For two-and-a-half days I counted 'one, two' into microphones (the emphasis on the 'T') - and, along the way, developed a working knowledge of live sound mixing and production. Beginning with a half-day induction course for the absolute beginner hosted by Adlib's Andy Dockerty, covering the basics of speakers, cable running, coiling and mic stand set-up. We then progressed onto a tour around a mixing desk, phantom power and a demonstration of active and passive crossover. By the end of the afternoon I had learned more about sound systems than I had in an entire HND course in Theatre Lighting and Sound!
Dockerty imparted his knowledge with the conviction of someone who loves and believes in what he does, his passion for the job and its various idiosyncrasies came through loud and clear, and was infectious. The course was delivered from the perspective of hands-on, real-world experience, and it worked. Theory was mixed with demonstrations and stories of experiences on the road, along with common problems and troubleshooting.
Dockerty takes a pride in his professionalism, and makes certain that clients are confident in his abilities. The importance of simple disciplines, such as ensuring cables are run neatly, mic stands set up correctly and locked off and the stack position and focus is optimum, are emphasized. Dockerty explained that 75% of his show is sorted before the band arrives for the stage sound-check.
Day 1 proper began with a health and safety talk from Jonathan Hartley of Liverpool Community College; food for thought rather than precise details of regulations and legislation. We continued by consolidating what we learnt in the intro on crossovers, amps, speaker types and components. We covered phase and time alignment, choosing a PA for an application and speaker placement. In the afternoon we looked at inserts and mics and went over outboard - FX: types and uses, EQ and its applications. We finished off the day by looking at monitors controlled from FOH for smaller venues and mic set up and sound check.
To go into the details of what I learnt may be like telling granny how to suck eggs to some of you - however for those of you looking for a way into the live sound industry I would say the course provides enough knowledge to make an educated start. Feedback (excuse the pun) from day one was really positive and people were in no hurry to get away at the end of the day.
Day 2, and enter "Big" Mick Hughes (FOH engineer for Metallica) from downstage centre, strolling up to the FOH position in the main room. Hughes is a warm and funny Brummy who is passionate about the job he does and not as scary as he looks! He introduced us to the subtleties of tuning a PA system, the use of spectrum analysis in combination with pink noise and what that actually is (all the frequencies playing at the same amplitude at the same time), what mic to use for analysis and where to position it. We progressed on to the use of crossovers and splitting the frequencies to system components, how to look at the analysis and what to mess with on the EQ. We talked about the differences between parametric and graphic EQ, discovered that 2-2.5k are possibly the most painful frequencies to the human ear and that, although they should be kept under control, if they're not there at all, everything is compromised.
Handy tips from Big Mick included advice such as the correct positioning of the pickup mic for tuning is essential: to measure the low end, it's best to put the mic on the floor, although for mid and high this is not the case - after all, no one is
