Here is a question for you. Have you been to the sound booth? Yes,? No? This is a critical question, this is where the music is made. Or broken. You have an important part to play here. What you do onstage effects how easy or hard it is for the sound engineer. Knowing what those knobs do makes it easy to help them.
So, on to the knobs. Wow, there are a lot of them. It can be overwhelming at first. We can narrow down this task by understanding that there is actually a series of repeated strips of knobs. Each channel strip contains the same knobs as it’s neighbors. At the top is the knob for the gain setting. This knob is so important that it is at the top. It’s so important that the balance of this post is devoted to it’s use. It is the most important knob on the channel strip.
This controls how loud your sound is for all the other knobs. OK, simple enough, but here is what that means. If it is set too low, you are too quiet everywhere else. You are too quiet in the monitors, in the Front of House. The engineer may not be able to turn you up loud enough to be heard. If the gain is set too high, your sound becomes distorted as your signal overdrives the electronics in the system.
So – what is the correct setting? The simple answer is one that provides the best sound, while being loud enough to properly supply the system, but not so loud that the loud parts distort. Not as simple as you had hoped? It actually is, but I need to get a little technical. I’ll try to make it easy.
We need to define a few terms first-
Noise Floor – The is the sound that ever piece of audio gear makes. It may be very quiet, but it is there. It’s the hiss you hear when there is nothing playing.
Signal- This is the sound created by you. Your singing creates an electrical signal in the microphone that is sent to the board. Same with your guitar, or iPod.
Headroom- This is the difference between the incoming signal and the distortion point for any piece of equipment.
Signal to Noise- This is the difference between the noise floor of the equipment and the signal.
Gain Structure - The cumulative effect of all the gain settings for all pieces of equipment in the audio chain- Mixer input settings, mixer output settings- outboard audio gear input/output settings- amplifier input/output settings.
Using these terms I will attempt to explain the one simple knob at the top of the channel.
The proper input gain setting for an input channel is one that provides the best possible signal to noise while providing the proper amount of headroom. This sets the stage for proper gain structure.
Still confused. Don’t worry, you don’t have to know what that setting is, just why. Setting it correctly is the sound engineer’s job. Here is what you need to know. Give him the best signal you can. Sing into your mic with the same passion you use during worship ( you did warm up on the way to church, Right?). Set your volume knobs at “your setting” and leave it. Give the sound engineer 100% right off the bat. Don’t hold back. Here is why this is important. The sound engineer needs to set the gain settings before anything else. Turning up (or down) the gain changes the level all monitors. You can’t ask for more monitor if you are not signing into the mic. Every one else is effected too. They can’t set their monitor levels for your sound in their monitors correctly if you are not signing in the mic. OK, I’ll stop picking on singers for the moment. It’s hard for the acoustic guitarist to set his monitor level for the electric when the electric guitar doesn’t get to full power until the third song. It’s hard for the sound engineer to set his levels if the bass player is holding back. Get the picture?
A common misconception is that if you have a personal monitoring setup, all this stuff doesn’t apply to you. Funny thing is, it effects you even more. If everyone is not going all out, when they do the added gain totally messes up your mix!!
So to sum up- In order for the sound engineer to get the optimal gain structure, you need to give him your best right out of the gate.
Coming in what do all those knobs do? Part 2- The EQ section.
