Hey everybody

So I've been out of audio world for a little while while working online.
After being laid off, I picked up a gig at a local club.
They have a Digico SD8 with a d&b rig and a GrandMA for lighting in this tiny little town!
Anyway. The gigs have been great.
My main goal is to get a great mix at as low a volume as possible. (For a rock/Country club that aint quiet)
Lately I've been experimenting with optogates to help control the wash from the vocal mics. (This works great)

So my question for the group.
What other strategies to you use to control all the extra noise?

Obviously gates on drums and such. If you have any other clever tricks I'd love to hear them.
Thanks y'all.

Hi Lou! Funny, I was just thinking about you yesterday.
Sorry to be about "laid off", but the new gig sounds great!
When I moved to Berkeley there was a club near my place the really liked me because I was, "the only one who seems to know how to mix quietly." But, I totally get it. For one, doing "sound reinforcement" isn't as fun, but people complaining is worse. ;)

In my mind drums and stage monitors are the biggest problems. You might want to relisten to my podcast interview with the 6 drummers. The way the church that I work at has handled this is to have a house hit that works for the room. I don't know that means exactly, but they have some special cymbals that are quieter, I think. Sorry, not super helpful.

You know all the best practices with getting guitarists to point their amps at their heads and pointing stage monitors and people's heads. Or, if possible, getting amps into iso boxes or another room.

A trick I learned recently is that when a stage monitor starts to get really loud, you go over to the person to talk to them and mute the monitor. When it comes back, the contrast will be shocking.

I've seen those cymbals. I also used to have the Cympad. They were to replace the felt under the cymbal and it was supposed to cut down on volume.
I mostly noticed it in the high end.

Quiet is the name of the game. I think that's why they want me for this gig. I have always been a quiet mixer, probably from all the military band gigs with old folks. I have come to view the PA in small spaces as an audience monitor system. I only add what I can't hear.

Stage volume isn't too bad. It's a fantastic club with acoustic treatment, the whole 9, as it were.

The thing that I have been loving to see is a lot of bands show up with their own monitor rig and give me a split. Talk about walk in the park.

I like your trick with muting the monitor. I should do that when we are setting levels. I love these little psychological hints.

Hope you are doing well Nathan.

Yes! Love working with pro responsible musicians. I worked with a trio last year that had their own wireless IEM and split so that at festivals they could basically just walk on stage and start playing because their IEM mix was done already.

Indeed. However I hesitate to put responsible and musician in the same sentence. :)
The last act had a split but didn't know how to operate it. (WHY?!)
Their sound human had put it together for them, but wasn't there to operate.

Wow. So…they got lucky that you could?

Well the guy had an idea had to do it. But started to struggle after a while.
He was the bass player.
Is it just me or do most audio people play bass?
I'm one of them.

Sounds like you're having fun, Lou. The band I mix for started using those circular cymbal shields to try to keep the cymbals out of the singers mics. They work well as long as you have sound dampening behind the drummer to prevent any reflection. We actually carry two of the clearsonic 6 ft sorber panels with us to use when there is a wall behind the drummer. We have a perforated banner of the band logo we attach to the panels with velcro. It works for us.

JaDe In The ATL

Yeah you said it was an EWF band. That's a dream gig. I love that music.
I like those little shields but I dislike the fish tank.
I guess if you are on ears it would be fine.
Is there any video of this band. Sounds like they have a good show with you at the helm.

Oh man, I love the fish tank. If it were up to me, everyone would be in separate rooms, like a studio. :)

No video that I know of. I was just the A2.

Sup Lou, If I notice a singer is a properly trained singer and eats the mic while singing, I will sometimes put a gate on the vocal mic that only pulls it down 3dB and only when they are not actively singing. This gives you some headroom back since every open mic removes 3dB from your headroom. It gives less buildup from drums and reflections as well.

Whoa!
Hi Michael. It's been a minute.
Thanks for chiming in.
Wouldn't you know it I soon found online employment after a summer of doing fun little club gigs. I like the slight gate idea. The real problem is in these small room situations is the vocal mics are really drum overheads that people sometimes sing into.

The last gig I did there was in December. I had been using the optogates and I have to say they are a real game changer in these tiny rooms where you are trying to get great sound. The last gig was a Grateful Dead tribute band. I'm not much of a Dead Head, meaning I was unfamiliar with most of the music.

It's mostly little sections of songs where there is great harmony vocals and then instrumental sections with intricate parts that needed real clarity to pick them all out.
The optogates made all the difference. I have enough of them so I had one on every vocal mic. (There were 4). It was stunning how good it sounded. Even another local sound person who mixes the club down the street was up in my business asking what I was doing to get it to sound like that.

I wasn't doing anything special just cutting out all the extra crap and getting only the sounds I wanted when they needed to be heard and nothing else.

Anyway hope all are well here. I get emails when I get a reply. Thanks again Michael for reminding me of this group.

Unfortunately I've become a video human these days. Don't judge.
:)

A video guy Lou?!?!? Well, if it pays better then you gotta do it man! I can't talk anyway I'm full time in HVAC sales xD

I said don't judge. I see now why it was always the video guys fault.
Eh It's a full time.
Oddly enough that same club from the start of this post just yesterday offered me more to come do some gigs. I'm working east coast hours from pacific time zone. Too sleepy to stay out past 9pm.
Wish I still could do audio gigs full time. I sure miss it. One day.
Stay funky y'all.

Opto gates would be great for the church that I mix at sometimes. There will often be 5 open vocal mics on stage, but half the time only one or two are actually being used and we don't really have enough rehearsal that I feel confident mute them manually.

They are worth it, but dang they are expensive. They cost more than the mic I attached them too most of the time. If you get a chance try them!