Topic: What's up with this SBD feed?

[alpine85]

There's some weirdness going on with the SBD feed from one of the stages I recorded last weekend (at WMNF's Tropical Heatwave in Tampa). 

I've only listened to 2 sets so far, but both have similar issues:

The left channel of the board feed has the vocals up way too loud in the mix, fairly dry sounding, and most of the other instruments way back in the mix (sometimes to the point that it sounds like the music is coming from another stage or something, and there's just this vocalist screaming at this one!)

The right channel has the vocals more in balance with everything else, but it sounds like it may be just an effect return or something... VERY wet and reverb-y.  Other instruments are more prominent in this channel... namely keys.  The kick drum also seems to have a different sound in each channel, as if it's EQ'd differently or something. 

I posted 1-minute samples from the 2 sets here:
http://soundcloud.com/talanwright/sets/samples_temp

From each set there is a SBD L (mono), SBD R (mono), and AUD (stereo)

The AUDs seem pretty well-balanced to me.  I'm not hearing any of these weird anomalies in the audience recording (although the vocals seem maybe a tad more upfront than your usual show) 

Was the sound guy just messing with me?  Any idea what these outputs may have been?  This so-called board feed couldn't possibly be what was actually sent out to the PA, could it? 

Anyone have any ideas how to approach doing a matrix using these 2 "SBD" channels??

I have some thoughts, and I have tinkered with them in Sound Forge a little bit this afternoon, but I'd love to hear what you guys think. 

Oh - the files I uploaded are all normalized.  The actual "R" channel on the board feed was ~12 dB lower than the "L" channel originally.    I could tell something was screwy with the levels right away and informed the sound guy.  He kept looking at me like I was crazy or something, kept telling me he was turning it up (I really thought maybe I had a bad cable or something), but these are the last 2 sets of the day, so the levels never got straightened out. 

[runonce]

Sounds like you may have been patched into a effect or aux send...?

What format was your SBD patch?

[alpine85]

Sounds like you may have been patched into a effect or aux send...?

What format was your SBD patch?

That's what I'm thinking too. 

The sound guy plugged me into the board.  IIRC, the outputs were labeled "3 & 4".    XLR out of the board straight into the R-44. 

[ellaguru]

sounds like grouped/bussed outputs that were not really set to a useable mix.

[runonce]

sounds like grouped/bussed outputs that were not really set to a useable mix.

Yep - sounds like he was on sub 3 and 4...

[Teen Age Riot]

sounds like grouped/bussed outputs that were not really set to a useable mix.

Yep - sounds like he was on sub 3 and 4...

Probably not a subgroup, but matrix outputs 3 and 4. That would explain the weird mix.
When you're recording from matrix outs, it's usually possible to assign any busses/groups to those outputs. Typically, you'd assign the master bus to your matrix out, in order to record the same signal that goes to the PA. Assigning groups (such as drums, guitars, vocals, fx,...) to the matrix outs allows you to create a separate mix by adjusting the levels for the individual groups. That can be a good thing, but it can also mess things up - especially if you don't have time to set it up properly.
When you're recording from a subgroup, all you can do is decide whether you want a certain channel on that group or not. You can't adjust it's level independently.