For What its Worth - The Lackey Live Basics



Microphones

- I never leave home without them and mic cables. I use all of them if time and circumstances permit, but there are a few that I insist on no matter how much crap I might get.

1 - Both Vocals get the EV N/DYM 957's. They have a sound like the 457's that they are used to but they are amazing in there ability to reject those pesky loud guitars and cymbals that you never seem to be able to get rid of on small stages with low ceilings. They will also help keep the monitors out of the house mix. They house system will probably have used 58's for the vocals and you will have to back up on the input gain a touch. The 957's are pre-mounted on tripod boom mic stands that we bring and stand ready to quickly be put into place on stage. In addition Matt's blender is also placed on his stand.

2 - The Bass gets a Sennhiser 409. I hate the sound of DI's on basses. I pre-mount this mic by draping it, with our cable, over the speaker cabinet and hold it in place with the amp. Steve will help with the placement on his rig. By using the mic I avoid ground problems and I don't need any compression on it.

3 - The two guitars get pre-mounted with N/DYM 308's also draped using our mic cables through the handles.

4 - The Kick drum gets the RE-27. I will send a short mic stand for it. As long as it is inside the kick past all of the Variable-D ports it will not pump in the front head hole. Depending on how well behaved the house system is depends on how this mic gets EQ'd. If the system does not have sub lows in the 60hz region that hang in the room and sound muddy, I leave the channel EQ flat otherwise I pull down the low end filter on the channel and raise the input sensitivity until I get a solid kick sound that does not walk over the bass guitar. If you need to fix an EQ point always subtract - never add.

5 - I mount a new EV mic on the rim of the snare (N/D 168). It has the sound very much like a SM57 except hotter so I can pull the input trim down a little. (this is the only thing I like the Shure 57's for)

6 - That leaves only the tom and cymbal mics. These are the only mics I compromise on. In a festival setting it pushes the set-up time to change these out from the house set-up. It time permits I use the PL95's on the toms (an amazing mic that has an incredibly wide freq. response and is so tight in coverage they will only pick up what is within about two to three inches directly in front of them negating the need for gates.) I use the two RE 200's (same capsule as the RE2000) on the cymbals. I close mic between the hat and crash on stage left and close mic between the ride and other crash on stage right. The RE 200's love 48 volts.

By prepping the Voc, Guitar, Bass, Kick, & Snare mics, they ride up on stage with the amps and drums, no time is lost on the set-up.



Monitors

- There is never enough time for monitors so I always keep it simple and include only what is absolutely essential. No matter how many mixes there are I keep the mix the same in all mixes. I always will sacrifice a little level in the monitors to avoid Feedback during the set at all costs.

1 - Steve & Matts vocals as hot as possible without feedback

2 - Matts acoustic direct out of his blender mix output

3 - Kick enough to be heard

4 - If the Kit is on a separate mix I add Snare to Troy's mix



FOH

- I bring two tools.

House EQ - I hate to use crap for filters and that is the general fare in house club systems. I also run a mono system. The whole world seems to have fallen for the stereo PA mix myth. This lets me make adjustments to the house EQ without upsetting the house mans settings. I simply unplug the left and right cables from the master outputs of the desk , Y them together, run an output from the left master to my EQ input and then run an output from my EQ to the Y'd cables going to their EQ's. I DO NOT DEFEAT THEIR HOUSE CURVE OR HOUSE LIMITERS, I use my EQ to make only necessary changes. I found it easier to accomplish this by not asking for permission and I wait until the house guy is busy doing something else. It takes a lot less time to do, than to explain.

Dynachord DRP-10 - I use only three basic sounds for Lackey and they are all programed in sequence in the user section of the DRP. Steve can show you where they are. I'll explain where they are used in a moment. I like to use an aux send that has a pre/post switch if possible and failing that I prefer a pre send. The distortion effect used on two songs with Matt's vocal work better if there is no no dry sound.



Basic FOH Mix Philosophy

- No Comps, no gates, no limiters, minimal EQ, minimal signal path( that usually means pulling inserts, reasigning signal buses and flatening EQ's.) Keep it simple and let the band sound & microphones do the work. This gives the instuments the best seperation and the sound the most dynamics with as little interference from the PA as possible.

Lackey has a vocal heavy mix. I keep vocals on top of the mix at all costs, even if I have to cut all the drums and guitars from the PA to get the vocals on top. The band has pretty high stage volume in the neighborhood of 105 to 110 db off of the stage. We have had disastrous results when trying to keep the band below these levels. They simply are not comfortable at lower levels and so I simply just deal with it. They will make slight reductions if absolutely necessary but I would avoid trying to make them turn down if possible. To keep the vocals on top I assign all the inputs directly to the left output mix and in addition I assign the vocals to subgroup 1 & 2 and use that for extra vocal gain. That keeps the vocals about 6db on top. The only time this has not worked is using a Sound Crap, I mean Craft, Spirit desk. For some reason adding the subgroup send to the mix output reduces output gain.

I'll discuss effects at the end.

I keep the kick, snare, & bass guitar big in the mix but not overpowering. The electric Guitars generally take care of themselves. I use a very big acoustic guitar sound on top of the guitars like you would aHammond B3 to fill out the mix.

When our first song is the sound check I always start with the vocals up as big as possible without feedback and a little kick and snare. I set all input EQ settings to flat. I hardly ever have to use Input EQ. The mics do the work. Then I add the guitars as needed to balance. Grey's leads need a little boost most of the time because they are generally not big rock leads but instead are more subtle, complex sounds.

Overall I get the mix very large. It's not unusual for the SPL to reach 115db on peaks at the house desk. This is balanced with nice dynamics from the band and they get as low as 105 dbs at times, especially at the beginnings of songs.

If we get a sound check they are used to the following routine. Leaving each each microphone open as I go (to be able to hear the effect that one mic has on another) I start with the kick then snare, hat, rack, floor, ride, then play the kit, then add bass, add Steve's guitar, add Grey's guitar, add Matt's acoustic, add Steve's vocal and finally add Matt's vocal to the mix. If the PA is really terrible I start with the vocals and EQ the house to them and use channel EQ to compensate for any holes that may be created in the instrument sounds. I quickly set input levels and a basic mix blend. EQ tweaking follows. The last thing I do is add effects. If all goes to hell fast then I leave effects off - they are the least important. This usually takes no more than four minuets and most of the time we don't get any more time than this. You have to feel lucky if the proceeding is not the first song of the set. If we are given any further time then they run through a song and we fine tune the balances of the instruments off of the stage and the monitors with the FOH.



Song Effects

- I use live effects as if they are another instrument input and make bold statements. Subtle effects like reverb just muddy the sound in live audio. I use only three effect settings on the DRP-10. They are programed in the User settings on programs numbered 8 (Basic Live Verb), 9 (DBL Voice Live), and 10 (Forgotten Vocal). Just push the User button, then scroll to the right program with the data wheel, then press the data wheel once to recall the setting (being careful not to turn the wheel as you are pushing it.)

Dilated Eyes -Start with #9 on both vocals and change to #10 (during the guitar break after the second chorus about 3 minutes into the song)on Matt's vocal only with a pre send and kill the effect on Steve's vocal all the way through the end.

Anything - The basic setting for the entire song is #9 on both vocals. I back off of the effects on Steve's last passage at the end of the song.

Daylight Blinks - Clean vocals through the first verse and chorus and then #9 on Matt's voice to only to thicken through the end of the song.

Forgotten How to Walk - Start with #8 on Steve's vocal, rack & floor toms & snare. Bring Matt's voice up gradually during the second verse with no effect. At the end of the second chorus I kill the effect on all inputs and change to #10 on Matt's vocal only with a pre send like at the end of Dilated Eyes (you have very little time to do this change.) Matt will sing 'I will never leave' twice and I quickly dump all effects to the end of the song, slowly bringing up Steve's vocal on the last chorus.

Haul Me In - Clean vocals through the first verse and then #9 on Matt's voice to only to thicken through the end of the song. A little more effect on the big parts of the choruses. This song lives and dies by Matt's vocals and if he starts to strain I increase the effect and bring the vocal back considerably into the mix.

Gasoline - Season the entire mix with #8 on the vocals when it feels good (more when it gets big and less when it drops back.) A big snare sound is also important to this song.



Thanks - Ken

Last Update 8/1/98