This sound engineer covers a lot of material regarding types of microphones, microphone placement, eq, etc. This covers more studio recording but his comments of "what sounds good" makes a good point. You can't just set volume and EQ levels in a generic way and expect everything to sound its best. [keep reading]
Mastering Monitor Settings For Happy Musicians
July 3, 2008 Mixed by
Here is something you can try at your next service for monitor mixing...I've just read about this so take it for what it's worth...it's from a worship teams old blog. Everything seems theoretically sound...and it seems easy. 1. Have one person liasing the sound from the Stage with the Sound guy from the Desk2. Line Check Instruments in this order : Vocals, then Instruments and then drums last3. Once Drum levels are set, get drummer to play a groove as if he was playing a loud song4. Get [keep reading]
Vocal EQ Settings
June 26, 2008 Mixed by
Basic vocal eq settings and the details behind them. General: Roll off below 60Hz using a High Pass Filter. This range is unlikely to contain anything useful, so you may as well reduce the noise the track contributes to the mix. Treat Harsh Vocals: To soften vocals apply cut in a narrow bandwidth somewhere in the 2.5KHz to 4KHz range. Get Brightness, Not Harshness: Apply a gentle boost using a wide-band Bandpass Filter above 6KHz. Use the Sweep control to sweep the frequencies to get it [keep reading]
Mixer Settings: Where It All Went Wrong
June 25, 2008 Mixed by
A true story and how you can learn from my mistake...It's the middle of the service and I pressed play on the VCR player for a meditational video. The main speakers broadcast a muddy distant sound. The VCR was playing but the quality was horrible and almost non-existent. "I've played this VHS tape before, this shouldn't be happening," I told myself. The nightmare began... My initial reaction, outside of "duck and cover," was the output level of the VCR [keep reading]
Understanding Sound – Basics
June 24, 2008 Mixed by
Sound comes from vibrations caused by fluctutations in the air pressure. In fact, that's how the ear drum works. It records the pounding of sound waves against it and converts it into something our brain can understand. Sound technicians deal with not only live sound but also electrical "sound." When a person talks into a microphone, their voice is converted to a electrical sound known as an audio signal. This audio signal has many characteristics and properties in relation to all sounds [keep reading]
I'm Chris Huff and I've been working behind a mixer for over twenty years. Since 2008, I've been helping other sound techs learn all about the art of church audio through behindthemixer.com.
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