Karaoke Forums

If you get a chance, pick up this book.... It should help.

http://www.amazon.com/Basic-Mixing-Tech ... 1860742831

The other books Paul White has out in the 'basic' series are also quite good... Not overly technical but enough that if you want to delve into it, it's there.

Thanks for the tip. We have the Yamaha book but it is a bit much for me except small doses as I am out of my element. Maybe the other will be easier for a beginner. I do get help via email from Jerry12x, also. Anyway, boyfriend will be back at the controls soon, I'm just tying to hold our place. But probably I will persue knowing more about it, anyway.

Well, at least I am 3 shows down now and so far no rotation complaints. Maybe I will have a rotation riot this week just because I'm due.

Liz, I'd have had no problem with it if he'd declined to hear my advice. That's why I asked. And Karaokemeister, note that the OP already had a working relationship in with the KJ in his situation too. It was all about presentation. If you go up to someone and say can I give you some advice and then all you offer them is "The vocals are hard to understand" or something like that, well then why should you listen to them, they have no more information to offer than you already started with. However, if you do as I did which is to describe what you're hearing, make sure they can hear it too and then give them an explanation for why it sounds that way and what they can do about it, well now they realize you actually know what you're talking about and are more apt to consider your advice.

In the end, as we discussed in this thread I think it comes down to a few key points. 1. How is the advice offered? Do you politely ask and not assume the person is an idiot. 2. What advice is offered? Telling someone you don't like how they chose to do something (like keeping it too dark) will never be received well, but helping someone find an answer to a problem they can hear exists will usually be well received. 3. Is the receiver of the advice humble enough to believe they can learn from someone else? For someone that thinks they know everything, or at least thinks they know more than you, there's no reason to bother offering advice, it won't be received.

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DJ Tony
Let It Rip Karaoke

When it comes to mixing, books are great and building the technical knowledge is extremely important, however it means nothing if you can't apply it to the real world. What I would suggest, in addition to (and best to be in conjunction with) the reading that Liz recommended, would be to setup your rig at home (if you can) and just play with it. Adjust the EQ's to the extremes and see how it makes things sound. If your mixer has a sweepable mid, turn up the mids all the way and slowly sweep the frequency knob back and forth and see how the audio changes. If you have a separate graphic EQ, try pushing each one up to the top and down to the bottom and listen to how that sounds. If you have compression, play with those controls and get a feel for how things change. Play with all the effects you have and at varying levels, damping settings and depths.

In the end mixing has to be done with the ears. There are two challenges. First is listening critically enough to be able to tell what it is about what you're hearing that you like or don't like. The second part is being able to adjust your mix to account for what you like and don't like (this is partially where the technical knowledge comes in, but many of the answers come only from experience and are rarely found in a book).

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DJ Tony
Let It Rip Karaoke

Just to clarify--my last sentence was not directed at you or what you did, Rip. It was just an--"Oh yeah"-- tacked onto the end to answer of the original question. The difference between us would be I wouldn't have anything to offer in sound expertise so I would lay low on that. As far as show style, we go to lots of different styles and have fun. We don't criticize what we don't like. We just do it differently for ours and to each his own on that one.

OOOPs. Just realized my first post could be mis-interpreted--what I meant was PLEASE sit down here and show me what to do--not take your seat. That's why I asked if you minded working on your day off.

Not doing too well on clarity today.

Had a working relationship. She'd asked advice on a number of other items in the past but admittedly not on this night. I did overstep my bounds because she simply didn't ask for it.

However if someone were to point this out to me I would have figured out where I went wrong. Had any of you come up with EQ suggestions I would have listened and seen if things got better with advice.

Listening to someone's suggestions is free and might even teach something to you. But that's just my opinion and your mileage may vary.

The show in question was canceled last week. Apparently there it didn't reach a critical mass of regulars to make it profitable for the bar.

To be fair, the show only ran 6 weeks. Enough to see progress if it was happening but certainly not long enough to make a big bump in the bottom line.