Ali Crompton at York Minster - Feb 15 + 16, 2007
A rare one for me, but this week I was white gloving it! Working outside of my normal palace i was asked to go along and engineer for a guy called Ali Crompton who I did some work with a couple of years back.
The venue for the show was York Minster, complete with twelve second natural reverb. A few weeks previous I had submitted my spec for what equipment I would need to remotely do my job in here and what was to be supplied was happily agreed.
I turned up and this spec was far from being met and what was there was sub-standard at best. I showed my disapproval a little, but considering the nature of the event i got my head down and did my best with what i could.
The main problem was that the system was concentrating just under 50% of its energy straight into the walls and pillars of the minster, which would then spew in more directions than a sick baby. By the time reached the FOH desk it was what can only be described as a mush! There were delays, but they were by no means powerful enough to cope with the task to which they had been assigned, and were already sounding mushy by the time they reached me.
I concentrated on the vocals first so they could be at least heard, then intermingled select elements of the band to make it slightly musical.
The minster just after doors.
During sound check.
FOH.
A close up of the desk channel strips. Rather than being some form of parametric, not even partially the desk had six fixed back of EQ, and one swept band across the entire frequency range. I found the six bands too far apart and with to narrower Q to be useful. What about the frequencies in between? How am i meant to change them?!
The show came and went, you could hear the vocals, which i guess is the most important thing! However, working this show has taught me one thing, how fortunate i am to be working with a company that use professional equipment and give a professional and courteous manner to their clients. Something that was lacking here. I'm sure the experience of engineering in that sort of venue will be invaluable as well. Its certainly not something everyone can say that have done.
Bring on working with familiar equipment again!
A rare one for me, but this week I was white gloving it! Working outside of my normal palace i was asked to go along and engineer for a guy called Ali Crompton who I did some work with a couple of years back.
The venue for the show was York Minster, complete with twelve second natural reverb. A few weeks previous I had submitted my spec for what equipment I would need to remotely do my job in here and what was to be supplied was happily agreed.
I turned up and this spec was far from being met and what was there was sub-standard at best. I showed my disapproval a little, but considering the nature of the event i got my head down and did my best with what i could.
The main problem was that the system was concentrating just under 50% of its energy straight into the walls and pillars of the minster, which would then spew in more directions than a sick baby. By the time reached the FOH desk it was what can only be described as a mush! There were delays, but they were by no means powerful enough to cope with the task to which they had been assigned, and were already sounding mushy by the time they reached me.
I concentrated on the vocals first so they could be at least heard, then intermingled select elements of the band to make it slightly musical.
The minster just after doors.
During sound check.
FOH.
A close up of the desk channel strips. Rather than being some form of parametric, not even partially the desk had six fixed back of EQ, and one swept band across the entire frequency range. I found the six bands too far apart and with to narrower Q to be useful. What about the frequencies in between? How am i meant to change them?!
The show came and went, you could hear the vocals, which i guess is the most important thing! However, working this show has taught me one thing, how fortunate i am to be working with a company that use professional equipment and give a professional and courteous manner to their clients. Something that was lacking here. I'm sure the experience of engineering in that sort of venue will be invaluable as well. Its certainly not something everyone can say that have done.
Bring on working with familiar equipment again!
posted by Dave Cartwright at
6:21 AM
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