I went to watch a friend's band at a local venue in the week - it's a pub that has a dedicated 'venue' out the back with permanent stage/PA/desk and I've heard some great sounds there in the past.
On this occasion I felt a little bad for my buddy as on some songs the clarity of the vocal was poor.
To my simplistic mind/ears it needed to be clearer in the upper mids, or something else needed to be pulled out to create that space.
There was a sound guy and I don't know the tech setup there so I certainly didn't make a nuisance of myself but it got me wondering what I'd have done faced with that. I *think* that all the bass, drums and the electric guitar was coming from the backline with vocals and acoustic guitar in the PA.
I think I know what I'd have tried first, but I know some of you are much more experienced so interested in your thoughts (appreciate there are many possible variables - happy just to hear in principle what you might have tried - always learning and all that)
Tim
Red ones are better.
Comments
But if the band is coming all from the backline then it's possible that he has a quiet voice and /or the pa has run out of headroom before feedback. There might be enough eq tools or repositioning of the speakers to help but maybe not if it's a permanent rig. Sometimes it's even down to where your listening to the mix - same engineer every week? If so I expect him to know how to squeeze as much gain before feedback as possible.
Odd with an installed system - I'd normally guess (from a non-music installation point of view - and my systems are mostly about speech intelligibility) at ropey EQ especially if it's extreme enough to affect phase. Your ears may well be insensitive to absolute phase, but they're not to relative phase in complex sounds.
Other singers I work with have fantastic voices, pitch perfect control but less natural volume, which means more gain is needed on the desk, there's more drum & guitar spill in the mic, you can't compress much if at all and you need to be careful about boosting anything above 1K. In a situation like this the best advice is @maltingsaudio turn the backline down
Assuming though that everything is fine, the PA is good and the singer has enough acoustic volume in the mic to work with then a good starting point is to high pass around 100Hz, cut around 4dB between 250 and 500Hz using a low Q and boost a little around 3 to 5K using a low Q ............ That generally get's the vocal less flabby and more able to sit proud of the mix
Some bands will work with the sound person some wont. Most engineers will try to get a good sound. Sometimes the 'house' ones dont bother espcially if the band wont listen.
IMHO your minimum stage volume is what the drummer will play at or bullied into playing at. Your maximum volume is the vocals not feeding back. Some bands will sidewash amps some will beam them at the audience.
THere are many factors.