Reply To: Live Sound Engineering Tutor?

[coffee_king]

Hey All
Embarrassed? Nah, I’m never embarrassed.
As people request knowing more, I shall divulge

3 piece rock (ish) band
1 x electic guitar amp – Mic’d with an SM57
1 x bass amp – DI’d
1 x lead vocal while playing bass – AKG D5 (Thats me) – At front of stage
1 x lead vocal while playing guitar – Sontronics STC-80 – At front of stage
Drums – All drums individually mic’d (Including overheads) but I cant remember what mics the drummer uses – At rear of stage

2 x Yamaha MSR400 tops
1 x Yamaha MSR800 sub
QU16
Qu-Pad

Speaker deployment: What do you mean as in where do I put the speakers? – Further towards the audience than the mics. Pointing inwards a little towards the dancefloor.
DSP – What do you want to know?
Usual size of venue: Never really any larger than 10m x 15m
Usual number of guests: Under 150
Usual venues/types of gigs: Wedding/Birthday/Corporate at wedding reception halls, conference centres, marquees etc etc.
Usual position at venue: Tucked into a corner, but I will always try to get the client to have the band instead be at the one end of the room, playing out the full length of the room.

Notes:
I usually mic everthing so we can record the band live.
I dont always put everything through the PA.
Vocally we had been using SM58s all our lives until we found the D5 and STC-80 had such better presence and clarity.
We all use IEMs.
We don’t play overly loud (We play to the volume of the drummer whose not a massive hitter)
I dont have my QU16 in front of me now as its stored away. (But can pull it out if requested)
Pretty much once the soundcheck mix is done, thats it locked in unless I feel like uping the volume of the vocals later in the set.
I dont know what the term “GBF threshold” means, nor a lot of terminology that is spoken on here as I am self taught in everything Ive ever done in my life after leaving school many moons ago.
I would prefer to know how to not have these issues/deal with them myself than buy something that will work, but just mask the issue. Must that PA2 does sound like a great bit of kit)
Ive always seemed to have had trouble with spill from the drums and guitar amp coming through the vocal mics when someone isnt standing in front of them.

So there you go….
BTW should I NOT be using gates on vocal mics?

Cheers