Micro Production EP1 - The Analog Sound Engineer
- Joel Ang
- Sep 16, 2020
- 3 min read
Updated: Sep 17, 2020
The first post in a series where I take a micro view on broadcast production, zooming in on the individual components which are required to produce a show. This week we talk about Audio Mixing.
Many musicians (especially electric guitarists) often argue that they can do without a sound engineer. I've often heard "just put my EQ flat, my pedal board has enough effects and compressors to handle it". Making me question my abilities as a sound engineer, has technology and effects made me redundant? Well of course my main goal is to mix the separate instruments together to form a homogenous sound which I hope can be called "music", but how far am I actually involved in achieving a good tone or sound.
Grammy Award winning British singer Adele famously went on tour in 2011 with just an Allen and Heath iLive soundboard operated by sound engineer Joe Campbell. I'm sure this made the audio-techs lives a whole lot better as they did not need to shift cabinets and cabinets of effects processors, not needing to lay miles and miles of cables. I'm sure they saved thousands of dollars by not needing to use tons of Gaffer tape to hold down the cables (as us audio engineers are used to).
This is a great example of the evolution of soundboards and audio equipment have evolved from the days of analog devices and vacuum tubes, to where everything is bite sized in digital components. We all celebrate this transition as it makes for seamless transition and integration of systems into a single platform, I can even control my Allen and Heath dLive remotely from my iPad. This change though is not fully embraced by all, I know of many old-school audio heads who still claim "oh nothing beats a traditional analog Yamaha soundboard, racks and racks of effects and vacuum tube amplifiers." Which may be true of music of their time, however new age music requires much more than what analog systems can provide.
And that's exactly what it all boils down to, what exactly are your producing? What music are you looking to create?
Lets take a look at "Heavenly Father" by Grammy Award winning American singer Bon Iver.
Here, Vernon is joined by a few other vocalists to give an acoustic and acapella version of the song, note the clean mix of voices, with reverb provided by the acoustics of the structure of the Sydney Opera House. The natural sound, lack of artificial effects and synths allow for a sound engineer to fully express the raw sound to the viewer.
Here, Bon Iver performs the live, original, version of "Heavenly Father".
Note the use of synths, artificial reverb in Vernon's voice and the effects used to maximise the sounds. This thus shows how different effects set up are required for two different recordings with contrasting goals.
Some music, such as soul (Adele) and rock (Aerosmith) requires heavy input by the sound engineer, where we play a key role in the production, direction, mixing and effects of the music. However, the digital boards fit well into a generation where artificial sounds and synths are king. New generation of performers pre-produce the majority of their sounds and music beforehand, adding in the effects even before we are able to add effects post-production for "live" shows. As such, sound engineers are not required during live shows for anything more than simply adjusting the volume and depth of sound to the venue and crowd, removing the role sound engineers play in creating dynamics in a venue with the toggling of sound effects.
Does this mean that sound engineers are obsolete in the modern music? Do we say goodbye to our beloved Lexicon Pro Effects Processors?
Far from it! In fact, we are now more involved in the preproduction of this music, in the studio and planning table, with roles moving into more of a producer, with a greater role in the creation of the music.
Thus we see that sound engineers are critical in every aspect of all kinds of music, live or recorded. It is key to remain humble and accept that roles may change, the days of the glorified sound engineer may be gone, but as we shift into a facilitation role, we find ourselves having a larger say in the work we want to do, a larger role in how we want to produce, and importantly, a larger part to play in the music we create for others to enjoy.
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