[sdiy] OT: Live Sound advice needed

[James Husted]

I used to do a lot of playing live with a 3-piece all synthesizer band. We
played in all kinds of venues, everything from small theater houses to large
halls, even outdoor gigs in downtown Seattle. We found the most important
thing to get the sound right was to have great monitoring. I made a custom
line summer that took the 3 stereo feeds for each of our own mixers and it
had a stereo 3/4", RCA, and balanced XLR set of outs. We sent one set to a
on stage power amp and a couple of large Cerwin Vega voice-of-the-theater
like monitors that faced us from the front of the stage. The XLR feed went
to the house. During sound check, we ran some sequences and walked the house
and did a overall EQ setting for the house mixer guy. This is a important
time. You must communicate to this guy what is important to you about the
sound. Stuff like "see how that kick just punches your gut out, we like
that." or "see how the high end cuts through but doesn't lacerate you ears?"
The local mixer guy (or gal) probably really knows the club and knows the
changes needed to EQ it right. What they DON'T know is what YOU want to
sound like. The problem with giving the house guy a lot of feeds from the
stage is that I can bet you they will never know which synth is too loud at
any time. Not as easy as "that guitar needs more gain". If the monitoring is
done well, and each of you can hear each other well and can get the mix well
for yourselves, the house mixer will have much less to fuck up with. Another
benefit was the other feed from the summer (usually the RCA) went directly
to a tape deck to record it all. In smaller venues where the PA was not that
great, we put out monitors behind us, facing the audience, they got the same
mix as us. Of course the worked only because we had no vocals or microphones
on stage (except for talking to the audience). If you have a vocalist, send
their feed separately to the house and house monitors. The house guy can
fight the feedback.
Good luck!

-- 
James Husted                        The ErsatZ Planet
james at ersatzplanet.com           www.ersatzplanet.com

"Welcome to the first day of the rest of your money."