Streaming

[Mike CParticipant]

You direct box is fine for the keyboard.
Plugging into the same stage box should be no problem.

Hiss is normally a gain issue, hum is more a grounding or induced
pick up issue, of course equipment problems can cause both issues.

Turn everything in the system on, keyboards, guitars, pedals, wireless receivers, ect.
They using the PFL go through each channel one at a time and listen to them in a good pair of headphone and see if the noise is coming from directly any input or inputs, that’s without no one playing the instruments.

Check the volume level on the keyboard, some of those the volume level controls the output level, it may be tunred way down causing you to apply a lot of gain to the channel. Also if the keyboard have built in speakers some have a way to turn them off.

On the piano see if the Cducer interface has a level control and where it is set.

[raycarroll03Participant]

We are currently using a matrix of the mains to run our stream because it is just me running the FOH and stream. For some reason I can not get the kick drum sound to come through. I will post a link to our service and if any one can give me any ideas I would be grateful. We are currently using SQ6 and are thinking about getting another for someone else to mix to stream the only. Our worship pastor wants to get the Avantis for FOH and sq6 for streaming. Any thoughts on this for suggestions. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aYHz2fAP1sA

Ray

[Mike CParticipant]

We are currently using a matrix of the mains to run our stream because it is just me running the FOH and stream. For some reason I can not get the kick drum sound to come through. I will post a link to our service and if any one can give me any ideas I would be grateful. We are currently using SQ6 and are thinking about getting another for someone else to mix to stream the only. Our worship pastor wants to get the Avantis for FOH and sq6 for streaming. Any thoughts on this for suggestions.

Overall what I listened to did not too bad.

Instead of using the main LR mix to feed the live stream set up a separate post fade aux mix to feed the live stream.
Set all the channel aux send levels to the same level, maybe about 70%, then I would take the spoken word only inputs and bump them up higher as well as the kick drum and any other inputs you feel that need adjusted higher or lower in the live stream.

Since the aux is set post fade those settings will track what you do in the main mix only with bumps up or down in the live stream mix.
After a few tweaks those mix levels can more or less be left along, that is about the
best compromise for a one person sound team.

Keep in mind if you bring someone else on board to handle the live stream mix they could use the iPad APP and mix it remotely in a different location.
In that case make the aux mix sends pre fade or if you have enough open channels you could double patch the inputs with one bank of channels for the main mix and another bank of channels just for the live stream. With double patching you would have complete independent channel processing for the live stream feed.

If your main system is overall bass/low heavy you may be pulling the kick back in the over mix to get the correct room mix balance, or maybe the kick drum is acoustically loud on it own in the room.

Not sure what your going after in the way of overall kick drum “sound” but it looks like there is no hole/port in the head on the kick drum, cutting a hole in the head and putting the mic inside the drum will get you a little more defined “punch”.

[raycarroll03Participant]

MikeC thanks for the feed back. The reason we set the board up using a matrix is try to make it simple for streaming for who ever ran the board. Was told by some friends that do sound and they said that if I used an aux channel I would have to mix the foh and the stream would have to separate mixes. So it set the aux to post fader and set each aux channel to about 70% then I should be able to mix just foh and get a good recording from stream if I am understanding you.

[Mike CParticipant]

If the live stream aux was set pre fade then you would need someone to mix that aux as I mentioned, with it set to post fade it will track along with changes made to the main mix and any level/mix changes made at the aux send level will stay in proportion on the live stream mix.

If you add a dedicated mixer for the live stream are you going to set it up in a isolated
room to mix in? Keep in mind then your would always need two people on the sound team for ever live streamed service. You could always switch to a FOH feed as a back up.

With what you church and production looked like I’m not sure an Avantis for FOH would do anything for you in terms of a quality upgrade over the SQ, unless you truly need more inputs and outputs.

[raycarroll03Participant]

Another question about streaming service. As I had said before we are using a matrix since we do not have anyone to run the streaming using an aux pre fader. The voices on my stream seem to be a little on the low side and would like to get the louder. When I open up the matrix for stream it shows me all the auxes we are using etc. I see that we have a aux open and it shows there to could I use this aux to go in and increase the pastors mic for more volume and also the singer would this help? Would it be better instead of using the matrix using the open aux as a post fader and set the band at unity and the the vocals and pastor up to made 5 on the fader. Trying to learn and not settle. Also would it hurt the matrix for the stream to be in stereo or mono?

Ray

[raycarroll03Participant]

Hello everyone it has been a while since I have been online
Have been working hard to improve our online service and here is a link https://youtu.be/fXFsFxGFhgw if some could look and give feed back so I can to continue to improve. Thanks for feedback.

Ray

[BrianParticipant]

You can use the makeup gain functionality of a compressor to increase the overall volume of the streaming mix. You can leave the threshold turned all the way up so the compressor doesn’t actually “compress” any of the audio. This turns the compressor into another way to increase gain without actually compressing the audio which can be bad if done poorly. I would start by doing this. Odds are you can get the added volume you need without negatively affecting your stream quality.

[ozdocParticipant]

Hi Ray. I had a listen to your last three weeks of recordings. Bearing in mind that we here would listen to this with a different set of ears and expectations to the average person listening, (who probably don’t care that much), so take the comments with that in mind. But striving for excellence is something to be encouraged.

The kick and bass is nice and solid, at least through my headphones. Recording for online is difficult as you are never sure what device the listener is using.

Does the Roland drum kit get patched into your sound desk as individual drum inputs, or as a Left-Right drum STEM mix? Either way some adjustment could be made to the hi-hat and crash whether at the desk or on the Roland kit itself. The Hi Hat in particular seemed a bit loud and harsh, and sounds like it is panned to the left, which I found a distraction at times. Some EQ to lessen the harshness, lower it in volume and possible set it panned central would make it more appealing. The Snare could possibly be a bit more prominent. A touch of reverb over the drums would be helpful, as electric drums can present as a bit dry.

As sound engineers there are some things within our control and some things that are not. My initial impression is fixing some issues at the source here would make a vast improvement compared to what could be achieved through any sound desk adjustments. One impression I got from the services is that the team is fairly one paced dynamically, and musically the output is somewhat crowded both vocally and instrumentally. Everyone seems to singing and playing everything all at the same time. The ideal answer to this is ‘fix it at the source’, which would be having discussions with the musical director to introduce more dynamics to the song flow, such as starting with just a lead vocal, introducing BV vocals in stages, having instruments hang off on certain verses, playing different styles (one guitar pick or lead, another strumming, another strumming with capo on), or periods of just acapella singing.

Having said that, sometimes those things aren’t easily changeable, so we are left with having to try to manipulate that from the sound desk. What you’re aiming for then is increased dimensionality or space in the sound stage that you are creating. Think in three dimensions when listening to the mix. Is there height differences (volume/ compression), width differences (panning) and depth differences (elements of the mix pushed forward or back in the mix – volume, reverb, delay, parallel compression etc).
With regards to your band – some ideas:

Push the lead vocal forward in the mix so it sits a bit more clearly on top. Volume increase, specific EQ (make it brighter than the BV’s), a shorter reverb or perhaps a quick slap delay. Even a bit of parallel compression can make the lead vocal pop. The volume fader is probably the most powerful tool here – either put the lead up or turn other things down.

Aim to blend the background vocals and sit them below the lead vocal as a group, without having one particular BV stand out. EQ a bit of the brightness off the top, sit the volume below the lead, use a longer reverb, apply some compression. One way on the SQ to do this is to send all the BV’s to a group and apply your compression / EQ / Effects as a group which gives them more cohesion. Consider panning the individual BV’s off centre, keeping in mind a vocalist on stage R needs to panned to the L so that what someone hears in the L speaker corresponds to the visual they are seeing. You don’t need a lot of panning, but it tidies up the centre space as a pocket for the leader to sit in. The BV’s can also do with a lot more reverb for my liking.

Guitars – similarly, put the leader’s guitar central and perhaps pan the other two a bit left and right. Don’t EQ them all the same.

Casio keys – are the pads coming straight from the Casio or the laptop next to it?

Congregational mics – consider adding some of these, as they can add the ambience that you need to make the online congregation feel like they are there in the room Pan them hard L/R, set the HPF high – and use in periods of acapella or applause etc.

Keep doing what you’re doing. Constantly reviewing your mixes and striving for improvement is where we all need to be at!

[Mike CParticipant]

Thanks for the follow up and the link Ray. I just gave your service a listen, in addition
to the other comments I would put some music on during the pre service message slides. That way the viewers can set their volume levels and they know that everything is working
prior to the start of the service.

[raycarroll03Participant]

Thanks for the feed back working on getting some mics for the congregation and we are running ableton on the computer for keys. Sorry thiught I sent this and realized I did not.

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