IEM's and dynamics

J

Jamin Lynch

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Jan 11, 2011
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I've been doing a lot of in ear mixes lately and I was wondering what or if you use any dynamics.



Most of the time I use some light compression on the vocals just to keep them under control. I also will lightly compress certain instruments like acoustics guitars (depending on how hard it's played), bass, crazy lead guitar players, or horns. It all depends on the player.



What about gates on drums or buzzy instruments? Any tips?



Thanks
 
Re: IEM's and dynamics

No compression unless the musician asks for it. Compression on vocals can cause them to over sing, and blow their voices out(even more so with IEM's than wedges), and even if they ask, I use like a 2:1 ratio with a highish threshold.



I do gate the drums to tighten them up, and will compress other things upon request. If someone has patches that are all over the place, let them be all over the place in the ears! Maybe it will convince them to fix the issues!
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Outputs are always high and low passed, and limited so they don't blow their ears out though.







Evan
 
Re: IEM's and dynamics

I'm with Evan as far as vocal comps go. If I've got a very dynamic singer, I'll split the input and send a processed vocal to the rest of the band, but the singer gets himself without compression, unless asked for, which rarely happens.



I'll generally compress bass and keyboards and sometimes guitars, as Evan said the patches can be all over the place. I've tried the passive, ''don't compress it and maybe they'll sort it out'' method, but unless you actually stand over the keyboard player with the proverbial cricket bat, it almost never works.



I normally will gate kick & toms on a kit, but how much depends on the room and the tuning of the kit, and the genre of music as well. Sometimes this all goes out the window too, when you've got a really open (ringy) kit in a big room for a pop gig, but the drummer doesn't want any gates.



As for ''buzzy'' sources, well... sounds like a grounding problem somewhere. You can't fix that in the desk.



-C
 
Re: IEM's and dynamics

I also split vocals, and send a compressed feed to everyone else but the vocalist in question. I find it helps intelligibility for the rest of the band.



Keys, Bass, occasionally guitars and maybe drums (but generally only snare) also get compression. If you've got enough channels on the desk, try splitting channels into clean and compressed so the musician playing that instrument or singing gets their stuff clean and everything else compressed (or some mixture of both). I find this reduces the number of changes to an IEM mix due to musicians being 'too dynamic'
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Re: IEM's and dynamics

I compress everything when i mix iem on quality digital consoles. Especially with cheap iem systems, you'll need total control of the dynamic content in your mixes.



And yes, I mean everything. It might be a gentle kick compressor for the highest peaks, and it can be a 7:1 -7 dB GR bass compressor.



On an analog console, I start by compressing bass guitar and vocals, the rest is compressed on a ''need-to-compress''-basis.



IMHO
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Re: IEM's and dynamics

I don't usually compress much for IEMS but I have found that many IEM systems cut out when they hit their limiters. It is nice to have a comp/limiter in line to prevent the IEMS from cutting out.
 
Re: IEM's and dynamics

Clarke LaPlante wrote on Fri said:
Jamin Lynch wrote on Fri said:
Hey Clarke....a cricket bat??
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Click to expand...



Go watch Spinal Tap.
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-C
Click to expand...



cricket bat far superior to baseball bat. use the wide side for easy accuracy, or turn it sideways for maximum bruisage...



as to the OP...
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i use gates on lots of stuff just set really loose. i find that helps when things quiet down between songs since everyone is essentially sticking their ear right next to the guitar amp or whatever so normally low level noise can be really distracting. nothing tight enough to be audible while playing. think low thresholds and long hold/decay times.



i like the idea of splitting the vocalists mic and compressing for others but not them. i'll be stealing that trick...



brian
 
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