Hello, everyone, this seemed like a good place to share, so let me tell you what I've been up to as far as "band sound". Much fun, much progress.
I wanted a single stage rack system that I could use in any situation. We rehearse in a studio, play small private functions, bring our own professional sound person for many gigs, and also work with other sound companies at larger events. I just finished upgrading to the X32 Rack from the X-Air, and building a wheeled rack stage-side system for gigs.
The learning curve has been mostly painless, thanks to all the good info that's out there.
X32 in 30 sec:
- lots of inputs to lots of outputs, do most anything you want in between
- channel inputs feed bus mixes feed matrixes feed logical outputs
- almost anything can be reassigned or remapped
- always double check end-to-end signal paths, mistakes can be made
- plan ahead how you want to use FX
We use 2 x SD8 stage snakes for the performers, and P16Ms for personal monitoring. Everyone uses IEMs and loves them. There are L/R bus mixes for each instrument group (4), plus individual busses for each instruments plus a RTA mike that also serves as source of crowd noise for the ears.
Performers get the bus mixes in their ears, plus can adjust individual performers as well as adjust crowd noise and vocal effects. The 16 primary channels go to a laptop mounted on the rack, Logic Remote does transport control from my phone to record when rehearsing. Playback is routed to the same inputs through the same signal chain, so everyone hears exactly what was just played.
The multiband compressor is turning out to my secret sauce in getting a sweet mix. It works nicely on the drum and keys busses. The digital stage snakes keep stage clutter to a minimum.
Logic X can generate midi clock signals from recorded material tempo, I am using this to animate lighting programs to the beat. Changing light programs is driven by midi when I advance to the next song on my keyboard. That bit isn't 100% solid yet, but it's getting there.
If anyone wants to know how I program and drive a modest light show from the laptop sync'd to the live audio, that bit took a while to figure out!
I wanted a single stage rack system that I could use in any situation. We rehearse in a studio, play small private functions, bring our own professional sound person for many gigs, and also work with other sound companies at larger events. I just finished upgrading to the X32 Rack from the X-Air, and building a wheeled rack stage-side system for gigs.
The learning curve has been mostly painless, thanks to all the good info that's out there.
X32 in 30 sec:
- lots of inputs to lots of outputs, do most anything you want in between
- channel inputs feed bus mixes feed matrixes feed logical outputs
- almost anything can be reassigned or remapped
- always double check end-to-end signal paths, mistakes can be made
- plan ahead how you want to use FX
We use 2 x SD8 stage snakes for the performers, and P16Ms for personal monitoring. Everyone uses IEMs and loves them. There are L/R bus mixes for each instrument group (4), plus individual busses for each instruments plus a RTA mike that also serves as source of crowd noise for the ears.
Performers get the bus mixes in their ears, plus can adjust individual performers as well as adjust crowd noise and vocal effects. The 16 primary channels go to a laptop mounted on the rack, Logic Remote does transport control from my phone to record when rehearsing. Playback is routed to the same inputs through the same signal chain, so everyone hears exactly what was just played.
The multiband compressor is turning out to my secret sauce in getting a sweet mix. It works nicely on the drum and keys busses. The digital stage snakes keep stage clutter to a minimum.
Logic X can generate midi clock signals from recorded material tempo, I am using this to animate lighting programs to the beat. Changing light programs is driven by midi when I advance to the next song on my keyboard. That bit isn't 100% solid yet, but it's getting there.
If anyone wants to know how I program and drive a modest light show from the laptop sync'd to the live audio, that bit took a while to figure out!