FOH Mixing: Live Tips and Tricks by Ozzy’s Mix Engineer

How does FOH Greg Price get his mixes to really rock? Get a glimpse of his stacked vocal effects and his coined "good cop, bad cop" parallel drum compression using Waves plugins and the Avid S6L console. Get more WavesLive: www.waves.com/livesound
In this video:
0:21 Building Ozzy's vocal chain
1:26 Ozzy's vocal effects pyramid
2:26 Parallel compression: Good Cop, Bad Cop
4:57 Why use Waves SoundGrid?
5:41 Waves plugins integrated with the Avid S6L console
6:08 Waves vintage modeling: An old-school engineer's dream

[@cutez0r]

Whenever you see Ozzy talk you can barely understand because of his mumbling, yet he manages to sound quite decent in live concerts. I guess this is the guy to thank for that!

[@braulioocampo7136]

Jus put the video on 1.25x speed !

[@rob.carrillo]

Wow thank you

[@jonathanfurtado7611]

Braulio Ocampo lmao ironic

[@evanseventy7593]

That's perfect haha

[@ry.albert]

hahahaha

[@scumbag8948]

You’re a godsend 💀

[@eth6706]

Now there's a man that loves his job

[@codyvanhoozen275]

This was one of the most inspiring videos to watch, thanks waves!

[@joeymusic]

We love sharing tips too! This is great!

[@StergiosNikolaouofficial_]

Audio engineers lives guys.Take it or leave it and do something else.There are too many informations in our head.Proud that i will follow this path in my life from now on.

[@elimakowski1469]

Greg is one of the premier engineer's. Front of house or other wise. Above all, his mix decisions are based on what his ears hear... His presets and signal flow are well devised and studied so, while flexible, they also allow him to navigate quickly and NEVER second guess himself. PEACE

[@wan8655]

🤫

[@alpineproduction799]

Great video! I love the insight that these engineers provide. Very helpful.

[@Hellseeker1]

That console is nuts, man that’s like touring with a studio, I sopose if your that huge you want your performances to be perfect, it is the prince of darkness after all.

[@onmixilyas1045]

Great job WAVES

[@SinanAkiman]

excellent tips, short neat n sweet.. great vid thx

[@RattlinBonesClub]

Really interesting video, I might give the vocal pyramid a go at my next show!

[@dopetipped9673]

Great video. Priceless experience like this can only be garnered this way. I wish this was an hour or three longer. One question about grouping and crushing drums on avid desks regarding phasing. Last time I had a house gig with an avid desk, pre SL6, in an effort to leave the rest of the house engineering roster in the dust I adopted a groups based mixing style to allow for more surgical parallel processing, allowing to me to achieve perceived volumes that seemed audibly louder and much more full than Straight to the Stereo buss mixing. However, I always ran into problems with comb filtering/phasing at high volumes especially on groups with larger numbers of inputs like drums and horn sections. Any advice on eliminating this comb filtering, possible “dial in ms delay techniques” one can use a live plugin to attenuate? Cheers and thanks for the always great content.

[@BeatlesGuitarSecrets]

Absolutely fascinating! Thanx very much!

[@thepeladeauprojectband8943]

Many of the same I use. I like the pyramid channeling. I kind of use that principal in studio one channel splits but not for vocals. I do like the waves vocal doubler though. When Live, I go simple (local scene), I do not have a digital board. I am old school so I tune/eq the room via a reference a stereo or mono 27 or 32 band EQ if the band gives me enough time (depends on whether I use my own system). Thanks for the video. Late comer here.

[@tomcoryell]

Over use of compression is my biggest beef with some FOH guys. You have these wonderful new setups that can handle a huge dynamic range and the FOH guy makes it have the dynamic range of a 60’s transistor radio. I get that you have to control the transients a bit, but please don’t squeeze the life out of it!

[@kxmrock]

You are "The Man"…. wow!

[@kjguzman23]

Nice insight

[@BlackenedNL]

I would love to see a new vocal doubler plugin by Waves, as well as a model of the Roland Dimension D and a MXR Flanger / Doubler :)

[@TheBleackone]

As an USAF radio/PA guy, I understood all of that. He should try a pre-amp deliberator to provide inverse reactive current for use with unilateral phase detractors, it would also be capable of automatically synchronising the cardinal grammeters.

[@Geologist_Mike]

Rockwell makes a fantastic kit for that.

[@heartbreaktimemachine]

WHAT ABOUT THE FLAM?!?

[@IndyPlectrum]

Have you heard about the new Rockwell biphasic turbo encabulator?

[@paulthesoundguy1]

Back in the day I did the VERY SAME THING with multiple analog compressors and subgroups on a PM4000 using inserts for31 Band EQ or the compressors depending on desired sound quality. I used to drive the hard compressed drum sound, up under the more free breathing drum sound. I am sure an Avid console sounds much better than our experiments back then😂😂😂

[@PapawCulberson]

I use a version of vocal doubling on my XR18 - amazingly enough. Vocal doubling delay on vocal and use the main FOH delay to fill it out. It isn't perfect - but it is a great sound for small venues - especially with the limited capabilities of the XR18.

[@theycallmefilip]

Great tip and great thinking.

[@micromicro]

Can you let us know what effect are you using from XR18?

[@kingmixx]

“Once it sees the good comp, the bad comp is bad” 🤣🤣🤣

[@Giller9]

I like this guy

[@andym7333]

whats the order and plugins used on voc this is confussing

[@TTSetters]

As a person who worked in a studio for a good while, it's nice to understand most of what he's talking about. Otherwise it's like "UHH" for non audio people hah.

[@amibeingdetained3417]

didnt really get a lot of tips on foh mixing but thanks

[@AdlinLing]

If the UK were to make a version of King of the Hill, Ozzy Osborne would be perfect to voice Boomhauer.

[@jessicahainesmusic]

Does the vocal doubler simply beef up the vocal? I thought Ozzy's triple tracking also involved putting two tracks slightly out of time to gain a slight chorus effect?

[@ImOzify]

That’s sort of what doubler does. Creates two extra tracks that are slightly out of time and detuned panned left and right.

[@ComprehendTheTruth]

I wish I could shadow someone like this and watch them work

[@clydebigsby4117]

don't bother, just do it yourself

[@clydebigsby4117]

@ does it not? Go get a job at a sound company and do it yourself.

[@kosmikmusa]

Amen.

[@jpgomez1663]

What board is this

[@mikedixon8830]

Apparently Zakk's so heavy with his riffage it fractured his arm.

[@Storyfilms1]

Every time I've seen Ozzy live I've marveled at how terrible the sound is. Now I know who to blame

[@poserwanabe]

ROFLMFAO !!!!!

[@goodc713]

comment of the fricken year

[@slowgold20]

after a couple head scratchers in the video I looked at the comments... and was not surprised lol

[@christophersmith8486]

Dude hahahahahahahahahahaha

[@rphxleonine]

When I saw him back on OzzFest 2000, he sounded great. Of course, that was years ago.

[@AdamAarts]

So I’m glad we can watch this guy talk, it I think everyone can agree, without hearing the audio and what he’s doing to it, this video is just useless.

[@mickeymiguel2726]

Waves, were your audio dreams come true

[@nicko5566]

Wow'... long run mixing... do you have tinnitus?

[@Giller9]

Imagine getting into bed for the night and curling up with a good technical manual.

[@evanseventy7593]

I use Ken Van Drutens presets on my $30000 console

[@danielmorales711]

4:1 2-3 dB gain reduction drums

[@ilyagur6379]

What is the console he use?

[@sssm6806]

Ilya Gur Avid S6L

[@oliverguy3121]

Avid S6L-24D

[@danielmorales711]

True reverb delayed offset

[@BagusWibisono]

what console he use?

[@smokyislay]

I think it's a Sega Saturn

[@danielmorales711]

C6 Ken's vocal

[@edwardmonsariste4050]

I would love to go to a rock concert and see a Soundcraft analog main & monitor board, some Universal Audio limiters, Drawmer gates, Lexicon reverb and delay racks, and that’s it. I’ve been to many concerts in many venues, when this was state of the art, and it always sounded great. Since the digital takeover, I’ve never actually enjoyed the sound of a rock concert. I’m not sure why FOH engineers still don’t understand that many people have complained for years about the overall sound quality since the AVID WAVE type digital takeover. And you can’t blame it on the venue. If it’s the venue, then what’s the point of all this digital equipment? Sometimes simple really is better.

[@Seanalbertt]

Do you have to lift all that stuff? No? Then you don’t understand why digital took over…

[@edwardmonsariste4050]

@@Seanalbertt I’m not talking about the health and welfare of roadies. I’m talking about the overall sound quality of concerts. Most people don’t give a damn about the health and welfare of a UPS driver delivering their Amazon packages. They want their packages delivered on time and not damaged. You expect a certain standard of quality and service, and you don’t give a second thought of that driver killing himself in a hot package car in July, breaking his back to get people their heavy 150lb packages. In the profit ambition of sound reinforcement equipment companies introducing new products to sell to production companies, weight is not the selling point. Professional powered digital processed speakers and racks of digital processors with huge mixing desks still weigh a lot. It’s all still made with wood and metal just like it always has been. And I’m not talking about your cheap plastic digital DJ speakers. The selling point of new modern equipment is control and ease of use. The problem with this is, sound engineers spend too much time looking at a computer screen and not enough with their ears. Yes analog systems have their limitations on overall control compared to the digital system, but it forces the sound engineers to focus on the one thing that they are hired to do, focus on the sound. You can steer the sound all you want in the digital domain, but if it sounds like ass, who cares?

[@Seanalbertt]

@@edwardmonsariste4050 you don’t need to preach to me about what speaker manufacturers are selling to production companies. I work full time as an audio technician for a pretty well known full service production company, and have deployed many top of the line speaker systems (L’acoustics, D&B, Meyer, and PKsound) and I can tell you weight in fact IS a major selling point for those companies because of trucking costs. Trucking costs eat up a ton in production budgets so much so that most of the time production companies look for the best sounding option in a certain weight class, and time and time again have chosen the lighter boxes over the box that sounds just slightly better. So next time you try to insult someone that probably knows more than you do maybe ask their experience in the industry first bud;)

[@edwardmonsariste4050]

@@Seanalbertt defensive much? Never insulted you bud. And yes I have WORKED in the industry as well, knowing all too well about packing design and weight of sound equipment in trailers. When you’ve done it for a couple of decades, you know damn well what weighs what. Thanks for being a jerk, like most people on social media.

[@edwardmonsariste4050]

@@Seanalbertt censer apologies. I shouldn’t have called you a jerk. That just makes me a hypocrite of keyboard warriors. Just like you don’t know me, I don’t know who you are and your background. Pointless to get into a pissing contest about things we both are passionate about.

[@danielmorales711]

Waves vocal doubler pitch change delay

[@stevenbeecheymusic]

Someone tell Kennybeats that Ozzy uses CLA

[@wongsanggar]

6:53 agreed. Books are like movie. You read more you discover more!

[@joemama-vk9qo]

A crumby commercial?!

[@danielmorales711]

30-1 crush 12-16 dB reduction

[@shadowsymphony1]

Man I remember back in the day when I saw bands like Queen, Dio etc.. The Sound was absolutely amazing, pure and loud and would knock a hole in your chest I mean what did they have back then?? is all this crap necessary today? I've been going to a few concerts the last few years and for the life of me I can't understand why it just doesn't sound as good

[@mejesusuyouape]

Back in the days all mixing engineers had was eq, gates and compression. Now they mix it like its a studio recording, making it sound like a song for radio. And another thing is that PA's are getting better, meaning that old PA systems sound bad, and the engieneer had to compensate for that. Sometimes to make a old PA sound good was to play it loud, so the amplifiers and speaker elements could work and really color the mix making it sound warmer and thicker. Now everything is going through a computer and the warmth is gone.

[@shrike9t1]

Morten Solvang they don’t Sounded Bad, lets say different :-) and there Are lot of examples were Pa‘s Sounded Great like the First fourway System from eaw or „Stage acompany“ in the 90“s. I started Mixing live 1995 in the analog World, sure nowadays only on digital consoles, But i have a Small analog outboard Setup for my vocal Group wich i run Them thru ( preamp with eq and a bss dpr 901 analog Dynamic eq ) . I See a lot Mixers today wich use a Small Amount of analog outboard with digital consoles, only Plugins ...like you Described it, Radio Version and that will Not Grab your Balls:-)

[@modelcitizen1977]

They had all this stuff back in the 70's, it was just discreet rack units. Tape delays in stereo, compression, EQ, gates, reverb tanks, all of it. They didn't have multi-band compression in one unit, but they could build a multi-band out of multiple compressors, and that's exactly what they did.

[@tomcoryell]

Kenny Earl See my comment above.

[@samuraibeluga3749]

beacause back in the day all they did was check if the audience could hear everything right

[@minnesotajack1]

Be sure and pay attention to the guy who can make thousands of people understand Ozzy Osbourne.

[@soflaav8r]

How much money does a top tier engineer like this make?

[@smokyislay]

Not enough to buy a sunblock

[@sad_is_fiction]

😈

[@d0grent]

don't bother explaining what you do to actually make the vocal pyramid I guess

[@myq723]

One main vocal with a doubler in parallel creating the effect of 3 different takes.

[@d0grent]

yeah he said as much but that's very vauge. are there 3 vocal doublers in parallel? if the stereo separation is the width part of the pyramid, what is separating the vocal layers in the vertical dimension?

[@futurebeats898]

​@@d0grent you over think. the pyramid have 3 vocals. 1 dry and 2 generated by the Waves Doubler plug in wich is in parallel

[@d0grent]

@@futurebeats898 that doesn't sound special at all. it's not even a pyramid! "Use a vocal doubler" isn't something that sounds like it needs a special name so there has to be something more to his process.

[@d0grent]

@ItzRuudie what

This the same guy that on another interview said he just swaps mikes if he doesn't like a sound, instead of going to plugins and eq? LOL

[@jeepsrt9644]

I feel bad for the dude he is being bullied by the comments🧐

[@BrownTownShiznitBass]

What they don't teach you in school.

[@carycleland9506]

Jesus Christ, all that techno rambling with absolutely no mention of cowbell. Amateur.

[@accidentals_hacks]

too bad Ozzy hasn't been able to sing in tune for about 10 years. Like completely off, not even in the same ballpark. But nobody seems to care! Cool stuff!!

[@LeftyandFriends]

Na, depends on his health. He had an ear complaint first half of the tour but by the time they reached the UK he was brilliant. I see your point and was worried about seeing them again when they reached Glasgow but he was ace.✌️

[@danielmorales711]

30-1

[@Timetofly8888]

Tripple Tracking...etc etc , "what ever wanna I add in the middle, (Audio ShitPolishing), Reverb, Delay, more Frequency Specific Dynamic Processing, More of his Auto Tune etc etc etc"...It ends up being . ".... a Classic *Ozzy Sound* " . . yeah coz it helps to polish the turd of a seriously aging old man still trying to sing in Rock !!! *Madonna* enters "When is it my turn ???, I can pack on the Concealer n Foundation too, have a few young men looking to lick the boots of an aging Cougar with money LOTS OF MONEY, but, I just need something to sell tickets to live shows .. Can you help too, Greg with your upsidedown triangle soundy thing ????

[@worldvideos9640]

FUTURE ENGINEER WILL LIKE THIS COMMENT

[@Causticghoul]

His parallel compression technique is weird.

[@csdarlington86]

Its pretty standard

[@witzendoz]

I use the exact same setup in the studio, but with all analog gear. Edit: Should have said same principle as I don't have the same physical compressors as the plugins, wish I did.

[@SHONROPER]

I use presets..where is my million dollar sound job..

[@johnnysauceda6022]

what???? speak english. break it down more simpler. sounds like a rocket scientist.

[@mickeymiguel2726]

Waves, were your audio dreams come true