Wednesday, January 28, 2015

Live Sound Production

This is a picture taken at Fremont East Studios during an event they hold every month called the Outlet. The event invites local musician and musical groups to the studio and lets them perform on a stage. The artists play live to an audience but the event is also being streamed live online.

The artists in the photo are called AZIAM, pronounced "as I am". For their performance, I was monitoring and mixing their set for the live web stream. While mixing them, I had a few things to work with. Because there was another group that performed before them, I had to quickly EQ and compress each one of the instruments and vocals. I had a dry signal coming in from the live room, which gave me complete control over how to make them sound. After processing, I put a small reverb on both the vocals to give them the sound of the studio in which they were performing.

Aside from doing the live stream mixing, I also helped on the setup of the audio equipment. Both consoles used to mix were Presonus StudioLive 16.4.2 consoles. One was used in the live room for the live performance and the other in the audio room for the live stream. We were only able to use 12 inputs because we had a shortage on microphones. We ended up using 4 wireless Shure ULX-D for vocals, 2 SM57 for snare and electric guitar, 2 DI boxes for either acoustic guitar or piano, 1 Beta 52 for kick, and a Rode NT2a for overhead drums. The last 2 inputs were for a DJ that played between sets.

Overall, the show went by pretty smoothly. It's a team effort and it's a fun night for everyone and it's great to see the production come together.