Oh well oh well oh well

Jay Barracato

Jay Barracato

Graduate Student
Jan 11, 2011
1,528
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38
Solomons MD
I am filling in at a tent party at a local club. I have vocals, kick, and keys going through the pa, but the loudest thing is still cymbal bleed. You would think the band would notice no one in the audience is daring past the halfway point of the tent.
 
Re: Oh well oh well oh well

Jay Barracato said:
I am filling in at a tent party at a local club. I have vocals, kick, and keys going through the pa, but the loudest thing is still cymbal bleed. You would think the band would notice no one in the audience is daring past the halfway point of the tent.
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Don't you realize it is the sound guys fault! He is supposed to make "whatever" they do sound good. Yeah right----------------------------

The old idea of "blending" seems to be lost now-a-days. :(
 
They listened to the friendly advice during the first set break.

Things are a lot better. Still minimal through the PA but everything is balanced nicer now and the crowd has returned to the bands part of the tent.
 
LPF on the whole FOH mix rolled down to 8000.

Advice included a little tape on the cymbals, partially crossfiring the guitar amps, and matching levels to the bassist who was nicely in the pocket volume wise. Since it was a tent party there was no soundcheck and no real chance to make changes until the first break.
 
Re: Oh well oh well oh well

Jay Barracato said:
LPF on the whole FOH mix rolled down to 8000.

Advice included a little tape on the cymbals, partially crossfiring the guitar amps, and matching levels to the bassist who was nicely in the pocket volume wise. Since it was a tent party there was no soundcheck and no real chance to make changes until the first break.
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For me, the most annoying part of cymbal wash is around 5k. 8k and up doesn't really bother me, as it doesn't really project that far without amplification. A de-esser and some fader riding helps a good bit for me.


Evan
 
Re: Oh well oh well oh well

I've got a summer event coming up that always has this issue. Drums bleed into everything. A couple of the bands that I've worked with at the event have been very easy to work with to try and make it better. Others, not so much. Luckily, the promoter took my advice on which bands to hire back this year for 2 of the 3 days.

Now, about this tape on the cymbals trick. Details? Acceptability from the band putting tape on their gear? I'm very interested how that works.
 
Re: Oh well oh well oh well

Jay Barracato said:
LPF on the whole FOH mix rolled down to 8000.

Advice included a little tape on the cymbals, partially crossfiring the guitar amps, and matching levels to the bassist who was nicely in the pocket volume wise. Since it was a tent party there was no soundcheck and no real chance to make changes until the first break.
Click to expand...

Sometimes these devices just get forgotten:

dbx® Classic Downloads

Check out the manual. Frequency sensitive compression is kinda handy. And I agree with Evan. The 8K and up doesn't figure into my sound equations nearly as much as the 4-8K octave. It's hash in this area that conflicts with some seriously necessary overtones when getting the mix to sparkle and shine.

DR
 
Re: Oh well oh well oh well

When you are stuck mixing on a Mackie CFX that has 4K and 8K as the sliders next to each other on the output graphic and 1.4K to 8K being less than 1/4 turn on the only sweepable channel eq you take what you can get and cut where you can. Its all the same octave, right? (sarcasm). I was so desperate I went to my car, pulled out an old PV231 eq and sold it to the band member that owns the PA. After all was repatched I was still probably dumping 12db at 4K.

I did think it was kind of funny, but while the first two bands were on this headliner kept saying they were a lot louder. When it was all said and done, they really weren't significantly louder. They were significantly more cluttered and distorted.

For whoever was asking about the tape, that is a technique that they argue endlessly about on drum forums. When I use it I prefer a couple of narrow strips to a bigger square. A couple of 1/2 inch by 3-5 inch strips seem to work fine for me.
 
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