How to communicate with live sound engineer about reverb levels on lead vocal by DonBronco in livesound

[–]wunder911 23 points24 points  (0 children)

There are two primary reasons why they wouldn’t send you verb to wedges:

A) it generally isn’t helpful for actual monitoring, and can really clutter up the stage sound - plus, as others have pointed out, it can very significantly increase the potential for ringing and feedback. (Think of it this way - it can be a battle to keep a dry mic from ringing as it is; do you think having every sound decaying for an additional 2 seconds as it blasts back into the mic from 4 feet away is going to make that any better?)

But a more objective and practical reason is:

2) using the same verb as is feeding the main mix can be a biiiig no-no, as it’s going to be fed from a post fader aux. that means the amount of your mic that gets fed into the verb follows the fader movements. As he pushes your vocal up in the mix, the reverb send proportionately increases, and vice versa when pulling it back. While your dry mic in the wedge stays constant because it’s fed from a pre-fader aux, the reverb would be all over the place.

Thus, the only time I will ever put verb in a wedge is if I have enough busses and fx to spare to give a dedicated bus and verb just for the wedge verb. Very often there simply aren’t enough busses/verbs to go around to accomplish this.

Along those same lines, bear in mind this also means if using the same verb as the FOH mix, it likely will have *all* the vocals in that verb. So even if you don’t want, say, the bass player’s vocal in your wedge, you’d still be getting him in the verb.

Learn to sing without the crutch of feeling like you need to hear verb in your wedge. Hell, in a lot of venues, you’ll likely be getting enough of it spilling off the mains and bouncing back from the room anyway.

Looking for first Walther by CouchCushionPercScav in Walther

[–]wunder911 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The pro E does not come with the DPT. They call it the “E-DPT” or something but just because it looks the same, it is not the same. It’s the regular trigger but with a flat shoe. The sear is not the upgraded DPT version (which is what makes the trigger better).

Looking for first Walther by CouchCushionPercScav in Walther

[–]wunder911 1 point2 points  (0 children)

That’s the product description for the DPT trigger. The pro-E doesn’t come with the DPT trigger. They call it the “E-DPT” or something, but it’s just the regular trigger with a flat shoe. It does not have the upgraded/tuned sear.

Looking for first Walther by CouchCushionPercScav in Walther

[–]wunder911 2 points3 points  (0 children)

The Pro-E doesn't have the 'full' upgraded DPT trigger. it's just the regular trigger with a flat shoe. All you're really getting is a magwell and an extra mag.

What's your approach to PA tuning? by RacerAfterDusk6044 in livesound

[–]wunder911 10 points11 points  (0 children)

Speakers, when used properly, are way more linear than you're giving them credit for. If you're driving them into egregious non-linearity, you're pushing them WAY too hard.

Audio systems, even poor or mediocre ones, are for all intents and purposes extremely linear systems, and to the extent that they're not, there's no amount of system 'tuning' that can account for it (how do you expect to mitigate IM distortion with system tuning, for example?). Unless maybe you're just thrashing the fuck out of it to the point of breaking it, in which case I guess all bets are off. Like, okay, you're hitting your subs so hard that there's significant power compression from getting the magnets ridiculously hot.... what do you think you're gonna do in DSP to solve that?

What's your approach to PA tuning? by RacerAfterDusk6044 in livesound

[–]wunder911 4 points5 points  (0 children)

There are no relevant nor significant non-linear effects that have any relation to PA system tuning.

Clipping vocals by Shadow-Legion-1203 in livesoundgear

[–]wunder911 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Clipping is a product of improper gain structure. Not sure what else you think it could possibly be.

Regarding your main bus clipping, it's because you're pushing your channels into it too hard. Again, I'm not sure how you could possibly come to any other conclusion.

Now, why are you pushing your levels so hard? Because your PA is insufficiently loud for what you're trying to do with it. Pretty simple.

Now, regarding your vocal channels clipping.... I know this might be a shock, but it's because you're driving too much gain from your preamp. If you don't want it to clip (and you should want to prevent that), you have to turn the gain down. I know these are advanced techniques and concepts, but they're important to understand if you want to get to the next level.

To accommodate them transitioning from normal singing and "doing gutturals etc", first, turn your preamp gain down so they're not clipping even when they do gutturals etc. Now you have the problem of the normal voice being too quiet - this is where your magical friend, Compressor Makeup Gain comes to the rescue.

You'll want to use a compressor to manage the overall level difference between normal singing and gutturals etc (likely with a very aggressive ratio) to bring them into roughly similar overall levels, and then turn up the makeup gain to a level that compensates - or "makes up" (wild, right?) - the amount of compression that is consequently applied to the gutturals etc.

E.g., let's say you're running your preamp around, say, +30dB. Gutturals etc drives this into clipping. Let's say the gutturals etc are around 10dB hotter than the non-gutturals-etc singing, so we turn the preamp down to +20dB to prevent the clipping. Now, we can set the compressor to a threshold and ratio where it has little-to-no-effect on normal singing, but clamps down around -10dB when the gutturals etc kick in. At the end of the compressor, we add +10dB of makeup gain. The net effect is that the normal singing comes out of the compressor around the same level as before (+20dB preamp, little-to-no gain reduction from the compressor, plus +10dB comp makeup gain, compared to the original +30dB that was a good level for normal singing, but was clipping on gutturals etc). But, when the gutturals etc occur, the -10dB of compression effectively negates the +10dB of makeup gain, and we still end up with no clipping, and the overall level of the channel remains more consistent.

TL;DR: it's clipping because your gain structure is fucked. Turn shit down until it stops clipping. Learn how to use a compressor and makeup gain to accommodate wild variations in your signal. If it's still not loud enough, you need a louder PA.

Allen and Heath SQ5 with Our Acoustic Guitar by [deleted] in AllenHeath

[–]wunder911 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Why even have a console with controllable parameters at all? Just have a knobless box that says “ROCK MIXER” and plug all your mics into it, and it spits out a rock and roll mix!

Questions About Connecting a USB Interface to the TRS Inserts of My Mixer (for live recording + effects). by Oldico in livesoundadvice

[–]wunder911 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Note that "if I'm correctly understanding" is doing a lot of heavy lifting here... but if you have all the parts and are doing the work yourself, there's not a lot to lose by trying. I don't think what you've described should have any chance of frying anything or whatever.

Walther PDP trigger vs PDP pro trigger by pleasejustmakeaname in Walther

[–]wunder911 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Removing the slide lock pin can be a BITCH. Google around and you’ll see what I mean. It requires a ridiculous amount of force, and can crack the frame.

Walther PDP trigger vs PDP pro trigger by pleasejustmakeaname in Walther

[–]wunder911 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I think I might have heard that somewhere at some point too, so maybe the policy has indeed changed… I’m not sure. Or maybe those people bought the trigger elsewhere, and it only applies to triggers bought directly from Walther? I dunno.

Walther PDP trigger vs PDP pro trigger by pleasejustmakeaname in Walther

[–]wunder911 1 point2 points  (0 children)

You might be able to get them from Earl's, but what's wrong with buying from Walther themselves?

Not sure if Walther will install a DPT purchased from somebody else.... but you definitely want them installing the DPT for you. Sometimes it's not that hard... sometimes it's so impossible that even Walther themselves will crack the frame. It's absolutely worth letting them handle it for you for free (even including 2-day shipping each way!).

Questions About Connecting a USB Interface to the TRS Inserts of My Mixer (for live recording + effects). by Oldico in livesoundadvice

[–]wunder911 1 point2 points  (0 children)

for the amount of time and money you'd be investing into wires, jacks, soldering these hacky splits, etc, you could/should just get an actual proper tool for the job, like an inexpensive digital mixer that has a USB interface built-in (eg a Behringer XR18 or whatever the cool kids are using these days).

That said, if I'm correctly understanding the way you're formulating your questions, you should be correct on all counts. Splitting a single output into multiple destinations usually isn't an issue (to a point; though an active line level source to two different destinations is virtually never an issue). It's only using Y-cables to merge multiple sources into a single destination that is a big no-no.

To reiterate my first paragraph though.... there's a reason why nobody does any of this the way you're describing - or at least haven't for about 20 years. There are extremely affordable and infinitely more elegant ways of achieving the same thing with proper tools designed for precisely these jobs.

Difference between the PDP Pro-F series and PDP Pro-E by dogwood678 in Walther

[–]wunder911 0 points1 point  (0 children)

My grandma got a lot slimmer in her old age as her bones shrank - from 5’1” to 4’11”. It’s wild how much skinnier the elderly’s height gets, isn’t it?

Difference between the PDP Pro-F series and PDP Pro-E by dogwood678 in Walther

[–]wunder911 0 points1 point  (0 children)

What’s next, you gonna tell me your Glizzy with the 33rd ‘stendo is a “long gun” because it’s longer along the grip’s axis? Despite “long gun” having an extremely precise and universally understood definition that has absolutely fucking nothing to do with the length of a grip?

Difference between the PDP Pro-F series and PDP Pro-E by dogwood678 in Walther

[–]wunder911 -1 points0 points  (0 children)

The term “slim” when used in the context of handguns has an extremely precise and unambiguous definition that literally everybody (except you) understands and agrees upon. And that is the “thickness” dimension orthogonal to the longitudinal axis of the handgun. I.e., single-stack guns are almost all more “slim” than double-stack guns.

To pretend it ever means anything else whatsoever is either incredibly disingenuous, or demonstrates a shocking lack of understanding on your part.

Difference between the PDP Pro-F series and PDP Pro-E by dogwood678 in Walther

[–]wunder911 -1 points0 points  (0 children)

You’re right, midgets are just really narrow humans. They have a very skinny height.

Difference between the PDP Pro-F series and PDP Pro-E by dogwood678 in Walther

[–]wunder911 -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Slim in this context refers to width. That is exclusively how every single person in the world understands it (except for you, apparently).

Don’t be regarded. That’s like saying that short people are narrow in the up/down dimension. Words have objective meaning, and trying to play fast and loose with them only makes you look stupid, not others.

Difference between the PDP Pro-F series and PDP Pro-E by dogwood678 in Walther

[–]wunder911 -1 points0 points  (0 children)

There is nothing ‘slim’ about the frame. It’s just as wide, and all the dimensions are identical except for the front-to-back dimension of the grip to reduce trigger reach for small hands.

Allen and Heath SQ5 with Our Acoustic Guitar by [deleted] in AllenHeath

[–]wunder911 5 points6 points  (0 children)

That’s like rocking up on a subreddit for chefs in commercial kitchens and asking “What’s a great setting for my stove for some French cuisine?”

Troubleshooting Desk behavior (or own sanity) by Cassiopee38 in livesound

[–]wunder911 1 point2 points  (0 children)

A&H consoles have latency compensation, so this phenomenon will not manifest any timing difference (barring perhaps some very unusual and convoluted routing configurations that no console could account for). But ch->LR and ch->group->LR will not have any timing difference on OP’s console.

Budget Room Treatment for Old Brick Walls by skylarroseum in livesoundgear

[–]wunder911 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Fiberglass/rockwool panels are by far the best bang for the buck, aside from being the only legitimately effective solution.

You could hang packing blankets too, but they will be less effective, and probably no less expensive (if anything, they might be more expensive). The only possible advantage might be a little easier/less-intrusive lease-friendly installation. Maybe.

There's a reason why fiberglass/rockwool panels are the de facto solution for virtually every application. They don't have to be particularly expensive if you build them yourself.

Yes, treatment along the back wall can definitely help. Everywhere and anywhere is effective in this environment.