How The Pros Mix Live Sound

In this clip, prolific front of house engineer Dave Natale (The Rolling Stones, Jeff Beck, Prince, Tina Turner, Yes, Stevie Nicks, Van Halen) breaks down his approach to mixing full bands in a live setting.

Original interview can be found here:

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[Vipelez]

"That frequency is a pain. It Hertz"

[eatsleepdrums]

"You can't be hitting Grandma with 2.5K" might just be the greatest statement I've ever heard made on a YouTube video haha!

[mccloysong]

No mud, no pain. Love it. And, even his presentation is analog.

[stevegee]

When I was learning live sound, I was taught "Nothing good happens at 160" by an old A1.

[DaxHamel]

More of this please. I'm not even a producer or mixer or engineer, it's just another dimention of nerdy interest.

[CedarPass]

This is one of the most underrated pieces of BRILLIANT insights I've ever seen on YouTube. Well done, Rick (and Dave, of course!) :)

[shmaknapublar]

That's basically how I was taught to EQ the house by the touring engineers I encountered on the reggae circuit. The other important component of a heavy bottom loud mix is the controlling the kick attack. Start by maxing out the ratio and the threshold on the compressor, then slow down the attack to let the proper amount of kick come through. Then adjust ratios and threshold if necessary. You'll get thunderous, tight kick sounds. Not so good for more subtle artists but great for rock and roots reggae.

[kurtcpi]

It's important to take into account that Dave is mixing in venues the size of which most of our PA systems wouldn't be adequate as side fills for the stage. As a young man (many years ago :-), an agency-hire band came to play at a local venue where the band I was doing sound for played on a regular basis. The sound quality just blew me away, it sounded soooo good compared to the typical band mix, including my own. Not long after that we did some kind of showcase put on by the agency where multiple bands basically auditioned for local club managers. The band with that great sound was the PA provider on one of the stages, and watching the sound guy ("Pat") set up for his band, the most frequently heard phrase coming out of his mouth was "too loud". His stage volume was as low as he could possibly get it without starting a mutiny. He would even face Marshall cabs into blanket-filled drum cases so the guitar players could crank it up to 3 and still have a very low stage volume. Everything was in the monitors, which was unheard of at the time for "pro" garage bands (monitors were for vocals), and amazingly, without a separate monitor console. All the front-of-house volume came from the mains, and it just sounded great! The moral of the story is that you're really not mixing if your main focus is just to get the levels up to match the loudest thing coming off the stage. Pat was also running a stereo mix, and after going stereo I never went back to mono again except for outdoor venues, but of course most of the rooms we worked were 20 steps side-to-side.

[kadjmusic]

I had the pleasure of working with Dave last night in Nashville. One of the best band mixes I’ve heard in a while

[Opeckie]

Subtractive EQ is one of the most important things I learned while working the studios in Nashville. It's just like the space between the notes in songs...just as important and so overlooked. Excellent tips!

[Wheels]

Great video and Dave pretty much drew the Fletcher Munson curve.😊

[RBAudios]

I followed this tip in my recent gigs and it made a world of difference to me and there is no going back now...

[blankspace]

Important to remember this is for LIVE sound. Mixing recorded music like this would be insane.

[NVRAMboi]

Dave Natale is one of my favorite guests ever.

[Neal_Schier]

One of the reasons I never go anywhere in life without earplugs.

[johnmcvicker]

That 2.1-3k is well known to be the pain area. Our ears are sensitive there because that is the frequency of baby cries. It's built-in. Dave and Rick should explain this as the "baby cry" region. Hating 160 is a bit new to me but I'm mixing something right now and will see how that area affects the song.

[Freq]

The reason to mix insanely loud is for the visceral impact. I was at a Silversun Pickups show recently and I believe they nailed it. My sense was that the mix wasn't overly loud BUT I think they were using a sub bass/octave processor (don't know the exact term for this) to overwhelm your entire being. It was by far the most visceral concert I've ever experienced (I grew up in the 70's and I've been to a lot of shows). The mix was clear as light and ear pain never entered the equation. When they hit the first notes, I thought to myself "Dorothy, we aren't in Kansas anymore". What a performance!

[cylinderswede]

This is how ive always mixed!:D Loud, clear, no pain!!

[jonfrolick]

Spot on Dave, appreciate you sharing you approach.
Just common sense combined with experience.

[JerryD]

After watching this video I decided to give this a try. First gig it worked great. Second gig, I struggled a bit. The difference was two entirely different PA systems setup by two different individuals. What Dave didn't mention and maybe it should be common knowledge is that he gets to mix on the best of the best stuff. Rolling Stones.... who gets to do that? I'm sure they use the same PA, same system tech to get the system in the best starting position day in and day out. All Dave has to do is find out what the room did to the system and correct that. Not taking anything away from him at all....the guy is brilliant. Just pointing out that there is a lot more behind the scenes to this to get you the same results.
The system I mixed on last night was not setup correctly so I spent way too much time trying to EQ it using the reference track. I decided to fire up my Smaart rig and see if anything stuck out and sure enough there were some high frequencies (8-12.5k) and low mid that were boosted a ridiculous amount. I guess the owner of the PA thought it sounded better that way. The Tops and subs were out of alignment by a lot. I had very little time to address these issues when the system owner is hovering over my head saying, "What are you doing? I already have this DIALED in?" OMG!!! No you DO NOT.... So I had to resort to some combat audio and get the show going. I made it work and it was certainly better than where it was when I started but it is what it is.
With that said, the system has to be setup correctly first to have the best success with any EQing. Dave's method is in fact a combat audio technique developed because of Tina Turner's management wanting it to be so loud. I would have expected this out of an AC/DC FOH guy for sure but Tina? In any case, I do like this a lot and will continue to work with it.