don't compete. On the other hand I like a very deep bass sound which purposely doesn't have much mid to conflict with the guitars...
The trick to a good mix is in the EQ as much (or more so) as the levels.
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein