3 ms·

Wow that’s an impressive array of buttons and dials. I’ve gotta say though I was listening to a 90’s hits playlist yesterday, which I think was probably the pea

Wow that’s an impressive array of buttons and dials. I’ve gotta say though I was listening to a 90’s hits playlist yesterday, which I think was probably the peak production budget era, and the differences in production quality from one recording to the next was stunning. All that expensive equipment in the hands of an expert must be good for something! The ones that stood out most as being good were some Red Hot Chili Peppers songs produced by Rick Rubin. A lot of other 90’s Alternative recordings were dreadful by comparison.

sandworm101 5y ago
https://soundgirls.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/20160919_211500-e1610377808750.jpg https://soundgirls.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/20160919_2... This is a typical setup at an average venue. Note this guy is not running the sound that the audience hears. This is the monitor mixing station. He is mixing the sound that the band hears on stage in thier earpieces. There is a whole other rig in a separate space mixing to the front of house speakers. The total number of audio channels for a typical stage show is staggering.
- deanCommie 5y ago
  Dumb question: Shouldn't he be wearing headphones? Otherwise, how would he know what the band hears? Dumb question 2: I thought each band member typically gets their own mix emphasizing their instruments so they can adjust better? Dumb question 3: How many of these knobs would actually be touched over the course of a performance? I'm assuming the overall process is something like: * Phase 1: Initial default calibration for the specific genre/band * Phase 2: Fine-tuning during practice/sound-check * Phase 3: Some additional adjustments during the first song to account for...i dunno last minute changes? * Phase 4: Changes during every song?? This is the part that I'm curious about.
  - zootboy 5y ago
    I only have a little bit of experience doing monitor mix for some small college shows, but: Headphones probably aren't necessary, as you're usually just making small adjustments at the request of the talent. For a large show, I would imagine everything would be thoroughly pre-planned and tested. The knobs in the center horizontal stripe of the mixing console are generally "aux sends". Each vertical column is an input channel, and each horizontal row is an aux bus. The knob adjusts how much of each channel gets sent to each aux bus. There are other things that can be tweaked, like toggling whether the aux sends are pre-eq or post-eq, as well as pre-main-fader or post-main-fader. Those little banks of 2 x 4 buttons at the bottom of the sends knobs bank usually control those settings. Each band member will get their own monitor send with the appropriate mix of instruments for each. It's also possible for other types of things to be mixed in, for example a click track, or a producer or director's microphone to give instructions or information to the performers. I would expect that most of the settings would stay static over the course of a show. The engineer might do some muting/unmuting during instrument changes, or if some performers are using in-ear monitors, and there may be some scripted adjustments if some songs are wildly different in terms of instrumentation or volume. It's also good just to have someone available to correct things quickly if there's a problem. The monitor mix console is generally pretty close to the stage, so they could, for example, hear if there was some feedback occurring and quickly drop or mute a channel to kill it.
  - stephen_g 5y ago
    Looking at the picture, I expect the guy closest to the camera on the analogue console is actually mixing FOH and the guy on the digital mixer in the background (clearly wearing in-ear monitors) is mixing monitors. You can't really mix monitors on a big analogue desk very easily, they're not set up for the number of output channels (sends) you need. Usually every main performer of a band has their own separate stereo mix. During the show, for FOH it's usually just riding faders (adjusting volume of each channel) and making little effect/EQ changes if something sounds off, most of that stuff should be pretty well set up beforehand.
pbalau 5y ago
What you see in that picture is mostly routing. Effects, eq are handled on separate devices, for each channel/group of channels.
- sandworm101 5y ago
  Not really. Each of those strips has basic eq (low/mid/high) and effects (reverb etc). Routing is handled by the pushbuttons right above/below the level slider. Here is a vid of the basic process as applied to MJ's Beat It. https://youtu.be/fGSTEBwxSbo https://youtu.be/fGSTEBwxSbo
  - Godel_unicode 5y ago
    Not really. On a large console like that there are generally lots of submixes and aux sends (like at least 8 each), and a significant number of the knobs at the top of any of the channel strips will be for routing sound to those from the channel. Also, on a live sound board like this you're not going to have the effects actually parametrized on the channel, there's either an external processor (more likely) or a built-in effects unit which has internal sends from the channel. The push-buttons are likely pre/post eq/fader toggles, along with things like mute and solo. The linked video of studio mastering is a very different task than live reinforcement and especially monitor engineering. The boards are pretty different as well. Finally and most nit-picky, the parametric eq on this board is almost certainly more than 3 bands. Likely something in the 5/7 band range, and with assignable mids. Edit: note how a large number of the pairs of pots in the middle of the channel strip have the same color as the faders in the center of the board; those will be (stereo) submix assignment and overall level, respectively.

sandworm101 5y ago

https://soundgirls.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/20160919_211500-e1610377808750.jpg https://soundgirls.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/20160919_2... This is a typical setup at an average venue. Note this guy is not running the sound that the audience hears. This is the monitor mixing station. He is mixing the sound that the band hears on stage in thier earpieces. There is a whole other rig in a separate space mixing to the front of house speakers. The total number of audio channels for a typical stage show is staggering.

deanCommie 5y ago
Dumb question: Shouldn't he be wearing headphones? Otherwise, how would he know what the band hears? Dumb question 2: I thought each band member typically gets their own mix emphasizing their instruments so they can adjust better? Dumb question 3: How many of these knobs would actually be touched over the course of a performance? I'm assuming the overall process is something like: * Phase 1: Initial default calibration for the specific genre/band * Phase 2: Fine-tuning during practice/sound-check * Phase 3: Some additional adjustments during the first song to account for...i dunno last minute changes? * Phase 4: Changes during every song?? This is the part that I'm curious about.
- zootboy 5y ago
  I only have a little bit of experience doing monitor mix for some small college shows, but: Headphones probably aren't necessary, as you're usually just making small adjustments at the request of the talent. For a large show, I would imagine everything would be thoroughly pre-planned and tested. The knobs in the center horizontal stripe of the mixing console are generally "aux sends". Each vertical column is an input channel, and each horizontal row is an aux bus. The knob adjusts how much of each channel gets sent to each aux bus. There are other things that can be tweaked, like toggling whether the aux sends are pre-eq or post-eq, as well as pre-main-fader or post-main-fader. Those little banks of 2 x 4 buttons at the bottom of the sends knobs bank usually control those settings. Each band member will get their own monitor send with the appropriate mix of instruments for each. It's also possible for other types of things to be mixed in, for example a click track, or a producer or director's microphone to give instructions or information to the performers. I would expect that most of the settings would stay static over the course of a show. The engineer might do some muting/unmuting during instrument changes, or if some performers are using in-ear monitors, and there may be some scripted adjustments if some songs are wildly different in terms of instrumentation or volume. It's also good just to have someone available to correct things quickly if there's a problem. The monitor mix console is generally pretty close to the stage, so they could, for example, hear if there was some feedback occurring and quickly drop or mute a channel to kill it.
- stephen_g 5y ago
  Looking at the picture, I expect the guy closest to the camera on the analogue console is actually mixing FOH and the guy on the digital mixer in the background (clearly wearing in-ear monitors) is mixing monitors. You can't really mix monitors on a big analogue desk very easily, they're not set up for the number of output channels (sends) you need. Usually every main performer of a band has their own separate stereo mix. During the show, for FOH it's usually just riding faders (adjusting volume of each channel) and making little effect/EQ changes if something sounds off, most of that stuff should be pretty well set up beforehand.

pbalau 5y ago

What you see in that picture is mostly routing. Effects, eq are handled on separate devices, for each channel/group of channels.

sandworm101 5y ago
Not really. Each of those strips has basic eq (low/mid/high) and effects (reverb etc). Routing is handled by the pushbuttons right above/below the level slider. Here is a vid of the basic process as applied to MJ's Beat It. https://youtu.be/fGSTEBwxSbo https://youtu.be/fGSTEBwxSbo
- Godel_unicode 5y ago
  Not really. On a large console like that there are generally lots of submixes and aux sends (like at least 8 each), and a significant number of the knobs at the top of any of the channel strips will be for routing sound to those from the channel. Also, on a live sound board like this you're not going to have the effects actually parametrized on the channel, there's either an external processor (more likely) or a built-in effects unit which has internal sends from the channel. The push-buttons are likely pre/post eq/fader toggles, along with things like mute and solo. The linked video of studio mastering is a very different task than live reinforcement and especially monitor engineering. The boards are pretty different as well. Finally and most nit-picky, the parametric eq on this board is almost certainly more than 3 bands. Likely something in the 5/7 band range, and with assignable mids. Edit: note how a large number of the pairs of pots in the middle of the channel strip have the same color as the faders in the center of the board; those will be (stereo) submix assignment and overall level, respectively.