Who are you currently touring with/mixing?
The last few years have been heavily studio focused however, I’ve just come off Telethon in WA which is a live broadcast fund-raising show. This is my favourite style of gig — combining both live and studio as a live to air, on the fly broadcast mix for over 24 hours straight.

What are some other acts/bands that you have worked with?
Outside of systems engineering my main touring has been with John Butler, San Cisco, The Waifs, Birds Of Tokyo, Operator Please, Van She, Ash Grunwald, Kasey Chambers, Clare Bowditch, Mama Kin Spender, Mavis Staples, and Lior.

How long have you been doing live sound and what was your path to a career in audio engineering?
Next year will be 20 years for me working full time in audio. I started with a year at SAE and then quickly found work with local bands and venues. I began mixing bands 7 nights a week in a West Australian pub and from that gig met many artists, who I still work with today. Whilst touring I also built up my studio experience and now work mainly as a producer/engineer in the studio based just south of Bunbury. I spent a few years as a systems engineer training and learning the d&b systems with Audio Technik.

During my early days (I think I was 19) I met Lior who I then went on to tour with for a few years in various rolls (audio/TM/tech). During these tours I connected with many of the bands as listed above.

What is your favourite console and why?
Hands down Avid S6L. Great workflow and it sounds awesome! Once set up, it’s very simple to navigate and mix on the fly. I’ve never bonded with Digico for some reason. I would always take Avid or Yamaha as my first option. 

Favourite microphone or any other piece of kit?
Austrian Audio OC818 condenser mic. Designed by the early AKG staff, it’s similar to the 414 but more natural and more versatile. I’ve been using it on grand pianos, drum overheads, and on John Butler’s very loud Marshall cab. I also have a Calrec CB20 that I love on snare, and a D12 for kick.

Most memorable gig or career highlight?
Many great memories from shows over the years — these include the ARIAs, Nannup Music Festival (my favourite annual), and Perth International Festival ‘HOME’ — this featured some classic WA acts including John Butler, The Waifs, The Drones, and The Triffids. It was a memorable gig, mixing all of these iconic acts back to back. It may have also been the 42hr shift we worked to have the show operational. 

The orchestra was spread out over a six storey staff tower and I can remember the sun coming up over the Perth foreshore as we ran out headphone systems and mics. Mixing Lior’s performance with the Dalai Lama also sticks in my mind for obvious reasons.

What are three mixing techniques you regularly employ.
Parallel compression.
I almost always use this on drum busses. The Empirical Labs Arousor is generally my go to on S6L. I have a clean drum bus, and then parallel busses for kick, snare, and toms.

Saturation.
I often use this over EQ and compression. If I want to control dynamics or accentuate frequencies I’ll use subtle saturation to colour and control, often using the saturator in the Arousor, or Crane Song’ Phoenix.

Grouping.
I enjoy the broad brush strokes of grouping similar sound sources (ie. instrument group, choir group, vocal group, etc), and processing the whole group rather than individual sources. This helps with pulling a mix together very quickly, and assists in creating space. For example, sometimes a wide parametric EQ on the high-mids removes some frequencies from the instrument group, creating space for the vocals. Or, a quick EQ on the whole drum group can make the drums shine whilst also making them sound like one instrument.

What are three pieces of gear or features that have been game changers for you?
Multiband compressors.
I think most touring engineers have jumped on board with the use of multi band compression and dynamic eq. The ability to tame problem frequencies without losing the natural tone and possible gain is a winner. 

Lexicon PCM96’s Random Hall, and Liquidsonics’ Seventh Heaven Reverbs.
I’ve always struggled to find decent reverbs in digital consoles. I carry a laptop dedicated to running these reverbs either via analogue, or AES. Having one decent deep and lush reverb makes all the difference to mixing for me.

The ability to save a show.
Learning and growing up mixing entirely on analogue equipment was a different ball game completely. I was recently reflecting on making up a console and ‘saving’ setting on pieces of white tape. This was replaced when phones started to come with cameras, enabling me to take phots of desk settings. The fact that we can save a show and recall it the same ‘most of the time’ at the next show is a huge game changer.

Can I add a fourth? Virtual Soundcheck on a console.
I’m not a fan of long soundchecks with a band on stage as I think it generally tires the artist and kills the mood. However I do like to finesse small details. Virtual Soundcheck has been a game changer — being able to work on the finer things and try different processing options. It also means there’s more time to walk the venue and see how the mix translates.

How have your working methods changed since you began live sound mixing?
I started mixing completely analogue. The challenges of different equipment and the reliability of that equipment used to take up a lot of the soundcheck time. I think now I work faster and trust my intuition when mixing a band. Gear is no longer an excuse for a poor mix because the standard of PA and consoles is now so high. 

Some things haven’t changed. I’ve always been very fussy with drum tuning and unless the drummer nails it I will tune them myself. The choice of drum tuning and cymbal selection has to be appropriate to the artist and venue. Often this comes down to developing a strong relationship with the band, and discussing options that might suit the show.

I use less mics than I would have 15 years ago. A show that I was Systems Tech’ing for still sticks in my mind. It was The Whitlams with the amazing Tim Millikan mixing. He had 14 channels covering the whole band and it sounded stunning. I think that that gig was a good reminder of how keeping things simple — and using your ears — is key.

Any tips/words of wisdom for someone starting out?
Work hard, and get as much varied experience with as many people as possible. I’ve learnt so much from so many different engineers over the years. I think that having experience setting systems up for an audio company is just as important as having experience mixing bands.

Mix appropriately. Too often I hear other engineers working on the worlds hugest snare sound and then trying to fit it into a light folk act. Whilst this is all very subjective, our job as audio engineers is to mix appropriately — for both the artist and the audience. I love to mix loud but sometimes it’s not fitting for the audience or venue — and other times it sure is!

Work neatly. Develop good relationships with the artist. Looking back I know the biggest asset to me has been building relationships with artists. It’s those relationships that have brought me more work.

Lastly, be a nice person. We’re not in the business of saving lives, so don’t take yourself too seriously!

Who are you currently touring with? 

My main gig over the last few years has been mixing FOH for Vintage Trouble out of Los Angeles. We’ve toured all over the world, and most of my other work fell by the wayside once we teamed up! I also double-dipped as their Tour Manager for a while which was a great learning experience.

Who are some other acts/bands that you have worked with? 

The Jacksons are another group that I do FOH for when they play the States, as well as Evan Ross and his wife Ashlee Simpson. I also spent a few years as the house monitor guy at the Knitting Factory back in my hometown so I’ve had the opportunity to work with a bunch of bands, including The Neighbourhood (also from Los Angeles) who took me out on my first tour back in 2014.

How long have you been doing live sound and what was your path to a career in audio engineering? 

Coming up on 15 years now! Like a lot of engineers, I played in a band, tried to figure out how to record an album, and everything snowballed from there. I also attended a lot of bad sounding concerts and wanted to understand why they didn’t sound better.

What is your favourite console and why? 

Yamaha CL5. Not the flashiest choice, but in my opinion all of the current pro digital consoles sound good enough to mix a great show on. I’m typically mixing on the house desk with far less prep time than I’d like, so fast workflow is much more valuable to me than a slightly more pleasant tonal quality. Honorable mention to Avid’s Profile for similar ease of use, and Digico’s SD range for best overall sound! Have also heard great things about Yamaha’s new PM10 and Midas’ Heritage-D but haven’t gotten to try them yet.

Favourite microphone or any other piece of kit? 

For studio work, the most exciting mic that comes to mind is the Slate VMS… The flexibility of being able to switch between that many great sounding mics and preamps without committing is a game changer for me in the studio. It’s like having the flexibility of a guitar amp simulator, without all the tone-related downsides. As far as other pieces… for live work, the AmpClamps and the Kelly Shu kick mounts make life easy for me, for the drummer/guitarist, and for the house crew.

Most memorable gig or career highlight? 

Montreux Jazz Festival was incredible. There was so much technological innovation and attention to detail, not only on the audio end but in the whole experience for everyone involved. Hellfest was a dream come true for me as well; I got to see so many of my favourite bands, and I’ll never forget the site of 100,000 French metalheads enthusiastically singing along to a Vintage Trouble ballad when we played between Municipal Waste and Gojira! Finally, I did a show with Ashlee Simpson and Evan Ross at The Roxy in LA with Evan’s mom Diana sitting in the front row smiling. Definitely one of the most surreal and heartwarming gigs I’ve been a part of.

What are three mixing techniques you regularly employ? 

I love using delay whenever appropriate, and most modern consoles make it easy to tap in the proper subdivision for the repeats so I’m always tapping out the tempo and riding the sends/returns/feedback level, almost like a nervous tic.

Sidechain compression is a newer technique that I enjoy using whenever I’m on the right console for it; it really helps the vocals and low end sit right when you’ve exhausted all other options.

Playlists for each song can be really useful when you get to mix the same band on the same console for a good amount of time. It’s easy to overdo and lose perspective, so I will usually only have the playlist to affect the release time on the master compressor, so that it grooves with the song tempo, and to cue up the specific FX for that song. By making those two things automatic and precise, it frees up precious mental energy that can be applied to fixing other potential issues throughout the show.

What are three pieces of gear or features that have come out and been game changers for you? 

Hate to say it, but the release of the X32 was a big one for me. It was the first digital console that I really got to know, and it opened a lot of doors for me. I liked being able to throw it in my car and take it to local gigs, and also use it as an in-ear (and occasionally FOH) console for the band that I play in.

Around that time I started using tablet control regularly on consoles that support it, which was a huge game changer for tuning speakers. Being able to tweak parameters while standing in an ideal listening position is amazing!

Lastly, the RF Venue spectrum analyser looks to be a massive game changer, although I haven’t actually picked one up yet! Unless you use one, or are at a big festival with a wireless coordinator (who is probably using one), choosing the frequencies for your wireless gear feels like you’re shooting blindly. I hope to have one next time I do a monitor gig where the band is on ears.

How have your working methods changed since you began live sound mixing? 

I’ve had enough time to develop a solid workflow, thankfully, so that most of the typical audio problems I used to have to deal with are solved before they materialise. More energy can be put into making sure that the show runs on time, that the bartenders can hear their drink orders, and that the other crew members and venue staff are having a good day. They’re all things that can get overlooked when you’re staring down at the console the whole time.

Any tips/words of wisdom for someone starting out? 

Keep an open mind and understand that you don’t know everything. There are valuable audio-related lessons to be learned every day, whether you’re stage-handing for a corporate gig or watching a local show in a tiny bar.

For those looking to tour, I would recommend taking a good look at yourself and making sure that you’re a person who people will want to be around day-in and day-out. Find out what your worst traits are and work on them. Find a band whose music you can get into, whose members you can stand to be around, and really become a part of the team.

Finally, to those engineers who are already touring – don’t double-dip as Tour Manager! It’s a great learning experience and everyone should do it briefly, but your mixes will suffer (as will the audience experience), the artist won’t be properly taken care of, and you’ll get burned out. There are many talented TM/FOH people out there and I respect what they do, but that’s my opinion and I’m sticking to it!

GAIN FIRING RANGE

In this issue, Stephan Schutze reviews Zoom’s F6 field recorder which, like Sound Device’s MixPre II series, offers the ability to record in ‘32-bit float’ format. It’s a different format to linear PCM so we can’t apply the 6dB-per-bit rule, but the 32-bit float format offers huge dynamic range – way more than a microphone could ever deliver. To achieve this they use a technique known as ‘gain ranging’. Instead of using one preamp and one converter on each mic input, they use two. Both preamps have fixed gain. One preamp/converter combo is optimised for low level signals, the other for high level signals. The outputs of both converters are combined through DSP to create a 32-bit floating point signal that is essentially impossible for any contemporary microphone to drive into clipping. Gain-ranging isn’t new — you’ll find it in the AES42 digital microphones from a decade ago — but it’s another example of ‘post-analogue lateral thinking’.

The F6 offers recording in 24-bit or 16-bit linear PCM format, along with the option of recording the 32-bit float signal. I’m willing to bet that the linear PCM signal is derived digitally from the 32-bit float signal, and that the knob used to control the recording gain is placed after the converters — a gamble backed by the fact that it affects the recorded level of the linear PCM signals but not the 32-bit float signal. Whatever the case, if you’re recording in 32-bit float mode from a microphone source there is no need to worry about gain anyway because you cannot overload the preamps or converters.

POST ANALOGUE WORLD

Marcel Gnauk of Free To Use Sounds (see ‘Making Free Pay’) recently shared an F6 recording of a passing train, along with screen dumps of waveforms. The whistle blows and drives the 24-bit signal well into clipping. Thankfully, he was also capturing the 32-bit float signal and was able to recover the recording. It gets a bit gritty at the peak when the mic’s diaphragm reaches its maximum SPL, but that has nothing to do with the F6. Yet another example of ‘post-analogue lateral thinking’.

So where is this leading? Zoom’s tiny F6 contains six ‘gain-free’ inputs. Imagine eight of them in a desktop interface, perfect for the non-technical recording musician. Imagine 24 in a rack-mounting interface, ideal for recording live performances. Worrying about recording levels, pad switches and limiters will be a thing of the past. For those who don’t understand the technology behind this ‘post-analogue lateral thinking’, it will be indistinguishable from magic.

Who are you currently touring with/mixing?

I’m currently touring with The Preatures and The Veronicas as their monitor engineer, and I mix FOH for Jen Cloher. I also work at Northcote Social Club as an in-house production tech and freelance FOH/monitors/stage tech for a few production companies.

What are some other acts/bands you’ve worked with?

The list is very long: Tkay Maidza, George Maple, SAFIA, Abbe May, LANKS to name a few. Courtney Barnett and all of the amazing Milk! Records family are regular clients and friends. I also have production managed multiple venues across Melbourne including Shebeen and The Curtin Bandroom.

How long have you been doing live sound and what was your path to a career in audio engineering?

2018 marks my tenth year working in live audio. I started out as a teen, when my music teacher taught me how to setup a PA. I ended up studying at SAE because I didn’t want to study music at uni and it turned out I was pretty good at mixing. I started mixing friend’s bands, who then networked me with their friend’s bands and it all snowballed fairly quickly from there. Now I’m working five to six nights a week all over the country.

What is your favourite console and why?

I’ve always been a fangirl of Digico; for sound quality, ease of use and flexibility. Digico is always at the top of my production rider. The SD10 has been my favourite console for a long time. However, I’m definitely keen to get my hands on an SD12.

Favourite microphone or any other piece of kit?

I don’t really have a favourite microphone. 90% of my personal live kit is Sennheiser mics, with a couple of Audio-Technicas, a single Audix and Shure. 

I definitely use my Shure Beta 91A the most out of everything I own. It’s super versatile for miking things from kick drums to grand pianos, to tap dancing boards (which I have had to do more than once). It’s also slim enough to get inside all kick drums with a port. It’s usually the only mic I will throw into my bag if I’m not carrying a mic kit. I’m also a big fan of my Audio-Technica ATM450s. They sound great on everything.

Most memorable gig or career highlight?

Unfortunately, my most memorable gigs are the gigs where something has gone disastrously wrong. I guess you remember those ones the most, so you remember what not to do or how to fix it. 

The most recent was at a festival where we had a catastrophic generator fail and lost all onstage power multiple times. Every time it happened I would have to power cycle my console and it would take me a couple of minutes to get back up and running again. Each time I’d got back to the point where the band could safely put their IEMs back in, we’d lose power again.

A career highlight has to be the run of stadium shows I’ve been out on this year as a monitor engineer. It’s an entirely different level of production and the connections I’ve made and the amount of new things I’ve learned are definitely invaluable to me. 

Gig highlight for this year would probably have to be a short three-day run with Jen Cloher. I went from an analogue Soundcraft in an old cinema, which was a lot of fun, to a surprising community hall which turned out to be one of the best sounding rooms I’ve ever mixed in, to a sold out Croxton with four of my favourite musicians.

What are three mixing techniques you regularly employ?

One thing I do with The Preatures is setup an SM57 a few inches over the kick drum and heavily compress it. Izzi prefers the sound of ‘old school’ drums, so rather than send her the close mic’d drums which sound very modern, she only gets that 57 and some OHs.

Depending on who I’m mixing, I often use parallel compression, particularly on the drums. Back in analogue days this was simple to do, but nowadays a lot of digital desks have made it harder with latency and phasing issues becoming a problem. A way I’ve worked around this is to mix to groups and have duplicate groups for whatever you want to parallel compress. One group is uncompressed and the second is your parallel. However, this doesn’t work for all digital consoles.

When I’m mixing monitors and FOH at the same time, if I have the channels available I digitally Y-split my vocal channels. I do this particularly with quiet singers. It gives me the ability to do different EQ and processing on each channel and get as much gain before feedback in both the monitors and FOH without compromising on audio quality.

What are three pieces of gear or features that have been game changers for you?

The Digico SD11i has definitely been the biggest game changer for me. I tour one with almost all my artists. It’s convenient having a powerful console that is compact enough to fly around with you. It ensures the show is always going to be consistent and the best it can be.

These are nothing new, but Ursa straps have been a huge help for me on shows. I work with numerous female artists who use IEMs and wear a lot of elaborate high fashion outfits on stage. Most of the time there is no suitable place for me to clip the pack onto their clothes. Before using Ursa straps, we would have to tape the receivers directly to their body, often with gaff as no other tape would hold up for the entire set. It’s definitely not something I recommend doing too often. Having Ursa straps, means I can comfortably and safely strap IEM receivers to their bodies and hold any excess cable while having the packs almost entirely hidden from view.

That being said, I’ve been researching Waves LV1 a lot recently and it looks to be something that has a lot of potential. It’s something modular and interchangeable, so you can only fly with what you need if you need to save on weight.

Plug-ins have definitely been considered a game changer for a lot of engineers, including me. Waves is by far the most popular and they’ve recently released some cool plug-ins I’m really keen to try out, including one called X-FDBK. It’s basically an automatic feedback analyser/suppressor. It would be handy for festivals and shows where you don’t have a lot of time to tune wedges.

How have your working methods changed since you began live sound mixing?

When I started out, everywhere I was mixing had an analogue console. Very few venues had digital consoles installed. They started changing over around the same time I was becoming super confident in my mixing, so I basically had to relearn my approach to mixing on a digital console.

I used to have to take photos of my GEQs for each venue and photos of the console after the headliner had sound-checked so it could be recalled before they went on.

Nowadays, instead of photos I have show files for almost every console, or can at least build half a show at home before turning up to the venue, then just save a full soundcheck. No more manual recalling.

Any tips/words of wisdom for someone starting out?

Don’t be afraid to ask questions.

Column: Nick Riley

Nick is a professional drummer, touring nationally with Georgia Fair. He’s also an audio engineer and JMC Academy alumni, who splits time between live production work and recording for local bands and record labels.

GROOVING WITH SPILL

You should always try anything to make the performer comfortable, but be prepared to make a judgement call if it’s affecting the outcome. For instance, I originally put up a monitor wedge for Meg, but it created a slapback delay that sounded foreign to the space. That’s why we opted for the in-ears.

Sometimes spill can actually work in your favour. I recently recorded a live studio performance of Joe West, a soulful, bluesy rock artist. He’d done a few studio video clips before and didn’t like the way headphones detracted from the visuals. We used foldback wedges instead, which were picked up by the microphones, but it was an electric blues, Stevie Ray Vaughn-sounding track, and I was using a TC Electronic vocal pedal to distort his voice. We also had slap back delay and reverb in the mix. The spill from the wedges just added to the overall sound.

Occasionally you have to take drastic measures to cut down on spill. I recorded a live version of Luna Avenue’s song Stay. With drums, bass, keys, two electric guitars and vocals, the studio was instantly packed to the gills and the spill became very difficult to deal with. Trying to maintain camera sight lines only made it worse because I couldn’t use any baffles to help isolate instruments. To keep things under control, I used virtual instruments for the keys and amp sims for the electric guitars. It meant only the drums and vocals were miked up in the room, and by using a low sensitivity cardioid dynamic like the Shure SM7B, with the rejection zone of the mic pointed at the kit, it left room for vocal compression in the mix without bringing up the spill too much.

While it’s not as ‘live’-sounding as the Joe West record, using studio tools helped deliver a clear and balanced mix while still letting them play to each other and keeping the groove intact. To add even more of the room feeling back in, afterwards I simply reamped the guitars in the same room to capture more authentic ambience. If the performer is struggling to keep time, but gets robotic when fed a click track, another trick I use is bringing along a drum machine and feeding them a beat or conga rhythm to keep the groove alive.

LISTEN UP

Although you may have less control over live studio recordings compared with a layered multi-tracked approach, the result can sound and look great. You just have to be scrupulous about listening to each take. You don’t want to listen back later and find out the camera person bumped into a mic stand at the start of an epic chorus.

A huge part of the sound comes down to how the band work and interact with each other, but it also comes down to how the engineer approaches the performance capture. Live studio recordings are one aspect of the industry I have grown to really love. The mix of using studio equipment and the excitement and vibe of a live performance gives me all the best bits of audio engineering, in one hit!’