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Pegasus Concert Thoughts
Oct. 31st, 2024 10:04 pmI've kicked a lot of thoughts around about the annual Pegasus Nominees Concert over the years and this current set of thoughts crystallized after this year's concert. This does not necessarily have anything to do with this year's nominees or performances.
I believe that the nominated songs are best served by not asking the sound engineers to do an impossible job. I am not *at all* trying to disrespect the work that Mark Peters and Dave Ifversen have been doing -- exactly the opposite! They are doing the best possible job under what are frequently bad circumstances.
"And what *are* those bad circumstances?", I hear you asking. Simply put, it is putting too many signals onto the stage, creating something that is very, very hard to balance on the fly. And if the song cannot be balanced on the fly, then the audience doesn't hear the best possible representation of the song under the circumstances of the concert.
Look, I've been an amateur sound engineer for a long time now. What I've learned is that the more familiar I am with the people on stage, the better the job that I can do. I will not say that I can mix Wild Mercy on the fly in my sleep, but I am familiar with what they do, what type of arrangements they have, and many of the songs that are going to be performed in any given set. My chances of getting a good mix from a standing start are really good.
If you put six people on the stage who I have *never* seen perform together before, I am now engaged in a guessing game and that guessing game is more complex depending on what the performers are planning to do. The mics and direct-ins are color-coded and I'm guessing that's reflected on Mark's board, but it requires a *lot* of attention to keep track of what's where. So our engineer is trying to listen to this and *maybe* he can figure out that someone is going to play an instrumental break and he can pick it up and boost it above the rest of the mix, because that's one of the tricks that makes the mix good.
But this is just *hard*. And I have to ask: is this what is going to present the song in its best light? Or is it better to use a less complex arrangement where the engineer can easily follow what's going on, emphasize the parts that need to be emphasized at any given moment, and everything is very, very clear?
Now there are going to be occasions when you really, really need to get a bunch of people on stage. (*cough* "Midichlorian Rhapsody" *cough*) But if you're going to do something like that and you want to be able to switch between voices, then the *minimum* that you ought to do is to provide a marked-up lyric sheet in *large* print with the names of all of the people participating and who is carrying the lead at any given moment. And this gives the engineer a fighting chance.
Or maybe the chorus that you need for this song can be picked up by a mic that's catching the vocals from the whole chorus so that they become one source and the mix becomes simpler to put together.
I'm going to take myself as an example, because I'm the example I'm most familiar with. If I'm doing a song with Amy McNally accompanying me and it's time for her to play a fiddle break, I will step away from the microphone (easier if my guitar is direct-in!) and turn in her direction, which tells the engineer that Amy is now the featured player. And when we're ready to go back to vocals, I will step back up to the microphone. An engineer as experienced as Mark will *easily* see this kind of big, broad signaling.
This requires some thought, of course. All good things do. But it's a skill that *everyone* can learn.
But if you can fit your arrangement into three people at the most, that's great, because not only do you become easier to mix, but you become easier to move on and off stage. This leaves less dead air during the concert, which means people are more attentive, which means they are paying more attention to *your* performance when you're ready to go. That's all good, right?
And if you really *do* need a lot of people, then know where you are going on stage, be prepared to go there when the previous song ends, and then get in position, help adjust mics and mic stands as required, and go.
As a rule of thumb, I suspect fewer is going to be better.
Your mileage may vary.
I believe that the nominated songs are best served by not asking the sound engineers to do an impossible job. I am not *at all* trying to disrespect the work that Mark Peters and Dave Ifversen have been doing -- exactly the opposite! They are doing the best possible job under what are frequently bad circumstances.
"And what *are* those bad circumstances?", I hear you asking. Simply put, it is putting too many signals onto the stage, creating something that is very, very hard to balance on the fly. And if the song cannot be balanced on the fly, then the audience doesn't hear the best possible representation of the song under the circumstances of the concert.
Look, I've been an amateur sound engineer for a long time now. What I've learned is that the more familiar I am with the people on stage, the better the job that I can do. I will not say that I can mix Wild Mercy on the fly in my sleep, but I am familiar with what they do, what type of arrangements they have, and many of the songs that are going to be performed in any given set. My chances of getting a good mix from a standing start are really good.
If you put six people on the stage who I have *never* seen perform together before, I am now engaged in a guessing game and that guessing game is more complex depending on what the performers are planning to do. The mics and direct-ins are color-coded and I'm guessing that's reflected on Mark's board, but it requires a *lot* of attention to keep track of what's where. So our engineer is trying to listen to this and *maybe* he can figure out that someone is going to play an instrumental break and he can pick it up and boost it above the rest of the mix, because that's one of the tricks that makes the mix good.
But this is just *hard*. And I have to ask: is this what is going to present the song in its best light? Or is it better to use a less complex arrangement where the engineer can easily follow what's going on, emphasize the parts that need to be emphasized at any given moment, and everything is very, very clear?
Now there are going to be occasions when you really, really need to get a bunch of people on stage. (*cough* "Midichlorian Rhapsody" *cough*) But if you're going to do something like that and you want to be able to switch between voices, then the *minimum* that you ought to do is to provide a marked-up lyric sheet in *large* print with the names of all of the people participating and who is carrying the lead at any given moment. And this gives the engineer a fighting chance.
Or maybe the chorus that you need for this song can be picked up by a mic that's catching the vocals from the whole chorus so that they become one source and the mix becomes simpler to put together.
I'm going to take myself as an example, because I'm the example I'm most familiar with. If I'm doing a song with Amy McNally accompanying me and it's time for her to play a fiddle break, I will step away from the microphone (easier if my guitar is direct-in!) and turn in her direction, which tells the engineer that Amy is now the featured player. And when we're ready to go back to vocals, I will step back up to the microphone. An engineer as experienced as Mark will *easily* see this kind of big, broad signaling.
This requires some thought, of course. All good things do. But it's a skill that *everyone* can learn.
But if you can fit your arrangement into three people at the most, that's great, because not only do you become easier to mix, but you become easier to move on and off stage. This leaves less dead air during the concert, which means people are more attentive, which means they are paying more attention to *your* performance when you're ready to go. That's all good, right?
And if you really *do* need a lot of people, then know where you are going on stage, be prepared to go there when the previous song ends, and then get in position, help adjust mics and mic stands as required, and go.
As a rule of thumb, I suspect fewer is going to be better.
Your mileage may vary.