Gain staging while performing with Ableton Live

[velvetxmind]

Hi,

I'm an electronic musician who has been producing for quite sometime. I decided to venture into the live aspect and am having some trouble finding the best volume levels for backing tracks. My set up for performance is basically running ableton in arrangement view & then using my interface to process my guitar, vocals, and synths. I have effects being automated at different times during the set. This all runs pretty smoothly, but the volume thing has been an issue. The last show I performed the sound engineer told me I was giving them a very soft signal - does this mean that my interface wasn't turned up all the way? I connected l&r to their speakers.

Also there were some areas that were a lot more boomy than others and seemed a bit out of control. Every WAV track in my performance project file is currently set at 0, and I just mixed the other instruments in with them. A friend brought up the fact that I should keep everything at -6 and under to give some headroom. I know that you should do it in live performance, but is this bad to do live? -6 seems pretty low to me and could cause some feedback issues. Anyway, i'm just not sure how to go about this and am barely finding resources online. Please help if you can.

Thanks

[Pitch Black]

Hi, we’re an electronic band that plays live. Because we do a lot of live dubs and manipulation of the mix on stage we have an operating level of about -12db on Live’s master output.

We use an RME Fireface 800 which has very clean and quiet (as in noise floor) outputs. We go from the outputs of the Fireface into a little 6 channel Tapco mixer that we have on stage. This lets us boost the signal level if needed.

This is a perennial thing when working in spaces with sound engineers who are used to DJs playing mastered tracks - and possibly going into the red on their DJ mixer because they think it means they’re “going over big” - but that’s a rant for another day.

By putting a small mixer after your audio interface you can bring the level up to whatever is needed.

[jlgrimes]

Hi,

I'm an electronic musician who has been producing for quite sometime. I decided to venture into the live aspect and am having some trouble finding the best volume levels for backing tracks. My set up for performance is basically running ableton in arrangement view & then using my interface to process my guitar, vocals, and synths. I have effects being automated at different times during the set. This all runs pretty smoothly, but the volume thing has been an issue. The last show I performed the sound engineer told me I was giving them a very soft signal - does this mean that my interface wasn't turned up all the way? I connected l&r to their speakers.

Also there were some areas that were a lot more boomy than others and seemed a bit out of control. Every WAV track in my performance project file is currently set at 0, and I just mixed the other instruments in with them. A friend brought up the fact that I should keep everything at -6 and under to give some headroom. I know that you should do it in live performance, but is this bad to do live? -6 seems pretty low to me and could cause some feedback issues. Anyway, i'm just not sure how to go about this and am barely finding resources online. Please help if you can.

Thanks

In theory If you are sending them a line out, you should be giving them a healthy signal. But they are probably just used to hotter signals as there are different line standards (-10 or +4) and yours might be the softer one.

They shouldn't have too much issue adjusting a minus 6 signal. That said every venue is different.

Are you planning on mixing your signals as you perform? If not there shouldn't be much of an issue raising your output 5 dB or so but I'm guessing the issue is your backing tracks aren't compressed or limited enough. it is probably a combination of things.

If you just need more gain and don't want to mess with your balance digitally, consider a DI box, which will allow engineer to run your signals through the mic pres giving them more control of the gain. Not all mixers allow gaining of line signals (although they should be able to control level from their faders, I'm guessing they don't want to mess with their existing balance too much) but going through mic pres should give them better control of your gain.

Most Di boxes are mono though but this isn't usually a problem when performing live as many pa systems are really mono already. Just use a utility to convert your output to mono.


Also what sounds great at home (or even at one live venue) might not sound right there so it helps to do a sound check.