When I'm mixing a band that is gonna be louder than people expect in traditionally quieter venues, I slowly raise the house music to a somewhat uncomfortable level to train their ears.
@@soundped I started getting a whole lot less loudness complaints from patrons when I started doing that. Though I'm not sure if it's just because they left before the band started lol
YES. i’ll be the first to admit i mostly did the opposite when i first started out. almost like showing off how proud i am of the PA tuning with the preshow tunes lol. i had one experience where the band sounded far worse than the preshow and it made me realize my error. now i high pass and carefully sculpt that preshow sound to tee up the band perfectly, but the REVERB trick is genius!! everything is contextual. i love it.
Working as a Soundengineer and sometimes Systemtec for the big french "L" Speaker Systems for 10 years now and sharing your Knowledge is really lifesaving for us! Looking foreward for more of these Videos! Cheers from germany 👋
Dude, you are so brilliant. I LOVE all your advice, especially the house music reverb trick! LOL!!! And I can tell there's so much knowledge you've accumulated over the years of doing your thing. Big thanks for taking your time to make these videos.
Dave, I’ve been working professionally in the audio world for almost 10 years now. I started as a studio rat, and lucked my way into live sound for extra money. Your videos have been more informative, and entertaining than all of the Sound on Sound and Tape Ops I’ve read this past decade combined. Thanks for sharing your thoughts, tips, and keeping me sharp and passionate! Much love brotha!
@@DaveRat do you have any interest in doing a lifestyle interview? Think of it as a talk you leave for your family & friends for generations to come. I’m not famous, my channel isn’t famous, but I feel like the episodes let folks know what it was like to know me and share oxygen with me for a few hours. That’s how my few guests have treated it.
I often roll off some bass and trebble to the house music to make the live act sound more full when they go on, and now I'm eager to try putting some reverb on it too!! Thanks for this tip! I also like the "imagine there's a camera"-tip.
Just found your channel, Dave. Wow. I'm a 59 year old that "retired" from FOH Pro Sound in the 90s. I absolutely loved the work but at that time the "party" got the best of me and I had to get out. Your philosophy about connecting the artist with the crowd was paramount for me and of course, back then things were mostly analog so there weren't as many rabbit holes of tech to fall into. Watching this video (and a lot of your other ones) really took me back and made me miss it. Favorite moment? When the house lights would go down and that nervous anticipation would really kick in. There was no TH-cam back then and you might get a little mentoring here and there but a large part was just learning, learning and more learning on your own. Thanks for taking me back to what I loved about Sound Reinforcement.
Lovely tip about reverbing the house music....on a similar tip I often pick music that has a reduced bandwidth(often music from the middle of last century actually) or high pass filter it so when your band come on it sounds like they are larger than life in full dynamic and frequency range ..same for outro when people’s ears need to decompress creating a sense of aural relaxation. Great work on the vids fella
I love your comments about reverb on house music. psychoacoustics are very powerful. Like when someone asks for something and you don’t really want to give it to them and you reach for a knob and pretend to turn it and they thank you. The reverb on House music is brilliant.
I’m an old school analog guy. # 4 is pure genius! I wish I knew that back in the day and also wish I had enough channels. Kind of got used to changing my ACP88 up,and down.
Yes, I got frustrated changing the thresholds and bypassing and one day I was like, wait a minute, I can solve this and it worked great until I filled up the console a few tours later and had to stop. With modern digital, it would be very helpful.
10:55 Dave is spouting truth as pure as gold but when he mentioned the Top Fuel drag race he just went to next level real. You don't hear the cars go by. You feel them punch across your chest. This dude is a pure audiophile who has the power we all wish we had!
that reverb on the house music trick is the best thing ive heard in years... i imagine you can study this stuff in your studio as much as you want. that's something that you only learn on the job :D
Great reference to top fuel engines haha. I have never plugged my ears at a concert. First experience with a top fuel dragster had my hands on my ears while they had foam plugs and cups on lol.
I've been running my own live sound service, 'Avenue 44 Audio' for about 7 years now. I have my dad work for/with me and we've built up quite a good reputation and have some very loyal bands that we work with regularly. A lot of that success in the last couple of years is thanks to your videos Dave! You're a friggin legend, man! Although I could have done to watch this three days ago. We just did a show in a 700 capacity hall where everything was made from good, old fashioned hard wood, with a balcony and seriously high ceiling. Quite an interesting challenge!
Dave you ROCK! I hit 45 years mixing live soon and I have a similar story for how I got started. Everything you say in this video I agree with and makes total sense to me.
On fiddling, he is correct. Always listen. If i'm fiddling, it is switching the PFL to constantly check the quality of individual mics as sometimes something goes south and not easily noticed right away. Had a lower tom stand getting kicked, and managed to mute it before it started buzzing against a mic. Sometimes a rented stage does not provide a drum kit carpet. Be a hero and pack one. By noticing the change in sound as it moved, I could see the reason it was moving. Love the reverb. I'll try that. The reverse of compression in reverberate rooms, do the reverse for open outdoors. Remove most of the compression for a clean dynamic performance. You don't want an outdoor performance to sound like a radio station with compressed sound. Utilize the dynamics especially for acoustic acts. A classic Spanish guitar on a live stage uncompressed is live and dynamic. Use compressor for unintended excessive peaks only.
Some great observations there Dave. Much respect to you. Drums grouped onto 2 separate VCA's one sound ungated... what a great trick! The "Ego Platform" ...exactly. I guess mainly to keep punters away form the gear, but not so advantageous for sound at the crowd level. I had once gigged with the actual board on the ground (like a picnic) and I just used a low beach chair. The event was in a venue where everyone just had pillows, beanbags, towels, rugs and small foam mattresses. So I just thought, thats where I'll mix from... and it was great! It has always been said that "a great band knows how to connect with the audience" true enough, as it was told to me from way back that the board is just like an "instrument" too. Play it well and the crowd may be clapping and cheering the band, but the band will book YOU again! True! ;)
Wow. These are ace tips. I do worry about gig volume. Over the last 20 years for all the brilliant advances which aid really good mixes, things have got steadily louder. The last rock gig I went to in Hammersmith Apollo the sound was so loud that I left my seat after 2 songs and listened to the show in the bar. It was frightening! But oh my these tips here are superb. Thanks Dave.
Hi! I have been mixing in churches for 30+ years. Glad to hear from you I’m doing some things right! Eg. Hand signals, let your ears be your guide, fiddling, pre-show audience ear warm up..
Brilliant, simple stuff like the hand signals are perfect if shit goes wrong. The splitter on the main vocal is awesome. and yes get down with the punters, at minimum take a stroll around if you can. You know your stuff man, thanks.
Thinking about #6, when I'm in a crappy room the first thing I do is pull down my effects VCA if it cleans up the mix then I leave it down except for the songs where I know I'm going to really need that wet sound, I see no harm leaving the effects reduced when they're not needed, seems like some people add them when they're not needed, kind of like making changes when they're not needed. I only make a change when I hear something that is wrong and needs to be corrected. Love you series Dave... things that make you think.... truly a business where you can never stop learning or exploring...
Dave, always love your videos. I love tip #4. Digico consoles make this really easy since you can create macros that enable/disable drum gates with a single macro without having to double patch channels.
#7 (reverb) - big thumbs up. #10 (FOH location) - is it all about the ego? I have always wondered why the guy in the mixing booth needs to be in a "king's throne". I can understand the possible need to be isolated from some of the clowns in the crowd but they are in the optimum listening position and they are blanking out many of the best seats in the house. Thanks for your efforts Dave, I will be saving this episode for sure.
Thank you so much. As a gigging musician and we are often responsible for our own sound, your advice is invaluable. Especially about the high reverb rooms. I play a lot of small venues with really bad acoustics. Your advice will help greatly. Thank you.
Thank you and to you as well. Personally and family is good. Not the best time to own a sound rental company though. But hey, without challenge life would be boring.
Every time I watch a Rat video my list of things to try at the first shows after lockdown gets bigger and bigger. Truly awesome! One thing I do with my house music is high and or low pass if its a tough room. But the reverb thing is next level!
thank you for sharing dave. we are in an industry where too many engineers, due to their egos or competitiveness, fail to be as generous with sharing knowledge from their experiences. cheers!
Honestly, the best sounding band I've ever heard in a small venue was a country band (I despise country) and the guy who was mixing them was on his phone all the time and barely even paid attention to the band lol. Maybe there's something to that.
Good stuff Dave. I love the "no riser thing" - so true. Also I remember from an earlier video that you will have the Mixer to one side of you so that you have nothing between you and the audience. Genius! On the "don't fiddle with the mix" tip, a hundred years ago, I saw a Sammy Davis Jnr concert in Festival Hall - Melbourne Australia. As luck would have it, I was sitting behind the mix position. Every few songs, the operator would slowly move a finger over to a fader, and make a minute adjustment. Little or no tweaking for the whole show. Yay - as it should be.
Dave hands over so much knowledge from experience, you can immediately apply it without all the theoretical, singled out topics you get from all the "mix schooling how-to video guides" that are all over TH-cam but help you sh*t when you're actually doing live mixing. Thanks a bunch, Dave.
These are well put together tips helpful for the pro or beginner. I mixed FOH for a handful of venues in the LES for a few years before moving away to focus on studio work. Miss working with live bands, hopefully we'll get venues open and live shows coming back again in this brave new world.
Great tips Dave. Very cool to see one of the best in the industry sharing real world practical advice. So many engineers are often very arrogant, but You are so down to earth. Again, thank you for taking the time to create these videos that will hopefully help us all be better at this craft.
DAVE loving your wisdom. Love the playback adding reverb trick before the live act. Brilliant. One trick i do with reverb is, as the music gets faster (and to a lesser degree louder) i reduce the amount of reverb from the master return so all channels become drier, with more clarity with the busier transient peaks, and if the song returns to being slower and quieter i start nudging the return back up for that spacial sound. Another thing i like doing, is nudging the FOH master up as a song is progressing, then i bring it back at the end of that song and slowly do it again during the next song. I find it not only adds to the dynamics of a live show, it gives the audiences ears a breather. So starting again from a quieter point, the audiences ears are ready for another go. This technique i have noticed encourages the band to "fly" with their music as the song progresses. Being a drummer too, i get a buzz watching the audience go just a little more crazy (or a lot) when a tad more juice is added. I will stop this technique the day a musician on stage tells me not too, but thats never happened so far.
Thanks for these great tips! Regarding tip 1: As most engineers will know, many digital audio networks have the ability to share resources and controls so that both the FOH tech and the monitor tech can have remote access to each other's functions. Even on low-end digital systems, the FOH engineer can have a tablet connected to the monitor board so that he or she can open the talkback mic or whatever. Of course, you have to use this ability prudently so as not to step on the other guy's toes. Tip 3: It's really annoying when the mix position sounds very different from audience level - often because the installed board in a venue is too high/off to one side/in a corner. I often end up tweaking the mix with a tablet at audience level. Tip 4: I'll have to try the gated/non-gated trick, which could be useful for a standard small festival setup with several bands of different genres. Tip 5: Totally! I've seen so many shows where the mix reaches a peak and then starts going downhill again because of too much fiddling (I've also done it myself). Tip 6: I'd never thought of the reverb trick and I often have to work in a club with horrible, boomy accoutics. Tip 8: This is a constant struggle as the temptation is to judge and adjust things like EQ visually using the on-screen curve and the RTA rather than using your ears. It also affects paying attention to signals from musicians and other techs if you have your head constantly buried in a screen.
Dave...thanks for sharing these down to earth tidbits that are so easy to grasp because of the way you deliver the message...you are beyond cool my friend...keep your sharing your incredibly useful knowledge 👍🏼👏🏻
Great videos Dave, as band owner, drummer, sound tech. Last part of your video was spot on. As sound tech it's our job to help connect talent to audience. So so important.
"... you connect the artist to the audience, you don´t have to be seen..." What a phrase!! I love it!
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I wish I had thought of the "reverb on house music"-thing before! Have definitely had my struggles in reverberant venues. Thanks!
or high pass the house music. Band sounds fuller by comparison
When I'm mixing a band that is gonna be louder than people expect in traditionally quieter venues, I slowly raise the house music to a somewhat uncomfortable level to train their ears.
@@soundped I started getting a whole lot less loudness complaints from patrons when I started doing that. Though I'm not sure if it's just because they left before the band started lol
YES. i’ll be the first to admit i mostly did the opposite when i first started out. almost like showing off how proud i am of the PA tuning with the preshow tunes lol. i had one experience where the band sounded far worse than the preshow and it made me realize my error. now i high pass and carefully sculpt that preshow sound to tee up the band perfectly, but the REVERB trick is genius!! everything is contextual. i love it.
cant wait to use this in like a year and a half
The reverb on the house music tip is just pure gold.
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Thanks for the massive amount of knowledge and experience you're sharing with us for free, Dave!
Amazing insight!!!....
Shhhhhhhh! ! ! !
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Holy hell. Jam-packed indeed. Very helpful video!
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Tip1: "Do this a few times and you'll see the TB find it's way to be on again" : Legendary!
Life is a game of chess.
Almost spat my tea out when he said that
Brilliant! I get so furious when my TB mic gets shut off.
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like a fcking boss! (we’re not worthy) 😂
Really profound tips, can't believe I got this for free thank you
Greetings from Zimbabwe
Thank you!!
I fiddle more than a country band. Thanks for the sage advice, that's something I can pay attention to straightaway. Love your content, Dave.
Perfect and when things start up, let me know how it goes!
Working as a Soundengineer and sometimes Systemtec for the big french "L" Speaker Systems for 10 years now and sharing your Knowledge is really lifesaving for us! Looking foreward for more of these Videos! Cheers from germany 👋
Awesome and thank you!!
Dude, you are so brilliant. I LOVE all your advice, especially the house music reverb trick! LOL!!! And I can tell there's so much knowledge you've accumulated over the years of doing your thing. Big thanks for taking your time to make these videos.
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Same haha I work primarily in a venue with terrible acoustics, so this tip was awesome 😂
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Dave, I’ve been working professionally in the audio world for almost 10 years now. I started as a studio rat, and lucked my way into live sound for extra money. Your videos have been more informative, and entertaining than all of the Sound on Sound and Tape Ops I’ve read this past decade combined. Thanks for sharing your thoughts, tips, and keeping me sharp and passionate! Much love brotha!
So cool and thank you Carter!
Dave, the value you’ve brought to the world through this sharing of knowledge………. It’s impossible to quantify. But it’s real.
Thank you Darius!!
@@DaveRat do you have any interest in doing a lifestyle interview? Think of it as a talk you leave for your family & friends for generations to come. I’m not famous, my channel isn’t famous, but I feel like the episodes let folks know what it was like to know me and share oxygen with me for a few hours. That’s how my few guests have treated it.
Cool cool Darius supposed to link so I can take a look and consider
Sweet! th-cam.com/channels/4OOts1rfXiZRx_AAksoTPg.html
we need to come up with more hand gestures to describe various cowbells :)
Hell yes!
I often roll off some bass and trebble to the house music to make the live act sound more full when they go on, and now I'm eager to try putting some reverb on it too!! Thanks for this tip! I also like the "imagine there's a camera"-tip.
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#5!!!!!! Amen my friend, I can't tell you how many times i've seen an engineer playing non stop with the console.
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I laughed loud on tip number 6, reverb on house music, I'll remember that one, you're a wise soundguy !
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Just found your channel, Dave. Wow. I'm a 59 year old that "retired" from FOH Pro Sound in the 90s. I absolutely loved the work but at that time the "party" got the best of me and I had to get out. Your philosophy about connecting the artist with the crowd was paramount for me and of course, back then things were mostly analog so there weren't as many rabbit holes of tech to fall into. Watching this video (and a lot of your other ones) really took me back and made me miss it. Favorite moment? When the house lights would go down and that nervous anticipation would really kick in. There was no TH-cam back then and you might get a little mentoring here and there but a large part was just learning, learning and more learning on your own. Thanks for taking me back to what I loved about Sound Reinforcement.
Thank you e w!
Gated and non-gated sets! Genius! 😎🎵👌
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Those tips for reverberant spaces are gold. Thanks, Dave.
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Perfect explanation of mix position! Put your ears where the audience is!
Awesome!
The highly reverberant room with reverb on the playback before show start is a trick I am so happy to have in my bag now. Very creative thank you!
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Lovely tip about reverbing the house music....on a similar tip I often pick music that has a reduced bandwidth(often music from the middle of last century actually) or high pass filter it so when your band come on it sounds like they are larger than life in full dynamic and frequency range ..same for outro when people’s ears need to decompress creating a sense of aural relaxation. Great work on the vids fella
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Thanks Dave, listening to you talk about mixing makes me feel better about not mixing. Much obliged.
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I love your comments about reverb on house music. psychoacoustics are very powerful. Like when someone asks for something and you don’t really want to give it to them and you reach for a knob and pretend to turn it and
they thank you. The reverb on House music is brilliant.
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I'm honestly shocked that you only have 29K subscribers. Keep putting out content like this and watch this channel explode! Love your stuff, Dave!
Thank you Ryan!
I’m an old school analog guy. # 4 is pure genius! I wish I knew that back in the day and also wish I had enough channels. Kind of got used to changing my ACP88 up,and down.
Yes, I got frustrated changing the thresholds and bypassing and one day I was like, wait a minute, I can solve this and it worked great until I filled up the console a few tours later and had to stop. With modern digital, it would be very helpful.
0:30 - tip 1
1:40 - tip 2
3:15 - tip 3
4:30 - tip 4
5:47 - tip 5
7:19 - tip 6
9:12 - tip 7
10:20 - tip 8
10:54 - tip 9
11:29 - tip 10
Thank you!
10:55 Dave is spouting truth as pure as gold but when he mentioned the Top Fuel drag race he just went to next level real. You don't hear the cars go by. You feel them punch across your chest. This dude is a pure audiophile who has the power we all wish we had!
that reverb on the house music trick is the best thing ive heard in years... i imagine you can study this stuff in your studio as much as you want. that's something that you only learn on the job :D
Fun stuff to address real world challenges
Great reference to top fuel engines haha. I have never plugged my ears at a concert. First experience with a top fuel dragster had my hands on my ears while they had foam plugs and cups on lol.
Exactly!
I've been running my own live sound service, 'Avenue 44 Audio' for about 7 years now. I have my dad work for/with me and we've built up quite a good reputation and have some very loyal bands that we work with regularly. A lot of that success in the last couple of years is thanks to your videos Dave! You're a friggin legend, man! Although I could have done to watch this three days ago. We just did a show in a 700 capacity hall where everything was made from good, old fashioned hard wood, with a balcony and seriously high ceiling. Quite an interesting challenge!
👍
Great tips from a legend! Loved the house music reverb tip! Mind blown. Thanks Dave!
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Dave you ROCK! I hit 45 years mixing live soon and I have a similar story for how I got started. Everything you say in this video I agree with and makes total sense to me.
So co and thank you
@@DaveRat I would love to sit and chat with you some day!
Awesome. I used to travel around doing seminars. Pondering doing that again at some point
I’ve been mixing live and studio for close to 30yrs and still learning. Great advice in this video! Thank you!
Thank you Wade!
I really dig your videos brother. Thanks for sharing so much hard earned knowledge.
Awesome and thank you
On fiddling, he is correct. Always listen. If i'm fiddling, it is switching the PFL to constantly check the quality of individual mics as sometimes something goes south and not easily noticed right away. Had a lower tom stand getting kicked, and managed to mute it before it started buzzing against a mic. Sometimes a rented stage does not provide a drum kit carpet. Be a hero and pack one. By noticing the change in sound as it moved, I could see the reason it was moving. Love the reverb. I'll try that. The reverse of compression in reverberate rooms, do the reverse for open outdoors. Remove most of the compression for a clean dynamic performance. You don't want an outdoor performance to sound like a radio station with compressed sound. Utilize the dynamics especially for acoustic acts. A classic Spanish guitar on a live stage uncompressed is live and dynamic. Use compressor for unintended excessive peaks only.
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Some great observations there Dave. Much respect to you. Drums grouped onto 2 separate VCA's one sound ungated... what a great trick! The "Ego Platform" ...exactly. I guess mainly to keep punters away form the gear, but not so advantageous for sound at the crowd level. I had once gigged with the actual board on the ground (like a picnic) and I just used a low beach chair. The event was in a venue where everyone just had pillows, beanbags, towels, rugs and small foam mattresses. So I just thought, thats where I'll mix from... and it was great! It has always been said that "a great band knows how to connect with the audience" true enough, as it was told to me from way back that the board is just like an "instrument" too. Play it well and the crowd may be clapping and cheering the band, but the band will book YOU again! True! ;)
I very much appreciate you giving us the benefit of your experience. Little things can make a big difference.
Thank you!
Dave, you are a BAD man! Thanks for sharing your wisdom.
Awesome
Thanks for helping us make the world sound better Dave!!
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Wow. These are ace tips. I do worry about gig volume. Over the last 20 years for all the brilliant advances which aid really good mixes, things have got steadily louder. The last rock gig I went to in Hammersmith Apollo the sound was so loud that I left my seat after 2 songs and listened to the show in the bar. It was frightening! But oh my these tips here are superb. Thanks Dave.
Yeah, earplugs are a good idea to bring and I have no issue rocking them if the sound hurts
@@DaveRat Thanks Dave. I'm loving your site and blog. Great tips and proper advice here. All good wishes!
Hi! I have been mixing in churches for 30+ years. Glad to hear from you I’m doing some things right! Eg. Hand signals, let your ears be your guide, fiddling, pre-show audience ear warm up..
Cool cool Doug!
The compression on peak transients legit blew my mind. Thank you Dave
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Lots of great tips. Thanks for sharing Dave.
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Brilliant, simple stuff like the hand signals are perfect if shit goes wrong. The splitter on the main vocal is awesome. and yes get down with the punters, at minimum take a stroll around if you can. You know your stuff man, thanks.
Cool cool Peter!
Great advice! That last one is the best!
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Thank you very much, Dave. Liking that you are posting videos on the regular now - subscribed!
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Thinking about #6, when I'm in a crappy room the first thing I do is pull down my effects VCA if it cleans up the mix then I leave it down except for the songs where I know I'm going to really need that wet sound, I see no harm leaving the effects reduced when they're not needed, seems like some people add them when they're not needed, kind of like making changes when they're not needed. I only make a change when I hear something that is wrong and needs to be corrected.
Love you series Dave... things that make you think.... truly a business where you can never stop learning or exploring...
👍👍👍
Dave, always love your videos. I love tip #4. Digico consoles make this really easy since you can create macros that enable/disable drum gates with a single macro without having to double patch channels.
But can you slide between gated and ungated such that you are partially gated at any amount from full to none?
Definitely need more of these. Thank you.
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Amazing tips Dave! Please more
Yes!!
#7 (reverb) - big thumbs up. #10 (FOH location) - is it all about the ego? I have always wondered why the guy in the mixing booth needs to be in a "king's throne". I can understand the possible need to be isolated from some of the clowns in the crowd but they are in the optimum listening position and they are blanking out many of the best seats in the house.
Thanks for your efforts Dave, I will be saving this episode for sure.
So agreed!
Thanks man!! You’re a game changer for the industry!
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Once again... "Pure Gold, Jerry!"
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"Every motion you make should have a reason behind it." ~Dave Rat -> Golden.
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Thank you so much. As a gigging musician and we are often responsible for our own sound, your advice is invaluable. Especially about the high reverb rooms. I play a lot of small venues with really bad acoustics. Your advice will help greatly. Thank you.
Gigs are sounding better around the world thanks to your work,,,, certainly the ones where I'm at the desk. Thanks Dave.
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Thanks Dave, always full of comon sense ,real world advice.
Awesome and thank you!
Despite the current situation I hope everything is good for you and your family mister Rat....Amazing tips.....Thanks for sharing.
Thank you and to you as well. Personally and family is good. Not the best time to own a sound rental company though. But hey, without challenge life would be boring.
The tips here are GOLD! Thanks Dave.
Every time I watch a Rat video my list of things to try at the first shows after lockdown gets bigger and bigger. Truly awesome! One thing I do with my house music is high and or low pass if its a tough room. But the reverb thing is next level!
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thank you for sharing dave. we are in an industry where too many engineers, due to their egos or competitiveness, fail to be as generous with sharing knowledge from their experiences. cheers!
Awesome thank you
Thanks dave! Love your advice.
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Great stuff in there Dave. Hope to see you soon again
Cool cool Jeff!
ha the reverb on the back ground music is genius. Thanks Dave great tips cant wait to try few when gigs finally return!
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Wow! Thank you for sharing your wealth of knowledge and insight. It’s extremely helpful!!
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Using the support act for contrast! 🙂
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Love your content Dave
I'm not the sound guy, but i do want our band to sound our best. Your tips are great.
Awesome and thank you!
Thanks Dave and keep em coming!!
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Thank you for making these, Dave. Good vibes to ya
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Thanks Dave for your effort!
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I may be mis quoting, but listen, think, and adjust. That’s gold right there. I find myself fidgeting too much. I have to tell myself to chill a ton 😂
Honestly, the best sounding band I've ever heard in a small venue was a country band (I despise country) and the guy who was mixing them was on his phone all the time and barely even paid attention to the band lol. Maybe there's something to that.
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Dave, I always enjoy all your videos and find your ideas and suggestions to be very helpful
Awesome and thank you!
Good stuff Dave. I love the "no riser thing" - so true. Also I remember from an earlier video that you will have the Mixer to one side of you so that you have nothing between you and the audience. Genius! On the "don't fiddle with the mix" tip, a hundred years ago, I saw a Sammy Davis Jnr concert in Festival Hall - Melbourne Australia. As luck would have it, I was sitting behind the mix position. Every few songs, the operator would slowly move a finger over to a fader, and make a minute adjustment. Little or no tweaking for the whole show. Yay - as it should be.
Awesome on all things. I wish I saw SDJ and kudos to the eng!
Dave hands over so much knowledge from experience, you can immediately apply it without all the theoretical, singled out topics you get from all the "mix schooling how-to video guides" that are all over TH-cam but help you sh*t when you're actually doing live mixing. Thanks a bunch, Dave.
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Always a joy to get some tips from you. Thanks Dave!
Thank you Mitchell!
Great stuff. Thanks Dave!
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Awesome Dave! Thanks a lot, very helpful tips
Thank you Victor
Thank you Dave. Great information as usual. I love the reverb on the house music idea.
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These are well put together tips helpful for the pro or beginner. I mixed FOH for a handful of venues in the LES for a few years before moving away to focus on studio work. Miss working with live bands, hopefully we'll get venues open and live shows coming back again in this brave new world.
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So helpful. I love your house music reverb trick. Thanks for making these great videos!
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LOL @ triangle. "Mighty decent of you, I must say." Great tips, Dave. I'll keep watching if you keep posting.
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Best video ever...Thanks for sharing I am a old sound engineer from the 70's
Awesome! Thank you!
Thanks Dave! Always have a bag of tricks.
Fun stuff
I've used reverb on preshow music for years because of you Dave. Always makes a difference :)
👍 Awesome!!
Thanks Dave. You're an inspiration to me, and have helped shape the way I operate and approach mixing music.
Greetings from Australia
Awesome!
Great tips Dave. Very cool to see one of the best in the industry sharing real world practical advice. So many engineers are often very arrogant, but You are so down to earth. Again, thank you for taking the time to create these videos that will hopefully help us all be better at this craft.
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DAVE loving your wisdom.
Love the playback adding reverb trick before the live act. Brilliant.
One trick i do with reverb is, as the music gets faster (and to a lesser degree louder) i reduce the amount of reverb from the master return so all channels become drier, with more clarity with the busier transient peaks, and if the song returns to being slower and quieter i start nudging the return back up for that spacial sound.
Another thing i like doing, is nudging the FOH master up as a song is progressing, then i bring it back at the end of that song and slowly do it again during the next song. I find it not only adds to the dynamics of a live show, it gives the audiences ears a breather. So starting again from a quieter point, the audiences ears are ready for another go. This technique i have noticed encourages the band to "fly" with their music as the song progresses. Being a drummer too, i get a buzz watching the audience go just a little more crazy (or a lot) when a tad more juice is added.
I will stop this technique the day a musician on stage tells me not too, but thats never happened so far.
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Love it! Common sense derived from real experience! Thanks Boss!
Thank you Pete!
Thanks for these great tips!
Regarding tip 1: As most engineers will know, many digital audio networks have the ability to share resources and controls so that both the FOH tech and the monitor tech can have remote access to each other's functions. Even on low-end digital systems, the FOH engineer can have a tablet connected to the monitor board so that he or she can open the talkback mic or whatever. Of course, you have to use this ability prudently so as not to step on the other guy's toes.
Tip 3: It's really annoying when the mix position sounds very different from audience level - often because the installed board in a venue is too high/off to one side/in a corner. I often end up tweaking the mix with a tablet at audience level.
Tip 4: I'll have to try the gated/non-gated trick, which could be useful for a standard small festival setup with several bands of different genres.
Tip 5: Totally! I've seen so many shows where the mix reaches a peak and then starts going downhill again because of too much fiddling (I've also done it myself).
Tip 6: I'd never thought of the reverb trick and I often have to work in a club with horrible, boomy accoutics.
Tip 8: This is a constant struggle as the temptation is to judge and adjust things like EQ visually using the on-screen curve and the RTA rather than using your ears. It also affects paying attention to signals from musicians and other techs if you have your head constantly buried in a screen.
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I am not a sound engineer, I watch Dave’s videos just to check out the different small speakers Dave builds, plus he’s just a cool guy 😎
Awesome!
Thanks Dave, really great Advise as always keep on
Awesome and thank you!
Great ideas and advice!
Thank you!
Thanks for another great video, Dave. Seems like mostly common sense things that many of us might not have had a chance to really think through.
The things we take for granted can be fascinating if we unravel them. Thank you Carl!
Thanks a lot. Very enriching. Helps make me a better sound guy
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Dude your videos over the last month have been so good. I understand phasing and acoustics so much better. Keep 'em coming.
Awesome!!
Dave...thanks for sharing these down to earth tidbits that are so easy to grasp because of the way you deliver the message...you are beyond cool my friend...keep your sharing your incredibly useful knowledge 👍🏼👏🏻
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Thanks Dave for the sensible, well balanced advice. It’s nice to hear from someone with real experience and understanding.
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Great tips and tricks
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Awesome tips, thank you
You bet!
Great videos Dave, as band owner, drummer, sound tech. Last part of your video was spot on. As sound tech it's our job to help connect talent to audience. So so important.
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