I was mixing at Creepshow festival at The Espy in St. Kilda on Saturday and I took some photos before I started mixing.

Entrance of the Gershwin room.




It was pouring all day and this was how it looked like from the inside looking out. I can't say that I've seen St. Kilda so miserable before this. The rain definitely didn't deter people from coming though. The venue was packed!


Front Bar. Anna Salen's set up. These guys were on first and they were a treat to mix.


I could barely see the stage when the show actually started. It was a great night of mixing. Had a ball mixing Anna Salen, Engine Three Seven, The Committal and Contrive.

Labels: Anna Salen, Contrive., Creepshow Festival, Engine Three Seven, The Committal, The Espy

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.

Labels: Live Mixing, Sadhana, The Espy

I felt like a superhero last Saturday when I saved the day by providing an ipod connector cable to the girls hosting the show before us at SYN 90.7. The girls had some problems with their audio playback and I helped fix it simply by swapping the ipod cable. It's nice to chip in and help out whenever I can.

I sometimes feel like over-preparing is a waste of time because 9 out of 10 times I over-prepare or over-pack equipment, things tend to run smoothly. The extra equipment that I had packed would render quite useless. But that leaves us to that one time that something or everything will go wrong and having the right equipment at hand will just make you look like a hero.

I pack extra guitar cables with me when I mix bands. You never know, a guitarist might have rushed to the gig and forgot his cables and when he yells, "Does somebody have a quarter inch guitar cable", I can swoop in and say, "Here you go, Sir". There are also tonnes of other stuff that I pack with me when I mix bands and half of what I pack hardly ever gets used but I am ready when the time calls for it.

I mixed three bands last night at The Espy in St. Kilda. Johnny Uppercut was up first, followed by Madonna and The Final Eclipse headlined the show. I was contemplating whether to bring in all the extra gear or not because I had not mixed at The Espy's basement before. I went back and forth in my mind and I finally decided to lug all that gear down to the show. Boy, was it worth it. The Yamaha SPX 90 II effects unit that I had saved the day. It would have gone well even without it, but it was really the icing on the cake. It made the vocals come alive and made the bands sound awesome. Sometimes, the little things count. I could have just gone with the standard and mic up just the kick, snare and vocals, but I went the extra mile to mic up the kick, snare, toms, guitar cabs and DI-ed the bass. The extra work is definitely worth it. The bands were happy, the crowd was happy and I was definitely happy. All in all, it was a very good night of awesome music.

Labels: Audio Work, Live Bands, Live Mixing, The Espy, The Limelight Hour