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[William Schnake]

What is standard festival patch?

We do a large number of festivals on a X32 and this is the layout we use:

1 - 9 Drums
10    Bass
11 - 16 Guitars
17 - 20 Keys
21 - 24 open for horns and such
25 - 30 Vocals
31 - Announcer
32 - Playback

May not be perfect, but it works for us.

Bill

[Jeffrey Knorr - JRKLabs.com]

What is standard festival patch?

This is what I did most recently on an LS9. It would be a little different on an X32 since that has dedicated line and TB inputs.  This festival had a wide variety of genres so the Inst inputs were used for SDCs and/or DIs depending upon the act.

Input   PrimaryUse
1   Kick
2   Snare
3   Hat
4   Tom1
5   Tom2
6   Tom3
7   OH L
8   OH R
9   BASS DI
10   BASS MIC
11   GTR1 L
12   GTR2
13   GTR3
14   GTR4 R
15   Inst1
16   Inst2
17   Inst3
18   Inst4
19   Inst5
20   Inst6
21   LDC1-L
22   LDC2-R
23   Vox1 L
24   Vox2
25   Vox3
26   Vox4
27   Vox5
28   Vox6 R
29   TB
30   MC
31   MP3L
32   MP3R

[Roland Clarke]

Interesting reading as to what others do, but my take (and it has served me well for lots of local smaller shows over the last 15 years), that fits within 32 channels and will adapt to 24 is as follows:

1 BD
2 Snare
3 HH
4 Flr tom
5 Rack 2
6 Rack 1
7 OH L
8 OH R
9 Bass DI
10 Guitar L
11 Guitar R
12 DI 1 (or optional extras)
13 DI 2 (or optional extras)
14 DI 3 (or optional extras)
15 Keys L (or 1 if mono)
16 Keys R (or 2 if mono)
17 Vocals L
18 Vocals Centre
19 Vocals R
20 Vocals Bass
21 Vocals Drums
22 - 24 Brass/Additional vocals/percussion/extra tom mic, hurdy gurdy?

If you have 32 channels available 25-32 set depending on your daily riders.

I sometimes use a snare bottom mic that bumps everything up a channel and I loose DI 3 and patch that in after the vocals if required.

This has worked for me, even with walk-ups who failed to provide channel list.

[Dave Dermont]

What is standard festival patch?

What is "standard" can vary from company to company and festival to festival.

What you want is what gets you to the next band as fast as possible.

It's cool if you have riders and input lists to work with, but we all know that these are usually not up to date. Also, most bands will pare down an input list for a festival, so you might not need two kick mics, two snare mics, a pair of overheads and a hihat mic. That said, don't go striking microphones before you know what the bands FOH guy wants to keep.

Another thing is, the "festival patch" has evolved a bit since digital consoles (meaning, the X32) have become more common.

i see things like putting drums on the 17-32 layer, and assigning them to the first couple, three, or four DCAs. This brings the 1-16 layer available for four Stage Right inputs, four Stage Left inputs, six vocals, and two spares.

I have done bluegrass fests in "stations" that were VOX\INSTmic\DI - VOX\INSTmic\DI - etc

Label the cables at the female end with the channel numberthey are plugged into. Please. Thank you.

Print a document with three columns - the channel number - the festival patch designation - what's really plugged in.

Get different colored clown noses, and use a different color for each front line vocal mic. This way, when the order gets mixed up during the set (someone is bound to do it) you still know which is which.

It's really nice when the FOH guy, whether it's you or someone else, pushes up a fader and gets what he expects on the very first try. Never, ever forget how much this impacts how you are viewed by other professionals.

Another thing. Always label a fader "DARTH".

[Scott Olewiler]

I find it odd that it spite of countless posts on the forum that reference the top/btm snare mic combo, that no-one has bottom snare mic on their input list.

Is that something that is just typically dropped for festival stuff, or is no one really bottom micing snares in the wild?

[Tim McCulloch]

I find it odd that it spite of countless posts on the forum that reference the top/btm snare mic combo, that no-one has bottom snare mic on their input list.

Is that something that is just typically dropped for festival stuff, or is no one really bottom micing snares in the wild?

It depends on the size of the festival and the needs/clout of the headline artist, and how you're used to working.

For the most part I personally don't need a snare bottom mic so long as I can put the primary snare mic where I want it.  A "killer snare" sound is not sufficiently high on my priority list when we have 15 minute change overs to insist on another mic that ultimately will need finessed positioning.  If the headline artist wants it, put it up and consider keeping the input for other bands.

While not a festival, I'll point out that a show I did recently (and not a metal show) that had 4 channels of kick, 4 channels of snare, 2 high hats, and every back line amp was double mic'd, too.  For a 5 piece band they used 50 inputs.  For the sonic results achieved the show could have used 22 inputs.

[Stephen Kirby]

I find it odd that it spite of countless posts on the forum that reference the top/btm snare mic combo, that no-one has bottom snare mic on their input list.

Is that something that is just typically dropped for festival stuff, or is no one really bottom micing snares in the wild?

IMHO bottom snare mics often sound so ratty that you can at best just mix in a taste of them.  Shoving mics on and off drums in a multi band event the snare bottom and hi-hat mic are usually the first ones to be skipped.  Hat gets into the snare mic along with everything else.  I see lots of discussion on drum forums about folks trying to learn to hit cymbals and in particular hi-hats less hard so that the drums stick out more.  I've heard about recording engineers forcing the drummer to put the hat an awkward distance away just to keep it down in the snare mic.  If the drummer is really smacking the snare, it gets into everything including frontline vocal mics.  The spot top mic just gives you some sharper attack and the ability to bring up the balance.  So a bottom mic isn't really necessary most of the time.

The outdoor thing I just did had an acoustic bass.  There was some concern on the leaders part of the pickup having problems.  The bass player brought both a DPA and an RE27.  For the most part the DI off his Aguilar head was all that was needed.  After the 1st set he switched out the DPA for the EV and it was nice to have a bit more high end definition on a ballad, but not necessary.

[Brian Jojade]

I see lots of discussion on drum forums about folks trying to learn to hit cymbals and in particular hi-hats less hard so that the drums stick out more. 

I WISH this was required reading for anyone purchasing drums, drum sticks, drum accessories, or anything that comes anywhere near the drums.  Cymbals are always a nightmare for me in audio.  In order to get a good mix in a medium sized room with someone heavy on cymbals, the total volume ends up stupid loud.  Take out the trash cans, and magically, the entire volume can drop by 25db and still sound great.

[Jay Barracato]

I find it odd that it spite of countless posts on the forum that reference the top/btm snare mic combo, that no-one has bottom snare mic on their input list.

Is that something that is just typically dropped for festival stuff, or is no one really bottom micing snares in the wild?

I am a current convert back to doing snare bottom after a long time of not bothering. My current favorite mic is an at pro 35 clipon. It clips right to the snare stand and then during changeover gets clipped to the top mic stand.

It brings out the snap and crackle in the snare without making the snare obnoxiously loud. I figure if i dont like it just mute it but that is a lot easier than if it wasn't there and I wanted it

Often that is the first drum mic I give up in a festival setting if the drummer shows up with something unusual like a pic snare.

Sent from my DROID RAZR HD using Tapatalk

[Scott Olewiler]

I am a current convert back to doing snare bottom after a long time of not bothering. My current favorite mic is an at pro 35 clipon. It clips right to the snare stand and then during changeover gets clipped to the top mic stand.

It brings out the snap and crackle in the snare without making the snare obnoxiously loud. I figure if i dont like it just mute it but that is a lot easier than if it wasn't there and I wanted it

Often that is the first drum mic I give up in a festival setting if the drummer shows up with something unusual like a pic snare.

Sent from my DROID RAZR HD using Tapatalk

I think I'm going to add a bottom to the snare tomorrow and mess around with it. It's pretty casual so there isn't a lot of mixing to do.

[ProSoundWeb Community]