exweedfarmer @ Wed Jan 02, 2008 5:27 pm wrote:
"The Art of Recording" is the book you need. This book has absolutely nothing at all to do with recording. In fact I think the word "recording" is used twice in the text and one of those is in the title.
This is a frighteningly dry discourse on room acoustics and the effects of sound waves upon the human ear. It does not discuss amps or mixers or compressors etc. but after reading this book you will know what to do with all of them.
In my opinion there is no use buying a lot of toys that you have to tend when you should be out hob-knobbing with the folks. You can't really mix in a live situation unless you are set up in the acoustic center of the room and that is very unlikely. If you work from a booth you can mix the sound coming out of your monitors to perfection and it will have little relationship to the sound that the drunks are hearing. Find a good singer who has a lot of tonal color and get them to sing a few test songs while you run around out front and find a nice mix for the sound. Then, except for the volume knobs leave it alone the rest of the night. The good singers will adjust their voices to make themselves sound good and the bad singers will either improve or they just won't care.
But admittedly do not care about 'singers', which is why you get nothing but drunks. Singers will go to shows that take time for them to make them sound good, & yes our rings outs are still in the 'worth keeping karaoke' range. You wouldn't last a minute with your attitude at our show, but then I probably wouldn't work to well in your club atmosphere either.