"If you give me the tools that I need to do my job, I will give you the outcome that you desire." Wonderful quote

It never ceases to amaze how the symbiosis between the musicians and the audio engineers occurs not on the technical level, but on the psychological level. The "thing they never teach you in audio school" is how to develop an atmosphere of confidence on stage. I don't care what kind of group you have, they are going to sound better and be easier to mix if they know you are on their team and are capable of making them successful. If I'm mixing wedges for sound checks, for example, I will grab my little iPad and go stand alongside the musicians and mix it to their taste. The fact that they know I can hear what they are hearing goes a long way to building that confidence.

selling confidence is so important, especially if you have a large item the artist isn't totally comfortable with, you literally see their relief when you say you'll make them sound great and you're on the ball

I'm not even in the business anymore but still love watching this. Thanks

The Rat is the Yoda of sound. Really great stuff here. Thanks you!

Condensers.. One time I was recording a symphony with a stereo bar way up high in a theater and was getting a very low rumble around 40Hz, it was more like a sensation in my headphones rather than a sound. You guessed it.. HVAC System. Windscreens to the rescue:) Thanks ah Much

Love the tips, Dave! Thanks for everything!

0:30 - tip 1 3:03 - tip 2 4:45 - tip 3 7:14 - tip 4 9:08 - tip 5 11:03 - tip 6

I haven't even watched this yet, but I liked the video on 2 YT accounts because I know it'll be good

Thank you so much for these wonderful videos! It is so refreshing to hear some different tips and tricks than the ones we have heard a million times already. I enjoy your calm and philosophical approach to sound a lot!

I've notice they where wrapping 57s to stop rattling when I started a job. I moved us to the strips of gaff to preserve the polar pattern. Thanks for your videos it's great to get other perspectives and ideas, and know other engineers are thinking the same things. I'm a trouble shooter by nature and am always working on the confidence part. People tend to assume similar symptom mean the same issue. I've seen good engineers loose trust by thoose that think a symptom is always the problem.

Your a hidden gem mate. keep it up!! always an enjoyable time learning from you.

Thank you yet again for these continued lessons and for sharing your wealth of knowledge Dave Rat! Open learning ensures we continue to pass on the knowledge and make the world sound better!

It truly makes me feel good watching Dave's videos and seeing not ONE down vote... Anytime there is a few, it just makes me wonder who those people are and where they are in their life....lol or if it's some bot or something...

Dave, your videos are phenomenal! Easy to understand and straight to the point. Every time you upload a new video it’s the first thing I watch. Thanks again!

YOU are awesome! Thank you for doing this. Honest, Genuine, and Sincere.

Thanks so much for sharing these tips and educating all of us, I really appreciate you sharing this knowledge. Thanks a bunch 😊

Great video Dave, thanks for the info and always being an inspiration!

You truly are an Inspiration. Thank you for what you do...

Dave, thanks for these. More great stuff. Would love to see a video about what your current gear preferences are and why.

My favorite tip so far? Using the wire from the top of a champagne bottle to repair an SM57.

true professional.. love the content Dave!!!! thank you!!

Thanks for this mr Dave Rat. keep it up!

Once again a great talk..

Excellent ! Keep those tips coming! I'd be very interested in some further digging of the phase/alignment of the monitoring system with the actual instrument and even with the PA on some specific places on stage (for example the lead point where there's often more wave coming back from the PA, especially on the low end). Thanks.

Having a limited budget on a sound system is one thing that can affect the mix but one thing you have control over is if you're using your dedicated sound mixer at shows possibly you should try to make recordings of the mixes so that you can eventually get the best possible mix by using the recordings to check your mixes not affected by the sound system

Great stuff! Thank you very much for sharing your knowledge!

Thank you.

True, electrical taping a mic grille is much like cupping the mic, loads of feedback. On the other hand a mic can be "fixed" into omni pattern using electrical tape over the ports, and the ported system can often sound pretty nasty on cheaper mics. Good trick in a studio for dynamic mics or electrets used super close to drums to reduce proximity effect and catch a bit more spill. The wise engineer buys multipacks of shure pop shields, they are a lot cheaper than mic clips, guitar strings or drum heads... or bottled beer... and are a consumable.

Totes, your a champ bro. Thanks.

Another Superb factual video. Many thanks

Great video as always, Dave! Keep ‘em coming!

The Time that it takes sound to pass through == copper wire vs digital latency 3:06 Great! thanks Would love to see/hear you on KZfaq presenting this topic further with examples. Especially now that audio over CAT cables are gaining much wider use, and competing/complementary platforms, hardware, protocols, namespaces etc

Fabulous. Top tips. I'm learning good stuff!

thanks again!

The Production Manager talks will be interesting with engineers wanting L-ISA systems in the future.

Thanks mate! Great to learn from you

There are compromises that are OK, but there are other job restrictions which are deal-breakers. I have worked on some shows which have been too dangerous and/or too badly managed, and stuff has been not fun and not paid. I declined to work on the bloc pleasure gardens show in 2012 at early preproduction, gut feeling sort of a thing, it even looked semi-right on paper, but the ideas that were being tabled sounded deadly to me, and I said so. All these waterways obstructing crowd movement... you can't expect to put a floating bar on it and haha great easy peasy. I'd done an unlicensed rave on a Thames island, and docks are not safe places to have a rammed shoulder-to-shoulder party. We were lucky that time, but I saw some things, and put it this way if I hadn't double triple ziptied the heras fence people would have died, and we had maybe 300 people in a boat yard that turned into 500, which felt like 800 (mystery jets eel pie island) The level of disaster at Bloc 2012 was, however, unexpected and catastrophic. The organiser who I'd known for ages as a lovely and capable fellow, Garfield Hackett, saw him a week after the show implosion and police vans for blocks emergency shutdown... and I have never seen a black man look that white. All the blood disappeared right out of him, walking very slowly. PTSD sort of a vibe. He said to me "you were right mate. Especially about stampedes and floating bars on docks. Good thing we didn't do those barges, and thanks for that. People would have died." Like whoa www.theguardian.com/music/2012/jul/07/bloc-weekend-shut-down-police

Thank you for sharing your wisdom!

Keep the tips coming 👌

Amazing.....Thanks Dave !!

I've been in situations (ok, well only a few, but they mattered...) where I've just gone ahead and opened my wallet for the tools/parts/etc to get the job done; knowing that these would be immediately essential, and also useful in the future to me personally, and to those who might hire me going forward. IMHO, don't let an awful budget (or no budget) spoil a gig -- and potentially ruin your relationship the talent -- if you can help/afford it, and can justify whatever it is that's lacking (if you feel the talent is worth it...'cause sometimes they just aren't :-). Lots goes into that calculation, but the answer is usually pretty obvious in the moment. Having watched a few of Dave's videos -- filled with various and sundry esoteric gear -- I have a hunch he's probably done the same :-)

amazing. wish i had the time at my work to set up right

It is electricity that travels through the copper wire at near the speed of light. Speed of sound in copper though, is only 4600 m/s (about 13,5 times time speed on sound in air)

"Pure gold, Jerry" (Seinfeld reference) :-)

Awesome tips! Thanks! By the way, I love those miniature wedges and mains that you use in your examples. Where can we get something like that?

Great content!

Thank you for these!

OK. I am stuck on your mini speaker wedges. Can these be purchased somewhere? or do I have to build them?

awesome dave, got any tips on mic ing drums thx

Brilliant

👍🏼

how important is delay on channels that are further back from the main PA Example Typical bar stage of say 20' wide by 20' deep. The drums and cabs at the back vs the mics at singing positions Should you be doing any time delay adjustments to "line them up" Or is that not enough distance to make a difference?

(With the tools). sometimes I like the Pepsi challenge . Especially when they say the house engineer dusnot make it sound like this. And not to say. when you work with average gear it makes you work . But when you work with good gear it's good. Plus if you've got an awesome band it works even better. And sometimes it doesn't even matter what gear you have its the band that helps a lot.

The wedge polarity thing is fine for a stationary player or maybe in defining a sweet spot, but that is hard to carry over night to night. It does make me wonder if you could manipulate the wavefront from a bass rig using the phase of it in monitors immediately down stage of the rig. Is it more accurate to mimic the phase of the instrument's wavefront in those monitors or to just throw back into it?

Hi Dave. Thank you for doing these videos. I am not a professional, but I do own the PA and run sound for my band. Question about drum monitors (specifically as it pertains to the kick): What are drummers really able to hear through their monitor? If it takes a couple dozen feet for lower notes to materialize, then what are they actually hearing from a monitor sitting six feet away? I know room reflections play a part, but purely from the standpoint of physics, is a 12 inch monitor no different from a 15, at that distance? Is the drummer even able to hear the fundamental; much less any lower harmonics? Is the monitor better for note definition and attack than for actual low end thump? Thank you for your insight.

What’s your advice on maxing a venue let’s say that keeps temp around 60-65 inside we’re you can’t get it warmer I remember past video you talked about 70 plus degrees sound travels better or something can’t recall love to hear your thoughts. Thanks

I notice the difference in monitoring between digital and analogue consoles. That 1.5ms latency is definitely something that I can feel on stage when I play, or even more, in headphones in a studio. Newer consoles seem a bit better, in general. In studio I’ve almost always rigged up a straight analogue monitor chain to the performer from their mic. And for anyone who might be interested in how a condenser mic capsule is made, there are some photos here: 10000cows.com/new_mic_photos.htm

Is it OK to record the sound of a keyboard through its headphone jack? Thanks.

Thank you. I got my first job well and truly hammered at a sushi bar. The guy gave me his card. I’m making proper money tile contracting in Santa Rosa valley, near Camarillo . 3 yrs go by, I decide to put my 3 line cv together,. I was taught by a guy called Brian Ingolsby, 1979. stop by the shop, the girl gives my resume to mr big in the back. He screams, yells “ get this Cu$t out of here”. Ok I’m leaving, the guy runs out of the office, grabs me, takes me back to the shop, and says “ this is ron, he works here, “ in front of 3 old beaten road dogs. They all smirk and walk off in different directions. Spy,Smoother,Gus, & Dabsy. I was at county line for 15 yrs, don’t know how I missed you. I’m retired in Thailand now. It would be fun to have a chat. Peace.

8:49 This made me jump. I thought something happened right outside my front door.

Excellent tips like always. I have a question a bit off subject though. What drum mics have you had the best luck with while touring? I’m currently using the sennheiser 900 series drum mics, but I can’t stand the cymbal noise they pic up. I’m really thinking about moving to earthworks. Thoughts???

👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥

I understand perfectly what you say about typing Mike's and the way that you can hold them in your hand But Jim Morrison broke the rules no

How about small clubs and stages with instruments coming out of the monitors? I work with a few different techs, and we all have different methods. I'd rather have my guitar and bass player or anyone with an amp on stage play a little louder if they need to then to have multiple sound sources on small stage, while I find most other guys will reel in the player's volumes and use the monitor mixes (with roughly the same net overall stage volume). When I fill in for guys, they tell me to stop corrupting their bands as they had them trained and I've let them off their leashes. On bigger stages the instruments in the monitors make sense because of the distance between them, but on small stages and venues 'less is more' and 'the simpler the better' has always worked for me personally.

where in the world did you get those orange beauties from?????

Goldmine

Does the AD conversion add time to a signal that goes into a digital console, and is patched out to a wireless iem?

cool

How much will the mini wedges be 👍

OK Dave. How often did you always get what you wanted? Maybe not answer that. It will probably just depress me. 😁

I always find it ironic when audio pros don't have good audio in their own video :D

I would ear you all day.

Omg you talk like me sound pressure and bass Hz velocity in relation to staging and loss from cable capacitance... I wish there was room for me to come work with you man it would be epic.... I've built so many car and house speaker systems and nobody has the passion like you and I when i start talking technical and specs for my folded horn subwoofer most people get lost and it's always been up top on my list create my own speakers and to build others speakers with purpose like is it for spl or the low lows or crisp clarity and kick. And up un til recently it's been a hobby but if there's one thing I know it's that you never know unless you ask so if you got a minute shoot me a message back I'd love to bonk heads with yah in a forward progressive motive and motion....

My tip - Your can't fix stupid musicians.

Not sound traveling, data traveling. Just saying. Lol.

I haven't even watched this yet, but I liked the video on 2 YT accounts because I know it'll be good