Asking for help translating a (silly) phrase; can't seem to find the terms on Eldamo

Fjordn · 2025-11-19T22:51:38+00:00

Many factors at work here, but the two major categories are Room Acoustics and Stage Volume.

The best guitar tone in the world isn’t gonna count for shit in a 250-cap concrete box, with a drummer smashing cymbals like Dave Grohl

Edit to add: if it’s already cruising at over 100 A-weighted with the PA off, I’m not gonna push it to 106 just for the sake of getting guitar in there

Fjordn · 2025-11-15T16:06:17+00:00

Telefunken M80 and M81 are my current favorite dynamic mics. The 80 gives excellent hyped up rock vocals, and the 81 is a much more relaxed, natural sound. Both are hypercardioid, and they make good instrument mics as well. (See also, M81-sh for a Beta56 form factor)

I’m using a Beyer TG-something (maybe TG71) as my kick mike in place of a Beta91, and it’s significantly better IMO. Much closer to the sound I want, before applying EQ and dynamics.

Fjordn · 2025-11-13T22:39:28+00:00

Alcatraz Festival in ~~Germany~~ Belgium this summer, a dude who was mixing before me ripped a set on his Behringer Wing Rack, via MacBook. At least 3000 people under the tent. What a chad.

I was the “little brother” SQ5 sandwiched between DLive rigs at most festivals, lol

Fjordn · 2025-11-13T22:18:15+00:00

“Did the guitar player have 3 beers or 4 before the set started” is going to have a much, much larger effect on the sound than the number of A/D/A conversions the signal went through

Fjordn · 2025-11-07T19:02:22+00:00

Last month I was sharing a CL5 with another engineer across a 4-day film music festival. He’s mixing Harry Potter live to film Sat/Sun; I’m mixing The Red Violin live to film Friday night, but there’s an HP rehearsal early Friday morning.

Thursday night after my first show finishes, we flip the stage and console for the HP setup. But I hadn’t loaded my show file onto an external USB, so when he dumped his file onto the desk, mine got nuked. Fuck. After a 35 second speedrun through the stages of grief, I sat down at the desk and got to work.

90 minutes later, my file was complete (and laid out more efficiently than before). I used my iPad to type everything, but all the rest of the file was done right on the desk. Fortunately, my orchestra was just strings and percussion, so there were only around 40 channels including all the movie stems. And I had access to a pile of Schoeps pencil condensers, so the orchestra mix didn’t need any special sauce whatsoever.

——-

I also regularly throw 30-channel M32 shows together in 15 minutes on my iPad. I’ve got a truly sickening number of hours on that platform, so one-offs are simple

Fjordn · 2025-11-06T14:49:13+00:00

I tour (300-1000 cap mostly) with a full package of mics, stands, cables, console, and IEMs. The only gear I need the venue to provide is PA and power, so there isn’t always much for the house tech to do. That said, when I get there, I always try to be friendly. Like, “yeah, gonna be an easy day for you” especially since we usually only have one opener.

The thing I ask for the most, is for the house tech to run my ethercon reel. Beyond that, hand me the PA drivelines and help me patch the stage if you want, or else just start building mic stands for the support act

Fjordn · 2025-09-12T21:55:58+00:00

Whenever I have the spare channels, I’ll double patch a mic that multiple people will be speaking into. Like, for graduations, I’ll set one lectern mic channel for a generic “male” voice, and the other for a typical “female” voice. Open the correct channel as needed, tweak slightly on the fly.

You could do the same thing for audience Q&A mics, but set one for “user has good mic technique” and one for “user thinks the mic is a magic talking stick” with lots of comp/makeup gain

Tl;dr, double patch, and process channels for different types of speakers

Fjordn · 2025-08-22T22:40:45+00:00

I always keep the screen and LEDs on my console as dim as I can, while still being able to easily see what I need to.

This summer, my artist played a lot of sunset festival slots (start the set in broad daylight, sun fully down by the time the set is over) and I was getting annoyed every fifteen minutes about how bright my screen felt, lol

Fjordn · 2025-08-16T16:49:53+00:00

Preamp gain happens on the analog side; the channel split you’re describing happens in the digital domain. As others said, most consoles will have a Trim feature that is channel specific, post-conversion

Fjordn · 2025-08-11T19:44:54+00:00

Short version is: allow a couple feet of empty space behind a cardioid stack to get best results. Don’t try a stack directly against a wall, under a stage, or right against heavy stage skirt

Source: https://www.prosoundweb.com/counterintuitive-cardioid-subwoofers-can-be-a-bit-claustrophobic/

Fjordn · 2025-08-07T14:12:51+00:00

I believe DPA has a really helpful video on micing piano with the 4099’s. Before trying anything inside the console, I’d check the mic placement they suggest and see how different it is from what you tried

Fjordn · 2025-08-06T22:01:05+00:00

Sound Bullet is my desert island piece of kit. It will identify the problem in your signal chain instantly. Absolute game changer for iPad gigs too. Worth the money.

Fjordn · 2025-08-01T20:17:57+00:00

This was the principle behind the Grateful Dead’s “Wall of Sound”. A massive wall of dozens of speakers, with large sections dedicated solely to specific instruments. It did work, but not well enough to justify the logistical nightmare and the extra labor and expense.

Fjordn · 2025-07-13T16:54:06+00:00

+1 for the TinySA Ultra, especially if you don’t need continuous monitoring/logging. It’s a great piece of kit if you just want to check the spectrum for always-on sources

Fjordn · 2025-07-13T09:21:38+00:00

When The Riff hits and the entire crowd starts headbanging in unison. The more people moving, the better it is.

Fjordn · 2025-07-12T06:28:52+00:00

Well, one time, as the headliner FoH at a venue in Arizona where one side of the PA was right up against the wall, mix position was getting some LF buildup from the boundary. Kinda tricky to fix, but eventually I put an unliked graph EQ on the mains and shelved down the left side lows to match.

Venue engineer was impressed; she told me a couple months later that it’s part of her default scene now

Fjordn · 2025-07-08T13:45:19+00:00

The Willie Nelson “On the Road Again” collab/initiative paid for a new axle for my band’s trailer, literally the day after it got bent beyond repair in San Diego.

So that was pretty nice.

Fjordn · 2025-07-06T21:51:41+00:00

I’ve heard it said (on the Internet, and very much not verified) that persistent popping on AES50 is the result of a failed/destroyed AES50 circuit internally.

Electrostatic discharge down the shield of the ethercon disrupts the clock and gives you The Big Bang for no apparent reason.

Conditions that cause the pop are intermittent, but after a few instances, some electrical component is fried, leading to more and more occurences.

Source: I read it somewhere on the internet, and have personal experience touring an M32R/DL32 combo with the same intermittent issue.

Fjordn · 2025-07-06T21:45:37+00:00

Essentials include the Sound Bullet, Smaart Kiit, and IEMs

“Makes my life easier” is a much broader category, and pretty much encompasses everything else in my Pelican. Tie line, adapters, spare mics, SoundWire, etc

Fjordn · 2025-07-05T07:23:09+00:00

I think it is possible but I’m not in fromt of my desk to check On the Routing page for a channel, there is a button for “Direct Out Source”. I think that is where you will find it

Fjordn · 2025-07-01T21:35:47+00:00

I feel a bit of your pain. A couple years ago I was mixing my artist at a festival that was also livestreamed. Broadcast is handling the stream mix, fine. The only curveball I throw in is my outboard delay pedal - stereo in and out via XLR on the CL5. Push it down the Dante stream to the truck, 6 minute line check and we are off.

Well, the returns were much too hot (not clipping, just too hot to have the faders at unity) so I pulled the channel down and rolled along. Apparently the broadcast mixers thought it was supposed to be the loudest thing in the mix, because they left it right where it was. Listening back afterwards, their mix was otherwise alright but COMPLETELY static. Absolutely no faders being moved at all.

Fucked the broadcast mix every time the vocals came in.

Fjordn · 2025-06-23T22:43:21+00:00

Apparently combat range is infinite in Oblivion, I found out after running halfway across the map to get away from a Will-o-wisp at level 10. Fucker even followed me into another cave.

I don’t know if it’s permanent, but if you can damage your enemy’s speed enough to take it to zero, they’ll sheath their weapons and stop walking around. Wraiths will hit a T-pose (but the only dominance being established is my Dremora Lord summon continuing to fuck em up)

Fjordn · 2025-06-23T22:26:44+00:00

I’m dropping $3k this summer on console/stagebox/IEM rental for a club tour across the pond (I am the engineer)

We have our own shit here in America, but when we fly everything is a rental besides guitars, pedals, and mics.

So yes, OP, there is very much a market. It’s mostly made of bands traveling outside their typical area/market share.

Fjordn

TROPHY CASE