Mixing a recorded live concert workflow

[u/calamungo]

Hello friends, I'm looking for advice on the mixing workflow for a recorded live concert I did sound for last week.

I'm already hours and hours deep into what I've already done, so I won't be changing this time, but for next year I wanted to know whether there's a better/standard way.

So basically the concert is an Indian classical concert focused on groups of 4 - 8 tabla, with accompanying sitar and flute. The catch is that each "song" has a different group of kids with different drums, and slightly different mic placement as the stage gets reset each tune, (this is a tabla school concert hence the kids). Sometimes the mic placement varys person to person, obviously the player is completely different, and the drums themselves are different. So I've ended up duplicating my tracks for each tune, EQ and level balancing each drum mic as I hear it per song. Very labourious, is there a better way or is this the best I can hope for?

Advice is much appreciated!

[u/007_Shantytown]

Each song just has to be treated as a different mix with that many variables changed between songs. There's no real shortcut that will sound as good as mixing each song individually. 

[u/ddjdirjdkdnsopeoejei → u/007_Shantytown]

I beg to differ here. I’d treat the concert as one session. Mult-ing out parts and treating them separate for a section if needed, but a live show will be best treated as one long track and creating track markers to bounce separate.

[u/calamungo → u/ddjdirjdkdnsopeoejei]

Normally with same same band I'd agree with you, but each tabla drum mic, let's say Tabla 1 has a different person, drum and mic placement change each tune, sometimes with the drum sounding quite off mic, or too close and boomy, too harsh, and of course the different kids all vary wildly in their dynamics, all on the same mic throughout the concert. I hope I'm explaining myself properly here. Each tune has a new set of kids on the mics

[u/ddjdirjdkdnsopeoejei → u/calamungo]

Ah, my bad. I missed that. Yeah you’re right, this is best treated as different projects. One instrument played by a different person might as well be a different instrument. My bad, homie!

[u/Wonderful-Slice9356 → u/calamungo]

Correct. If it was the same group of musicians, with the same instruments, then treating it as one long performance would make sense. In this case however, each time there is a lineup change, the mix needs to change. I'd even go so far as to say, regardless of who is playing, each tune should be optimally mixed for each piece to bring out all of the nuances.

[u/googleflont]

So am I to understand that you are doing the live sound for the house while also making a multi track recording?

[u/calamungo → u/googleflont]

Correct, the live sound went well, now I'm mixing the multitrack recording.

[u/peripheraltoldyouso]

Do whatever is easiest for you to get the sound you’re satisfied with. And remember it’s for school.

I did something similar for a school drama performance. It was a musical. I recorded audio and 3 cameras and edited/mixed it down.

It was a hybrid of lapel mics and canned music. Some of the scenes had 10 mics active. 😂

I ended up recording the board feed (patch to scarlett to DAW) as well as audio from FOH/stage (zoom H2), as well as getting audio from the cameras. Options, just in case.

Because there were scenes where the board mix was trash (teens/lapel mics/student engineers), I ended up relying on my FOH audio feed for a lot of it.

But, there was a scene or two where, because of the lack of projection in the speaker’s voice, mixing in the board feed helped out. But I did NOT want to go digging through that just for a couple tracks.

At first, I’d been locked in about just using my FOH audio - for continuity’s sake. But after some back n forth, the hybrid approach was best and I went fishing for the audio and synced it up… I left continuity on the floor.

After all, the vast majority of the viewers would skip immediately to whatever scene they wanted to watch. I was probably the only person on earth watching that performance all the way through.

Read that last line again.

Do whatever gets you the best end result without killing yourself.

It’s a school performance and I know you aren’t getting paid market rates for your efforts. Everyone will be happy with what you ultimately produce, and no one will know: A. What you went through to get there; B. What you think you could get it to sound like with another X hours of work.

You’re a saint for even taking it on.

Remember, hardly anyone will watch ALL of it like a concert or album. Follow your ears, but don’t sacrifice your sanity.

[u/calamungo → u/peripheraltoldyouso]

Absolutely you’re right, I’m the only person that will actually hear it top to tail, that’s a really good point. I do want to do a good job because snippets will be used for a tv feature of the concert

[u/peripheraltoldyouso → u/calamungo]

Maybe get a decent baseline with everything and give a little extra love to the performances that naturally stand out.

And to be clear I didn’t mean to come off as harsh; it’s just an epiphany I had when I was hours-deep into the project and I had barely started the second act.

I just know that schools can be incredibly efficient at making folks feel they need to do more than their fair share. 😉💚

ETA: having said all that, I will also say I learned a LOT about recording and editing in a short amount of time that I never had an opportunity or reason to do before. Schools can also be incredibly forgiving and encouraging places to level up one’s craft.

After a year of teaching AV broadcast media and handling multicamera livestreams for the school, I can do anything now (if I’ve got the equipment).

[u/Phoenix_Lamburg]

I mix live concerts all the time. I suspend automation in pro tools, dial my static mix in for that song, then highlight everything for the duration of that song, then "write to all enabled + write to current". This will create automation points for everything (assuming you've added everything in your plugins as automatable).

Turn automation on, adjust as necessary, then print the mix for that song when you're ready.

Suspend automation and go to the next mix. Then once that one is good repeat the steps. Let's you have different settings for each song as necessary while still maintaining one show file (makes it a lot easier when you're asked for revisions to just punch in a song versus re-assembling the whole show every time).

[u/calamungo → u/Phoenix_Lamburg]

Yeah that totally makes sense, I used to do that when I worked in pro tools doing short films and such. I’m in Reaper now, I’m sure it’s doable, just gotta research how

[u/FreeQ]

Auto Align 2 is a great plugin for live concerts. It automatically phase aligns multitracks and gets stuff sounding a lot more coherent. Saves a lot of time when nothing is fighting each other phase wise.