Somehow taking a short thirty minute tram ride out of the city to St. Kilda beach just opens up a different atmosphere. It's as if St Kilda operates on a different weather system as the city. It was a bit gloomy when I boarded the tram in the city and as I got closer to St. Kilda, it was as if I was entering a different dimension. The sun was glowing, the breeze was strong but not freezing, the kite surfing dudes were out there doing their thing and the pubs were teeming with so much buzz as if there isn't a care in the world.
With all the enjoyment around, there had to be people working behind the scenes to provide this atmosphere and entertainment. I happen to be one of those people. I was at The Espy's Gershwin room last night and I mixed Underwater Jesus who played first and Sadhana who was fourth on the bill. I usually get to venue early so I can set up and tune up the room in my own time without rushing and stressing out. There's always a calm feeling and a sense of assurance just by being early, you know?
I had time to kill between mixing the first and fourth bands so I took a walk to the beach to chill out and relax my ears. I also helped out the other two mix engineers who were mixing the two bands before Sadhana and it's always good to make friends with like-minded audio engineers on the road.
Anyway, fast forward to the actual mixing. It was one of those times the FOH mix was sounding killer but the monitors weren't sounding that flash. Being the perfectionist that I am, I felt a little bummed despite pulling a great mix at FOH. I mean, the drums were sounding fat and stellar, the guitars were cutting through like a knife, the bass was right there in the pocket and the vocals were just soaring above it all, but I guess you can't win them all, can you? All in all, it was still a great night mixing the bands.
On the technical side of things, I bought a used DBX 266XL Compressor/Gate to add to my live mixing toy collection recently and I must say, I am blown away at how awesome it works on vocals when it is inserted as a dedicated compressor on a particular vocal channel. This is going to be my staple for vocals, unless I end up getting a tube pre-amp/comp/EQ strip in the future. This would do for now and I am absolutely stoked. The Gershwin's got decent Drawmer gates on toms and Drawmer comps for my groups, as well as an M-One for reverb and D-Two for Delays. So having the 266 dedicated to the lead vocals was definitely a killer choice! Glad I didn't resign to not being bothered!
Still buzzing from the mix last night, I couldn't really sleep all night and I went to church at Bridge bright and early this morning to mix monitors. It was a blast! Still buzzing from everything, I had a coffee after. Then 4pm came and that was when I crashed! I am still paying for it as I type this.
With all the enjoyment around, there had to be people working behind the scenes to provide this atmosphere and entertainment. I happen to be one of those people. I was at The Espy's Gershwin room last night and I mixed Underwater Jesus who played first and Sadhana who was fourth on the bill. I usually get to venue early so I can set up and tune up the room in my own time without rushing and stressing out. There's always a calm feeling and a sense of assurance just by being early, you know?
I had time to kill between mixing the first and fourth bands so I took a walk to the beach to chill out and relax my ears. I also helped out the other two mix engineers who were mixing the two bands before Sadhana and it's always good to make friends with like-minded audio engineers on the road.
Anyway, fast forward to the actual mixing. It was one of those times the FOH mix was sounding killer but the monitors weren't sounding that flash. Being the perfectionist that I am, I felt a little bummed despite pulling a great mix at FOH. I mean, the drums were sounding fat and stellar, the guitars were cutting through like a knife, the bass was right there in the pocket and the vocals were just soaring above it all, but I guess you can't win them all, can you? All in all, it was still a great night mixing the bands.
On the technical side of things, I bought a used DBX 266XL Compressor/Gate to add to my live mixing toy collection recently and I must say, I am blown away at how awesome it works on vocals when it is inserted as a dedicated compressor on a particular vocal channel. This is going to be my staple for vocals, unless I end up getting a tube pre-amp/comp/EQ strip in the future. This would do for now and I am absolutely stoked. The Gershwin's got decent Drawmer gates on toms and Drawmer comps for my groups, as well as an M-One for reverb and D-Two for Delays. So having the 266 dedicated to the lead vocals was definitely a killer choice! Glad I didn't resign to not being bothered!
Still buzzing from the mix last night, I couldn't really sleep all night and I went to church at Bridge bright and early this morning to mix monitors. It was a blast! Still buzzing from everything, I had a coffee after. Then 4pm came and that was when I crashed! I am still paying for it as I type this.
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All Broken Scar's music is available on www.reverbnation.com/brokenscar
All Broken Scar's music is available on www.reverbnation.com/brokenscar
Labels: Live Mixing, Sadhana, The Espy
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