Basic 5 piece band setup and mix scene for beginner

[ToddN]

Does any one have a basic 4 members band setup with 5 piece DW drum kits, keyboard, bass and guitar, and a couple vocal setup and mixed save to a scene that can shared it with me. I just bought a SQ5 for our church youth group band but I can never get a good mix for them. I am a beginner with sound. I know enough to do the gained control, input routing.. but I am having problem with mixing the drum and vocal. If someone be so kind and willing to help me, I can send or upload the save scene and the multi track recording that I have. this would be a big help. Thank you very much in advance.

[Heirloom AVM]

Hi Todd,

A scene is not what you need because your I/O and room is not going to be the same as mine. The SQ5 is an excellent board, but the board will not make you a better sound engineer.

To best understand the board, this playlist is worth viewing: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLq3_zC_Xz0Pg94Yu1qioOEEJw2pxhdHP8

The first question is did you ring out (EQ) the room? Ultimately trust your ears, but there are tools in the mixer that can help if you understand how to use them:

RTA: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-5jN-PBhHPo

PAFL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k_Y9K1BMllQ

You can use the signal built in signal generator and an RTA mic to help pinpoint problem frequencies. Instead of using your eyes, playback music that you are familiar with as a reference and equalize it to where it sounds best in the room. Only cut out problem frequencies using the GEQ on the Main L/R, do not boost.

After you have the room dialed in, you have a better canvas to work with.

I suggest you schedule a time with the drummer (outside of practice or worship) to get the drum sound dialed in. PAFL each drum and use headphones to get the sound you want from each drum and then listen without headphones to hear it in the room. After you have the drums under control, invite other musicians (individually or in small groups) to adjust their channels. This will take the pressure off you of trying adjust things on the fly. Remember to save your settings as you work to a scene, and keep a backup scene as you progress.

Hope this helps 🙂

[Mfk0815]

It also would behelpful to do some mixing practice with good recorded signals. A place to get multitrack projects is https://www.cambridge-mt.com/ms/mtk/. With some of those projects you can 1) get an idea how instruments should sound and 2) you can experiment with the processing capabilities of the SQ.
The next step could be to record the band to compare your band sound with thatof the well recorded projects. One reason for that is that most of the sound is not caused by the mixer and the operator but the musicians, their instruments, the microphones, the placement of them and the soundsystem within the room.

[ToddN]

Thank you both Heirloom and Mfk0815 for suggestion and reference.

Heirloom, I have watched all the video from that playlist and pretty much have a very good understanding on how to work and operate the mixer. What I am lacking is the understanding on how to mixed each of the band channel especially the drum channels to make it sound good using combination of compressor, EQ, gate and FX.

With Mfk0815 suggestion, I think that is where I problem need is to practice with the processing of each channel.

Thanks,

[Brian]

Telefunken is another place to get tracks to play around with. If you have ever watched the Allen and Heath 20 minute mix videos, this is where they get those track from. There is a wide range of genres too.

Telefunken Multitracks

[Author]

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