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Author Topic: Virtual Sound Check  (Read 5553 times)

Isaac South

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Re: Virtual Sound Check
« Reply #10 on: February 09, 2018, 04:02:59 PM »

At one of the digital mixer classes I went to where the instructor was the FOH Eng for a big touring rock band he described how he did a Virtual sound check. It included what is referred to as re-amping, playing back the amplified instrument thru the amplifiers they use on stage for the show. I think he also said that they had a speaker on stage at the drums where the playback of the drums was played thru. Now as Bill said this is usually used for touring acts. And for the fellow that was teaching us, the shows were in very big places and they were the headliner. In a place that size the live drums and the amps will make a difference but not as much of a difference as in your standard church, not including Mega churches.

If the intent of the recording is to see how the people are mixing the service then there really isn’t any way to accurately do that. Especially if you are taking the raw signal pre everything, which is usually the default for then when multi-tracking. Even if it was a stereo board recording as Brien said that doesn't take into account what is low in the mix because it didn't need much if any amplification.

Maybe a really good pair of mics in the audience recording, but that isn’t cheap. But it is going to sound different, you will probably only notice some glaring errors and they may not be the mixers fault.

Thanks for the info.  Good stuff.  I'm a bit confused, though.  If my keyboard is run directly through the sound system, and I play that back through the same channels as it was live, am I not going to hear the same thing that the audience heard?  (I'm only talking piano, as an example, here.)  I realize that the drums and other things will make a difference.
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brian maddox

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Re: Virtual Sound Check
« Reply #11 on: February 09, 2018, 04:14:18 PM »

Thanks for the info.  Good stuff.  I'm a bit confused, though.  If my keyboard is run directly through the sound system, and I play that back through the same channels as it was live, am I not going to hear the same thing that the audience heard?  (I'm only talking piano, as an example, here.)  I realize that the drums and other things will make a difference.

Anything you run direct will sound identical [assuming of course that the signal path is identical to the original].  So keyboards and usually acoustic guitars and even bass guitar [if they don't use a sizable amp on stage] will come across very much like they do live.  And as i said before, if you don't have loud wedges on stage, vocals will be very close as well.  You'll even be able to solo up the vocal mics and hear how much bleed is getting in to the them from those perky drums and guitars.  :)
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Kevin Maxwell

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Re: Virtual Sound Check
« Reply #12 on: February 09, 2018, 06:34:00 PM »

Anything you run direct will sound identical [assuming of course that the signal path is identical to the original].  So keyboards and usually acoustic guitars and even bass guitar [if they don't use a sizable amp on stage] will come across very much like they do live.  And as i said before, if you don't have loud wedges on stage, vocals will be very close as well.  You'll even be able to solo up the vocal mics and hear how much bleed is getting in to the them from those perky drums and guitars.  :)

I would disagree with one little part of that. The size of the amp doesn’t matter it is how loud it is run. I have heard some small amps that are just run too loud for the environment. And some of them are incredibly beamy. There are also some factors that can affect the playback. You would have to make sure that it is coming back into the board at the same level that it left. If it was boosted in the DAW then it might be louder coming back in, or the other way around it doesn’t always match up on playback. You would need to have a way to calibrate it. And you would want to run any wedges the same way they are run for a service. This is for practicing not for getting any ides as to how it is being done now.

I mention the following to let you know it isn’t all cut and dry. Just because we can save all of the setting in the digital consoles doesn’t mean that those setting are going to work from week to week.

I usually laugh to myself when after a sound check/rehearsal when the band says “everything sounds great just leave all the setting there”. And then they come out and play louder and sing differently due to the excitement of preforming before a live audience. I was doing a small concert that was supposed to be outdoors, due to the weather it was moved to a relatively small room indoors. It was small enough that anything I did to the house mix would be heard by the musicians. After a sound check they said “don’t make any changes just leave everything set where it is, the last time the sound guy was changing things constantly”. I couldn’t leave it alone there were changes needed as the show went on. After the show they thanked me for how good it sounded and thanked me for not making any changes during the show. I just said “you’re welcome”. When you do it right it is just right it isn’t necessarily noticeable as to what you are doing.

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Wes Garland

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Re: Virtual Sound Check
« Reply #13 on: February 10, 2018, 05:06:56 PM »

You guys got any hot tips for switching back and forth between "live" and "virtual" for X32?  I keep thinking there must be a fast way to change 24 inputs' sources without changing anything else?

My other interest, besides virtual sound checks, is rehearsals missing one or more members, where one member is the drummer.  We could just play our own tracks.
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Robert Lofgren

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Re: Virtual Sound Check
« Reply #14 on: February 11, 2018, 05:04:23 AM »

In the latest firmware update they implemented a playback/recording switch on the home routing view. There you can toggle between the two routings.

You can also create routing presets in the library. A snippet will also get you there.

You guys got any hot tips for switching back and forth between "live" and "virtual" for X32?  I keep thinking there must be a fast way to change 24 inputs' sources without changing anything else?

My other interest, besides virtual sound checks, is rehearsals missing one or more members, where one member is the drummer.  We could just play our own tracks.
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Dave Garoutte

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Re: Virtual Sound Check
« Reply #15 on: February 11, 2018, 03:05:40 PM »

The Soundcraft Si series has the same problem, but I'm waiting . . . . . . . for a firmware update. 
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Wes Garland

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Re: Virtual Sound Check
« Reply #16 on: February 17, 2018, 09:52:21 PM »

In the latest firmware update they implemented a playback/recording switch on the home routing view. There you can toggle between the two routings.

Thanks - I didn't see that, and it works perfectly!
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ProSoundWeb Community

Re: Virtual Sound Check
« Reply #16 on: February 17, 2018, 09:52:21 PM »


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