When it doesn't fit anywhere else
 #156336  by tcsned
 
Hey fellow RUKINDers! I was wondering how many of you are running your own sound at gigs and if anyone out there is using one of the mobile app/software based mixers like the Mackie, Presonus, Behringer, or Soundcraft mixers. We have been using my almost 15 year-old Yamaha digital mixer but it is showing its age and I wanted to get something new before we had a catastrophic failure at a gig. I got the Soundcraft Ui24R, I looked at a bunch of others and the quality/price/# of channels seemed about right. Not too much of a learning curve. Our rhythm guitarist/vocalist does our mixing since she's the most particular and a bit OCD. My theory is, whoever will bitch the most can run sound. I do sound for my bluegrass band since they are mostly technologically challenged. We do a soundcheck/first song without her and she mixes things as good as she can get and tries to use meter levels to add her vocals and guitar in.

Anyway, how many of you folks are running your own sound? What are you using? How do you manage running sound from the stage? I'd be interested in how you all approach it.
 #156337  by strumminsix
 
Here's how I used to do it with a pair of mains and pair of mons
Use it reinforce everything
Get a balanced monitor mix
Pan channels L & R (yes, stereo mons everyone gets more of themselves)
Mains and Mons get the same feeds
And then tweak from there.

Once you master this start adding more. This should take care of the basic needs.
 #156347  by gmchart
 
Have somebody in the house who's ears you trust, and adjust accordingly. Two to four songs is often enough, making sure all leads and vocals are covered. Depends on the house, some stay pretty stable, some vary greatly with size of crowd. Twenty people coming in or leaving can change the whole deal.
 #156352  by tcsned
 
Yeah, I've been finding that the vocals sound fine up front but are getting washed out as volume creep sets in. I mostly blame our jackass lead guitar player :cool:

We used to do the totally ampless thing with electronic drums - that was a breeze to keep balanced - almost totally by watching the meters. Now we rarely put guitar amps and not much drums in the the PA for smaller/mid-sized gigs. That makes it a little more complex.

This Soundcraft mixer has two Digitech guitar direct to PA channels. I spent some time yesterday tweaking it. The Blackface Twin channel is reasonably decent. It certainly serviceable as an emergency backup. I couldn't resist cranking up the 80s metal setting and seeing if the neighbors would complain :D

When we have some familiar faces in the crowd we will enlist them to give us some feedback on balance and such.
 #156391  by strumminsix
 
Here's my caution: friends in the crowd will tell you what they want more of. Been there done that. The Jerry guy was screaming loud, backup singer gone, Bobby guitar gone, bass cranked, drums washed out.
 #156393  by playingdead
 
We used to use a StudioLive 16 channel mixer and had our soundguy set up a basic "scene" with all the inputs, typical levels, compression, EQ and so forth, plus levels for a basic mix -- we are very consistent onstage. He could have us up and running in about 5 minutes once the stage was wired and really only had to do some minor adjustments to levels aside from the basic volume of the front of house. We always used the same set of mics, bass, lead guitar and keys were always direct, so not much guesswork. Once the band had its volume sorted out onstage he saved the "scene" and that was generally how we rolled. He would tweak a little bit and then save that version for that particular venue so when we came back for the next gig, he'd call that up and have it almost completely dialed in from the first note. That included monitor levels, what everyone wanted to hear in their queue, etc. He could stand about 20 people back in the crowd with his iPad and adjust to taste. If you are reinventing the wheel at every gig with different mics, monitors, it's a lot harder.
 #156394  by Gr8fulCadi
 
^^^ although I'm not playing out at the moment, I have a Presonus Studiolive 16.4.2 that works pretty well. Each person can control their monitor mix with an iPhone iPad etc on stage, without going to the board. I also use the mixer as a front end for ProTools HD rig for the 16 mic pre's.
Also, pretty cool effects with the board. Compressor, noise gate, limiter verb and a 31 band graphic eq. Good luck!