LT Saloon

Sound Off About Sound On: An Amplification Journal

This edition: EQ

Must be nice to have “roadies” and tech support like engineers to mix you live.

Well at least some idiot isn’t dropping my amp: I am.

Or some moron isn’t scewing up the sound or dropping a minature Stonehenge with dancing midgets: I am… well except the midgets/Stone part.

But I have become convinced that I need to do more EQ. I always have, and of course I’m very focused on it when I mix. But live, well it’s one more piece of tech to fail and set up when sometimes I’m left with little time. But I have found every room is so damn specific. I have yet to find one setting that works for all.

In reality each room needs to be tuned to. The gigs I have done that too sound so superior to my ears I would dop it every time. But…

The show must go on no matter what.

I find the major problem with a room is the mid range and that can vary from high mids to low. Gyms are a nightmare and always will be. But cutting lows and mids does help. You would think highs since the there are so many more paks to the “waves,” if you want to refer to them as waves. In reality sound isn’t “waves” unless it’s one frequency and fairly pure: “white” in nature. Almost all sound is beyond “pink” in my opinion.

More on specific frequecies later on, if I get a chance.

But, for now, on with the show!

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Sound Off About Sound On is a column by Ken Carman that offers advice regarding unusual amplification needs: especially for smaller audiences of a unique nature.

©Copyright 2009
Ken Carman
all rights reserved

Sound Off About Sound On: an Amplication Journal

This edition: “Where the %$#@! do I put my amp?“

(Or: Getting a little more specific about “where?”)

If you use FM, or transmitted, amplification you may be thinking too one dimensionally.

I phrased it that way because various people have various terms for “sound without wires.”

Let’s start out by admitting that this has gotten a lot better tech-wise. Used to be every little am/fm or other broadcast had a chance to change what you were amplifying: other than just you. Rooms sometimes were impossible to amplify depending on what was inside the walls and the room itself. Hell, trucks passing by were a headache, especially with my first very cheap Radio Shack fm. The new stuff is so much better. Ask your dealer what’s best. I use the high priced end of the Audio Technica line myself, though I’ve never been the biggest fan of their other equipment: specifically microphones.

If you do use it, please stop placing your amps on stage near you. That’s not taking advantage of your system. I often place it in back so the audience gets a little bounce-echo from both directions: live and amplified. It can cause feedback. I do recommend headsets. The lavalier is problematic: not directional enough.

A word of warning: they do not make great recordings overall. The more cardiod specific a mic, generally the less I’d use it for recording. Think of it: the very design of your mic is editing out part of the sound.

I actually place it to the side more than to the back, but pointed a bit towards the back, or at least slightly angled towards it.

Also remember, if you interact with your audience a lot like I do you might have to walk there. Be prepared to try your best to keep your back to the mic without being too awkward.

And may you have better sound in your next gig.

-30-

Sound Off About Sound On is a column by Ken Carman that offers advice regarding unusual amplification needs: especially for smaller audiences of a unique nature.

©Copyright 2009
Ken Carman
all rights reserved

New Artist

From what I gather Lindsay Mac has been attracting interest for about two years, but as of late she’s really been getting attention. She trained classically on cello and learned to love the cello… disliked the training. Instead she plays the cello like a guitar. Strum, finger pick and harmonics with a unique; yet a somewhat cross between Dar Williams/Sara Bareilles voice.

U-Tube had plenty to offer. Here’s one…

Sound Off About Sound On: an Amplification Journal

When I first started performing shows for children I assumed, being of sound stage voice, and having a large stage-oriented mind, “Hey, I’ll be up close. Probably won’t even have to project that much.”

I hate being wrong. I swear children are born with megaphones implanted in the vocal chords.

Read on -- There is more »« Okay, fold it up now

On the Way to “Something/Anything” Else

I was on my way to basically checking on the spelling for 60s/70s music icon Todd Rundgren. Yes, I was a fan, but not a follower. He wrote some very nice pop-rock hits like Hello It’s Me that showed up on an album that was basically a jam session engineered by himself in his garage: Something/Anything, and the somewhat chauvinistic Gotta Get You a Woman on Runt, but his voice was never anything to swoon over. His group Utopia played some nice electronic compositions that flowed together semi-seamlessly. The first side of A Wizard a True Star held the (pun alert) record for having the most recorded material on on side of an album. Must have had something to do with the content: a definite listen for dopers. You’ll know just what it’s all about, until the “stone” rolls away, then you’ll decide you were full of…

But one thing I didn’t know is what I discovered via Wiki…

Read on -- There is more »« Okay, fold it up now