Greetings and welcome to the new 'Sound Advice' section on WF

[Sovereign]

Hi and welcome to Western Front's all new 'Sound Advice' page.  This is where musicians and recording/mixing entusiests can learn and exchange ideas on all areas of the Sound Industry, in particular music recording and live mixing.

My name is Aidan Barton, I’ve been working full time in the music industry as both a recording engineer/producer and as a live mixer since 2000.  Having studied sound at WAAPA (West Australian Academy of Performing Arts) from 1997-2000 i opened my own recording studio, Sovereign Studios, in 2001.  Since then I have engineered and/or produced successful releases for The Berzerker, Pathogen, Voyager, Vespers Descent, Plague, The Furor, I Killed The Prom Queen, Miles Away, Alleged, From The Ruins as well as mixed and mastered a truckload of other bands.

To check out the full Sovereign Studios discography, go to www.sovstudios.com/disco.html

I've also worked all over the country as a Live Mixer.  I have toured mixing exclusively for Hate Eternal, The Black Dahlia Murder, Daysend, Psycroptic, I Killed The Prom Queen, Stronger Than Hate, Vespers Descent and Kin and have mixed locally for Deicide, Cryptopsy, Dismember, Terror and Infected Mushroom. I also work as one of the inhouse Sound Mixers at Club Capitol & Amplifier Bar in Perth

If you would like to know more, I have a brand new webpage up at www.sovstudios.com

I'm here to help answer any question you may have about sound or the mechanics of the music industry in general, whether your a musician, live sound mixer, recording enthusiest or just someone who has an interest in any particular area of the music industry. Feel free to start up any new topics relating to sound or the music industry on this page. I will endeavour to frequent these pages often and answer any questions you have.

Thanks
Aidan Barton

[Ormsby_Guitars]

Good to have you on here Aidan, looking forward to learning more about sound recording etc.

[chancellorisgod]

Fucken hell I tripped out seeing a new section of WF, its been a while.... I'll be watching these pages closely, i love technical stuff...

[Sovereign]

Good to have you on here Aidan, looking forward to learning more about sound recording etc.

Cheers Perry, I look forward to being able to exchange thoughts on guitar tones, pickups and amplifiers with you.  I will be starting a section dedicated to recording just guitars, something I'm sure you will be able to offer much good advice on.

[spandex man]

hey man, im a 3rd year WAAPA soundy. looking forward to reading your ideas.

[cdtBEAST]

  Here is the section I have been waitn for for ages. Good on you Aiden for offering information for noobs to the engineering world such as myself. 

[Dementor]

I also can offer SOUND advice.

first of all be good to your mother
2nd love metal, don't like it.

if anyone else needs any SOUND advice pm me 

[dparker]

I also can offer SOUND advice.

first of all be good to your mother
2nd love metal, don't like it.

if anyone else needs any SOUND advice pm me 

Yeah, all the guitarists with good tone were good to their mummies.

[TnT]

You noticed the play on words.. well done.

[Dementor]

You noticed the play on words.. well done.

cheers 

[dparker]

You noticed the play on words.. well done.

Yayyyy... do I get scene points now?

I noticed it lol, but my reply wasn't intended to really go along with it.

[Beast]

Well done Aidan this shall be a forum i will use alot

[Sovereign]

hey man, im a 3rd year WAAPA soundy. looking forward to reading your ideas.

Awsome, didn't know there were any 3rd years on here.  I look forward to hearing your ideas/input also

Well done Aidan this shall be a forum i will use alot

Likewise, i look forward to hearing from you aswell as anyone else who wants to jump in on this forum.

Cheers

[spandex man]

hey man, im a 3rd year WAAPA soundy. looking forward to reading your ideas.

Awsome, didn't know there were any 3rd years on here.  I look forward to hearing your ideas/input also

proffesor gaines only lets one metal kid in a year, and that was me.

and id say my input will largly be about how much i hate radio mics after i start designing for the musical next sememster.

[cdtBEAST]

Hey don't knock radio mics  Although almost every mixer hates us because of ours 

[spandex man]

Hey don't knock radio mics  Although almost every mixer hates us because of ours 

i always refer to the trevor gaines rules of radio mics

1. dont use them
2. dont use them
3. dont use them
4. only if you have to

i was pretty sceptical until they fully raped me in the ass at a gig i was doing. 2 survived out of 6 all night.

[Beast]

proffesor gaines only lets one metal kid in a year, and that was me.

and id say my input will largly be about how much i hate radio mics after i start designing for the musical next sememster.

One per year is the rule.. hate to see a year without one  that would be dark times indeed

i always refer to the trevor gaines rules of radio mics

1. dont use them
2. dont use them
3. dont use them
4. only if you have to

i was pretty sceptical until they fully raped me in the ass at a gig i was doing. 2 survived out of 6 all night.

yesh you unlucky basted. Radio mics are.. evil
haven't actually had much use with them on the shows I've worked on. probably gonna endup in the deep end when i have to use them.

[Khariot_G]

hey man, im a 3rd year WAAPA soundy. looking forward to reading your ideas.

Awsome, didn't know there were any 3rd years on here.  I look forward to hearing your ideas/input also

hey im a WAAPA Sound graduate!!
hahahaha

proffesor gaines only lets one metal kid in a year, and that was me.

and id say my input will largly be about how much i hate radio mics after i start designing for the musical next sememster.

did u know before us, and before my year, as in Mr Lefroy's year, there were no metalheads. year of 04 DID have one metalhead, and that was Sean - but he was also a DrumnBass head as much as he was a metalhead......
as long as metalheads dont baseball-catch a speaker, or blow up a mixer, we can stay in the course and get out fully equipped to dominateeeeee 

MY rule of radio mics -
1. dont use em
2. dont use em
3. dont use em
4. use them if you REALLY had to, but then... just dont use em.
and Troy - just before u get onto that musical, go message Matt Lefroy and get his "Radio Mic channel list". its the best list of channels u could use and not interfere with each other... never had any problems when i used the list, Chess (with Mr Bettanay), funnything at the forum, etc, they all went well and with no problems

[spandex man]

hey man, im a 3rd year WAAPA soundy. looking forward to reading your ideas.

Awsome, didn't know there were any 3rd years on here.  I look forward to hearing your ideas/input also

hey im a WAAPA Sound graduate!!
hahahaha

proffesor gaines only lets one metal kid in a year, and that was me.

and id say my input will largly be about how much i hate radio mics after i start designing for the musical next sememster.

did u know before us, and before my year, as in Mr Lefroy's year, there were no metalheads. year of 04 DID have one metalhead, and that was Sean - but he was also a DrumnBass head as much as he was a metalhead......
as long as metalheads dont baseball-catch a speaker, or blow up a mixer, we can stay in the course and get out fully equipped to dominateeeeee 

MY rule of radio mics -
1. dont use em
2. dont use em
3. dont use em
4. use them if you REALLY had to, but then... just dont use em.
and Troy - just before u get onto that musical, go message Matt Lefroy and get his "Radio Mic channel list". its the best list of channels u could use and not interfere with each other... never had any problems when i used the list, Chess (with Mr Bettanay), funnything at the forum, etc, they all went well and with no problems

cool man, ill look into that.

btw, my fancy design feature in the musical im doing involves hanging a delay stack about 6-7 rows into the main theater. trevor thinks its a stupid idea, but he said i could still do it if i wanted. JB did it when he was in 3rd year and said it works really well. never the less, even if it does nothing, ill still be blasting RACER X at 120dB to test it out (well, maybe not that loud...but you get the idea).

[Khariot_G]

uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh i think Trev is right...
because the deal is that, the least the complication, the lower chances the fuck up.
true the fact, is that if you dont DO IT, ull never get the experience of it. so its still really up to u. u can completely disregard this comment.
if ur using the budget to get the delay racks and speakers then its a big decision to make between whether to do or dont, but if speakers are from Uni, and speaker racks are too, or cost very little inside the budget, do it for the fuck of it, and if it doesnt work, u can always pack it up and stick it back in the store room!

is this major musical...!? 
and who is doing Jazz Grads this year...? Al Biggins is gonna be missin me 

[spandex man]

i have a budget of $600 and the only thing ive put money aside for is batteries. im hoping to hire in a bss minidrive from audex if i can, all depends on how much its gonna cost for 3 weeks hire. the speakers and amp will all be from the store.

the idea is that by having an extra set of speakers for coverage i can keep the central cluster a bit quieter and use the delays to add clarity for the back few rows. at this point im only gonna be putting radio mics through them, but if it needs it i can add in orchestra. i did a few rough calculations today (pacing out the distance between the speakers and audience and such to make sure that the height the delays will be hung from is not too high), and if its set up right i think it will make a difference. but the worst case scenario is that they dont add any benefit to the sound and i turn them off.

but im hoping it will all come together nicely. i guess your just gonna have to find a way to sneak into the country so you can come see for yourself 

[Khariot_G]

if i sneak back into the country the first thing i wanna do is play a fuckin show...  hahaha

ok... now i didnt know you werent adding orchestra in the mix, coz what we did in chess was have radio mics in the center cluster and orchestra thru the sides, but not overwhelmingly loud.

where are the delays being hung? midway? from the catwalk?
#1 - will the speakers swing, need to keep them still
#2 - the distance between the speakers and the AUDIENCE. if its gonna be too loud for the closest person to it, which means turning down. and if you turn it down, will it be an advantage to the people in the middle of each row?

what happened to the surround speakers...?!
they renamed Main Theatre didnt they.........?