What Looks Good Might Not Sound So Good . . .

Tripp Black  May 7 2011 05:56:15 PM

I was recently given a list "starting settings" which included starting Trim (Gain) and EQ settings for the typically most used channels on a small 24 channel board.

It also included drum EQ settings with the instructions to "do not touch" those settings from the Head of Sound. Great time had been spent tightening the drums and then setting the EQ on the board to just right. So obviously protection was desired for that time and the settings.

So a couple days later, I got to try out the new settings my next time on the board, here's what fader levels I ended up using for the drums:

From Left: Snare - Tom - Lo Tom - Kick

Although a picture doesn't normally let you hear a couple problems, but this time it can.
(Despite the dark room and grainy picture.)

Notice the input meter for the Kick is +5 to +10 dB. 0 dB is where you really should stop. An occasional blip into +5 is fine, but not a constant +5 and common blips into +10. Although this board is a nice board and doesn't clip till +10, it doesn't mean you need to run it that "hot", especially if you are sending an output to Avioms, which have a traditional 0 dB max before you get just a mass of loud "fuzz" or "static" - aka clipping.  Normally, a quick fix would be in order to reduce the trim and or adjusting EQ.

In this case, it didn't matter for the house mains, because of the fader levels. Since tightening, the drums do sound tight. In this relatively small space, they are also more pronouced and have more punch than ever. In this regard, the work on the drums may be successful. With the new tightened heads, no amplification was needed. Previously, I did use to bring up the faders to around -40 depending, and around -20 for the kick. Although, we got to hear the drums basically un-plugged, what can we say for the perfect EQ settings so important they carried a "no touch" command?.

Unfortunately, most of the night the electric guitar had the same problem - careful massaged EQ settings on the board only to have the fader rarely leave infinity.The guitar's amp was on stage with a mic, but whose volume was up enough to also require no other house amplification.

If there is any good news, my job was more turn-key, I had only keys, and acoustic and a few vocal tracks to manage as best I could within the baseline of the drums and electric.

So in summary, if your faders are showing the symbol infinity (or nothing being sent), how much of that great EQ made it into the house?

• Comments [0]