Re: Engineering Live Loopers

[andy butler <akbutler@tiscali.co.uk>]

hi Darren,
I think most looping performers would have to use a stereo feed to FOH.
There's no doubt some exceptions to that, and hopefully they'll be able to 
give some details about their methods.



At the last Norwich Loopfest everyone played with a stereo feed to pa, and 
I was able to put the speakers behind the "stage", so that when the trio 
Darkroom played Os was able to mix the band perfectly while performing, 
and as he was hearing the exact mix that the audience did everyone got a 
perfect mix. With the other acts, all I had to do was keep an ear on the 
overall volume while they dealt with their own mixes in their own way.
For looping guitarists, it is possible for the sound engineer to do a bit 
of balancing of the various layers by using EQ, and sometimes this can do 
a lot to improve the sound.


For me, mixing live is generally a matter of playing the parts at the 
correct volume in the first place. 
Lately, though, I've been using a slightly more complex setup, in which 
case the mixing is just part of the post processing.

Another scenario is that the sound engineer can operate a looping device 
for someone on stage, I've looped vocals from Tim Bowness in this way (by 
prior agreement of course) and it worked really well.

andy butler


 


darren perry wrote:
> I'm a front of house sound engineer as well as using live looping in my 
>own music. I've engineered live loopers before and wondered how people 
>set up their outputs to the sound engineer, if you're lucky enough to 
>have one at your gigs. Trying to engineer a stereo feed from a computer 
>or looping device can be quite frustrating. I went through a stage (as I 
>was playing and looping multiple instruments) of sending each instrument 
>separately to the engineer, easy as I use Ableton. I felt that I couldn't 
>mix the sound well enough from the stage to give a good sound to the 
>audience so left the engineer to do what he was there for and sort that 
>out for me.
> 
> Basically, do most people rely on sending a stereo output to the front 
>of house sound desk? DO you mix your tracks live? Does anyone else send 
>multiple outputs to give the engineer something to work with?
> 
> I'm looking into this as another small part to my research paper on 
>Looping Technology and Live Looping.
> 
> Thanks
> 
> Darren
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