sounds . A good example is acoustic guitar in a live environment , I always find that an acoustic guitar sounds best with a microphone on it , but when you have crowd , drums , or monitors blasting at it , a DI is almost always the cleaner option . Ofcourse though , when you use a DI you lose a lot of the ‘ space ’ and natural ambience around the guitar , and that ’ s where some particular tools come in handy . UA has a plug-in called Ocean Way Studios that ’ s perfect for generating realistic ambience around a signal , it ’ s far from ‘ just-a-reverb ’.”
Again , I ’ d totally agree with Ryan ’ s take here . I do frequently find myself working to cut back extraneous ambience in a live scenario and then work to add back in some ‘ room ’ or space around the more isolated or ‘ dry ’ signal . Whether you turn to something more robust like the UA Ocean Way Studios plugin , a carefully crafted reverb within the console or some combination of the two , the goal here is the same as before as we balance in the right amount of reverb and ‘ room ’ that we ’ ve created , so that things sound natural and work in the mix without sounding artificial or overly awash in reverb .
“ Along the same vein ,” Ryan adds , “ in the studio we often capture drums with both close mics and room mics , but in the context of a live performance , room mics don ’ t have the same effect . Using a tool ( like Ocean Way Studios ) allows a mix engineer to not only replicate the ambience of a drum kit in a live room , but also process it the same way that you may do in the studio without the risk of feedback .” where the overall loudness of the drums ( and guitar amps , etc .) aren ’ t an issue , it can be helpful to better isolate sources and give the mix engineer more options . To borrow Job 1:21 a bit , the goal here is to strike the right balance of what the drums ‘ giveth ’ and what we can manage with drum baffles to ‘ taketh away ’ in order to really maximize the application of tools like those that Ryan mentioned before .
So , the next time you come across the
congregant talking about the ‘ sick beats ’ that they ’ ve crafted in their bedroom studio , perhaps ask them if they ’ d like to help out as part of the worship tech team ? While live sound mixing is certainly a unique and deep discipline unto itself , many of the approaches and tools learned in the recorded and streamed audio space can be brought to bear in cool and effective ways . Happy mixing !
Of course , we can borrow a few tricks from our studio friends and turn to physical devices like drum shields and baffles in order to manage the right amount of ‘ dry ’ captured signal at the source and make sure we ’ re in control of most of the sonic energy output vs . letting the room do whatever it wants to do . A lot of smaller churches or less experienced engineers in the house of worship space tend to look to drum sound management like this initially in terms of reducing stage volume , but even in spaces
The studio / live distinction can run both directions ! Here is a touchscreen control rig connected to an Allen & Heath dLive in a recording studio environment . The two disciplines share a common goal of creating engaging and immersive audio , but have their own considerations to keep in mind along the way .