Live Mixing/EQ question

eric_

How would you approach eq'ing a band's live sound where the ranges each instrument plays shifts? For example, the band I'm in features keys, synth, guitar, bass (as well as twin lead vocals and drums). We end up playing across various octaves, taking on different roles etc., within the same song. I'm sure this is common with a lot of bands. How do you approach eq'ing the live sound when the instrument ranges shift around so much? What works great for each instrument in one song/section is bound to be less than ideal for another song/section. Then again it's hardly practical for a sound engineer to have to keep shifting EQ constantly throughout a gig, especially when they're not familiar with the songs. Appreciate any info on how this is dealt with.

Danny1969

Generally with live sound you make room in the mix  and bring out instruments with volume cuts and boosts on the faders rather than constantly changing EQ. With a dense mix there is some quite brutal EQ cuts to a lot of things and some heavy use of compression as well but that's fairly static in my experience ... most of my time is spent riding the vocal faders, the effects sends and dipping instrument and raising the volume of anyone taking a solo. 

Keyboards in particular can need some very brutal hi passing if the player does a lot of left hand bass notes and octaves. One trick here is to switch the filter out if the song starts with keys only (so it sounds nice and full range fat on it's own ) and then switch the high pass filter back in when the whole band comes in 

Although it's certainly possible to change EQ on the fly, especially with snapshots on digital mixers you need to be careful on some boards as often monitor sends can be post EQ  ... so wedges and IEM's will change etc. 

You can have a modern digital desk with HUI  do an automatic mix if you play with a click and use the same arrangement every time. In this scenario your using the same automation you would mixing a song in the studio but in reality with every venue being different and stage volumes from amps changing gig to gig it's probably not a practical solution  

Stuckfast

TBH this is an arrangement problem, not a mixing problem. If there is something missing in one section or cluttered and unclear in another it needs to be sorted out at source.

bbill335

Stuckfast said:

TBH this is an arrangement problem, not a mixing problem. If there is something missing in one section or cluttered and unclear in another it needs to be sorted out at source.

if every gigging band had to be that good, there’d be a LOT less gigs going on!

eric_

Thanks all. Yeah I think I've been overthinking this. I've been trying to really refine my basic guitar sound and I started thinking about how much low end and high end I really need. What sounds great in the room on my own is typically very full sounding but might not work in a band context. I'm trying to make my core sound as "mix-friendly" so that some of the work is already done before a sound engineer gets involved. I guess I should settle on something that's a compromise between the two and then let the sound engineer take care of the rest!

Roland

bbill335 said:

Stuckfast said:

TBH this is an arrangement problem, not a mixing problem. If there is something missing in one section or cluttered and unclear in another it needs to be sorted out at source.

if every gigging band had to be that good, there’d be a LOT less gigs going on!

Well, I’d be happy with that. I spent Saturday evening touring a couple of pubs to size up the competition, and came away thinking how poorly rehearsed they all were. They knew the songs, but often seemed to be playing at the same time rather than playing together. The first thing the rhythm instruments ought to do is back off whilst the vocalist is actually singing.

So I agree with @Stuckfast. It starts with arrangements. Secondly it’s what sounds we each use. We have to remind our singer to cut the bass on his guitar. It sounds nice at home, but is audio sludge in a band mix. There are things you can do from the desk, but that’s not much help if you’ve got a sludgy backline and no soundman.