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This weeks Live Workshop tackled a variety of topics, some of which are fairly basic such as pre and post fade auxiliaries on a mixing desk. We went into explaining how each one can be utilized for foldback and/or effects sends along with briefly
looking at why an RIAA EQ curve is necessary for connecting a record deck to a mixing desk. Below you will find a brief extract of the dialogue. You can now sign up to get access to the full workshops each week, check out the course listings.
[Production Advisor 1] What type of microphone(s) could you use? (for cymbals)
[Production Advisor 1] Now when they ask "type", what do you think
they mean?
[Production Advisor 1] anyone?
[Student 1] large or small diaphragm condensors
[Student 2] aah, i guess they mean type as in condensor
[Student 1] for the cymbals I mean
[Production Advisor 1] yes they do mean condensor as the type
[Student 2] not the make
[Student 1] by type I assume it would be condensors, dynamic or rfibbon mics
[Production Advisor 1] why would a condensor be good for cymbals?
[Production Advisor 1] yes aik
[Student 1] condensors are more sensitive
[Student 1] you can't say that, can you
[Production Advisor 1] they are, in many varieties of sensitivity
[Production Advisor 1] what is it about cymbals though?
[Production Advisor 1] what is it asking you to understand?
[Student 4] more frecuency range
[Production Advisor 1] yes zk much more
[Student 1] they have very high frequencies
[Production Advisor 1] yes aik good
[Production Advisor 1] they have a frequency response which is often "outside"
the range of some dynamic mics
[Production Advisor 1] or to put it better: A dynamic mic generally has less
HF response
[Production Advisor 1] than a condensor microphone.
[Production Advisor 1] get it?
[Student 2] got it
[Student 1] but a better LF response
[Production Advisor 1] aik not always.
[Production Advisor 1] they are not opposites
[Student 1] but they are more robust to handle SPL
[Production Advisor 1] a condensor mic (a good one) can have a LF response just
as good as a dynamic mic.
[Production Advisor 1] aik robust definately (don't confuse robustness and frequency
though)
[Student 1] No that's true, I know
[Production Advisor 1] ok
[Production Advisor 1] next one: How is a record player connected to a mixing
console?
[Production Advisor 1] instinct feel free to jump in also :)
[Student 1] I would say via line input
[Production Advisor 1] anyone have anything else on this?
[Student 2] i read that some record players need to have a pre-amp
[Production Advisor 1] rico good
[Student 2] to boost the signal
[Student 3] well the signal from the record player needs to be brought up to
a line level before it can be plugged into the mixer
[Production Advisor 1] wy is that...?
[Production Advisor 1] yes it does
[Production Advisor 1] it also needs something else.
[Production Advisor 1] which is what the question is seeking
[Student 3] a reverse RIAA EQ curve
[Production Advisor 1] instinct!!!
[Production Advisor 1] great.
[Student 1] What on earth is that????
[Production Advisor 1] lol
[Student 2] beat me to it aik
[Student 3] go ahead and take one chris ;)
[Production Advisor 1] ok
[Production Advisor 1] because of the nature (phyics) of vinyl
[Production Advisor 1] bass has to be filtered out by the cutting lathe.
[Production Advisor 1] at the factory
[Production Advisor 1] because it would make the groove too big and bouncy...
[Production Advisor 1] so
[Production Advisor 1] an EQ filter
[Production Advisor 1] is applied to the input when cutting the vinyl
[Production Advisor 1] which removes the bass as a rate of 6dB er octave.
[Production Advisor 1] 6dB/octave
[Production Advisor 1] 6dB = half as much gain
[Production Advisor 1] the pivot point is around 1Khz
[Production Advisor 1] so above that point the gain si increased.
[Production Advisor 1] below it is reduced
[Production Advisor 1] this make the cutting more efficient
[Production Advisor 1] naturally if you played this back without one of Insticks
filters, it would sound really "toppy" and without "bottom"...
[Production Advisor 1] so a reverse EQ curve is placed inline..
[Student 1] so you need a device to reverse that to equal that out again
[Production Advisor 1] aik yes, great.
[Production Advisor 1] so, you'd wanna go and dig deeper into this concept.
[Production Advisor 1] right?
[Student 1] indeed
[Production Advisor 1] when you buy a record deck preamp, it has one built in.
[Student 2] i think i would need to yes
[Production Advisor 1] so you were correct rico, but not enough detail.
[Student 2] got it
[Production Advisor 1] zk how are you ?
[Production Advisor 1] tutto bene?
[Student 4] well, from now
[Production Advisor 1] another one
[Production Advisor 1] Describe the term 'foldback'?
[Production Advisor 1] More importantly how is foldback achieved from a mixing
desk?
[Student 1] Foldback is feeding a monitor mixdown to the musician’s headphones,
to enable them to hear each other and e.g. the basic tracks while recording
new material
[Production Advisor 1] yes aik.
[Production Advisor 2] what about in non studio situations?
[Production Advisor 1] and the second bit anyone?
[Student 3] hmm... on stage during performance
[Student 1] Foldback is fed from one of the auxileries from the mixing desk
[Production Advisor 1] which one?
[Production Advisor 1] or should I say which "type"?
[Student 1] send
[Student 2] hmm just realised i missed off question 6, explain how foldback
setup
[Production Advisor 1] which type of "send" lol
[Production Advisor 2] aik - 2 types of send
[Production Advisor 2] which one? :)
[Student 1] ?
[Production Advisor 1] ben wanna?
[Production Advisor 2] ok
[Production Advisor 1] covering live also>
[Production Advisor 2] sure
[Production Advisor 1] ta
[Production Advisor 2] ok, firstly aux sends are a way of sending signals from
the desk to other sources
[Production Advisor 2] usually either foldback (headphones, stage monitors)
or effects (reverb etc)
[Production Advisor 2] although both foldback and effects are sent from aux
sends there is a difference between the optimal way to send to each
[Production Advisor 2] for instance
[Production Advisor 2] lets say you are mixing down a track
[Production Advisor 2] you have recorded a 12 bar guitar solo
[Production Advisor 2] but you decided in the mix to only use 8 bars and drop
the level of the solo
[Production Advisor 2] when you drop the level of the guitar, with the fader,
you would want the amount of signal going to the reverb unit to decrease also
[Student 1] Are you talking about PFL and AFL?
[Production Advisor 2] otherwise as you bring the fader down you would still
be hearing the guitars 'wet' (i.e. reverb only signal)
[Production Advisor 2] aik - correct!
[Production Advisor 2] although not exactly pfl
[Production Advisor 2] pre-fade
[Production Advisor 2] pfl usually refers to a function to set the gain
[Production Advisor 2] anyhow
[Production Advisor 2] conversely
[Production Advisor 2] if you are giving a live musician foldback into his/her
monitor
[Production Advisor 2] you will set the level to his/her taste
[Production Advisor 2] obviously you want this to be independent of what you
are sending out of the main speakers
[Production Advisor 2] so if you turn the vocalist down through the main speakers
you want the foldback level to stay the same
[Production Advisor 2] to achieve these 2 different configurations
[Production Advisor 2] we have 2 types of auz send
[Production Advisor 2] aux
[Production Advisor 2] pre-fade
[Production Advisor 2] and post fade (sometimes called after fade)
[Production Advisor 2] the names are pretty self explanatory
[Production Advisor 2] a pre-fade send is not affected by the position of the
fader (great for foldback)
[Production Advisor 2] a post fade send IS affected by the position of the fader
(good for effects)
[Production Advisor 2] so if you were asked how foldback would usually be send
from the desk
[Production Advisor 2] your answer should point out that it would be sent from
a pre fade aux send
[Student 1] you would say from a pre fade auxilery send
[Production Advisor 2] absolutely correct aik!
[Production Advisor 2] do you all follow that
[Student 2] yup
[Student 1] that should be the same in a non studio version then?
[Student 2] was typing that in my notes as aik said it
[Production Advisor 2] foldback is the same live & studio in terms of using
pre-fade auz send
[Production Advisor 2] aux
[Production Advisor 2] however, when asked what foldback is
[Production Advisor 2] it is worthwile mentioning studio (headphones usually)
and live (stage monitors)
[Production Advisor 1] great ben, also guys they (aux) are switchable on many
desks.
[Production Advisor 2] sometimes foldback is called monitor mix
[Student 1] switchable from pre to post?
[Production Advisor 2] many software sequencers also offer switchable pre/post
fade sends
[Production Advisor 2] yes aik
[Production Advisor 2] often there may be a number of hardwired sends
[Production Advisor 2] and additional switchable sends
[Production Advisor 2] certainly on larger desks
[Production Advisor 1] yes ben, and also you may hear the term "monitor
mix" used when talking about the output of your recorder, when still recording
parts ( not mixing, a working mix if you like).
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