Videoblog REVIEW: Countryman E6S

http://countryman.com/store/product.asp?id=97&catid=2

Unity mixing example

Putting it all together, here’s a video I just shot during our rehearsal today that shows my console once everything is up and running. Notice good healthy level on the preamp meters and the faders are all generally riding around unity (the only one you see riding low on the second bank is a verb return). When I go to the master section at the end of the video and flip from the VCAs to the groups, you’ll see the three stereo submixes (rhythm, band, & vocals) with their relative offsets as Dave and I talked about today.

Unity mixing followup…

My friend, Dan, asked some great questions in response to these posts on unity mixing, so let’s address them.

“When I run through a soundcheck I always start by setting every pre-amp level to 0db or close to it. This allows me to sit all my submixes for broadcast ect., to unity and then set them post, thus enabling my submixes to sound similar to my house mix with tweaks but without constant layer flipping. Doing this gives me enough head room to work up and down the fader and on the rare chance that I need to gives me some more room on the pre-amp should someone go emo on me and start whispering into the mic.

I was always taught that 0db was the happy place for signal to noise, broadcast, amps and gain structure the world, life and the ever after. =) Now working with pro’s every single day I find that even setting to 0db by faders are pretty close to unity most of the time. When I work with stupid people, I find that setting to 0 is crucial but it makes my faders look a lot like mountains and hills. So what does mixing at unity do to your input level on say an instrument or voice that is near the back of the mix? Wouldnt you be pushing a bunch of noise through the mains?

So give me some feedback. 0db = good or bad? what does it do to your submixs? I find when working with Vince, Amy, Toby, Smitty or any real pro’s that even when I set to 0db I am still pretty close to unity on the fader. However with idiots I have to work with sometimes my faders are all over the place.”

My perspective is that the answer is balance. Do you mix the whole show constantly changing gain? No. But every one of our younger engineers have mountains and hills on the faders, then wonder why the monitor mixes they’re creating for the artists are lacking (because all of our rigs have single console for FOH & monitors) and the mixes are inconsistent. I think the key is intentionality. If you decide that on a given channel which may be more buried that you’re going to ride the fader down intentionally, that’s cool. The problem is when you aren’t in control of the console and the summing bus is controlling you. Every channel is gained too hot, you have to burn it off somewhere because the summing bus can’t handle everything coming to it at 10, so faders are all over the place. One more thing: we’re talking about getting maximum return and a growing engineer can’t have everything, so what is the bigger trade off? I’d suggest on those buried inputs, the slight amount of extra noise you might get doesn’t matter as much as all the benefits to unity mixing below because the input is buried as it is. If you can’t give artists monitor mixes that they like and your house mix isn’t working, who cares if there’s a tad bit of extra noise on a channel? I’d take the noise but mixes that work any day.

Regarding submixes, how you gain the console probably isn’t as critical on POST mixes, because if you gain something too hot or too soft, the faders will compensate and the mix will still translate. Where unity mixing gives HUGE benefits is on PRE mixes, because just as you can put the faders near unity across the board and get a solid house mix, you can put aux mixes at unity (or based on some percentage) and know that the aux mix will also translate. If every wedge needs kick/snare/hat, put those three at the same level in the wedges that need them and you know the relationship between the inputs will translate there just like it does in the house. We have a stereo drum submix that feeds our ears mixes. I never have to adjust that mix week to week – all I have to do is push the faders up one at a time and build my house mix through channel gain so the drums are working with everything at unity and it translates nearly perfectly to the ears.

The better and more consistent the input, the easier things will be. So regarding major artists, if you have a band full of “A” inputs who give you great consistent input, its harder to screw it up. I think we’re basically talking about the same things – my addition to your 0 db s/n point is that riding in a good unity spot is just as important at the outputs of the console as it is at the front end. Often by running every channel at its own individual optimum gain can sacrifice the output bus or vice versa. Again, the answer is moderation.

One more addition to this whole thing that buttons up the topic well. Robert Scovill opened my mind to the use of subgroups AND vca’s and its become the last piece of this whole thing and might be the answer for your point. I submix my music to three stereo groups – rhythm (drums & bass), band (guitars & keys), and vocals. I’ve posted one of his articles recently about this topic here. Everything musically on my console fits into one of those three groups. This way, I can do the macro level balancing on the groups rather than having to do it on the fader or at the mic pre. I find that often times if I gain the guitars so they are hitting the mic pre’s hard where it sounds better on the console, the band subgroup can be 2-5 dB lower than rhythm to balance the whole mix with channel faders still at zero. Often times the rhythm & band groups are a couple dB below the vocals group for everything to balance as well. Sometimes I will pull all three of those groups back a few dB before it hits the left/right because its a great place to burn gain, keep mic pre’s hot, faders near unity, and not overload the summing bus.

UPDATE:  Dave Stagl has an addition worthy of promotion to the main post.

“Another big thing I’m not sure you mentioned about keeping your faders near unity is the area around unity is where a fader has the highest resolution. For me, this is my main reason for mixing this way. Due to the logrhythmic nature of a fader’s throw, a millimeter of movement around unity could give you a .1 dB change, however if you’re only a 1/3 of the way up the fader’s throw that same millimeter could be a 5-10 dB change depending on a particular console. If your faders are riding low at the start of a show, you will have far less control of the mix than if your faders are at unity.”

Unity Mixing Part 2

IF YOU MISSED PART 1, FIND IT HERE.

I read a really cool story that was the inspiration for this blog topic about Delwyn Brooks.  Delwyn came up assisting at Little Mountain Sound and has a page full of credits to his name. At Little Mountain, junior engineers were given the night recording gigs (usually for the local bar bands wanting the Little Mountain name for half price). There was one huge stipulation placed on them: they could use nothing other than the gain knob and console EQ and they absolutely could not use any outboard gear.  How’s that for earning your pay?!

When the senior engineer arrived in the morning, all of the console faders had to be at unity and when he pressed play on the multitrack, there had to be a solid mix already happening. Not a perfect mix, but one where all the elements were in their appropriate places.  If the junior engineer couldn’t learn to get this right, he didn’t continue to work there.

When Delwyn explained this, it was like a huge lightbulb lit up in my head.  This is the answer our engineers are seeking, and the problem all along is that we didn’t know how to ask the question!  Once you get this concept, the paradigm shift that follows ALWAYS changes the mix, the process, the soundcheck, the repeatability, and the consistency of the engineer.

I think the best way to set the channel gain on the console is not focusing on each channel itself, but rather, listening to where that channel fits in the mix.  To quote Steven Covey, begin with the end in mind.  Ever seen the house console photos in Live Sound magazine taken before the soundcheck, where you can see all of the console faders parked at unity?  Now you know what these guys know:  dialing in a mix is so much easier when you’ve properly gain matched at the front-end, and it sounds best too.

This is not to say that you mix the whole show from the gain knobs – once they’re in the right position, mixing is properly done at the faders.  But next time you mix, build your mix with the perspective of “what if I couldn’t move the faders from unity?”.  The mix will sound better when you’re done because the audio has better gain staging throughout the entire console – most importantly at the master mix summing buss just before the mix hits the console outputs.  Those who mix monitors from the same console as FOH as we do at Kensington will find that monitor mixes are more consistent and can be dialed in more quickly.  In fact, once you master this concept, I’ve been able to accurately pre-build monitor mixes before the band even steps on stage and have little, if any, changes needed once the band plugs in.

Try it and let me know how it goes.  Here’s to better mix techniques!

Unity Mixing Part 1

A big part of my job at Kensington is to carry the “audio flag” for our team and mentor growing audio engineers in developing their craft. I’ve literally spent hours and hours over the past few years analyzing and processing so much of what I do which, after 10 years, is second nature so I can develop tidbits that can be shared with our team. The topic for today is one that I’ve realized is a very BIG deal for me and one I’ve wanted to write on for a while now. I have no idea where or how I came onto the technique, but now I do it without even thinking. I suggest that the following is a MUST READ for anyone who mixes audio.

We’ve all experienced it: a multi-artist presentation, whether at a club, church, or arena. Sometimes there are completely separate PAs & consoles, other times there is no difference in the gear, just different engineers – regardless, the audio for one act will be a complete disappointment. Act two, on the other hand, sounds fantastic. Why?

There’s any number of reasons that are beyond the scope of this discussion. I’d like to focus on one specific indicator I’ve found that has yet to fail me: look at the console faders. That’s right, as I work with these developing engineers, I’ve noticed a trend that is accurate every time. The concept is called Unity Mixing.

PICTURE A

PICTURE B

Good unity mixes sound open, alive, immediate and unrestrained while mixes overdriven in the console sound small, closed, lifeless and harsh. It has been my observation that when the system is properly set up and aligned and the sound ain’t so great, the console faders tend to look like Picture A. Conversely, when it sounds good, the faders look like Picture B.

Why do the faders matter? Where the faders are positioned has everything to do with the channel preamp gain setting. One of the first things budding sound engineers are often taught when they start mixing is how to properly set the preamp gain on the console.  The answer, they’re told, in these early days is often to turn the knob until the little red light flashes and then back it down until the flashing stops.

I suggest NO WAY!!! Sure, this produces maximum signal-to-noise ratio, but there is absolutely no headroom at the mix bus summing amplifier with all the faders at unity. The result is mixes that look like Picture A. Sounds are lacking definition, monitor mixes just don’t feel “right”, and usually the balance of the mix is lopsided. Everyone I work with, as they develop their skills, reach points where their mixes feel audibly wrong, but its completely foreign to find a different paradigm towards a different solution.

PART TWO TOMORROW – THE SOLUTION!