Oh. Hi again. I guess it’s time for another blog post, eh? Well all right then. Good. Lets get started, shall we?
This month I decided I wanted to write about kittens and sunshine, but that wasn’t on the list of topics so lets just discuss an article from Live Sound magazine about Lady Antebullum. Yea, I know, not as cute as kittens but work with me on this.
Right, so… for those ignorant few out there who don’t know what a Lady Antebellum is, a Lady Antebellum is an up and coming country music group out of Naesh-veel Teh-nuh-seay (sounded out the spelling for that one) But to be honest, the band isn’t all too important in this weeks discussion. Not so much as the hard working chaps laboring behind the scenes to expose your cochlea to only the most accurate and pure vibrations possible. That’s right, this weeks article focuses on the thoughts and beliefs of none other than Lady Antebellum’s front of house engineer, Brett “Scoop” Blanden.
I’d normally kick this off by sharing some of his credentials, but as that’s no quite so important I’ll simply tell you that he has many, and they are very respectable. Good. Now we can get down to business, yea?
From the very beginning of the article, it’s clear that Scoop has a firm belief that the most important part of getting the sound right is remembering your fundamentals, and getting the sound right at the source. Blanden was quoted as saying, “Sonic Excellence occurs when you capitalize on the best opportunities for reinforcing the sound that’s already being created on stage.” It’s clear that he believed in keeping the signal as pure as possible all the way to the loudspeakers. It starts at the choice of microphone. Choosing a transducer that can accurately represent the tone of the singer or instrument is the key to a good start. Choosing you favorite microphone for every application may look good to you, but if it doesn’t do its job, that is, reproduce the sound as closely as possible to the source, then you’re already sacrificing sonic quality. It is important to match the performer to the microphone, and only rely on effects to nestle you sound in amongst the others in the mix. For example, Blanden goes on to say that he uses a certain microphone for all three singers of Lady Antebellum. The Sennheiser MD 5235. But rather that just saying that he generally likes the sound, he goes on to explain how well it matches the singers voices and how with that microphone he rarely, if ever, is required to use equalization to correct the sound for any of the three artists. In regard to gating the vocals, Brett prefers to leave them open, explaining how with proper micing and proper selection of instruments and amps with the right tone, you can get a great sound without the need to distort your signal heavily. Again, he stresses, ”Get it right at the source, and you’ll be working with a tonal picture that you can easily reinforce with the PA.”
Well, due to time constraints and technical difficulties, I’ll end this post here for now. I’ve a bit more to say on the matter, so I plan to conclude this post over the weekend. But as of now, I believe I’ve met the strict requirements the boss has set for me so I shall bid you farewell, and ask that you tune in later for the finale of this look into the wide world of Front of House Engineering.
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