just got back from Rewind in Henley. Had a great weekend but I was really dissapointed with the sound.

The instruments were pretty well mixed all weekend, nothing to really complain about there , but the vocals were bad. Especially on Saturday. Nearly every time someone pulled the mic to their lips to sing nothing came out, then it would come in as if the faders were been constantly pulled down between lines. then a lot of the time the vocals were not loud enough. suzzana Hoff's vocals were very low and it really detracted from their sound, you could also see she was complaining about her monitor mix. After all the vocals are the most important part to be heard clearly.
Quie a few times mics were swapped as I assume batteries were dead, maybe the heat.

But the biggest howler was today, Midge Ure, his opening song, nothing of his vocal could be heard, the crowd were all giving him thumbs down, holding their ears and chanting we can't hear you and looking at the mix tower. Nothing was done till the end of the song, how bad is that. Even when the mic was swapped, his vocals weren't loud enough IMHO.

It only seemed to be vocals though, the rest of the mix was fine, I was sat dead centre stage about half way between the stage and the tower.

Awesome weekend, but let down somewhat by what I would call poor mixing.

Any one else go? Did you feel the same?

Cheers

Rewind festival is generally ran "festival style", which means bands engineers only have 30mins to get everything on stage, line-check, set the desk and then its off. No soundcheck, so the first song will always likely be less than perfect, but it should be there by the end of the first song.. most engineers will have it by first chorus and excellent engineers will be there straight off!
Every band and engineer has a stage plot and channel list, but on a festival you get what's called a festival-patch, this is a system that enables every band to fit in the same framework. So your normally channel list is juggled around a bit to fit, and you have instruments on your desk coming up in different places to the usual. Which in turn can lead to operator error!

I've done rewind myself, and we were on late afternoon and the band on before us, for the first opening bar, FOH wasn't on! This is poor communication between the stage and FOH.. not really engineer's fault, but mistakes happen, the joys of live music.

In terms of certain mics not being there, this is odd as with Rewind, you have ability to line-check backstage, prior to your show.. so any issues should be found prior. With 40+ channels, multiple sub-boxes, splits and festival patches things can easily be missed.. but shouldn't happen.

Was it windy?

Rewind used to be looked after by Capitol sound, a very large company from London. I'm surprised that you found the whole weekend lacking in vocal level. Did you wander around allot or just in same position?

Hi Ian

I can certainly comprehend the complexity for sure, and of course you can't gain stage each mic to each singer so you have to settle for a compromise, and then there is mic technique etc. . For a lot of the acts, the house band played, so it was just different singers or maybe guitar and singers. Ther percussionists mic was a perfect level for backing vocals, but of course the lead vocals were'nt loud enough so it didn't blend right.

The weather was dead calm and really warm on day1, a little windy on day 2, the mix was better on day 2, except the Midge Ure incident.

Day 1 was odd cos it seemed like someone was riding the faders and constantly ducking them, but they were ever loud enough. We were in pretty much the same place, but a number of people I met, who were in different places said the same.

I really enjoyed it, but expected better of the sound, as I said instruments were largely perfect, vocals, poor.

Cheers

Quote SparkyG:

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I can certainly comprehend the complexity for sure, and of course you can't gain stage each mic to each singer so you have to settle for a compromise, and then there is mic technique etc. . For a lot of the acts, the house band played, so it was just different singers or maybe guitar and singers. Ther percussionists mic was a perfect level for backing vocals, but of course the lead vocals were'nt loud enough so it didn't blend right.

The weather was dead calm and really warm on day1, a little windy on day 2, the mix was better on day 2, except the Midge Ure incident.

Day 1 was odd cos it seemed like someone was riding the faders and constantly ducking them, but they were ever loud enough. We were in pretty much the same place, but a number of people I met, who were in different places said the same.

I really enjoyed it, but expected better of the sound, as I said instruments were largely perfect, vocals, poor.

Cheers

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Well, I disagree. You should be able to, and it be imperative that you do, change all the settings for each band/performer. Yes it might take you a song, or maybe 2 with very complex set ups to get it sorted, but it should be worked at until it's right.

Now, it could be the sound at the desk was different to the audience, which would be down to bad speaker/system set up, hence why the vocals were quieter.

However, from what you say it could be that the singers had really bad mic technique. That makes it hard to get a balance, especially if they are moving the mic away/towards their mouths at the wrong times.

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www.manninmusic.com Music Teacher, Isle of Man