Live Sound Bootcamp

This question has come up over and over again through the years, and it seems to land in a topic that isn't discussed widely. How does one move from small clubs, to big clubs, to festivals, to arenas, and sheds to stadiums? Not just how do you get the gig, but also what changes in your daily workflow, in how you communicate, in who's on the team, and how you manage succeeding in that transition. Welcome guest Josh Benton as we talk through the process of progression in your ...

Remember last episode when we said we would land in the concept of Season 3, answering listener questions, well we screwed that up. In this episode we answer a question that we had, about how best to go about capturing and mixing orchestral instruments, in classical environments, and also in the context of adding strings to a pop or rock act. One would think this would be a short and simple episode, but nope, as usual, we go on and on. This Episode features guest host Aram P...

Lies and lies, we told you that we would have shorter episodes, and we told you that Season three would be dedicated to digging directly into listener questions, but this episode ended up being the very long answer to some in-person questions that we had run into recently. In this episode we talk about how to start your day when arriving at a new venue, all the way through how to get through your load out. There are quite a few interesting tidbits on how to move through your daily check...

Sticking to the "wall of sound" instruments we chat about strings and some of the various methods for getting them to sound cohesive, or stick out as solo instruments. While this may not be the most common input an average live sound engineer may come across, the methods for achieving natural sounds with unnatural micing are somewhat easy to transfer to other similar instrument types. We chat about how to best capture strings, and we dig into monitoring, equalization, dynamics pro...

We really really did think that we would cover multiple topics in this one episode, but in this extra-long episode we barely covered one! Not the most common input but brass instruments can be challenging to get right. We chat about how to best capture live various brass instruments, and we dig into equalization, dynamics processing, isolation, effects and a lot more.

In this extra-long episode we skip ahead a bit, and dig into arguably the most important input, vocals. Like all of the previous episodes we spend a lot of time chatting about how to best capture the sound, and we dig into equalization, dynamics processing, saturation, effects and a lot more, but we also talk a lot about goals and intent with vocal sounds. This episode also features a special guest host, studio owner, producer, and touring musician Greg Karas.

A whole family of inputs in the channel list, this episode we dig into an assortment of instruments that come up in many genres. Acoustic guitars and other stringed instruments can be a pain. A pain to get cleanly into wedges for monitoring, and a pain to make sound good given how dynamic they can be, but they're such commonly played instruments. Like the previous episodes we spend a lot of time chatting about how to best capture the sound, and we dig into equalization, dyna...

Guitars, often the next input in the list, can be quite complicated to manage. This episode dives into how to capture the tones, how to process them, and even how to approach conversations with the players themselves to achieve tones that are best fit for the mix. We touch on microphones, placement, and some options on what to do when you have one guitar player, versus two, versus three!

We honestly thought this might be a boring episode, but it turned out to be one of the most interesting discussions. In this episode we chat about cymbal selection, microphones, mic positions, processing, and a heck of a lot more. This is a set of inputs that honestly took the three of us years to figure out how to use effectively and creatively.

As we continue through the line-check, we hit input number 2, commonly the loudest thing on stage, the snare drum. Much like the first episode in the line-check, we dig into the drum sizes, the heads, the tuning, mics positions and processing.

How many times have you walked into a venue or event space and found a system that's severely underpowered for the gig? Sometimes that scenario is a PA thats just too small, speakers on sticks for a big rock show, sometimes it's a system that doesn't even cover the whole audience.... In this episode we talk through some of the options and tools you have as an engineer to get the most out of a system thats 'too small for the gig.'

We ask the age-old question, What can I do to make my mix feel loud without actually just turning it up? And what about streaming, how do I make a livestream seem loud? What defines impact, and what are some tools we can use to maximize the feeling of impact without having to simply make the show push more SPL?

As we continue the conversation about feedback, we dive into solutions for managing the ringy mess. Some things you can do in advance to avoid the problem before it starts, and some common scenarios where you may find yourself ripping out your hair trying to clean up the stage.