OT: Audio tutorial for musicians...

[Donnie Frank]

Hey doods,

After being asked by several musician friends how I got decent audio in my videos without actually mixing the audio, I thought I would make this tutorial. Though I *have* mixed and performed before rather successfully, it's not my preference. This method is bad-engineer-resistant, but definitely not bad-engineer-proof. I hope this tutorial helps.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xNLSk...ature=youtu.be

[Brent Bennett]

Good job Donnie. Checking the phase in all tracks (or manually adjusting them) would also be important to include. Sounded great though.

[Donnie Frank]

Good job Donnie. Checking the phase in all tracks (or manually adjusting them) would also be important to include. Sounded great though.

Funny...I just addressed this same query on FB. Like a pair of out-of-phase subwoofers, it's pretty easy to hear phase cancellation during the mixing process. Because the audio of each channel isn't explicitly "on or off," I have been known to purposely leave a track out of phase to tighten up the bottom end by just mixing the out-of-phase track in just slightly. Because I face the DR-40 toward the kick drum head, it's inherently in phase with the cameras that are hearing audio from the main speakers. The sound wave(s) hit(s) the DR-40 in the same direction as the sound wave(s) hit(s) the camera mic's. Only once have I had to reverse the phase on an audio track, and that was because I had the DR-40 facing toward the back of the stage as an experiment. One could clearly hear it was out of phase.

I was going to talk about phase in the video, but thought it might be too in-depth for my target audience, which are my fellow musicians...most of whom know nothing about phase issues...<:^)

[soundchicken]

but I have to get back to my own universe

[Brent Bennett]

I've also taken files like these and assigned them to multiple tracks, then adjusted one for low end, mid, high end, beef, etc. A lot more work but sometimes it helps if something is missing. You've got enough different mics to work with that you got a nice blend.

[Donnie Frank]

I've also taken files like these and assigned them to multiple tracks, then adjusted one for low end, mid, high end, beef, etc. A lot more work but sometimes it helps if something is missing. You've got enough different mics to work with that you got a nice blend.

Thanx, Brent. I had a total of 5 audio sources; 3 cameras, the Tascam external mic's and the Tascam direct feed. For the tutorial video I only used the 2 FOH cameras and the Tascam's mic's.

Here's another video where a girl sat in.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V7qclcPtzeQ

She didn't sound that great and for some reason was way off the mic, so therefore undermixed. So I cheesed up and boosted her vocal a bit via the DI vocal feed into the Tascam. I then used the Tascam's mic channels to give the drums a little less of a compressed sound. The GoPro camera compression algorithm squishes the crap out of everything. It can be a useful tool but definitely needs to be toned down via other audio sources.

[Butch Bos]

My favorite size drum kit small

Butch

[Donnie Frank]

My favorite size drum kit small

Butch

Funny...I started using that small kit due to size restraints in smaller venues, like Applebee's, for instance. From there it just sort of caught on. Other bands liked it. I also found it almost idiot-proofs the mixing process. Most audio engineers are good with kick and snare and the toms usually get tossed to the wayside. This minimizes - though does not eliminate - those issues.

[studio-c]

That was my first reaction. As we're all gear freaks to some extent, I wasn't sure what you'd be playing, giant rack of toms...

Love it.

Really nice live sound mix! I've done similar things with our band. There's nothing like a cam in the "mosh pit" area to get the crowd excitement and a really nice room ambience.

Great stuff. I appreciate your contributions to this forum.

Scott