EQing & dipliomacy -help me out here...

[Super 8]

The following is an excerpt from an email I just recieved from someone I regularly play with, and also run sound for. He likes to have things his way. I struggle with his way sometimes because I'm not always sure he knows what he's talking about. Sometimes I think he's aware of that fact, but unwilling to admit it. Although I think I know more than he does about sound, and feel that I'm in a better position -when I run sound- to make judgement calls on what sounds right than he is (because of where I'm standing relative to the speakers), I also acknowledge that I am not the 'be-all' authority on live sound mixing. I also want to respect HIS sound preferences and make him happy. But I don't want to do that at the expense having a good live sound. I have nothing but my ears to tell me what sounds good, and I have A LOT of faith in my ears. He plays an accoustic guitar with an internal active pickup. He has some EQ controls on the guitar itself and I believe he does the "smiley face" curve with them. Read the following: " One thing about the mix- it's a personal preference of mine. I'm not a big fan of high mid's, especially since we EQ'd the system to the room. I'd rather not have us do much with the mid's at all, but the high mid's especially sound harsh to me. Let's not accentualte them. My acoustic Gtr is a great example. I like a little more low end and less mid- especially high-mid's. I think it sounds more like an acoustic gtr that way. Thank you." We mix from a Mackie 32ch board -if you're familiar with the setup on those. It's actually a recording board. I run most things with the 'low cut' button engaged. If I boost the lows on his guitar, I get BOOM through the subs. If I boost the Hi's, it only handles the highest frequencies (the pick hitting the strings -that kind of thing.) The Hi & low mid frequencies are sweepable and this is actually the area I feel gives the guitar it's tonal quality. Mostly I try not to EQ the guitars anymore than I feel is needed compensate for the room's accoustics. But I do get conserned about the amount of 'sonic space' the accoustic takes up. Often the lower frequencies -which sound fine soloed- do little more than muddy up the sound when other instruments/vox are added. Okay. Shed some light on this for me -PLEEZ!!! :(

[David R.]

For the EQ, try cutting the mid instead of boosting the low and hi. For the diplomacy, let him know that what he hears on stage is not what the audience is hearing. If it were, feedback city. He needs to trust that you are good enough to do his sound once it is described what he is after. Hope it works out.

[jpmiii]

Acoustic guitars can be some of the toughest things to handle in a live situation, they are very complex harmonically. My first question would be how does he know the mids are harsh? If he's walking out front a few feet from the horns then they probably are harsh sounding. A lot of the quality of an AC comes from the pick-ups and preamp on board the guitar followed by a the quality of the DI box. Then of course the front end in use with the PA itself has a lot to do with it also. If all your doing is vocals with his AC then try taking the system eq off the front end and inserting it on the vocal buss (submix) as a matter of fact to it anyway, if you have well designed PA you generally only need the graphic for ringing out the vocal mics. Much of the energy you remove for the improvement of the vocals is a lot of the energy that guitars require to sound natural as well as drums and everything else for that matter.

[MattC]

The mids and (high mids) are the bands of frequencies to which the human hear is most sensitive. This makes it very easy for these frequencies to sound harsh. I'd second the afforementioned suggestion- when you can cut, you are better off cutting rather than boosting. Too often people to mean that the lows are too low say that the mids are too high- you, as soundman, have to decipher what the client actually means. And then realize that you are beng paid to do a good job for the sound, not the ego. Mix it how you think it's best.