#Freelance Work

For my AUP230 freelance component, I have worked on two main projects. The first project I’ve worked on is the Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling (GLOW) and recording live band sets and doing a simple mix down of it.

GLOW happened at Evie’s Bar and Diner in Fitzroy. The project of this was to capture both audio and visual of the event and as well as live stream it. The film department was going to be there as well and they brought four cameras for various angles. For audio, it was Liam and me on site. We brought a few small diaphragm condensers to really capture the ambience of the place. We had a few other mics, but it was just not practical to set up as we either didn’t have enough cable or it just didn’t seem essential. The venue itself was not the largest. I’d describe it as cozy. So when I first got on site, I was really curious where the wrestling ring would fit, and if it would fit. Well after moving almost everything out of the way, and taking down a few tables. The ring barely fit. So this posed the challenge for me wondering where I want the mics. There isn’t much space around it to put mics as people would be up close to it. After all, there wasn’t much space left on the floor. We were situated on the balcony upstairs and we managed to set up a few condensers mics that overlook the top of the balcony, and some that reach out and pointed to the crowd of the audience right below us. The only close micing we did was on the MC, and this was done with a lapel. He also had a handheld, but that was only for the in-house PA system. Everything was just ambience of the room. From the wrestlers screaming at each other, to the slams onto the mats, and the cheers just from everyone.

All these mics routed into a Tascam F8 which we used as a mixer and a recorder. The outputs were into one of the cameras, to be embedded into the HDMI signal that was connected into the laptop for the live stream. Overall, the main goal of this project was to capture the sound and space of the event, it I believe we were successful in doing so. Being in an external venue, it had its own constraints and challenges, but we did work with what we have to the best that we could.

For my other aspect of the freelance component, I currently help out at Hillsong Church as an audio engineer. On a weekly basis, I’m either doing in-ear monitor mixing or front of house. As well as lighting and set installations and other random projects.

Monitoring Monitors

This is the board I use and got to know very well. However, at the end of the day, it still says Yamaha on it…. A bit about the band, its a six-piece- drum, bass, two guitars, and two keys. There are also at most six vocalists. So that there is twelve in-ear mixes - stereo mixes, so twenty-four channels of information for everyone on stage. Plus two more channels for the wedges. Quite a full set up compared to most venues.

The way this venue is set up, the stage racks sit on stage, and each console is connected over an ethernet cable. Utilizing Audinate’s Dante for our digital audio network. It never really occurred to me that I could simply connect an ethernet cable to my computer and record all the different inputs. So there I had all the channels going into my laptop and I just had to hit record and I would have a live set.

So I had all the stems and I brought it into the studio, and one by one I mixed them in the post, taking my time. Having done so, I actually got to know each band member and the parts to play even better. I recall saying to myself, “Was he really playing that?” So I probably missed it in the live performance. The same for vocals, I can find very precisely what frequency is that vocalist really sibilant at. I picked up a lot of minor details, and they can make a big difference in the big picture. I’ve got to know the musician on a different level and it helps me anticipate their sound when I’m mixing.

I’ve also learnt that it helps the band and vocalist on how they can improve. Everybody is playing into the room, and it can be hard sometimes to be in the mindset of playing accurately when you so focus on the performance aspect. So it gives them a chance to listen back to how they performed. The addition of ambience mics help gives context to the room they played. Every channel is recorded so they could listen back to what the music director is saying and even how in time they are compared to the click. It’s all the small things each musician can now listen to and learn to improve from.

By bring the live performance into a post environment, I really got to know each individual and now I can present them even better when they perform. At this point, I can pretty comfortably do a mix not only from front of house, but also for their in-ears. I picked up the nuances of each individual of what they like and don’t like. It makes everything more efficient.

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