Mixing at FOH: Consistent Listening

Mixing at FOH is a subjective position. There are general expectations when it comes to mixing, such as creating a balanced mix, ensuring the audience is not uncomfortable, and making sure the vocals are intelligible. Different genres may have different expectations – for example, do you need a flatter target curve or more tilted curves with varying sub haystacks. Despite jokes about it being an easy role – there is only one mix, of course – there is one responsibility that can be challenging as you grow as a mix engineer. One of the most difficult roles as an engineer can be maintaining consistency in your mixes, especially in the context of PA du jour. Assuming that you have standardized much of your setup – we’ve been provided the same backline, same mic packages, and same control package, and you have proper gain structure, preparation, and workflow – you want to make sure that the canvas in front of you has been optimized for the best possible presentation of your mix.

Trusting your ears

It’s important to assess the state of the canvas. Listening to a PA in some capacity (virtual soundcheck, reference tracks, your voice or someone else’s) establishes that landscape and gives you direction on what needs to be processed to accomplish precision.

Some suggestions for what to listen for are below. This isn’t a rule, but these are some things that have helped me. Thousands of hours of listening and experimentation has occurred for me to reach a point where I can confidently be aware of them when I listen.

• The response of the vocal; how do certain consonants or vowels feel when the artist is talking or speaking.
• Kick drum tonality, but also impact and the kick to bass relationship.
• Texture and depth between the instrumentation. Is the vocal or lead instrument boxier today, or is the compression or saturation more noticeable or unpleasant than it typically is?
• How does the balance of the highs in relationship to the tonal shape of the PA feel? Where do I hear this in the mix?
• Listening to the effect of the room as you walk is also important. What is boominess or reverb doing to the sound?
• If I add more mids, will it cut through a washy and expansive room without compromising the tonality and making it feel honky or barky?

An easy starting point for when you’re in a pinch is this graphic provided by Rational Acoustics.

https://www.rationalacoustics.com/pages/the-7-bad-system-dwarves

Some of the points above also aren’t resolved with simply an EQ on the system, but can help me be aware of what I may hear during the show. If the issue is critical, I can make adjustments to the mix as needed.

Reference tracks are dependent on you and what you want to listen for. Three that I’ll come back to frequently include

• “If I Ever Lose Faith In You,” by Sting
•  “Ship of Fools,” by Robert Plant
•  “End of my Rope,” by Misterwives.

The most reliable means of analysis for me, however, is multitrack recording, or virtual playback, however this is not always available.

Other notes

Smaart has been used to analyze the system, and an SE has already optimized the system, or I have confirmed it’s ready and have tuned myself. From this point on, my target curve is serving as a guide and a starting point. It is frequently accurate, but occasionally depending on the environment or the voicing of a different box, I still need to make adjustments. I guess I could boil this down to the simple fact that at the end of the day, I’m listening to what my ears are telling me and not just relying on the data to be correct. I can infer that it might be close, but so many factors can mean we need to adjust.

I’ll listen to the PA, walking everywhere I possibly can and taking into consideration what the audience is listening to, and what they’re listening for. If I can use virtual soundcheck, I prefer to use that so I can have the most accurate translation of the show. Sometimes tuning to a record doesn’t account for considerations in the mix or the live arrangement of the music. I also frequently want to take liberties with the music, and playback has helped me accomplish this. Much of this process does involve dialogue with the systems engineer, depending on whether I’m trying to continue tuning or just shaping the tone of the system. To this point, my target curve isn’t the end all, be all. It gets me and my SE in the ballpark and oftentimes lets me establish the low end and HF slope I need to accomplish a starting point for the day.

I think it’s also important to note that my target curve for one artist isn’t always appropriate for all. Genre, arrangement, and dynamics have influenced this for me in the past, but that’s a conversation for a later discussion.

My final means of achieving consistency lie in reading SPL meters. Today I’ll just point you in the direction of some fantastic reading on this subject, but later will dive into my own perspective and understanding. Later, I hope to discuss how my target curve and SPL go hand in hand to help me maintain that consistency.

Further and more scientific reading

On the Level, Katie Karch: https://www.prosoundweb.com/on-the-level-understanding-applying-spl-measurements/

Article by: Sage Tichenor

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