It's hard being told you're not doing a good job. In order to save your pride a little you always say that if they really knew what it was like doing what you do they'd eat their words. Well, last week our most persistent critic (although critic may be to harsh a word) walked a mile in my shoes and mixed the singer's night concert. And while I secretly wanted him to walk away cowering and praising the job we do considering all we put up with, my feelings at the end of the night are neither good or bad. Honestly the whole experience was a little awkward. Kind of how I imagine watching your mother take your Ferrari for a spin would be. You love her and trust her but are a little uncomfortable with the way she drives.
As I've mentioned before, the core principle in live sound is compromise. I want the piano as far from the drummer as possible. The pianist complains that he can't see. I am then faced with either upsetting the band (the result being a bad concert), or dealing with the drums leaking into the piano mics (also not good). My job is to make a choice that will appease everyone. There is sacrifice involved. That is what differs from a live performance and a studio setting. When it's live there are all of these variables, all of these balls that you're juggling to make the show happen with as few hiccups as possible. In the process some things take precedent over others. Can I hear everyone who is playing? Is the band comfortable on stage? These are the questions that are fore front in my mind while mixing. A close third is does everything sound natural? Meaning does the sound coming out of the speakers reflect the sound coming from the instrument. Usually these three concerns take up all of my time and concentration, let's face it, it is not a detail oriented job. That's what I like about it. Last Tuesday provide me with a different perspective and it was interesting to see someone who had an entirely different set of priorities. The first and most important of these being sound quality.
I watched as he truly engineered the concert. The drummer re tuned the drums to his specification, each reverb was listened to carefully and adjusted, effects, dynamics, everything was approached with careful consideration. The result sounded great. It sounded good and in control. Now I could see what he had been complaining about all these years. He couldn't understand why we claimed to have so little power when we obviously do. I found my self thinking wow what a difference maybe this job doesn't have to be about settling all the time. And then reality reared it's head and I realized that there are cons to this method. Firstly it's slow. We didn't have time for a run through because we were taking too much time from song to song. Secondly there were feedback issues. The low end boost may sound nice but once it starts feeding back it no longer does. And third there is little room for subtlety in live sound. At least that was always my opinion. Why do something the audience won't notice? As I watched I was reminded of the AA serenity prayer: God, give us the grace to accept with serenity the things that cannot be changed, courage to change the things which should be changed, and the wisdom to distinguish the one from the other.
We complain so much about all of the things that make our mixes sound bad. After a while you just throw your hands up and say "Fuck it" What I took away from this experience and what I believe he wanted to convey was that yes, there are things about live sound that are out of our control, but just because the things you can control are subtle they are not insignificant. Watching Him mix was different and I can't say that I will be adopting much of what I saw. But I will approach my job with less sense of futility. 80% of this job is perception, I play the perception game all of the time. (Who hasn't reached for a fader, changed nothing and have the performer tell you how much better it sounds) Perhaps a little more effort on my part could change my perception too.
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