Okay, so in this section we're going to see what is happening up on stage in terms of you know where equipment goes, What plugs in what, how to choose and place microphones and generally make a tidy environment. With everything works together. Basically, it looks like this. All your instruments are on stage, either directly plugged into a snake or input box that feeds out into your mixer. All miked up with several microphones. In this instance, we have eight mics on the drum kit, a couple of guitar amps miked up, a bass out that has a direct out and an electric acoustic guitar that goes through a wire system with the receiver plugged into an input and a bunch of vocal microphones as well.

On the other side monitor mixes come back, probably through that same snack or stage box that feed the monitors so the musicians can hear themselves. monitors are placed closely to the musicians so that they can hear themselves and others clearly. So the types of jacks that we would see, let's go up to the microphones here. Typically what we would see terminating from a cable coming from these guys will be an XLR cable. It's like a three pin balanced XLR cable. And then every now and again, you might see microphone cables tonight in the next top of jack.

In terms of the highs and the lows line level, they typically come in as a quarter inch, so some microphones may use a quarter inch but basically between the two. They're the types of jacks that you will be plugging in for either XLR or quarter inch. Now let's talk for a moment about the actual level that comes out of all of these guys because each of them produce a differing signal level. Let's Look at them here, you can see that the two microphones tend to have a fairly small signal level you can simply guitar is very hot. And the line level is about medium right there. So our whole objective when we bring these types of inputs in, we want to either pre amplify them, we hear that quite often a mic preamp, we want to pre amplify them up so that they will match kind of like that line level.

So for example, we could take the first couple here, everything basically needs to match that line level. So if we were to take the first two, we would bring up say a gain knob, sometimes they're called a trim knob. And so for the first one, I would bring that up to match the kind of line level there and I would need to crank up the dynamic a little bit more than a condenser mic typically. So you can see between these two guys, that would have a different game. Depending on what kind of microphone there are some mics put out a lot of signals, some mics Don't put out a lot of signal, but you can adjust for those differences by using the gain or the trim knob to bring them up to that line level. Now, in terms of a guitar, this tends to be a little too hot if I was taking a plumbing analogy, it's like the microphones were putting out like a garden hose amount of water, and the guitar tends to put out like a fire hose amount, so we need to damp that down quite often.

There'll be a pad on a mixer. So you can see we have three different types of signal levels. Mic level is kind of like a trickle, you know, level is like a garden hose and guitar is not what I call a fire hose but it's a more powerful than your line level here. And here's the deal. For the most part, the signal level that is optimized to get all the way from the stage to the mixer is really around mic level. You have to move the signal all the way from the stage two the mixer sometimes 100 or 200 feet while all the time rejecting any interference that might be coming down that same line.

We live in a very noisy world with radio and transmission signals, CB radios, cell phones, fluorescent lights, all those things love to get into a long run and really destroy your signal. That is why way back in. It was Telegraph and early telephone days, some Smart Cookies, horrible way to run balance lines that were 190 degrees out of phase so that any bad noise picked up would have an equal and opposite signal that would cancel each other out leaving you with just the original signal. These are called balanced lines, and they typically come down cables and connectors like these guys here. So in terms of connecting microphones, just use a balanced XLR cable like this to connect your mic with the input box on the stage. And that microphone will come up on your mixer and all the fine noise and interference Free.

So microphones are easy connects but what about it's a guitar like this, we will have a number of different problems here first, this doesn't have the same kind of connector as the microphone we have a quarter inch jack right here, so we can't physically plug this kind of connector into an XLR jack. But there's also another problem here. You'll notice that the quarter inch connector like this has only two parts of it, it has a signal and ground. What this means is that this is an unbalanced line that we learned a moment ago that if you have a long run a cable, that line needs to be balanced, like an XLR line that rejects all that crummy noise that comes along for the ride. On top of that the signal level here coming out of a guitar like that might be even a little bit too hot and distort the mixer on the other end.

I sure wish there was some sort of little box that took this hot quarter inch in Put, pedal it down a little bit, turn it into a balanced signal and then drop down an XLR connector that could be easily connected up to an input box. And guess what there is a direct box or a DI box fixes all of these problems simply plug your highs a quarter inch guitar signal into one end and then a patted down balanced XLR version comes out the other end. In fact, a lot of DI box will also have a quarter inch pass through that passes along the signal into your app so that you can play your guitar as normal through your app on stage but siphons off a balanced XLR out the input box onto your mixer. DI box is a great lifesaver for a couple of different reasons.

First, they pad down that high Z potassium more closely match the type of input that your mixer is likely to want to see. It also provides a really clean, balanced signal sound really great through omega through that long run sound great service. speakers. Now one word of warning though there are some guitars that do well through this type of setup and others that may do you know not so well. bass guitars work great in this setup, as do electric acoustic guitars and electric guitar like this one here, maybe not so much. And here's why.

A guitarist who has a guitar like this usually have another part or of his or her sound as equally important and that the guitar spend Big Bucks getting just the right amount of crunch and distortion from cool tube amps, like this one here now and if you take their signal from the DI box and run to the main speakers before it hits that $2,000 app, then there's gonna be trouble. It's not big, it's I will sound really cool and raunchy on stage through the app but really clean and kind of wimpy to the PA because you're taking this signal out of the DI before it hits the end. So, you know, what's the solution here on an electric guitar where half the personality comes from that boutique, you know, tube amp and effect pedals, all that kind of stuff, simply make up the app. That way you're getting the true sound of that guitar app speaker combinational as stompbox and all that stuff, and because the mic you're using is coming down a balanced XLR cable is easy, it's just plug and play.

Now, I said earlier that a bass and electric acoustic, it might be a good candidate for DI box of what, what in the case of a bass guitar, a cleaner sound can be had when you come straight out of the basic guitar. While a lot of bass players you know, are careful to buy a really nice amp. The purpose of that Bass Amp is mainly just to reproduce that clean sound of the bass, not so much color, the AMP with a bunch of distortion stompboxes not all that kind of stuff. a compromise might be to send two baselines down to the mixer, one directly from the base. Do And the other from a microphone in front of that Bass Amp cabinet so you can capture the sound of the Bass Amp and speaker and also just note that way you can kind of blend between the direct and the amps out in regards to the electric acoustic.

And most guitarists are happy with just the direct sound. So a DI box just works fine in that situation. But just remember to return the sound of that electric acoustic. That that makes back to the performance monta as he or she doesn't have the advantage of an onstage guitar amp like the bass player, or the electric guitars. We'll cover that in the monitoring section later on. So that being said, the main objective is to get sound sources into our input box and then through to our main mixing console.

And like I said, that is primarily done through microphones and occasionally through di boxes. A DI box is pretty much a DI box. They don't really do that much but There are many different types of microphones that are all engineered for a specific type of application. So let's spend a moment to go through each sound source on stage and make the right microphone choice and see how to place that microphone. Let's start with drums. A drum kit is made up of the kick drum, a snare drum, high hats, Toms and cymbals.

The typical setup we place a mic on the kick drum, one or maybe even two on the snare above and occasionally below if you want to have the buzz of the snares brought into the mix as well. Then one to the hi hat, then one for each time and finally a pair for the overhead symbols as well. Before we look at the placement, let's see the kind of the usual suspects in terms of mic selection for each drum. On the kick drum, we need to reproduce low frequencies and it's also a pretty loud environment. So a dynamic microphone usually fits the bill with a rare instance action. A short list of kick drum mics would then be the short beta 52 sure better 91 AKG d 112 bought x d six and the E v or electro voice re 20 or peel 20 for the snare drum some choices, sure sm 57 Shure Beta 56 I bought x i five for the hi hat for the audix sC x one hc Norman came 185 sure sm 81 for the toms or x d two Shure Beta 98 A Shure Beta 56 A or the timeless Sennheiser Port 21 for overheads for the short sm 81 Sennheiser e6 14 the OT x 80 x 51 another great way to go which is much simpler than going an ally cat route is to purchase a kit of mics that you know especially for drums kits are available from Samson sure an order in order of kind of good, better and best.

Now that we have a selection of microphones so that we can start positioning these guys and while no ironclad rules a few and everything is open for experimentation, a general way of miking drums, drums has kind of emerged over the years. Let's start out with kick drums. Most drum has cut out a hole in the front head and play some dampening material inside the shell to prevent ringing and get the kick kind of nice to place the kick drum mic inside the shell pointing towards the beater in terms of snare drums, place your mic right at the edge pointing down at the HID at about two inches from the edge Make sure that the mic is the way you know enough so that the drummer doesn't accidentally hit it from time to time. You can get away with just a single mic on the top of the snare, but also another one underneath it pointing up is a great way to capture snap and buzzer snares.

Listen to just the top and bottom. And now Ben between the two. the Hi Hat mic should be placed about inches from high hats angled in a way to prevent instruments Most notably, the snare drum tones of mine in basically the same way as the snares pointing down about two inches of rim. You can move inwards towards the center of the head for sound and folly, overheads a place well placed overhead and because the ride and the bell of the ride right are the head in a little just a favor that ride. So with the entire kit being miked up, we just have everything we need to get a good sound of it. I would then play around and mess with it with EQ, compression and gates.

You know it possible just to kind of punch up that sound, but the basics that we have those mics in those positions should work with. With this well, I'll show you how to actually mix drums and use all the effects and techniques in the mixing section later on. Okay, so on to bass. By the way, I tend to think of my instruments this way up. In the drums first and bass and guitars, keys and vocals coming up the I'm kind of building up from the foundation first from the rhythm section, to the embellishment instruments, like guitars and keys, and then buy up the style of vocal which style the mix was just vocal. Okay, so let's look at bass.

I said earlier, the bass guitars a great candidate, the DI box, plug your bass in a DI box and pass that through to your amp. And then take that XLR out. That di setup screen to make sense. If you wish you can also make up your bass app if you want to blend in a sound of the app in the sound of the direct bass and then go to the app. So we can mix them together to one. Great Mike's making a miking up a basic cabinet.

They're very similar to what you'd normally find a kick drum, although you can get some great results with condenser mics as well point the mic towards the center of the cone, but a more trebles out and off axis a little bit towards the edge of a warmer time. Go ahead and experiment with someone moving the mic around while you solo that sound in some headphones so that you can kind of get the sound that you want. I'll tell you what, in most of my work, I normally just run the DI out of the bass guitar just just call it a day, you'll get the cleanest You know, without too many low frequency overtones that can just kind of simply get in the way as you start to build your mix. Okay, so on to guitars now, unless your guitars and electric acoustic, like the this one here that we mentioned a little while ago, your one mic up the app.

Now if you're using something like this, then just take an output of this, put it in a DI and call it a day. But if it's electric guitar with a really cool app that adds all that grunge kind of crunching in there then use a dynamic mic like sm 57 or x. Maybe two or three inches I'm just off axis with one of the speakers works pretty well. On two keyboards. Now, most keyboards are similar to our electric acoustic before. The sound is simply defined by what comes out of that quarter inch jack.

Those quarter inch outs and not by an elaborate amperage. Like that, so a DI or a pair of D eyes if you want to use both sides the stereo outs will fit the bill. One notable exception is the venerable Hammond organ. A Hammond organ without a Leslie cabinet is like peanut butter without jelly or gets the Liz pole without a Marshall cabinet they really need to be together if you want that particular sound. So if you ever had an organ on stage hooked up to a Leslie rotating speaker cabinet, then mic the cabinet up this way with Polycom dynamic mics like that. Now the dependable SMT seven mic the low cabinet and then a pair of mics on either side retaining great sound, particularly when you have those rotating.

Sounds very cool. So since or any other stage keyboard they're easily connected via a DI box or a pair if you want to do it in stereo, or the last keyboard which can be quite problematic. grand piano. In my humble opinion stage pianos like the ones from say, Roland and Nord give the best results because I mean, this sounds a great, absolutely clean as a whistle, you know, feedback free coming down a pair of di boxes. But having said that, I know there are some people are just like the look and feel of the Grand pie. So, you know, I'm not going to try to talk you out of it.

So, how do you make your grand piano? Well, first up, the type of microphones is a no brainer, I would always go with a condenser mic, as this means probably really no other instrument that has the range of overtones and harmonics that a piano has. And really condensed is the only way to really pick all that good stuff up. You can go with, you know, the old standard pair of AKG 414. Or maybe more recently, the road NT fives placed underneath the lid with one pointed towards the lowest strings and the other one point at the highest strengths. You'll Experiment with the placement but play around eight to 10 inches above the strings pointed just up the hammers works works best.

And by the way, you can get really great results with PCM or boundary microphones. Like any of the the ones the crown models take and it'll let your other manufacturers make PCM as well. It's works well because you can actually close the lid down and get better isolation or reduced feedback. Just make sure that they're really taped tight up and make that lid because you don't want that dropping on the strings in the middle of about your measurement. Now if you really want to break the budget and get the best channel miking available, in my humble opinion, the earthworks piano mic is incredible option around 3000 bucks by probably the best way to make a piano. I'm sorry if I'm a little biased here, but you know the piano sounds and electric pianos have gotten just so good lately.

For a couple of grand you can Get away the keyboard with a bunch of piano sounds that never need turning never induce feedback and just that plug into paradise, but it's your call. So let's move on to vocal mics if you want to just set it and forget it microphone and just go the gold standard build sm 50 A it's been around since the 60s. They work like a charm, absolutely bulletproof. These guys. Not in terms of other brands. There's just so many lists from you know, including AKG, Sennheiser audix, you know, Bayer there's a ton more.

Some of the features in a vocal mic are whether other it's wired or wireless. It's expensive to get all wireless mics and maybe you give the wide ones to you, unless you're backing vocalist and then the wireless ones to you know, to your lead singers. Now, if you have someone that is going to be doing a you know, a lot with a spoken word like a lecture or a preacher thing, consider using a lab. Or you know, even better at a head one mic. That combined with a wireless system allows your presenter to walk all over the stage, you know, even down into the audience with, you know, complete freedom of mobility. Although walking down into the audience, you know, brings up a topic that we probably need to speak to in terms of microphones and that's pickup pattern.

Let's start with this sm 58. Now normally I have a microphone is up here just outside of the frame. It's a shotgun microphone, which is very sensitive to direct sound. I've been using this this whole time, but we've swapped it out. I'm going through here right? Yeah.

So now my voice is coming through here so you can hear exactly what's going on with this microphone. It's 58. Like a lot of vocal microphones, they are cardioid pattern and that means that they are most sensitive at the front of the capsule, and they can tend to die away on the back. Check it out on the front. It sounds like this is pretty crisp. Present, you go around the back, and you can hear that this trial away right around the front here, then it's very present around the back.

It's much less present. Now why would you have that vocal microphone? Here's why I'm glad you asked. Quite often up on stage, you'll have a singer like this. And at their feet, there'll be a monitor pointed up towards them so they can hear themselves and they can hear the band, things like that. But quite often, a vocalist will want to hear themselves.

So the sound of this microphone is being folded back into that monitor coming up so they can hear themselves. But you certainly don't want the mic to hear that. If you're not I mean, because if the sound from the monster comes up, and then it goes through there, then you'll get a feedback loop and you'll get squealing and all that kind of stuff. So the great thing is that when you have the monster down there, you can hear it. But the back of this microphone doesn't hear that. I mean, quote unquote Here it is.

Not sensitive to the stuff coming back here, it's most sensitive. This is the good signal. This is the bad signal coming up from there, you do want to hear monitors, but you don't want your mic to hear. You might as that makes sense. So as I said, this is a cardioid pattern, most sense about the front least sensitive around the back. cardioid pattern is a great way to reject a feedback and give you you know, a very present kind of sound.

Another kind of pickup pattern is omni directional, and that means it's sensitive to the sound in all of the directions. So in the case of vocal microphones that are where you want to isolate the sound of that vocal and reject much of the other sound on the stage, then a cardioid pattern really is the best. an overhead mic standing maybe three or four feet above a drum kit would probably need to have a broader pickup pattern maybe like an anomaly. So how tight a pickup pattern has You know everything to do with really the mics application. China thinks that's probably the bulk of the instruments that are on stage nowadays. If you have things like percussion then in our play condenser mic is the is the way to go.

With probably the possible exception of really loud instruments like maybe a set of symbolics. If they are super loud, then you might want to go with a dynamic mics. Like maybe like what you'd normally use on a snare, or Tom. There are other instruments, like string brass and choir whose mic choices are probably best research net articles and buying guides at the link below. By the way, I've been talking about shotgun mics, well, let me just pull this down so you can actually see it. So this is this is, this is what I'm normally speaking through here.

What's nice about these guys here, let me just angle it towards myself. So that they'll pick up sound very directionally over a long time. So so a cardioid is very directional button, you have to really get up on the mic. The great thing about these guys, you can be maybe two, three feet away from them. And, you know, when you're working in movie sound, things like that you see the big go the boom, you're holding the big thing. They're using microphones like this, it's a great way to go in, in post production, things like that.

Not really that useful, trying to think of some applications. You're maybe over a drum kit, you could use something like that, but they're really a kind of a specialty microphone, that back up here. So it's just out of the screen. I love this mic, because it really picks everything up. still seeing some behind the scenes stuff here. So yeah, that's nice because the frame gives me a very clean vocal here.

Okay, so now let's go on to Mars, as I said earlier, that Mars is a place on the stage to help musicians hear themselves that they can be you know, just really Regular stage monitors like these guys here or in ear monitors, or maybe a combination of the two. The mix that is sent to the masters are done either at the main mixer here, or you can have a separate dedicated monster mixer off to the side of the stage man by another sound person whose sole job is to mix monitors for the band. Either way, you send a mix back to the stage that is specific to the needs of whoever's standing in front of that monitor, each musician can ask a more or less of each instrument to be sent their particular monitor that as the masters are generally placed at the speed of the performance.

They are on the side of the microphones i said before that typically reject sound so as to reduce the feedback if your vocalist was to drop their mic down towards will normally occur, right? So the rule of thumb is to Placed monitors in front of the musicians and have as many as possible so that each musician can have them hear their own mix. Now to practically eliminate feedback problems and drastically reduce the stage volume then in ear monitors can be used. That is better basically how the wiring goes. Each mix the other, you know, the main one or the dedicated monster mixer on the side of the stage can send very mixes back to a specific master mix. This would go out to an AMP than to a master speaker, or just a power monitor if you have active ones, or if you're using in ear monitors, then the monitor send would go to a transmitter up maybe off to the side of the stage.

And in that mix would be transmitted wirelessly to the belt pack on the performer and playback that in ear monitors. So yeah, really what's the upside and downside of stage monitor speakers And in ear monitors or purses in ear monitors. Let's look at the traditional onstage monitors. This first one is a biggie, you can share them. I mean, a few performers can listen to a single monitor, although they'll be sharing the same mix. But you know, a group of background vocalists come to mind.

Also, if you have different people coming up on stage all the time, and this is the most flexible way to run the monsters, also, it's very easy to sit down guys just kind of walk around the stage and hear exactly, you know, what's going on and hear what the musician so you know, what's the downside, all these monitors are going to add to the stage volume. And you know, if each musician is competing, the stage volume, it can get very loud which increases feedback can also mess with your mix up front. So, in ear monitors came along, they came to the rescue and some people love them, some people not so much. You just have to work out you know with each person separately and you know Fairly work within your budget because specialty in ear monitors that have molds you know specifically for you know an individual, I can get pricey.

And because each person's ear canals are different, you got to take different molds and also people kind of get grossed out about your piece. And you probably need to get one for each performer. So here's typically what happens. You might have a few costume performances who are performers who love their in ear monitors, and you can justify the investment and then just have a few stage monitor set up for players who tend to play in rotation. I mean, even just a few performers using in ear monitors, you know, it can help lower the stage by which you know, kind of helps everybody out. Oh, by the way, I also need to mention that any monsters a great performer who loves to move all over the stage with a wireless belt pack, the performance monitor mix really goes wherever they can go his wander around the mix is all Whereas with him now, after everything we've seen that you can see to the stage is a pretty busy place.

We have all our performers, all their instruments plugged into an input box, and all the minuses. But just bored of our stage, our main speakers pointed out towards the, the audience. These apply the main mix to our listening audience. And because they're fairly directional, they aren't really heard that much by the band. In fact, look at the way the monsters and the main speakers appointed, the monsters are pointed towards the band. And the main speakers are pointed out towards the audience.

If all goes to plan them both groups of people the band and in the audience only really hears what they're supposed what they're supposed to hear. And that's why you want to keep your stage volume under control. You want to bring that down. You don't want these guys competing in levels that In the Martian, the main speaker, now a major rock concert, the level out front is so loud that the stage volume is, you know, it's negligible, won't really come into the equation. However, I've mixed in quieter settings, like maybe church isn't my that when I want to keep the main volume down and the main speak, then the stage volume, the massive volume, even this, the volume of the guitar amps start overpowering what's coming through the main speakers. So imagine this scenario.

I've mixed in situations where I can hear the guitar app at the main mixer position without even even bringing it up here. So I mean, I can hear it through the air from the stage. Then what the heck I possibly do with it here. I mean, yeah, I can only go down here I can't pull it down. And if that happens, all technically, you know, go out and ask everybody to bring the stage volume down. And so you can do your job and make a great mix.

Now. This one happened on a Rolling Stones concert because the audience is massive in the speaker. levels on the mat are so loud is no way you better hear Keith Rich's throw without it being amplified through the main speakers. But compare that to a small you know club or a church setting where you're a lot closer and particularly when you have, you know instructions to keep the main speaker levels down the ratio of the the stage volume, and the main volume becomes much, much more critical. Now, but before we leave this section, I want to quickly explain a phenomenon that can happen with main Front of House speakers. Imagine this scenario, you have a particularly long room where your speakers are hung this way, but the people in the back can't really hear those speakers because they're so far away.

Now. What do you do? Well, most times this is remedied by placing another set of speakers about halfway down the room to help the back half of the room. To hear, but is the problem as sound travels about a foot a millisecond, we're gonna have a timing problem. Imagine this, this room is at 200 feet deep. And the second set of speakers are placed at the halfway mark about 100 feet into the room.

From the, from the main speakers if the sound is released from the front and the back speakers simultaneously, then the people in the rear will hear the wrist because, and the front sound from the front speakers that have traveled through the air about hundred feet or 100 muscles. And it'll sound like this, you'll have this kind of echo on everything. So in a situation like this, the feed that goes to the rear speakers would need to be delayed until the front of house speakers made its way through the air in this case would be about 100 more seconds. So how do you do that? Well, I said earlier, there are speaker processes that handle things like crossover points, Speaker protection, also delay is just like this, this very purpose, your installer will normally take care of all this stuff for you. But if you have a very, very big room, that's why you'll need the help of a professional team.

You know, if you have a really big facility, if you're in a small room then not you know, the whole subject of additional delayed speakers No, probably won't come up. So, we've looked at an overview of what a sound system is and what all the major parts are, you know how to set up the stage. Let's now take a detailed look at what a mixer is, and how to work it will look at both a digital mixer like this and also an analog mixer.