i Audiolechnology j THE MAGAZINE FOR SOUND ENGINEERS & bd Io MUSICIANS REVIEWS sss ed RME FIREFACE UFX pelle Lisl hl ey aly Time to shelve Howard Page: why your subs are ruining your live mix eS rr lS BEESNEEZ COLLECTION Apso abe ete M Shy THE FABULOUS SSL NUCLEUS! se agar el Live On TenLegs BOOTY CALL! INUIT IMIAre MLA) 20 LTpXTet ear KM Set5) sound to Australia (Coie clit] ISSUE 80BIL A THE LOW END Why so many concerts are being Srrete cel concn ect and what to do about it. Seri lucky likes of Sting b orchestral), Van Halen, Sade, Pil Collins The ofa ig PA without the low-end woollines of to Bee Gees, James Taylor, Paul Simon, Mara much sub. Too much low-end wil cause audiene horpe and the Aztecs pli many others. ofthe sh that of the engineet. And Engineering at Cait Global I dont get to actually rng overt like a 10-strey building. it fouras much as {used to but find myself creates false audience focus ~ all wrong ace alg tb Deaaalineg And the band? Wall ithe band “ ing ou off Ais STUDIO QUALITY competent, knowledgeable mix engineers Symphonicity tour [see last issue for ‘who havefllen int a seemingly obvious ra vas long world tour that took in just ped ene every major ly onthe planet and along th way got to use just about every name-brand PA Setting yourself up fora bunch of problems you fronted with, tuned it tobe flat and true could easily do without - problems f Mi But I nec the impact ofthe subs to get the hat s coming out ofthe nso. T want audience going Everyone expect that in bi to have that contro; want tobe able to fine-tu rock or pop concert” Idan buy that argument my mix and for those fine tonal and dyoami fora minute - and believe me, {he nts as faithfully as sn writing this, the point Lim making seem Dkay cam acept that there a hardcore ‘obvious - self-evident even: and yet, fr too mi rock sound systems are overdone in the low end... often with disstrous consequene ‘SUB SYSTEMS: BALANCED RELATIONSHII Tuning the main hang of your PA to beas at as mented by a engineers get into hot wate, especially those colouring and, makin AMATTER OF LFE & DEATH nfortable realty i, many lange venes around the word have an RT6O in the low frequencies thats so long it will tend to "hold on di the case ofa kick drum this hold will extend beyond the typical most rock music The result is When siting up the balance between the low the sub systems tuned on, Tis way the malin SSsystem can be configured to sound as good as possible with perfect balance between the lows ids and highs Before you Introduce the subs. After the subs ave been time aligned tothe low end of the main PA, playa favourite tack and slovy bring up the subs until they become a true Tow end extension (ony!) ofthe existing mains low-end. “Turn the subs off and ona few times to check what theyre actully adding othelow-end and ensure the om is ‘handing all that extra low-end extension f the room cant cope withthe extra sub energy then adjust it aecordingly ~ ‘downward! There have been times - in really bad rooms where 've turned the subs off entirely, a they're doing ‘more harm than good. Once that low-endisub balance is set correctly, make note ofthe levels. This is especially crucial when yout feding the subs from a separate mix ‘output, Once youve made anote ofthe levels stick to that balance fr the duration ofthe show: Later inthe eight il be nigh-on imposible to get the balance reset correct if this rte levels relationship gets out of whack. ‘TUNING: ASTEP UP ‘We're determined what excessive low-end can dotoa shoo, but I realise that many ang this article wil still besiaking their heads thinking they cant do without the high-energy impact of some extra power inthe subs. And {gt that. So try this technique that [call stepped low-end! ‘uning This technique tunes the PA such that the system is absolutely as lat as possible den to L00Hz (no higher!) and then has @ ep! up of apprenimately 3 ~ lB (no more ‘than that!) rom that point dow, "This eliminates the low: ‘end: nto-low-mid avertone that tend o colour the whole system (el delve more int that in a minute) but gives most mixers of rock/pop music the extra punch they need witha tight, solid low-end. Personally, still tune fat all the way doven, and get any exes low-end punch I need out ‘of the channel strip on the console, Asa knock-on benefit [ind this also delivers a much better result when Fm recording the gg or feeding it to media or an OB truck ‘LOW MIDS: DO THE SUMS: The other area that ges out of contro is between the frequencies of 100 and 3004. One of the things teach 'GET SMAART (BUT DONT TOTALLY RELY ON IT) jn my system engineor tuning classes at Claris thatthe range between 100 and 300Hz i the critical frequency summation aeea that mus be treated very very carefully when tuning large-scale sytem. Ifyou look at a char of ‘the frequency ranges of most musical instruments ~ rock ‘or orchestral ~in your mix, where do they all overlap? Between 100 and 30H. Some dost go tat lo, some not that high, but forthe overall summation of any set of good ‘mics om mos instruments ~ guitars, key, dams ete ~ that’s the are, Ifthat wasn’ tricky enough, guess where mast ‘ofthese arenas and bad rooms sum and interact withthe system? That right, between 100 and 300142 | “These two factors really do conspire agains us, so in this Frequency range we nced to be especialy careful. Make sure the 100 = S00H» range is lat and as ight a possible. In fact, when in doubt I always underda this fequeney range (Qcusting my ears, nor Smaart!) because it wil inevitably filled in when Fexcite the room with my mix. In other ‘words: eve if et the console completly lt, a mix would alivays have rore summation in the 100 ~ S00Hz area. ‘TAKE CONTROL hope ve made strong ease for taking back control of your mix ater than being save ro low-end Sill not ‘convinced? Think of it this way if you tune a system with ‘4.06 to0 much low-end enengy relative to the mids and. highs of large-scale system, you've effectively gone along very single low-frequency EQ section on your mixing ‘console and turned pa fll low-frequency shelf 6418 to Salt! This is before youve even started ‘eansoe! Always remember: everything you do to the overall stern tuning aplis to every single channel on the mixing console, The sid reality is that when ths happens all hose lovely state-of-the-art microphones with heir fat response curves have had tha esponse totally ruined and will nw have to be hacked ui with channel EQ to get them to sound vaguely decent. So before you've even started mixing ~ before youve ever done a line check - you're already chasing your talk trying to compensate fr the bas-heavy system twang, The answer is dont! Dont let the low-end master you. 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