ILive 176 and iDR10 on FOH duty at Plymouth Pavilions. Ben Hammond at the controls mixing YMAS opening for 30 Seconds To Mars. production is Eighth Day Sound.

iLive version V1.91 is available on the A&H site.
two recent blog posts highlighted the DynEQ4 and the MultiBD3 & MultiBD4 FX units introduced in V1.90. Ben Booker has created presets for these units and you can try these  after updating to V1.91 and recalling them from the library.

Ben Booker in typical habitat!

Ben is a seasoned iLive veteran, adopting the system to run monitors on Alphabeat and  PJ Harvey tours. Here are some notes that he did when creating the suite of presets:

The Dynamic EQ and Multiband Compressors are very powerful and flexible tools for the audio engineer. The skill required from the engineer is to use small amounts of EQ and compression to achieve the desired results and to learn from experience when and how to get the best from this sophisticated processors.

 Dynamic EQ should be used with great care. Limited amounts of expansion (sound gets louder above or below threshold) and compression (sound is reduced above or below threshold) should be used. It’s worth spending some time with the presets and learning the functions of this impressive tool. The results are worth it and will give your final mix the polish it needs.

“Multiband compressors can fix many problems in the audio world as long as low ratios and little gain reduction are used. They can also sculpt the sound by turning frequency bands up and down individually.”

Below is a list of the various presets and Ben’s description for each. these will give you a good starting point to use the dynamic FX units and tweek them for your toolbox.

Dyn EQ4 Ben Booker presets

#1  Bass Fix
This preset is to help smooth out a Bass Guitar. The 1st band controls the sub bass, the 2nd band controls the mid or “honk” of the bass and the 3rd band adds some definition at the top end. The 4th band is not needed.

 #2  Guitar Fix
This preset is aimed at fixing weedy guitar tones. The 1st band expands the low end by a few dB’s. The 2nd band cuts in the 400Hz area where guitars can sound barky. The 3rd band cuts the harsh area in the guitar whilst the 4th band takes care of the high end fizz. Dependant upon your guitar sound you simply need to bypass individual bands to fix various problems.

#3  Kick Help
This preset is a godsend on Kick Drums. Band 1 tightens the low-end sub bass. When the drummer hits softly more sub bass is generated and so more EQ is used. As a drummer hits harder, less EQ is used, keeping the overall sound more uniform. The 2nd band cuts the normal low mid resonance, the shell sound of the drum. Band 3 controls the sound of the beater hitting the skin, which can often be described as clacky. Band 4 expands the top end to give a nice clean, defined click every time.

 #4  Off Mic Boost
This is my favorite trick with a Dynamic EQ. This can be used on spoken word comedy gigs or singers with bad mic habits, such as pulling away from the mic. Band 1 expands the low end so when the mic is moved away from the mouth low-end warmth is added. Band 2 compresses the same frequency when a mic is too close to the mouth and the proximity effect kicks in. Play around with the frequency point, depending on the depth of the voice. The fast speed setting is used to control audio compression quickly.Band 3 is used to reduce the painful 2.5k area when people shout or scream. The 4th Band is used to de-ess and fix sibilance within a voice.

#5  Vocal fix
This Preset helps control singers with gaps in the content of their voice and is a 4 in 1 preset. Use band 1 for singers who are muffled or have too much low end in their voice. Use Band 2 for singers who have problems in the low mid area, which is often busy with other instruments. Band 3 can be used for harsh vocals, Band 4 can sort out sibilant singers.

MultiBD3 Ben Booker presets

#1 Guitar Cntrl
Use the gain function to initially fix the tone of the sounds. This preset splits the guitar into 3 areas. The LF band controls the warmth of the guitar. The MF band cuts the mid range bark and the HF band smoothes out the high-end fizz. Depending on your guitar player and the amount of pedals used, this preset smoothes out your guitar tones. The Fast Auto F Compressor type is employed, as Guitars can be very fast and percussive. The cross over slope is set at 18dB per octave to define each section clearly.

#2 Honky Bass
This preset sorts out poor bass guitar sounds. Larger than normal compression ratios are used, as bass guitars can vary wildly in level. The LF band controls sub bass level whilst the MF section controls the body of the bass. The HF band is set at 743Hz, which is where the top end of a bass guitar starts. It’s easy to over do it with these settings so experiment before hand.

#3 IEM Help
This preset is a very gentle buss compressor for in ear mixes. It has gentle slopes and low ratios. It is designed to help everything sit within a full IEM mix.
The Auto Punch compression model is used to give a bit of grit to the in ear mix, which is often very pleasing to the ear.

#4 Mix Tighten
This preset helps to glue your PA mix up. It gently catches any instruments or vocals that pop out too much. Play around with the setting to fine-tune your overall mix. RMS compression with a gentle 6dB per octave slope is used to give soft but firm control. Use this preset sparingly with only a few dB’s of gain reduction per band.

MultiBD4 Ben Booker presets

#1 Kit Distress
This preset can be used on a drum sub group to give the kit a good spank. The gains are used to sculpt the sound first. Steep 18dB slopes and the Auto Punch compression model add extra edge.

#2 Keys Helper
This preset can be used on a sub group to iron out levels in multiple keyboards set-ups. As more sources are sent to the group, different areas are compressed and controlled in a smooth, slow way. Great for layered organ and piano sounds.

#3 IEM Glue
This Preset is a very gentle buss compressor for in ear mixes. It has step slopes and low ratios to be transparent. It helps everything sit within a full IEM mix.
The Auto punch compression model is used to give a bit of grit to the artist, which is often very pleasing to the ears.
The HM band is where the vocal sits so take care not to compress too much in this area.

#4 Vocal
This preset helps control a loud rock or rap style vocal. The auto punch model is used, as it acts quickly and controls well in a live situation. The gain’s can be used to sculpt the sound of the overall vocal. Try different slope and compression models to fit your singer.

Thanks again to Ben for taking the time to create these presets for iLive users

It’s been emotional!