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When Hearing Starts To Drift
By Dave Rat
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Transmissions from Dave Rat
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You ever notice that some shows are really bright, I mean "ouch" kinda crazy painful hurt your ears bright and wonder what the engineer is thinking? You are thirty days into a tour you are getting off a plane flight into show day, hmmmm, wonder if your ears are the same trustworthy, spring fresh little helpers they were three weeks ago? Or maybe just maybe has that head cold, eight beers and four hours sleep last night dulled your senses a bit and your mix has drifted away from your normal sonically perfect masterpiece. For the course of this article I will refer to the phenomenon of our ears misleading us and the resulting variation in the tonal balance of the mix as "drift". As in "It sounded great early on but some where over the last 50 shows his mix has drifted in the ear bleed zone." |
A Method
There are many methods used to EQ sound systems and a mind-boggling quantity of different PA's and venues out there to EQ. Though there is a somewhat common goal of a smooth flat sound, there is no standardized way to EQ a system and not even a universally accepted sound to go for.
Pretty much, every show has unique needs and each engineer has their own style and angle of mixing, so finding a common method and result is pretty much out of the question. And even if it did exist, when you are an opening act or the third band on a "no sound check" festival, you are at the mercy of the whims of whomever EQ’ed the system. To make matters worse, plane flights, head colds and late nights wreak havoc on our most important tool, our ears. Even on a good day, well rested and healthy, is your mix going to be well balanced and as smooth as it was thirty shows, two continents and five plane flights ago?
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