One of the best parts of the new PA…

On our old KF650 rig, I used to have to practically live by my SMAART computer for the spectrograph and dB meter. In order to just get over all of the reflections of the sound in the room and get the best response out of the PA, you had to usually mix as loud as you could get away with – usually 90+ dB(A). A rock and roll song in the mid-80′s would have so much room interaction that it would be so hard to get clarity and definition.

I’ve decided one of the best indicators of the improvements in the room is that now when I mix, the only time I switch over the SMAART is when we’re recording a message for campuses and I need the teachers to be loud enough to a certain dB (usually averaging 70) so that the balance of their mics to the room ambience will be correct for the recording.

I read a tweet a few weeks ago from the OwnTheMix guys that suggested putting away the SPL meter when you mix and instead mix the music so it feels right in the room, whatever that means for your space.  I must say, having mixed both ways on both kinds of systems, mixing on a PA that is right for your room so you can enjoy mixing music is MUCH more fun then being a slave to the SPL meter!

That’s all for today!

Designing U2 360

If you’re a fan of excellent production, check out this series of blogs from Live Design Online.com with the production designers of this summer’s hottest tour, U2 360. There are articles and videos covering audio, lighting, and video systems, set design, crew, etc. Good stuff!

My friend Dave Skaff is back on the road with the band for this tour, mixing monitors on a Profile of course!

Some “new” mics…

I’ve written a lot recently about our new PA at Kensington, the d&b T-Series rig, as well as lots and lots about our Digidesign D-Show Profile console. The final piece of the mixing puzzle is the mic selection.  Good mics + good console + good speakers + good mix = audio awesomeness.  If the first three parts of the equation are the best they can be, the mix part comes together MUCH easier.

I’m really excited about a couple of “new” additions to our mic collection that are making a big difference in the quality of my mixes.  There’s some mix samples at the bottom of the post.

The first is an ultra-vintage original AKG D12E.  We’ve been looking for one of these for a long time because they are quite rare and hard to find in great shape.

On the recommendation of our music director, an accomplished drummer in his own right, this is a unique mic for live kick.  The D12E is the original mic that the D112 was based off of.  It’s funny, though, because if you ask me, the two mics couldn’t be more different.  The AKG D12E has a dynamic transducer with its special handmade “Bass Chamber”. The Bass Chamber boosts the lower frequencies in the 60 to 120 Hz range. Its unique sound established the D12E as the world’s standard microphone for bass drum and bass instrument pick-up. the D12E’s frequency response extends down to 40 Hz, and the slight peak in the 60 to 120 Hz range enables the microphone to do full justice to the mellow, intimate quality of the trombone, tuba, or flügelhorn.

It is the complete opposite of an Audix D6 or Shure Beta52 – feels really organic, uncolored, and natural.  As soon as you hear it, you can recognize the sound from many classic records over the years.

The second addition to our collection is a pair of AKG C414-ULS mics.  Again, we’ve been looking for a special pair for many months and a set that was in immaculate condition literally dropped into our laps.

If you’re familiar at all with the history of the 414, there have been several incarnations over the years of this classic.  My favorite by far has been the ULS series because it is the most neutral of the bunch.  The TL & TL-II utilize a different capsule based on the classic C12V.  While the TL series are great mics in their own right, the ULS has a very uncolored and natural sound that is awesome for overheads and electric guitar.  On our d&b rig, the entire kit takes on a 3-dimensional quality that is simply missing with the Rode NT4, Shure KSM32, KSM44, or KSM141, or SM81s.

Another plus towards the older ULS over the current 414 incarnations is that these mics still have hard switches for pattern control, roll-off, and pad.  The new mic’s have an electronic button that remembers the position when the mic is provided phantom power.  This is annoying because it means when you’re setting up the mics, you must have the console on and phantom applied to the channel in order to be able to set the mic’s options while setting up rather than making a special trip to the stage during soundcheck.

If you’re willing to take your time finding a matched pair in great shape, I think they are well worth the marginal investment.  It’s awesome that you can easily save $1,000 over the current versions of the 414 by finding a solid used set of 414-ULS, plus they sound better and are more versatile to boot.  Definitely check them out!

Now for the mix samples…

The first is a board mix of the kit mics isolated during soundcheck.  Kick is the D12E, snare is a SM57, hat a Neumann KM184, Audix D2 & D4 on toms, and the 414-ULS for overheads.  The 414′s are high passed around 140 hz so they are capturing a large chunk of the overall kit sound.  Because of this, the tom mics especially are thinned out just a bit so they will work well with the overheads.  Check out that kick tone!

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The second sample is the same kit mics in context of a full band worship tune.

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VIDEOBLOG: Behind the Scenes at Hard Rock

Here’s a video I ran across on Mixonline.com that’s close to my heart. FOH mixer Nick Simons gives a tour of The Joint, the new 4,100-seat performance venue at the Hard Rock Casino in Las Vegas, which features an extensive d&b audiotechnik installation with remote monitoring of all functions, Digidesign D-Show Profile mixers and BSS London control of processing and zone control.

When we started out on the plan to revamp the audio system at Kensington Troy last summer, moving from the Yamaha PM1D to the Digidesign platform, a new PA, new microphones, etc. this is a profile of a similarly designed system. Worth the watch!

OwnTheMix.com Followup

We’re a few weeks into the OwnTheMix.com experiment for audio team training.  I thought it might be a good idea to provide some follow up since a few have asked offline about it.  To read more about the background of OTM for Kensington, check this out.

I continue to be very impressed by the content of OTM.  The video production is well done and the training materials are spot on for the church audio engineer.  I’m especially excited about new content that will be coming online in the next few weeks with more focus on Digidesign D-Show consoles/software and the essential ProTools training for working with click tracks and virtual soundcheck.

As solid as the micing, mixing, and interview videos are, I continue to believe the biggest value of this content will be for our team to go through it as a group.  While I may not agree with every specific suggested technique, I anticipate the discussion these topics will create among our team will be as valuable, if not more, than the video content itself.

Probably the biggest disappointment to me so far is the social networking side of the site.  It is not the most intuitive to search for other members or groups that would be interesting to follow.  There’s nothing the OTM guys can do about it, but the community side would also be more beneficial if more people actively participated in the forums and their personal profiles/groups.  Perhaps some contests for SWAG to encourage increased participation would be beneficial or something else like that.

There is no such thing as perfect in anything, and the same holds true when you talk about a training resource like OwnTheMix.  However, the content itself is so strong and unique that it overcomes any of the minor weaknesses regarding community participation.  I still wholeheartedly recommend this for teams of any size who are mixing in churches.  Thanks OTM guys for such a spot-on service!