Nathan Lively's Blog, page 17
November 9, 2018
How Jamie Anderson Saves Time in System Tuning with Smaart Check Points
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In this episode of Sound Design Live I talk with Jamie Anderson from Rational Acoustics about how he is able to work faster with Smaart using strategic check points in his sound system tuning process to avoid time consuming errors. Anderson also explains why Smaart is not a silver bullet, the history and future of auto EQ, and why Germans don’t laugh at his jokes. I ask:
How did you get your first job in audio?
You were at Meyer Sound from 92-97. What was the hot topic at that time?
Looking back on your career so far, what’s one of the best decisions you made to get more of the work that you really love?
You have a pretty tough job selling and teaching a piece of software that many live sound engineers hope will be a silver bullet. You said something yesterday that I liked a lot, “Smaart is a tool that helps good sound engineers make better decisions.” Would it be fair to say that Smaart forces you to ask better questions?
What do you do to save time in the field?
In online forums I will regularly see this question come up: I’m working in a highly reflective room tomorrow. What are your tips? And someone will always suggest that they keep the volume low. But this is misleading because rooms are linear. The room doesn’t change with drive level. So what’s really going on here?
Tell us about the biggest or maybe most painful mistake you’ve made on the job and how you recovered.
What’s in your work bag?
[image error]Taste your food before you salt it.
Notes
Music in this episode by Heavy Moan.
Jamie’s go bag:
Roland Octa Capture
(5) microphones: (1) wireless Lectrosonics
Cables and adapters
Cable checkers: Rat Little Sniffer
Books: Siddhartha, Sound Systems: Design and Optimization, Sound System Engineering
Quotes
As a system engineer, my job is to get everyone the same show. That’s what I refer to as sound communism.
There’s a lot of tuning that goes on that is dropping a microphone in a place and tuning to make the response sound great at that place and ignoring the fact that the rest of the place is wildly varying.
The audio analyzer is going to help you create uniformity, but really only as far as the system design will allow you.
People come to the Smaart course hoping to learn how to align and get a good sounding sound system, but they are skipping the whole system engineering. We are teaching them about a really useful tool, but you really have to understand system design and engineering first. There’s no short cut.
I was feeling really bad, so I went to the doctor. He MRI’ed me and now I feel great.
Imagine if you could run an MRI on a laptop. That’s great, but that’s not going to cure people.
I try to shoot down people’s expectations that this is going to be a magic bullet. It’s a really powerful tool, but it’s just a tool.
It’s nice when people say, “They Smaarted the system,” but it’s a misnomer. Really systems are Nathaned or Jamied or Ericaed or Bobbed or Karrened.
The fundamental problem with auto EQ is that it assumes that EQ is the right decision. In fact, rarely is it. There are very few things that EQ is a good tool for addressing.
In the real world there is time compression. Where you had 2 hours, now you have 15 minutes. If it takes you 15 minutes to setup and verify your analyzer then it is not a useful tool to you because you can’t apply it.
I’m my own worst enemy. I can confuse myself with the best of them.
One bad cable can turn a million dollar sound system into an AM radio.
The worst place to mic a violin is in close because it sounds different at every location.
This article How Jamie Anderson Saves Time in System Tuning with Smaart Check Points appeared first on Sound Design Live. Sign up for free updates here.
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October 16, 2018
Why is wireless so hard?!
Why is wireless so hard?! Even after 15 years of shows, I still don’t get it.
A perfect example is a show I worked on a couple of weeks ago. As far as I could tell, I was doing everything right. I was using a solid antenna and distro from RF Venue, following the guidelines I knew for antenna placement and frequency coordination using Shure Wireless Workbench, but it didn’t work. I was still getting dropouts.
At breaks I would scramble to re-coordinate and war game and increase transmitter power. No improvement.
I hate to call it magic, but sometimes it just seems to work and sometimes it doesn’t. Even after the hundreds of shows I’ve worked on, wireless is the part of the signal chain that I have the least confidence in.
One thing I know is true: just like sound system tuning, there is no magic bullet. A solid signal chain develops at every link.
If I want to stop having these painful experiences on shows, I need to take my skills to the next level. But how?
The best solution would be to hire Karl Winkler to come out on shows with me, but something tells me he’s not going to fly to Minneapolis for a show tomorrow.
I guess the next best solution is to have Karl train me on the principles. I know how to operate some hardware and software, but I have never trained in the basics of wireless systems.
If I could have it my way, I’d also get Alex Milne to teach me about filters, Nick to walk me through the process he developed on tour with O.A.R., and Stephen Pavlik to give me a crash course on wireless for IEMs.
Of course, I’ll have to check my budget. How much is it going to cost to take a day off of work, travel, and lodge myself at the training location? Ideally, it would happen in Minneapolis. But then I’d have to put on pants and leave the house. And it might be snowing! Also, this doesn’t really help Chris in Philadelphia or Aleš in Slovenia.
Wait…
What if we could do this online? We won’t be able to shake hands, but this might be the best compromise. If we do it through video conference then presenters can show demos with their webcams and anyone can ask questions.
I’m not very clever when it comes to marketing, so I guess I would call it something like Wireless Workshop. I really like Guileless Wireless, but that seems silly.
So how much should it cost? Let’s see…MxU is $300. Smaart class is $750. SynAudCon Making Wireless Work seminar is $750. I don’t think this event would need to cost that much. If we can get 50 or 60 people to attend, tickets could be as low as $77 and still pay all of the teachers.
Hmm, some people might not be able to afford $77. Let’s also offer a $30 discount for people who need it.
What do you think?
Should we do it?
No, this is a dumb idea.
Yes, sign me up!
Register here – https://www.sounddesignlive.com/online-wireless-workshop/
Discount code – WIRELESS30
Ideas? Comment below.
September 22, 2018
Recovering from Burnout and Avoiding Overwhelm
Support Sound Design Live on Patreon.
In this episode of Sound Design Live I talk with Nicholas Radina while he is mixing monitors on tour for the band O.A.R. We discuss reducing stage volume, troubleshooting wireless transmitters and receivers, recovering from burnout, and how to avoid overwhelm on the job.
[image error]I found myself driving home one night, burned out, just thinking to myself, this can’t be the next 10 years of my life.
Notes
Music in this episode by O.A.R.
Download the book Get On Tour for free until Sep24.
Hardware: Midas Pro C, Lab Gruppen amps, Red Box, Kemper, Shure Axient
Software: Wireless Workbench
Quotes from Get On Tour
I found myself a bit burned out, without much direction, and looking for another path.
I started declining gigs that didn’t meet some baseline wants for my life and career. That baseline includes work that helps me move forward, is good for my resume, benefits me on a spiritual level, or is financially rewarding. Looking at every opportunity with these things in mind made it easier to respectfully turn down work that would keep me from growing, make me feel stuck, and ultimately lead to a deeper burn out.
Diversifying and being flexible and available have always been the keys to my self-employed survival. When working at home I freelance with several audio companies, tackling festivals, special events, and corporate work. At this point in my career, $350-500/day seems to be the competitive rate. I write articles for Live Sound International/ProSoundWeb.com, and I created and run SoundNerdsUnite.com, which offers products and teaching resources about live sound. I co-founded and program a special 22-week Latin music series in Cincinnati called Salsa On The Square. I also manage an apartment building.
This business is less about your technical aptitude as it is your personal and social approach. People hire you because of what you personally bring to the table: those traits that are inherent, personal, and one of a kind. Choosing you from a pool of equally qualified applicants is a privilege—treat it as such.
Quotes
My job is to make the artist feel comfortable. I’m really careful of letting my own opinions override what the artist wants.
The amplifier on an active antenna is to make up for the loss of the cable. It has nothing to do with distance and range.
Put your antennas up and high.
There are calculators all over the place for cable loss.
I just had one too many angry tour managers.
All tours end. I had to come home and pay the bills.
Eventually I was fired from that job because I wasn’t available. I thought, How could they fire me?! But when I look back, I’m so grateful that they did because it really gave me freedom in my life to pursue other things.
It was difficult, but I knew I was going to do it. I had to do it.
Don’t be a dick.
First of all remember that you’re not saving babies.
[image error]
This article Recovering from Burnout and Avoiding Overwhelm appeared first on Sound Design Live. Sign up for free updates here.
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September 17, 2018
September 9, 2018
Guerrilla Mixing
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Support Sound Design Live on Patreon.
In this episode of Sound Design Live I have curated some of the best highlights from Aleš Štefančič’s presentation from Live Sound Summit. Aleš shares his best tips for getting great results under the worst circumstances. Plus, a lively Q&A section at the end where he is asked:
Can everyone learn to mix well or is there an inherent base line of talent necessary?
What advice do you have for working with a band that is being difficult, especially in a one-off situation where you won’t be able to build a lasting relationship?
Is there an appropriate way of telling another engineer that their mix just isn’t right?
More and more bands are showing up with IEMs without prior notice. What is the guerrilla mixing response?
[image error]If someone is being insulting on personal level, my support doesn’t go diminished. I am here to do a job.
Notes
If you can’t prevent guerrilla mixing:
Verification & console prep
Focus on the stage first
Keep it simple
Quotes
Guerrilla mixing is mixing against all odds. You have no time for advanced preparation. You are lacking all relevant information. It’s the ultimate test for your speed, focus, and mixing ability.
If you have a chance, try to prevent it from happening.
I might use faders at zero mixing if I am mixing FOH only.
You cannot influence the way other people treat you. You can influence the way you treat other people.
If someone is being insulting on personal level, my support doesn’t go diminished. I am here to do a job. Do your job and let Karma do its.
IEMs in mono are crap.
You can train this with virtual soundcheck.
This article Guerrilla Mixing appeared first on Sound Design Live. Sign up for free updates here.
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You might be guerrilla mixing, if…
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September 7, 2018
Tomas Wolfe and the FOH/MON Facebook Group
[image error]
Tomas Wolfe started the FOH/MON group on Facebook and is on tour with on tour with Underoath and Run The Jewels.
TOMAS: I would like to learn more about system tuning.
The easiest way to get started for free is by watching archived Meyer Sound webinars and reading the blogs written by Bob McCarthy and Merlijn van Veen. I also recently publish a video series on YouTube called Get Started with Sound System Tuning. (See ENDNOTES for links.)
Next, you should read Bob McCarthy’s book. It’s the only one I recommend.
I have discovered that a lot of people, myself included, have a hard time applying technical knowledge to their daily work. That’s why I created Seeing Sound. It’s a system tuning program that walks you through the most important steps to give you more confidence and consistency in your work.
TOMAS: I would like to learn how to better balance work with my personal life and to be healthier while on the road.
The most helpful tool for me has been a calendar that I update frequently with all aspects of my schedule. This includes time with my friends, family and time for myself! The busier you get, the more those relationships will weaken. If you wait until you “find” time, it will never happen. You have to reserve that time on your schedule.
A key point for avoiding stress is to stay flexible. Online calendars are great because you can just grab your phone and move stuff around. So if you have a gig that comes up for Sunday afternoon, when you were planning to see your brother, reschedule. Let everyone know that your work is really important to you and that there will often be scheduling conflicts. Ask them ahead of time for their understanding and flexibility.
Also, have a long term goal of building demand for your services so you can be booked solid one year into the future. There will always be surprise changes, but you can minimize those by booking yourself farther out.
TOMAS: I want to get work with people I can learn from to improve my business.
Sure, I totally agree. I guess the question, then, is how to make that happen.
“There is something to learn from everything you do in life.” -Karl Winkler, Lectrosonics
First of all, appreciate the people you are working with now and learn everything you can from them. It may not always be technical skills. It may be a great attitude, customer service skills, or knife fighting.
Through LinkedIn, trade magazines, and forums (SoundGirls has a mentor section), find someone who is doing what you want to be doing. You can then: A) approach them directly about a mentor relationship (come with specific request in mind); B) Ask them to let you shadow them for a day, or; C) Try offering a trade or free work like Charlie Hoehn.
Another method I’m fond of is hiring a coach. There are coaches out there that specialize in every kind of goal from running a marathon to building your career as a sound engineer. I specialize in helping audio professionals grow their businesses, often with theatrical, concert, and corporate sound. I recently saw a coach that specializes in helping you start a successful home studio side business.
ENDNOTES
https://www.meyersound.com/events/sem...
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list...
https://bobmccarthy.com/publications/
https://www.merlijnvanveen.nl/index.p...
https://www.proaudioworkshopseeingsou...
https://www.soundgirls.org/group/mentors
Charlie – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e5qUR...
This article Tomas Wolfe and the FOH/MON Facebook Group appeared first on Sound Design Live. Sign up for free updates here.
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August 31, 2018
Quick Monitor Mixes – guerrilla style
Don’t have time for a sound check?
No problem!
Aleš just posted a video explaining his method for quick monitor mixes on a digital console. Once you have the main channel set, the faders will be your visual guide.
Let’s do the mix for the lead vocal:
Set input gains on all channels
Sends on fader
Set the vocal send to 0dB
Bring up the send master to a comfortable level
Set backing vocals at -5dB and harmony instruments at -8dB. Continuing adding other channels the vocalist might need using the faders as your visual guide.
Repeat for all monitor sends
This article Quick Monitor Mixes – guerrilla style appeared first on Sound Design Live. Sign up for free updates here.
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You might be guerrilla mixing, if…
August 24, 2018
You might be guerrilla mixing, if…
[image error]
In a perfect world of mixing audio, you would always have the right information and plenty of time to act on it.
The right information about the artist, the venue, the mixing console, the PA, the microphones, the audience, the timeline – anything that helps you make informed decisions about your approach, technique and style of mixing. Plenty of time to turn all that information into a great sounding show – time to listen to the artist’s material, to talk to them and get to know their target sound, to check every cable run and every microphone, time to setup and align the PA, to have a detailed line check and sound check, to program your console for each section of a song, to dial-in your effects – to create a sonic landscape that is impactful, emotional and memorable.
I have been in the business of tweaking knobs for a while now. From my own experience, and that of fellow engineers, this perfect world is about as common as a unicorn dancing on a pot of gold underneath a rainbow. In the real world we have the exact opposite – wrong or no information and everything needs to happen 5 minutes ago. Mixing in such an environment, where you are forced to react rather than prepare, is what I call “guerrilla mixing”. And chances are you are fighting the same petty warfare as well …
You might be guerrilla mixing, if…
the artist does not show up for soundcheck.
You work in a club or for a rental company and you have to mix a show for an artist tonight. You got their rider in advance, you have the stage setup and are all set for the sound check that should happen in a few minutes. There is just one little snag- the artist is running late. Their van broke down, or there was a traffic jam, they got lost on the way (yup, even with all of the navigation apps, that still happens!), their flight got delayed – for whatever reason, the sound check isn’t happening. In fact, they barely make it in time for the show (after the club is already open), setup their gear and … lo and behold, the rider you got is a bit outdated and you now have additional input channels, two more monitoring lines and your entire patch list has gone out the window. With 5 minutes to showtime you have just enough time for a revised patch list and line check. Guess what? In 5 minutes you will be doing guerrilla mixing.
You might be guerrilla mixing, if…
you are doing sound for the opening act at a festival.
Oh man, you are so excited, the local band you are working for got a big break and landed a gig at a large festival with thousands of people watching and you get to mix them! Sure, you will be running a console you have never seen before, but you have seen all the YouTube videos and you have allocated time for a sound check that will get you more familiar with the board. But the main act is running late and they are having technical issues. They eat up all of your time for sound check and now your band is on stage, setting up, ready to go on in minutes, while you have about a thousand things to program on the console, work on their monitors, set up a mix from scratch and are feeling just a tad overwhelmed. Yup, you are a guerrilla mixer, my friend.
[image error]You might be guerrilla mixing, if…
you have made a name for yourself and now have so many gigs that you have little time to prepare.
When you get to a certain point in your career, people start calling you to do all kinds of gigs. And, since you love the craft and seem to be available on that day, you take the gigs. Even the ones that happen tomorrow because a resident sound engineer got ill or a band got a call to fill a slot at tomorrow’s festival and they called you up last minute. You do not have the time to prepare properly, but you want to maintain your reputation of being a reliable sound engineer that creates great sound. So what do you end up doing? Guerrilla mixing. It could happen because your business is booming and things are going right, not because something went wrong.
You might be guerrilla mixing, if…
your gear breaks down and you have to improvise.
Touring takes its toll. Not only on the people, but on the gear as well. Yesterday, the gig went great. Today, you setup your gear and your console is out of whack. Maybe it got dropped during transport, maybe it just decided to test your resilience and nerves – but today it is just not cooperating. There is no way you can get an identical replacement to the venue in time, but the local rental company can provide a console that will allow you to make the gig happen. All of your meticulously crafted scenes and cues are taking a break on your unused backup USB drive you were hoping to use until all hope was gone, while you are now rushing to remember all of the cue changes you have to run by hand during the show. Please, give the guy a “Don’t talk to me during the show, I am guerrilla mixing!” T-shirt.
What to do, what to do??
Live sound is unpredictable. Even though we strive to take the element of the unknown out of our work as much as we can, it always finds a way to creep up and yell “SURPRISE!!”. And for some of us, it is the norm. There is no pre-production time for any of the shows. There is no time for adequate sound checks and maybe you get to work with a different artist every night – it is the equivalent of audio speed dating.
If you find yourself doing a lot of these types of shows, you might be wondering by now: “Does it ever get better? What can I do?” Here are a few things I figured out work for me.
Don’t panic. Accept the fact that you will occasionally get a visit from the proverbial Mr. Murphy, who tends to mess things up.
Get all the information you can. Talk to the band, call a fellow engineer, look at a YouTube video of their live gig. The more info you have, the better decisions you will make.
Get methodical in your verification steps. Have a list of what absolutely needs to get checked before running the show so you can do your job. All of the mixing chops in the world won’t fix a missing input.
Focus on the stage first. If the artists can’t hear themselves, they can’t play. If they can’t play, you can’t mix.
Ignore the trees, focus on the forest. People might not even notice you don’t have the right reverb decay set, but they will surely notice a guitar solo they couldn’t hear because you were fiddling with some obscure parameter that makes your snare pop a bit more.
Train yourself to be a better guerrilla mixer. If you have access to a console, initialise all settings or recall a blank session. Set the timer to 5 minutes and start working. Using an input list, see how many items on your checklist you can get to in that time period and evaluate if there is something else you might need more than what you have setup. Reset, restart, compare. It works even better if you have multitrack sessions you can route to your mixer – then you can really get the speed aspect under your belt.
You might be complaining about the amount of guerrilla mixing you have to do, but I consider it to be one of the ultimate rushes of adrenaline. It can be extremely satisfying to create a good mix when the cards are stacked against you. I also consider it atrue testament of a good sound engineer – making something out of nothing. So don’t be shy to say it out loud: “I am a guerrilla mixer!”
This article You might be guerrilla mixing, if… appeared first on Sound Design Live. Sign up for free updates here.
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August 15, 2018
Why Touring Sound Engineers Are Getting Paid Less
Support Sound Design Live on Patreon.
In this episode of Sound Design Live, I speak with touring FOH sound engineer, author, and fashion entrepreneur, Dave Swallow, during his stop in Minneapolis on tour with Erasure. We discuss using timecode to trigger scenes on a Venue Profile console, starting a clothing line, why touring sound engineers are working more, but getting paid less, and what to do about it. I ask:
How did you get the job touring with Erasure?
How do you use the wireless Lake controller to tune the sound system?
What are some ways you used plugins to recreate specific sounds from the album?
What did you want to start a clothing brand?
Why should I care about the speed of sound?
[image error]Our wages haven’t gone up in 10-15 year in some cases and there are less shows. When you think about the future of the industry, there is a big question mark.
Notes
All music in this episode by Meathook and Butler Boyz.
Dave’s clothing line – Audio Architect Apparel
Software: Waves H-Delay, True Verb, C6 Multi-band Compressor
Hardware: Venue Profile, D&B B2, FunktionOne 221, D&B Y system
Books: Live Audio
Quotes
What [triggering the scenes with timecode] has allowed me to do is focus on sonically how they are sitting in the room. This is especially important when you are stuck mixing at the back of the room.
The problem with putting big reverbs into big rooms, is they are twice as big. One of the things that is quite helpful is using the pre-delay. Getting it up to somewhere between 70-100ms, you give the vocal time to form the words and then you have the extension.
One of the biggest problems with theatres in the US is that they lack bottom end.
My self and my contemporaries are probably the first generation of touring sound engineers that have had to think about having another career. [When you set out on this path] you just think, “Let’s have fun!” But there comes that point when you think, actually, I don’t want to be 60 and living by myself in a rented flat somewhere in north London.
To earn a decent living you need to be out of the house [on tour] for the whole year, to pay for the house that you’re not living in.
You’re losing out to gigs because there is someone younger and cheaper than you are. Experience doesn’t seem to count for as much as it used to because it’s all budget controlled.
When my son was born I only worked six months and we weren’t struggling for cash. These days, if I only work six months, we’ll have a bit of a problem.
[image error] [image error] [image error]
This article Why Touring Sound Engineers Are Getting Paid Less appeared first on Sound Design Live. Sign up for free updates here.
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July 27, 2018
Mixing Monitors for Tears for Fears
Support Sound Design Live on Patreon.
In this episode of Sound Design Live, I speak with the the Director of Audio at IMS Technology Services, Chris Leonard. We discuss mixing monitors for Tears for Fears, setting up the sound system for the presidential inauguration, and Dante troubleshooting tips. I ask:
How did you get your job at Maryland Sound?
Walk me through the sound system at your last gig at the Minneapolis Convention Center.
How do you troubleshoot Dante networks?
What was the biggest mistake you’ve made on the job?
[image error]The day you stop learning, you’re only moving yourself back.
Notes
All music in this episode by Tears for Fears.
Educational resources Chris recommends: SynAudCon, Smaart classes, Smaart manual, Smaart User Group on Facebook, InfoCOMM, Sound Design Live podcast, Bob McCarthy’s book, MXu,
Hardware: RAT tools CAT snake, Yamaha Ri8-D, CL5, QL5, VRX 932LA-1, Q-Box, GoPro, Shure55
Dante troubleshooting
Unplug the secondary (redundant) network. It’s easy to get those crossed.
ULXD Dante configuration needs to be set to Redundant Audio if you are running a star topology network.
TM Array
Stage Jammer: Patching the stage, jamming the stage together
Quotes
A lot of it has to do with your attitude and work ethic. Nowadays work ethic seems like a thing of the past.
As a company you don’t always have the space the bring in a green person right away. You need to have them mature a little bit, but if they mature in a labor pool that you work with all the time and they get to know your gear, I’m more inclined to bring them along on a show.
Networking is key. If you came to town for the first time and said, “Hey I’d like to work with you,” the first thing I’d do is see who you are connected with on LinkedIn or who I know that already knows you.
They were making fun of me for volunteering to work for free and the truck driver said, “You’re all laughing. One day you’re all going to work for him.”
[image error]
This article Mixing Monitors for Tears for Fears appeared first on Sound Design Live. Sign up for free updates here.
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