Let me preface this with I have been a recording engineer since 1981 (anyone remember 2" tape?). I love live sound for many reasons such as not having to listen to the same song over and over and over and over for three days while everyone retakes all their parts or segments or even a few notes to get that "perfect" performance. Also for those of you who take it for granted there is nothing like being behind a state of the art system with stacks of BIG subs making BIG sound.
Spending a little time in a studio really allows you to learn what your tools will actually do in a slow paced environment. What does compression sound like at 3:1? 6:1? 10:1? What does slowing the attack do? What does slowing or speeding up the release do? Yes we get to play with it a little in live sound but get behind some really high resolution monitors or a really good set of headphones and spend some time with a looped track and you will really learn what compression parameters really do.
What does your noise gate really do? How much of the attack does it really clip off? How accurate does it track? How much can you take out with the key filters and rate before it starts to degrade the sound of the original input noticeably? What release rate sounds the most natural?
It is all about subtle differences that you can actually hear in a studio environment.
What does a reverb unit really sound like? There is so much ambient noise in live sound that the quality of reverb is much less of an issue. That is not so in a studio environment. The difference between a Lexicon PCM series and a Yamaha SPX series is night and day but for live sound there is really less of an appreciable difference on many of the common units we employ. I have some really expensive and fine units I have left over from my recording studio days that I use live but I am honestly just as happy with something more affordable like the TC M-One for a live situation. I even like the sound of the built in effects on my MixWizard for the shows I use them for. If I really need or want something better I can patch it in but in most cases it would just be anal-retentive on my part.
The whole point I am trying to make is that spending quality time in a recording studio environment will really fine tune your ears and mixing ability. You will learn very subtle differences that make it easier and faster to get where you are going with live sound. You can do the same thing with some recorded tracks and a good set of headphones but either way it will make you a better engineer.
The other great thing about being studio savvy is there is such an opportunity for extra revenue for every good engineer now that live multitrack recording is so affordable. Live recordings at the JV level are really easy to mix if you capture the tracks decently. You are just mixing what a band gave you during their performance rather than trying to build a masterpiece from the ground up in a studio.
The last thing that I will add is that in the studio world you are looking for "translation", that is NOT how it sounds on your speakers or headphones but "How it sounds everywhere else on all the other systems" that people playback on. Learn that one and be a decent mixer and you are good to go.
The recording studio is not a different world. It is a different part of our same world.
Spending a little time in a studio really allows you to learn what your tools will actually do in a slow paced environment. What does compression sound like at 3:1? 6:1? 10:1? What does slowing the attack do? What does slowing or speeding up the release do? Yes we get to play with it a little in live sound but get behind some really high resolution monitors or a really good set of headphones and spend some time with a looped track and you will really learn what compression parameters really do.
What does your noise gate really do? How much of the attack does it really clip off? How accurate does it track? How much can you take out with the key filters and rate before it starts to degrade the sound of the original input noticeably? What release rate sounds the most natural?
It is all about subtle differences that you can actually hear in a studio environment.
What does a reverb unit really sound like? There is so much ambient noise in live sound that the quality of reverb is much less of an issue. That is not so in a studio environment. The difference between a Lexicon PCM series and a Yamaha SPX series is night and day but for live sound there is really less of an appreciable difference on many of the common units we employ. I have some really expensive and fine units I have left over from my recording studio days that I use live but I am honestly just as happy with something more affordable like the TC M-One for a live situation. I even like the sound of the built in effects on my MixWizard for the shows I use them for. If I really need or want something better I can patch it in but in most cases it would just be anal-retentive on my part.
The whole point I am trying to make is that spending quality time in a recording studio environment will really fine tune your ears and mixing ability. You will learn very subtle differences that make it easier and faster to get where you are going with live sound. You can do the same thing with some recorded tracks and a good set of headphones but either way it will make you a better engineer.
The other great thing about being studio savvy is there is such an opportunity for extra revenue for every good engineer now that live multitrack recording is so affordable. Live recordings at the JV level are really easy to mix if you capture the tracks decently. You are just mixing what a band gave you during their performance rather than trying to build a masterpiece from the ground up in a studio.
The last thing that I will add is that in the studio world you are looking for "translation", that is NOT how it sounds on your speakers or headphones but "How it sounds everywhere else on all the other systems" that people playback on. Learn that one and be a decent mixer and you are good to go.
The recording studio is not a different world. It is a different part of our same world.
minus the stage wash of course.
