FOH mix of tracks...

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Permalink Reply by Mike Boltz on March 27, 2010 at 5:48pm

If the"click track" is an actual drum loop and is thus past of the rhythm of the song, drums and bass in a properly mixed LIVE SOUND venue will be very prominent in the mix*. If however your "click track" is just that... just a click by which the drummer etc keep their timing, it is generally NOT part of a Front Of House mix. Many professional recording artists use click tracks in live preformance settings, but other than like a four count intro, they are not heard by the listening audience.

* As many churches tend to have volunteer "sound engineers", usually out of whatever pool of available persons attend the church, you frequently find church sound guys who are largely unlearned about the proper use of sound systems and tend to mix sound according to their own particular bias and listening preferences. As a worship leader I can tell you that the sound guy plays the MOST important instrument. No matter how good the praise team is, if the sound guy is bad, everything sounds bad.
As someone who has run live sound professionally as well as in churches for nearly 20 years, I would encourage anyone who finds themselves behind a soundboard at their local church to take the first opportunity to attend a professional concert and pay close attention to the mix. Any Christian or secular professional recording artist's concert should be fine.

A brief synopsis of a good live sound mix:
It should be noted that in properly mixed live sound, the drums and bass are the basis upon which all the other sounds are seated. In creating a good mix, a sound engineer should have the band begin playing while everything in the FOH is turned all the way down. As the band plays (an upbeat song is best) start by bringing up the kick drum and making it plenty loud enough to be easily distinguished but not overpowering the speakers and causing distortion, EQ it so that it has a deep and warm sound, then add the snare drum, slightly lower than the kick, but never burried and lost, then add in the rest of the drums. Add the bass guitar next. It too should be deep and warm and should not cover up the drums. Then add in your piano or guitar, whichever is the lead instrument. Make sure the low EQ for this is not up high enough to cause this instrument to compete with the bass in the low frequency range. Add other instruments in one at a time making sure each one is warm and not overly bright, but not competing with the bass for low frequencies. After all the instruments are in, add the lead singer. His/her voice shoud be just on top of the mix, but NOT way out in front. Many church sound engineers put lead and BG vocals WAY too far up in the mix. You should never have to wonder what the singer is saying, but the music (specifically the drumsand bass) are usually at or near the volume of the lead singer. All of the BG vocalists should be added in AFTER lead vocal, and definately UNDER the leader. One trick I like to use when creating a FOH mix is to mute all of the instruments once I have a good mix of the instruments and the lead vocal, then, I mix in one BG vocal at a time keeping them under the lead until I have them all in and blended well. Doing it this way allows me to hear just the blend of BG vocals to lead vocals without all of the instruments as a distraction. I emphasize though that I only do this AFTER getting all the instruments set AND the lead vocal properly set with the instruments. When the BG voc's are blended with the Lead, then unmute all of the instruments. At this point everything is playing together and should be a pretty decent mix. Note: If you are a person who is used to too much vocals (Lead and/or BG) This may not sound proper to you at first, but listen to some professionally produced CD's like Hillsong or Chris Tomlin and listen to how their BG vocals are down under the lead vocalist. Professionally done mixes should be your goal, not your own bias.
There never comes a point when the sound guy sits back and says "I'm done". Sound has to constantly be adjusted. I go through the list of instruments then vocals in my mind the whole time I run sound asking: "Do I hear the Kick?, Do I hear the snare?, Can I hear the bass? Are these Big and warm, Can I hear the lead instrument?, Can I hear the Lead singer?, Can I understand every word they're saying?, Are the BG vocals UNDER the Leader? On and on. In constantly going though the mix over and over, this decreases things that get overlooked while others things are the focus.

I know all of that wasn't an answer to the question you asked, but, I hope that others read it and it helps them to run better sound as GOOD sound is more condusive to worship and the true worship of Him who is worthy IS after all... the goal. To Him be all the glory!

Many Blessings,
Mike B.

Permalink Reply by John Hawkins on March 27, 2010 at 6:12pm

Thanks. We do use a stereo track that has click for the drummer and different ethereal sounds or pads to add fullness. Some of the tracks have strings (like I Will Rise, Revelation Song) that are playing at the same time as the band.

I wasn't sure if the strings were cutting through because of the "higher" pitch quality or if the track was just too loud.

Love the info on getting a good mix. Still working with that.

Permalink Reply by Mike Boltz on March 27, 2010 at 9:14pm

Mixing recorded tracks with a live band isn't all that easy. If you have rhythm tracks with strings on the same track that are not separately controlable, your job becomes even harder if not inpossible. Strings and drums are a totally different dynamic.
I'm still not 100% sure exactly how you are using what you have, but here's a suggestion. If your track has for example, a click for the drummer to keep time, in addition to the pad/strings and that is all, then try making your track a split track (the click only on the left and the pad/strings only on the right). That way, you can input the left and right outputs of whatever device you are playing your track from into separate channels of your mixer and thus mix/send them individually without having one be too loud in order for the other to be loud enough.

Hope that helps a little.
Blessings
Mike B.

Permalink Reply by Rick Cogbill on March 27, 2010 at 8:25pm

Thanks for the mixing lesson, Mike! I'm always wanting to learn more about this, and the more ways it's explained, the better I understand it. I don't retain well!

Permalink Reply by Michael Cornett on September 13, 2010 at 3:48am

I've never heard of putting the click in the mains. It's usually just sent to the drummer so that he can keep the tempo steady. If the drummer's not very steady, you might want to put the click into the other musicians monitors to unify the rhythm section. It needs to be kept very soft and unobtrusive. It's there to help the musicians keep a steady tempo, and that's it's sole purpose.

Permalink Reply by Mike Fleming on October 24, 2010 at 4:49pm

Is your FOH in stereo? If so, run the backing tracks in stereo also, you can get a really nice mix because some keyboard patches like piano and pads (strings) blend really well when in stereo. BIG difference from running in mono. Note that you will need 3 audio outputs from your laptop. One for the click and the stereo pair. A 4channel M-Audio Firewire sound card should do the trick

Permalink Reply by Mike Fleming on October 24, 2010 at 5:13pm

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