Hi All!
I thought I’d just throw it out there. I’m running an ‘Audio 101’ workshop on Monday, 12 May 2014, at the Grace Umhlanga Campus. It’s about two hours looking at basic principles of audio, eq, gain structure, basic dynamics processing, effects, and how all this works with the hardware we use.
There is no charge and all are welcome. Please drop me a message to let me know you’ll be around so I can send you the times.
We started the new year with a scaled-down worship team.
We figured January 1st would be a great time to give our volunteers a break – and a good opportunity to experiment with a fresh approach. One instrument, one lead vocal, one BGV.
Back at the mixing console, it was a really interesting experience for me, because it let me go into the kind of detail that excites me. In a big mix there are lots of places to hide things, and you have a bit of wiggle-room. You can drown a dodgy vocal note in reverb, or ride the acoustic to cover a few unconvincing notes in an electric riff – or even slap a gate on a bass that starts generating a hum during the set.
When you have one acoustic, and one vocal it’s another game altogether. The essence of each element is exposed. You get to ‘open up’ the channels, and mix as wide and as fat as the instrument can produce (and then some extra). Tiny changes to eq or dynamics have dramatic results, and you’ve got to work really hard at keep your effects layers effective and subtle at the same time.
It reminded me that complexity of a mix is not necessarily proportional to the amount of inputs!
We got a lot of positive feedback around the service, and I’m sure we will get to do something similar in the not-too-distant future.
This beaut comes from a church I won’t mention. This I’m told is an old Shure SM58 after normal use. If normal use is hammering nails into the wall then I think I understand!
It was Westville Baptist.
