Reinforcement vs. amplification

Jay Barracato

Jay Barracato

Graduate Student
Jan 11, 2011
1,528
5
38
Solomons MD
I had an interesting show Saturday night that brought to mind the difference between amplifying a band and reinforcing a band.

This was a local big band doing a tribute to Count Basie. The show was basically a mc narrating significant events etc. from Count Basie's life interspersed with many of his best known tunes.

For inputs, I had

the mc mic

the electric piano di

the bass di

2 KSM27's for sax solos

2 SM81's for trombone and trumpet solos

Everything was set to enhance the stage volume rather than replace it. The band had great dynamics and I was able to set my levels so when one of the horns stood to solo, the mic just lifted the solo instrument out of the mix and moved the image to the front.

The bassist had especially nice tone, and given that I like upright bass, I did probably have him slightly stronger than typical, but once again with the whole band playing, he was nicely blended into the mix, but when the band pulled back to just the rhythm section, the bass had great presence and tone and each note was clear. While the system had aux feed subs, I did not use them at all, I just ran the bass through the full range tops. I am not sure what the pickup system on the bass was, but I picked the signal directly from the DI on his amp (sometimes chancy but worked this time).

Well for a Count Basie tribute, the piano must be fairly important, and due to stage size the band was limited to an electric piano. Originally I patched the piano in stereo through a radial DI, but found out at the last minute that he was only going to run mono. With digital at FOH, the easiest path was to simply patch that mono input to both L/R. Other than the MC mic, I had gone into the show thinking that the piano would be the only thing I needed in the FOH mix, and I was worried about the location of the image coming from the speakers rather than the stage. Initially I delayed the outputs, to try and push the speakers back to the middle of the stage, but due to the shape of the room, I didn't like that. I ended up just leaving them, and I liked the way the piano solos came forward in the mix through the speakers. The same thing was happening with the horns, but because they had a significant stage volume it wasn't as noticable. I really liked the effect for the piano.

A couple of photos


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I cut my teeth in Theater, doing reinforcement. The goal was to balance and increase audibility. If you hear me mix a band, you'll understand exactly... Even today, having done no theater since the fetal stages of my career, I am really crappy at adding my own artistic touch or modifying the sound of instruments.
 
Re: Reinforcement vs. amplification

Jay Barracato said:
Vacation or are you coming to town with a show?
Click to expand...

Knowing who Kip works for, I'd say its a show at our "favorite" venue.


To add a little to the thread (and since I saw a show at this very venue about a week ago), there's a bit of an audience disconnect back in the alcove off of stage right, even with a louder show. The delay system there leaves a bit to be desired, especially for the last couple rows of tables closest to the window. That said, I would hope that the audience would be a bit more attentive for a show like yours Jay, but I'm afraid that even some of the house engineers don't understand that you almost need a separate matrix mix for back in that area.
 
It is on a separate matrix but I didn't dig into the tuning. I felt that those fills were hot compared to the subs. I pulled it back some in level but I wasn't running anything in the subs.

One of these afternoons when I am there not on a 2 show day I wills a little more careful measurement.

The bump up in that back area is new since I was last in there for a show and paying attention.
 
Re: Reinforcement vs. amplification

I'll be there for a show.

This topic was actually the cause of me being dismissed from a club/bar gig about 10 years. The "talent" buyer booked a band in one night and the place was almost empty. When the band arrived I gave them the typical speech that I have plenty of PA and everything will have a mic on it so just play to the stage and I'll take care of the rest. Soundcheck went on and I again asked them to find their tone if they needed volume to make that happen and let me reinforce them with the PA. On a side note, I was pretty much over working at this place... it was just something to do for a free meal and some cash all within 15 minutes from the house.

The band started on time and out of the gate I started un-assigning faders from the main buss starting with electric guitars and then snare. After about the third song I walked up the stage and asked them to back off a little. After the fifth song the owner/ "talentless buyer" started bitching at me because of the volume. I told him that I asked them turn down several times and at this point I was just using the PA to fill in the gaps to what they were giving me from the stage. Since they weren't responding to any of my polite tactics- he told me that I needed to get impolite to get results. At that point I reached over and grabbed the master and pulled it all the down. He turned to me and said "That sounds like shit"... and I looked at him and said "Well that's what you booked"

When I went in the next day to get my gear out of there the bar manager was apologizing on behalf of the owner since they didn't have enough in-house gear to do actual shows. I still feel vindicated knowing that the following night they were scrambling to figure out how to pull it off with just a few mics, no eq's or fx. Bands stopped accepting his offers to play there and the next karaoke bar was born.
 
Re: Reinforcement vs. amplification

Jay, your post brings back memories. I spent four years touring with the Air Force big band the "Airmen of Note". Judging from what you wrote, I'd say you had an excellent handle on things. That was always my goal, too - to reinforce what the band was already doing and stay out of the way. In larger venues, of course more things were miked and it was more of a "mix". But in a large percentage of the gigs, there was very little coming through the PA. I approached the bass a lot like you did - I gave it a tad more presence than perhaps was "natural" but I thought it sounded great that way. No doubt - overall for any acoustic act and certainly for a big band, less is more. Wish I could have seen/heard your show!
 
Re: Reinforcement vs. amplification

Karl,

I schedule at least one show a year with the Navy Band "Country Current" and run into them at a bunch of other events during the course of the year. Wearing my high school teacher hat, I like to sponser their show because it shows the students a path as a professional musician they might not have considered.

I like big band music, and being familiar with it, definitely makes mixing it easier. But sometimes it seems I get the oddball shows (usually by my own choice) and then I need to remind people that I actually do know how to do a rock show.
 


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