[BC] Re: Making music worth listening to

[Rockwell Smith]

>
>    "Hey, you're a geezer. . . you don't know nuthin' 'bout no live music! 
> Now. . . Slowly. . . Step Away From the Mixing Desk!"

LOL.   Yes, I probably do qualify for honest geezerhood.  Funny thing, tho, 
when the young-uns listen to the things I mix (as well as the much younger, 
but know what they are doing staff that I do trust in the mixing room) they 
all are amazed at how good it sounds.



>
>    I've been doing a similar thing for my public radio client for 20 
> years, an average of 15-or-so big shows each year.  We also do hundreds of 
> live, in-studio perfs, with the announcer doing the mix.  Maybe it's the 
> genre of music (singer-songwriter, folk, blues, etc), but we've only had a 
> handful of artists bring their own mixing tech, and in almost every case 
> they _did_ know what they were doing and it worked out fine.  Janis Ian in 
> particular had a wonderful sound tech.

You probably do have a point -- These people probably have the same quality 
in mind that you do.


>    However, in the 'real world' of pop and rock music, I have had a number 
> of conversations with folks who do live sound, and I have always walked 
> away shaking my head. . . these folks do things entirely differently from 
> us radio/recording folks, ignoring proper gain structure.  They turn the 
> amplifier inputs all the way up, and then mix 'by ear', with the meters on 
> the mixer hardly moving because they have to run the output level on the 
> mixer real low to keep from overdriving the amps and speakers.


Bingo !!!!


>
>    When I try to explain to them that meters are their friends and good 
> gain structure will give them lower noise and a more consistent mix over 
> the hour or more of the event, they just don't get it.  So, as the event 
> wears on, and their ears become fatigued, the room gets louder.


Huh?  Gain structure?   What is that ???  Gotta just turn the knobs until I 
like the sound !!


>
>    I hate it.
> Grady
>
> _______________________________________________
>


OK...   I've had the soapbox long enough on this.   At least I'm not totally 
alone here.    Moving on now.....




 ---   Rockwell