Don’t Do Everything You See On YouTube (AKA Don't Mix To Unity!) -

[@AWTechTuesday]

Sorry that the left side of the screen gets cut off in the video. Technical issues 😂 Here’s what you may have missed: Essentially, in the “To Unity” example, for my main mix, the fader was at unity and the gain was all the way down. My “To Meter” fader was around -20 while I was metering my gain at about -15ish. When we listened to the guitar in-ear mix, the guitarist had to crank the “To Unity” fader WAY more to get a similar level to what he could achieve with the “To Meter” fader. Thanks for watching! Sorry for any confusion :) -Chad

[@donaldburns4462]

We are new to the wing I have been able to setup the board inputs and most outputs. I am confused about how to send to live stream and lobby. Thoughts?

[@baron1c]

Great explanation. I try to maintain a balance both methods. Some of my band members are bit on the inconsistent side so I give them a little extra gain so I can +5 or -5 or 0 the fader that day. But i also shoot for about -18 on the gain as any more can cause clipping on other busses down the line. For vocals we have anywhere from 4-6 vocals on any given sunday, they are all set to lead at unity but when they are singing back up they get pulled down to about -5. Bass and drums are always challenging 😂 Also what mic are you using in the video? I’m always looking at alternatives to sm58 😅

[@AWTechTuesday]

I think it was an Audix OM5. Personally, I’m a big fan of the Sennheiser e835.

[@jeffneufeld2083]

Great video! I encounter this kind of thing all the time... church sound engineers who treat the gain as a volume knob and don't realize there's an objective way to meter it, and that changing it will affect monitor mixes, gates and compressors! Unity mixing never made sense to me. Even from an analogue FOH perspective it seems like a dubious practice. Like you pointed out, you can turn down the mains to get faders closer to unity, and any channels that end up super low on the fader could be sent to a group(DCA)!

[@AWTechTuesday]

This guy gets it :)

[@edandrade4002]

Hummm.... I saw this on KZbin, so I guess I shouldn't do it. LOL Seriously... good video. We are an Allen & Heath church so clipping on our console is +12 or +18 and the end of the "green" is 0. We use the A&H ME personal monitoring system run off the FOH mixer, and with a digital split over Dante have a separate LiveStream mixer, so as you say, gain structure is very important. One of the first things I do at rehearsal and/or sound check is go through each channel and make sure the input level is sitting right around "0 db" as it does just make everything else downstream fall into place a lot easier. Then I deal with any channel processing (gate/eq/compression/etc) and actual mixing from there. We also make sure of DCA's as it does simplify mixing, we have DCA's for Drums/Bass, Electric/Acoustic Guitars, Keys/Other, BG Volcals, Lead Vocal (even if it is only one channel), and then we have our "DCA 8" which all band channels run through, so this is our "master volume" for the band so that as you mention in the video if we need to duck the band behind the pastor, it is 1 fader, not a whole handful. For me, the method of gain structure goes back to analog board days where you wanted your input signal to be right around that 0db mark so that you would get the best S/N ratio. Old habits die hard, but still have a purpose in the digital world today.

[@ElishaJS14]

Our church sound system was set up years ago before I arrived and I'm pretty sure that it was set up to unity. I want to sort of reset everything so that it works to the gain structure better. In the process of doing this, should I turn down our FOH amps while metering and then turn them back up after resetting everything? It's one area I am very unsure about and I usually try to keep our MAIN OUTS at 0Db unless I feel it is getting a little too loud.

[@AWTechTuesday]

What mixer are you using?

[@steve01010]

What I like to recommend, if you're using a system that only has one or two amps, is to turn your amp all the way down. Then play music through your sound console so that you're output meters are running at -18 on a digital console or 0dB on an analog console. Then go and turn up your amps until the sound is at the level you would want to hear for your music. Setting your levels this way gives you some room to get louder, but also makes sure you're running enough signal through your console so that EQ and other adjustments have anough signal to work with.

[@ElishaJS14]

@@AWTechTuesday Allen and Heath GL2400 32 channel variant.

[@synthuaxed]

Great video. Unfortunately, your illustrative adjustments are mostly off-screen.

[@AWTechTuesday]

Sorry about that. The camera operator did that without my knowledge and I was supposed to record my screen but forgot in the moment 😢 Essentially, in the “To Unity” example, for my main mix, the fader was at unity and the gain was all the way down. My “To Meter” fader was around -20 while I was metering my gain at about -15ish. When we listened to the guitar in-ear mix, the guitarist had to crank the “To Unity” fader WAY more to get a similar level to what he could achieve with the “To Meter” fader. Thanks for watching! Sorry for any confusion :) -Chad

[@nugznmugz]

It is staggering how many people who "work" in this industry have zero idea how to gain stage properly. I really wish we'd stop letting them water down (and ultimately devalue) or jobs. As a former church sound engineer I can only recommend that if your organization is one that intends to amplify your message, you should HIRE COMPETENT ENGINEERS AT A COMPETITIVE RATE. Any business (and yes, your church is a business) that cannot perform the basic functions of doing business, isn't really doing anything at all.

[@EMN_talk_show]

What's your contacte?

[@AWTechTuesday]

@@EMN_talk_show [e-mail]

[@radioflyer2030]

In my country, everyone who mixes to unity is studio / DAW trained, or a "producer". Every single time. There are a couple studio trained guys who are good at live sound, but the rest of them suck. Mostly because they try to use all the same settings in a live show that work in a DAW when mixing & mastering for Spotify or other online music service. And of course, they just doesn't work in live sound. I was supposed to be a guest engineer at a double header where a friend's band was playing. The lead engineer started yelling at me when I started adjusting faders. I was like, here, you keep at it bro, & walked off. He was literally mixing on the makeup gain of the compressors. He is a "studio recording engineer". Not worth arguing with someone that stupid. If you are not supposed to use the faders, why is it that every console has them, I wonder? Recently, I was doing sound for small indoor festival (it's rainy season). The event was organized, as it turned out, by a young "producer". He comes over to me and says "why do the drums sound like that?". "Like what, bro", I ask. "Like THAT" he says. I realized, given that he'd literally just knelt down on stage as I was playing a test track & said "it's vibrating" that he literally had no experience with live music shows & real power. So I hit the mute on the drum VCA, and replied "because that's how they sound ACOUSTICALLY, in real life... listen carefully, they are not being amplified right now". He actually thought that you could just pick how you wanted each drum to sound, like using Steven Slate Drums or Spitfire VST in a DAW. He then proceeded to tell me exactly how he wanted the band on stage to sound (I'd already finished their sound check & was completely happy with the sound). I made his requested adjustments & he was like yah, that's great & took off. The lighting tech looks at me & says "Your mix was WAY better". This is what you get from "producers & "studio experts", in my country anyway - mostly madness.

[@AWTechTuesday]

100%! I used to work at a venue as a FOH engineer. From time to time we would get a band with their own engineer who went to a popular school for music production. These guys knew ProTools well enough but had no idea how to handle an analog console (this was years ago). They didn’t understand that you can’t EQ and compress the same way as the studio with a live PA without accounting for feedback. It was really sad most times.