Babs @ Thu Sep 21, 2006 11:54 pm wrote:
LMAO Unfortunately there is no main PA. This is in the parking lot
of the bar I work at. The bands are the bands that normally come to play at our bar.
The bands will setup their stuff play and leave. Only one band will play at a time.
It is a benefit put together for one of our bartenders who lost their teenage son.
The bartenders and bands are working for free. They only offered to pay me because they need me all day. I didn't even ask how much because I will probably
hand it to her. $10 cover if you want to come and watch me go crazy because it is very unorganized. LMAO
Wow!.......They are going to rely a lot on you due to setup/teardown times for each band and NO common PA system.....Ouch!
You are going to get lots of mic time and be totally on your own......!
Ok, don't panic.
See if you can determine who is gonna play and when they will be there awaiting their chance to setup.....See if you can enlist one of those sound guys to kinda look over your shoulder at first....Arrainge this ahead of time with them if possible and be there plenty early and get your stuff completely rigged and properly powered and tested by the time they show up...Let him assist you thru the sound test and help you tweek your gain and determine clip points.
Weak vocals?.....No problem........Can you borrow a decent compressor?.....Nope, no time to learn about that, huh?.....So OK, forget the compressor, let's groom our gain structure all the way from the mic thru the board and out to the speakers to get all we can from the vocals.
The only nice thing about working outdoors is you don't have to worry about feedback so much as you do when indoors.....There are no confining walls to reflect sound back into your mics, so that means you can tweek the mics gain higher before feedback can occur.....That's good and it is in your favor this gig.
But you will not be outdoors until just before the gig to actually experience this , so that is yet another reason to show up early.
Start with your speakers disconnected at the mixer outs....unplug them....Turn on your mixer.
-Slide the masters up to unity
-Twist the mic input gain knobs up to unity
-Slide the mic slider up to -6 below unity
-Sing sortof loudly into the mic with it about 2" from your mouth
-Watch the clip light on the mic input as you sing and as you adjust the mic strip input gain twisty till it is flickering pretty steady but never lighted for long when you hit your loudest notes....That is the max gain you can muster on the input for that mic.....Now twist it down just a speck and leave it....Do the same for all mic strips you will use....leave them right where they are.
-Sing the same way again and watch the master output meters.......If they are hitting unity, you are done.....if below unity, then ease the mic slider up slowly till the meters are flirting with unity and then stop and see where the slider is on the scale......If it is above unity, then drop it to unity and place a piece of tape there.....If it is at unity or slightly below, then mark it there with tape.
-Now for the live test.........Reduce all sliders to bottom and plug in your speakers.
-Increase masters to unity
-slowly increase mic slider to tape mark and listen for feedback as you do it....if no howl, then sing with the mic a foot away from your mouth and slowly bring it in closer as you listen for feedback...have hand on masters ready to drop them if feedback starts.....If no feedback, then that mic is set.....do the rest the same way...Mark with tape.
If you do get feedback, then reduce the input gain for that mic enuff to prevent it and try to see if you can increase that mic slider closer to unity before feedback....Mark with tape.
So ok, your mics are now set for max gain before feedback....but you ain't tried them with music playing yet........
So reduce mic sliders to bottom and start the music playing......increase player slider to max level you expect to play it at all night and leave it there while you test each mic......
With music playing at max expected level increase mic slider and listen for feedback....keep increasing it if you can back to the marks you established in last step.....If you can sing and not cause feedback with music playing, then you are done!..........If however the vocals are still too low for the music, then you need to reduce the music slider til you have good mix and accept it....Mark sliders with tape.
If you get feedback thru mics while playing music at loudest expected level, then you have no choice but to reduce mic gain yet farther still, and maybe reduce music too.
Girl, that is how you do it, and that is all you can do..........If after all that it ain't good enuff, then tell them to gather closer to the stage.
Oh, BTW......if all this works well for you, then grab the other sound guys and show them how to do it properly.
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