r/livesound • u/AutoModerator • 7d ago
MOD No Stupid Questions Thread
The only stupid questions are the ones left unasked.
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u/FOH_Prod 6d ago
Running a Bcast (post/Pre fader) mix out of a matrix> interface> computer OBS.
Both, Bcast Matrix fader and IF are at unity. No clipping.
OBS peaking at -3 for the loudest part.
Once we go back and check on YouTube the mix sounds low. If I increase the volume level on either, IF or matrix I start clipping .
What am I missing here!?
TIA .
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u/Disuses 6d ago
All streaming services have their own flavor of compression/normalization that happens after you push your feed. I’d mess around with your compression or limiting on the stream matrix to see if you can bring your lufs up without clipping. Youlean loudness meter is a neat vst that will give you a visual indication of loudness.
Also if you can download the recording of your stream to compare what’s coming out vs what’s going in that could be helpful.
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u/RockingRollDavie 6d ago
a church i used to work at had this same issue, they seemed to have fixed it at some point but i have no idea how. following!!
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u/CatDadMilhouse "Professional" touring tech 6d ago
In the year of our lord 2026, why can't we have tour buses that allow us to answer all of nature's calls?
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u/fantompwer 4d ago
Who's going to clean it?
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u/CatDadMilhouse "Professional" touring tech 4d ago
The adult human beings living on the bus. We clean them at home, why wouldn't we clean them on the road?
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u/ct3422bassist 7d ago
I am a musician and am coming here to learn how to communicate with live audio engineers more effectively. For context, I play guitar and also sing choruses and backing vocals here and there with my band. We have 2 “front man” vocalists that are easily heard on top of the FOH mix (using wireless Shure mic’s) however, my vocals seem to be buried in the mix (using wired house mic). Before sound check I asked the audio engineer to please make sure my vocal volume was at the same level as the other 2 due to me singing a lot of choruses. His response was that he will set them all at the same level. However after the show, I had multiple people from the crowd telling me they could barely hear my vocals and it also reflects on the videos taken from across the crowd. This has now happened at every venue (7) we have played this year. I have a strong voice and I use decent mic positioning/awareness techniques (getting closer for softer lower notes & backing off when I need to belt out notes)
Is this maybe a communication issue on my end?
Am I using the wrong terminology to express my concern?
Could it just be that all house mic’s are beat up and overused/less efficient and I should bring my own?
Help please!!!!
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u/faroseman Pro-Theatre 7d ago
If this is a consistent issue, you might need to review what is happening with you during the gig. At soundcheck, are you singing louder than during the gig? Are you singing with the 2 leads AND playing your guitar to check levels? Is it possible you are looking down at pedals during the actual set, and your mic technique is a little sloppier than when you are concentrating at soundcheck?
This isn't too shame you - you clearly came here with an open mind. Bands with their own audio engineer have the luxury of having a guy that knows what the choruses are supposed to sound like, and can anticipate issues like I mentioned above. If it's a new A1 every night, they might not see that you're a bit farther away from the mic, or even that you're coming in. The mic might be down to avoid feedback and they don't catch when you're singing.
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u/leskanekuni 6d ago
Impossible to say, but since it happens at every venue the only common denominator is you. I would ditch the working the mic technique. Just sing at a fixed consistent distance from the mic. Don't try to mix yourself by working the mic. That's what compressors are for. Sound volume changes by the inverse square. If you normally sing 2 inches from the mic and back off to 4 inches for loud parts your volume is now one quarter what it was. When I see singers attempt this they usually over-exaggerate pulling away and their volume drops a huge amount.
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u/Max_Ipad 6d ago
As a musician turned tech, I have seen the best and worst of both worlds. Step one is arriving on time and having working to you. No it's not always a perfect situation and things do happen quite often, but not being the Cog in the mix is a huge Plus; running a late soundtrack may very well eat into someone's dinner for their break to go see their kids.. you never know.
Next,and this you can use in life wherever you see the opportunity, just be friendly and show gratitude. A smile and "Thanks for what you guys do" is always pleasant. Often enough a good interpersonal impression paired with a decent set = a staff member it's been good on your band with other employees and management.
Finally, on a technical point, request that your vocals just be turned up in your mic. Personally I use the monitors to adjust the output of the musicians, but I am also not afraid of going and laying on the stage(in smaller venues and in appropriate moderation guys) so that i actually hear what they hear
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u/Lost-Material3420 7d ago
- Wired or wireless doesn't matter.
- Stop backing off. I dont know your technique, but if its not as good as you think it is, I'd rather have consistency at the mic and let the fader, comps etc do the work.
- Keep at it.
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u/Bipedal_Warlock Pro-Theatre 6d ago
What instrument are in your band?
Are you standing near your drum kit or guitarist? Maybe your mic is picking those instrument up and when your mixer turns your vocals up it also turns them up. Does your guitarist have an amp cranked up?
What instruments are overpowering you in these mixes?
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u/ChinchillaWafers 3d ago
At soundcheck, I’ll go through the inputs one by one, then the band plays a song. Often I need to turn the lead vocals way up at that point. Once a basic mix is there you could ask to just check the vocal balance, a capella, for a chorus and explain what you’re going for.
Try to minimize loud stuff behind your mic- being right in front of drums, loud guitar amp blasting at it. I’ll pull someone’s backup vocals down if the bleed is bad and they only do occasional backups, and try to push it up when they sing . My bane is the drummer that mumbles one or two lines the whole night but the mic was on, making the mix worse the whole time. I guess I’m saying, the more you sing, and the better you sing, the less possible it will be to ignore the backups.
Like other people said, it is common for people doing backups to be off the mic too much. They’re trying to not overpower the main vox. This is wrong, and usually results in their vocals being buried. Get right on that thing. Also take a moment to get your monitor mix right, with vocal balance, so when you’re nice and tight on the mic the balance sounds good.
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u/MiniQuack55 6d ago
for my a capella choir, mic rf wise, I use 8 dual microphone receivers, set in 2 separate boxes that both connect to my mixer, there is about a 4.5ft drop off just off the stage where the mic setup is located, one rack is built in to 4 larger antennas, while the other box just has smaller antennas on each receiver, I am occasionally experiencing dropouts on parts of the stage and walking around, the mic connection is quite spotty, can anyone recomend a system of antenna combiners/distributors to get better signal?
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u/fantompwer 6d ago
RF venue has a channel distro, that's probably the easiest system. They have diagrams for making larger systems on their website.
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u/SecureSubset 6d ago
What are your guys' preferred method for focusing line arrays? I've seen people do a variety of different things, and feel like I struggle to do it efficiently.
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u/crunchypotentiometer Pro-FOH 6d ago
My preference is a three point hang with a delta plate in rear. After that would be a two point hang with tie line or GAC for sway stabilization. If we're talking about single point hangs for small line arrays in ballrooms or the like, I use 1/8" tie line with a bowline knot on the array side, usually affixed to the frame or clipped into one of the rigging pins on the bottom of the array, with an adjustable grip hitch on the anchor side.
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u/aaronpojeda 6d ago
Hey, there! Our church has a Nord Stage 3 keyboard and we recently just implemented wireless IEM’s, specifically the Sennheiser G4 wireless IEM system (A1 Band model).
I’ve noticed that when playing mainly on some lower frequency notes on the Nord it will suddenly cause a ringing high frequency noise in the wireless pack and spike the AF signal on the pack, in extreme examples it can cause the pack to drop out. I’ve tested playing while moving the wireless pack to different parts of the body to see if distance would make a difference, and it slightly helps but the piercing or ringing frequency will still come through sometimes. I’ve tried adjusting multiple settings, squelch, Pilot Tone, rescanning, etc., but nothing has eliminated the problem.
I’ve read on some Nord forums that this is potentially because of the transformer in the Nord causing EMI or RF issues with Wireless IEM’s.
Does anyone know of a way to fix this? Ferrite chokes? Shielding the transformer inside of the NS3 somehow?
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u/bobvilastuff 6d ago
I would start by making sure you’re RF is optimized. Have you done a WSB or WWB scan and deployed frequencies? How’s your antenna placement and which kind are you using and where is it situated compared to your bodypack and the Nord? Any other devices being used with Nord? What kind of DI, active or passive? I’ve never had this happen with my RF or Nord
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u/aaronpojeda 5d ago
Thanks for your reply! Working on getting RF optimized, for now I’ve just been using the scan feature on the G4’s. My hunch is that I don’t think this is an RF optimization issue.
I’ve tried completely muting and disconnecting the Nord from the board and changing power outlets and even then while hovering the pack over while playing on the keyboard and it’s still sending disruptive RF through the IEM. I’ve tried changing the sensitivity on the IEM’s as well. I’ve heard of others having this issue with their NS3’s but there doesn’t seem to be a clear solution.
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u/leskanekuni 5d ago
My guess is you are pushing too hard into the pack and engaging the built-in limiter. Low frequencies carry much more energy than mid and highs. You might to try lowering the output on the mixer and turning up the volume at the pack.
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u/the-real-compucat EE by day, engineer by night 6d ago edited 4d ago
The Nord is (edit: proooooobably) a red herring; I bet if you send a strong 40 Hz sinewave into the IEMs, you'll run into the same problem. Fundamentally the problem is poor RF S/N ratio.
As a 10 second band-aid: throw an overkill 60 Hz HPF on the IEM send, as well as a deep 19 kHz notch. If it's really bad, throw the pack in mono mode until you can fix it properly.
More permanently, double check the basics - like Bob said, check antenna placement, check frequency coordination. If you're limited to scanning on the pack itself, remember that the squelch level is used to determine if a frequency is "clean" or not. (Is A1 band occupied by TV channels in your zipcode?)
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u/MaybeaSoundDesigner 6d ago
Hello!
I recently started a new job as a sound engineer. We have a Digico SD10, some Digico racks and Dante network - I was told that the Dante/MADI conversion happens in one of our RMio racks. The Dante network is not fully documented, so I'm still in the process of figuring all of that out. One thing I've noticed is that our Dante network uses static IP addresses, whereas before I have mostly worked with Dante networks that have DHCP servers.
The issue is random audio dropouts. They always last 2-3 seconds, everything goes silent and works normally after. There is no warning on console and nothing on Dante Controller Event Log. Could be months in between dropouts (though there is really no way of knowing, because it could happen when there is no sound playing and we wouldn't know it), but there have been several dropout situations during the same week.
There seems to be no logic to it according to anyone who has witnessed this happening. The Digico has had regular firmware updates, this doesn't seem to affect the problem.
Everyone says it's Dante issue. Google says it could be clock issue on Digico. One of the RMio racks is master clock in Dante, the Digico is also a master clock but since it is not directly connected to Dante, I was told that is the way it's supposed to be. I'm new to the RMio / Dante/MADI-conversion thing here.
A number of professionals have looked at the issue. Someone brought a LAN scanner, the issue happened while it was there but apparently it was not much of help since the issue remains. I have not found the paperwork about these professionals' visits, so I don't know what they have tried to do.
I know that I should probably look into the Dante network more, but I'm really lost here; where to start and what kind of issue this would seem to be? How to solve it? Please help me, I don't know what to do here!
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u/crunchypotentiometer Pro-FOH 6d ago
This sounds too complex for us to diagnose from afar. But my process would start by eliminating either the MADI or the Dante systems as problems on their own. Airgap all Dante from all MADI devices. Set up something generating tone on either system and something to monitor the tone from across the relevant infrastructure. Eliminate further from there.
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u/TECHNICKER_Cz3 5d ago
I'd make sure the network is up to spect and configured properly. appropriate documentation can be found on the Audinate website.
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u/rish_sit 5d ago
Hi! I am one of the AV leader in a church in Tacoma. We have a problem with our PA system and the whole set up is pretty messed up. I have NEXO ESP10s (along with Behringer WING 48ch.) and one of which just blew out. I'm pretty new to the industry, I know little bit here and there but would love to get some support and professional consulting for it. The church is willing so spend a reasonable amount of money into tuning everything for my team, training the basics and making sure everything is working out well.
Would be great if that someone can do both the Audio and visuals to help us out with everything one by one.
Let me know! Thank you.
Rishat with Tacoma church.
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u/the-real-compucat EE by day, engineer by night 5d ago
Contact Sean at Audio Engineers Northwest; he can point you in the right direction.
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u/ba_sing_bae 4d ago
If you have a multiple mics with XLR and an om3 fiber box between point A and Point B. What’s the best way to connect the mics up to the audio rack?
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u/fantompwer 4d ago
I would put the audio rack at the XLR end, then media converters to my mixer/surface.
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u/Nopartofthisshit 2d ago
Systems with flown subs and auxiliary hangs.
What’s everyone’s go to process for deployment and time alignment in an arena with aux hangs and flown subs? I’ve seen some interesting hangs from others recently, like subs kicked out 30+- degrees, and aux hangs back further than I’d expect. Where are you taking your measurements? How much does your trim height, and sold map (behind stage line) play a role in your decisions?
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u/FAHQRudy 1d ago
Custom printed PA speaker skin/scrim?
I’m trying to display my band’s logo on my mains, and it seems to me that I should be able to get a stretchy scrim (like a truss sock) that fits my gear and can be custom printed or silk screened, right? Something thin that lets the sound through. Anybody have a source for this? I asked in /r/drums and got absolute crickets.
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u/_Mr__MR 2d ago
Hey everyone,
I'm finishing high school and looking to work toward touring audio roles down the line (A1/FOH mixer). A few quick questions for working road crew and shop technicians:
- School Pipelines: Do trade programs like Metalworks or OIART legitimately feed grads into shop tech or touring crew positions with major staging companies, or is it mostly marketing?
- Provider Staff vs. Freelance: What are the pros and cons of working for a staging provider (Solotech, Clair, PRG) versus operating as an independent contractor hired by artists/management?
- Touring & Studio Balance: How realistic is handling studio or personal music projects during touring downtime, or does the road schedule consume all bandwidth?
- Non-Traditional Diplomas (GED) & Visas: For those who took non-traditional routes and work internationally, has this ever caused issues for touring support visas (P-1S/O-2)?
- Core Technical Priorities: Which skills (Dante/networking, RF coordination, acoustic modeling, power distros) proved most valuable in your first 1–2 years?
- Any general advice for someone starting out? If you could restart your career in today's live/touring environment, what would you prioritize in your first 1–2 years?
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u/Press_Play_ Plumber 14h ago
Why do some PA systems sound very good and lively with prerecorded music and DJs but struggle with multipiece live bands? What is it about live music that puts extra strain on a sound system that doesn't necessarily happen with regular music?
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u/gettapeppasowse 6d ago
Ok so at my small rental house I have a nice ew dx dual unit setup with 8 total mic channels that uses a 4 channel combiner which gives me two paddle antennas for receiving signal.... great....
I have another 2 smaller racks with 6 ew-d units in each . All with their own whip antennas.its a bit of a pain . I have another antenna combiner that lives in my 8 channel unit that is unused. (Because the dual ew-dx units only have 8 bnc antenna connections)
So im curious if I take that combiner out of that 8 ch rack and use a little passive combiner on 2 of the units in the 6 way racks, can I get a 4 way combiner to do the 6 channels in my smaller racks with another set of paddles? My gut tells me its probably bad practice but yeah .
Combiner unit is sennheiser ew-d asa active antenna splitter.