I think this whole toilet paper shortage
is just a ploy to get us to all wash our
hands
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live-streaming your church service just
got a whole lot more important so if
you're new at it or if you just want to
get better here's some tips and tricks
for making sure that your live stream
sounds it's best if you're used to
mixing for front-of-house and all of a
sudden you're mixing for the web stream
it's a little bit tricky now don't get
me wrong if you hook up the output of
the audio console to your video encoder
or the phone that's broadcasting it's
gonna work but here's some tips and
tricks to take it up a notch and make it
sound even better for everybody else
that's listening on the other end our
goal with a broadcast mix is to have it
sound good on many different types of
speakers so while you might have the
most earth-shattering subs in the world
nobody on the other end really cares
because they're probably listening
through their phone or a tablet or a TV
or maybe even a hi-fi sound system our
front of house makes only has to sound
good in that one room but when we try to
mix for broadcast we want to make sure
that it sounds good across all those
devices now in a perfect world your PA
would sound so good and your mix was so
tight that you could just send it to the
broadcast feed mix in some crowd mics
and it would all sound really great but
what happens if that's not the case the
first big change you might want to make
when mixing for a web stream versus live
sound is your approach to EQ on low
frequency instruments now your phone
speaker isn't going to produce 50 Hertz
it's just not gonna happen so how do you
get the kick drum to come through when
the speaker you're mixing for it doesn't
have that fundamental frequency there
are two tricks for this the first one is
to move up the fundamental frequency or
what you're boosting in the low-end from
maybe around 50 Hertz topped around 75
or 80 Hertz it's more likely that some
speaker systems can produce this tone
rather than all the way down at 50 the
other part is to emphasize the attack or
the beater sound of the kick drum this
gives your ear an idea that something's
happening there even if you can't hear
that low frequency so if you don't
already try boosting in the 2 to 5
kilohertz range to see if the attack
that kick drum can come out just a
little bit more on the bass we can use
the overtones of the bass to trick our
ear into thinking that we're hearing
that fundamental so the critical EQ
range for mixing for broadcast for the
bass is in the 200 and 500 Hertz range
this is going to give our ear the idea
of the over
without having to produce that
fundamental frequency I talked more
about this and a lot of other topics too
my worship sound wisdom of course I'm
working on it right now to update it
from the version I did back in the fall
and it should be coming out soon so if
you want more information check out the
link in the description below to get on
the waiting list the other big challenge
that we run into in mixing for broadcast
is dynamic range in live sound we're
just moving air molecules back and forth
so our ears and our preference are
really the only cap on how loud or how
intense we can make our mix but for
broadcast we're trying to cram all that
information into a digital signal and
that signal is represented by VB FS or
decibels full scale at 0 dbfs that's the
loudest signal that we can send and
there's nothing above that so if you go
above it you've clipped and you've lost
that information the problem comes when
we have a lot of transients on our
signal
so the peaks on the kick and the snare
we don't perceive them exactly the same
way that our digital audio converter
will so those can push down the average
level because we're making room for
those Peaks so to be able to get our
average level louder going to our web
stream we can tame down some of the
peaks on acoustic guitars pianos and our
drums this lets us get the average level
higher compared to the peak level so for
my input channels in general I'm going
to use a faster attack time to try to
tame down some of those transients that
are sneaking through now the next thing
you'll definitely want to do is use a
stereo buss compressor or a compressor
across your whole mix this is gonna help
you reduce the dynamic range from the
very loudest parts to the quietest parts
but compressing your whole mix is a lot
different than compressing an input
channel when you're compressing an input
channel you can compress it a whole lot
and it works but across a whole mix just
2 or 3 DB of compression can be quite a
bit so for our stereo buss compressor we
have to make sure that it's not pumping
this can happen if our threshold is set
too low if our attack and release times
are out of whack or if there's one input
and going into the compressor that's
causing it to react in a funny way so
make sure that your mix sounds good and
balanced before putting on your stereo
buss compressor and remember on our
stereo buss compressor the same rules
apply a faster attack time will sound
thinner but a slower attack time will
sound thicker but if we're trying to get
rid of these
and not enhance them you might lean
toward a faster attack time anyway now
if you want some added control one thing
that I really like to do is to compress
groups now there's a lot of different
philosophies on what exactly you group
together but grouping together say your
guitars and your keyboards and your
drums in your bass and all of your
vocals that lets you have a little bit
more control over the compression over
each one of those groups before they go
to the stereo buss again it's a bus so
you've got to use it more gently but it
can really bring everything together and
give you a lot of control over the
attack and the release time of those
groups finally you might consider using
a brick wall limiter on the output of
your stereo buss after the stereo
compressor this will catch any Peaks
that are still sneaking through so that
you can get that level up just a little
bit more before it goes to your camera
or encoder we're really used to hearing
a lot of compression on recorded music
so if your web stream hasn't sounded the
way that you really want it to sound
even if your room mix sounds good try
adding more compression on the input
channels the groups and the stereo buss
to see if that gets you closer to the
sound of that you're after
now there are a couple more things you
need to be aware of when shifting your
mentality for mixing front-of-house to
mixing broadcast the first is the vocal
balance or the vocal pocket in live
sound we've got a lot of energy coming
from high SPL and then we just want our
vocal to be out in front of that and not
buried in the mix but when it comes to
broadcast and listening on different
devices different devices speakers will
emphasize the vocals more than others I
mean it is a telephone first right and
even TV speakers will make the vocals
pop out a little bit more compared to a
full range system so if your vocals or
electric guitars are too far out in
front these frequency limited playback
devices are going to make that sound
even more so that's why it's important
to make sure that your vocal is tucked
back in the vocal pocket and here's a
little tip for how to know if your
vocals in the right spot compared to the
rest of the band in stereo your vocal
should be just tucked back into the mix
but in mono it should be just out in
front of the mix will talk more about
monitoring in another video but that's
one trick that you can try right away
now if the vocals are buried over the
web stream you're gonna get texts and
emails complaining which I don't know if
that's worse than people actually coming
up to the booth complaining but either
way I don't want complaints the other
thing that the vocal pocket lends itself
to is panning of other instruments in
live sound we're pretty much going for
wide mono we want some ear candy over on
the sides but it's not like we're
painting one guitar all the way over
here and another guitar all the way over
here but for broadcast we can do that
and it opens up room in the middle for
the vocal pocket so if you've got a mix
going out for broadcast try panning
things hard left and right if they've
got something else to balance them if
it's a stereo input like a stereo
keyboard or a stereo electric guitar
I'll go ahead and pan that hard left and
right anyway even if it is a live sound
that's kind of what I mean by wide mono
you can also pan your toms a little bit
wider than you might even live sound
just to make it a little bit more
exciting when that fill comes in now
that things are paying you'll have an
easier time getting the vocal back in
the pocket so again it's just out in
front when you hit mono it's just tucked
back when you hit stereo
now if a pandemic outbreak has left your
room empty except for the band and
you're just mixing for an empty room
consider getting a pair of studio
monitors to put up the sound booth it's
more likely but you'll get an accurate
frequency response and you'll get a
whole lot less reverb from the room so
that you can dial in your effects a
little bit better to not make the single
sound so dry over the web now mixing on
headphones is a possibility but it does
add extra challenges when it comes to
your vocal pocket and dialing in the
effects the right way without making
something sound like a drowning when you
actually play it back on speakers so I'm
going to show you four different mixes
of the exact same part of the worship
set so that you can hear the difference
of what it's like when you're mixing for
frontalis verses when you're applying
some of these techniques that I'm
talking about the first is the front of
house mix when I mix it live you'll
notice that the kick drum is giant
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although that felt great in the room it
doesn't really work great as a broadcast
mix since unfortunately I don't have an
SSL at home I decided to make another
mix in the same kind of style with the
same panning EQ and compression settings
that I wouldn't use live here on my
console in the home studio
[Music]
the next one uses some of the techniques
that I talked to you about in this video
with panning EQ compression and effects
and a little bit of buss compression too
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on this last one I sent all my inputs to
three main groups drums bass guitars and
keyboards and vocals i compressed them
together before sending them to the
stereo buss and compressing all of that
together take a listen
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on that one I was able to use a lot more
stereo buss compression because I was
able to take care of some of the peaks
from the drums before they hit the
stereo bus so I hope this was helpful
for you as you're crafting a mix to let
people stay in their homes and worship
along with you in your church for more
information about my worship sound
wisdom course and to sign up for the
waiting list so that you can be the
first to know when registration opens
check it out there's a link in the
description below
if you haven't subscribed yet go and hit
subscribe ding a little bell and turn
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be sure to post your questions in the
comments below and we'll see you back
here next time on Attaway audio
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you
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