Here's a fun subgroup trick for mixing live bands, courtesy of Dave Rat. This only works on a digital board or a very, very well equipped analog setup with plenty of outboard compressors.Break your mix down in to a manageable number of subgroups, something like: guitar/bass/kick+snare/toms/OH+cymbals/vocals. Each on their own group. Put a compressor on each group, set so at moderate volumes it's barely working. Put all the channel faders on a VCA and put all the group faders on a different VCA.When the band is really rocking out and you want a louder but more contained mix push up the channel VCA to drive everything in to compression and pull down the group VCA to keep the overall level from getting out of control.When the band is playing a really quiet, sparse sort of thing pull down the channel VCA so the compressors aren't doing anything and push up the group VCA to compensate.

projectMalamute wrote:Here's a fun subgroup trick for mixing live bands, courtesy of Dave Rat. This only works on a digital board or a very, very well equipped analog setup with plenty of outboard compressors.Break your mix down in to a manageable number of subgroups, something like: guitar/bass/kick+snare/toms/OH+cymbals/vocals. Each on their own group. Put a compressor on each group, set so at moderate volumes it's barely working. Put all the channel faders on a VCA and put all the group faders on a different VCA.When the band is really rocking out and you want a louder but more contained mix push up the channel VCA to drive everything in to compression and pull down the group VCA to keep the overall level from getting out of control.When the band is playing a really quiet, sparse sort of thing pull down the channel VCA so the compressors aren't doing anything and push up the group VCA to compensate.This is simple and brilliant. Salut, Dave Rat!