I spent the last week working on an end of year show for an elementary and middle school.
In all honesty, I was geared up for another uneventful children’s gig, but it turned out that I was about to have a few conversations with the live sound guy that was going to change how I thought about my role forever.
Hey Malachi, from your perspective, what makes a keyboard patch easy to work with in a mix?
-Brett
He looked at me and said, “Well, that’s a tough question, since nowadays people have cartoon sounds coming out of their keyboards and they make it work.
“True”, I said, “But what are some general rules? What makes your job the easiest”.
His eyes lit up, and he began to tell me some of his thoughts.
Talk To Your Sound Guy
I am about to share what he said, but before I do, I want to say that I’ve had this conversation many times, and Malachi answered differently than others.
What does this tell me? If you know what your sound guy wants to hear, you can give it to them, and they will make you sound even better.
Be humble enough to trust that their perspective matters, and can be helpful. Then make the necessary adjustments.
Three Most Important Things
Keep Everything Flat
In other words, don’t EQ your overall sound
Tweak away on your patches, but let the sound guy make any necessary adjustments to fit the room.
Simply put, don’t go putting a ton of EQ on your master output channel.
Make Patches Equal Volume
From his perspective, he doesn’t want to have all of your mellow sounds set up correctly, only to deafen the audience and the band with a massively unbalanced sound.
But from my perspective, this allows me to comfortably switch between patches without having to really ride my volume faders.
This has been something I have done naturally for many years, but once he said that, I realized there was a little more I can do in the way of making sure everything really sits at the correct volume.
Does It Sound Good At Home?
Before we got cutoff because the show was about to start he added, which I think was pretty wise,
Make sure you get the sound you are going for at home, and that everything sounds good and fits well. That way when you come to perform, it will be at least close, and anything that needs just a little love I can handle from the sound board”.
-Malachi
What I Took Away
This short lived conversation was eye opening for me. Here are my three biggest takeaways:
- Test all my patches ahead of time, so that my levels are equal, and I am not craving a last minute catch all EQ fix, to make my sounds more exciting
- Take care of my responsibilities, and let the sound guy handle his.
- Ask for feedback, so that you can improve, and foster great relationships with the people working to make your performance the best it can be.
How To Improve Your Game
If you need some great piano patches, you can check out the Pro Piano FX Collection.
If you need help working in Ableton, or switching from Mainstage To Ableton check out my full course, that comes with a ton of great patches.
E-mail me! I love to hear from readers.