Historical sound mixing and microphone workshop

Aims

Students will have the opportunity to:

• Learn about the history of mixing desks and microphones
• Explore signal paths in both analogue and digital desks
• Learn to use their ‘ears’ when mixing and balancing the sound
• Get to know and work with the mixing desks EQ section when mixing drums live
• Discover the differences in working with equalizer versus pads to dampen the resonances in drums
• Develop their ability to work and communicate with a musician and with the rest of the team

Key Information

Number of learners	1-8
Number of staff	1 teacher, 1 musician (drum player). A sound technician to support the workshop will be useful if the teacher and students don’t have technical sound skills.
ECTS Credits (if applicable)	2-3 ECTS credit, if combined with some additional research and study of Sound Technique and history

Learning process

X	Lecture/seminar	Lecture, presentation, discussion (face-to-face or online)
	Making project	Making a model, mock-up, plan or design (physical or digital)
X	Performance project	Making a performance or demonstration (live or mediated)
	Records and Archives	Interviews, photographs and videos of artefacts, annotating archives, creating learning materials (physical or digital)
	Independent study	Reading, researching, analysing and evaluating learning materials (physical or digital) in groups or alone

Type of learner

X	Student of technical theatre
	Student of theatre design, architecture
X	Student of theatre arts
X	Professional
X	Researcher
	General public

What You Will Need

Duration and schedule

Preparation by the teacher:

In advance: 8-10 hours

On the days of the workshop: 2 hours

Preparation by the learners:

2-3 hours

Length of time of the workshop:

3 days of 6 working hours, with breaks as required.

Room or type of space

A theatre or studio

Equipment

• 1 digital mixing desk
• 1 analogue mixing desk
• 1 front of house PA system (left-right active top speaker of good quality, 2 sub woofers of good quality
• Amplifiers
• An effects unit to provide reverb, delay, etc for the analogue mixer
• 1 drum kit
• Microphones, including historical types if possible
• Microphone stands
• All necessary cables
• 1 monitor for the drummer
• Lecture equipment: projector and screen or large display, whiteboard.

Materials (consumables)

Carpet and acoustic materials, to adjust the sound of the drum kit

Learning resources (books, websites)

Canonbase articles:

• Vintage Microphone World

Other resources:

Gareth Fry, Sound Design for the Stage, the Crowood Press Ltd, 2019.

David Collison, The Sound of Theatre: From the Ancient Greeks to the Digital Age, Entertainment Technology Press, 2020

Process

Preparation

Preparation by the teacher:

• Hire a musician
• Prepare study materials for the students
• Plan the workshop days
• Check the sound equipment
• Set up the equipment
• Check the drums

Preparation by the students:

Students should look at the reference material to understand the historical context of sound technique and mixing technique, and prepare a task:

Find music examples that you like and think about the sound quality image. Prepare a short presentation: ‘why does the music sound so good and how was it achieved?’

The learning activity

Day 1:

• Each student plays their example piece of music and gives their presentation
• Seminar 1: Introduce the basic theory of analogue and digital sound (depending on the students previous knowledge and experience)
• Seminar 2: The history of microphones and mixing desks
• Seminar 3: How to set up the sound system and do a sound check

Day 2:

• The teacher (in collaboration with the technician) goes through the signal paths of:
  • The analogue mixer
  • The digital mixer
• Students have their own time with the mixer to undertake different tasks

Day 3:

• The drummer demonstrates the drum and the setup
• Everyone does their own sound check, and mixes and records the drums being played, on the analogue and digital mixer
• All together: Listening to everyone’s live mix of the drummer
• Discussion
• Summary and evaluation

Assessment and feedback

This workshop is not designed to be formally assessed. You can give feedback throughout the workshop, and students will want to ask questions and discuss the results during the practical exercises.

At the end of the session, summarise the key points of learning.

Our Experience

Tips

Make sure you are familiar with the mixing desk and the PA system.

Drum playing can be rather loud so check out the acoustics of the room you are using. Consider whether the drums should be built into a Plexiglas cage to dampen the sound. In this way, mixing also becomes easier.

The first time we conducted the workshop, we worked directly with a digital mixer in the belief that young students can go straight into the ‘digital world’. That turned out to be wrong as the students found it much easier to understand the signal paths in a digital mixer when we started with the analogue console. In addition, we got the theatre technical historical aspect and the development of mixing desks.

Credits

This learning method was made by:	Anders Aare, Anders Larsson
Institution:	Stockholm University of the Arts, Department of Performing Arts