Topic: aud+sbd mixing

[John Kary]

I'm mixing a (usually mono) soundboard with audience mics.  I'm adding soundboard to do two things: 1. add detail to the vocals/guitars (lost in PA distortion), 2. bring the level of vocals up (sometimes lost in the room, or overpowered by being too close to the drums/guitar amps on stage).

Try separating the two channels of your SBD mixdown and panning them out evenly on both sides to a position that "feels right."  It will widen the stereo image of the recording.

A mono-sounding soundboard can happen in some cases where the house PA is indeed run in Mono, so the engineer doesn't pan anything.

[illconditioned]

I'm mixing a (usually mono) soundboard with audience mics.  I'm adding soundboard to do two things: 1. add detail to the vocals/guitars (lost in PA distortion), 2. bring the level of vocals up (sometimes lost in the room, or overpowered by being too close to the drums/guitar amps on stage).

Try separating the two channels of your SBD mixdown and panning them out evenly on both sides to a position that "feels right."  It will widen the stereo image of the recording.

A mono-sounding soundboard can happen in some cases where the house PA is indeed run in Mono, so the engineer doesn't pan anything.

Thanks, but most places I go to have a mono PA.  It is rare that I get a stereo mix of any kind, and even rarer that I get a good stereo mix.
Note that I'm talking really small clubs here.  Mostly they just have a "powered mixer" right in front of the stage, so what you get off the mics is a mix of onstage guitar and drums with voice, DI acoustic and maybe a mic on electric, lol.

  Richard