Tusker Project fame 4 was probably the most talked about music- television event in East Africa's history; hate it or love it, TPF4 was an inescapable popular culture marker. Every weekend, life between 7.30 -9pm would literally come to a stand still for the 10weeks the show was on air; the season finale won by Davis from Uganda was reportedly watched by an estimated 10million people in the East African region!
From an audio perspective the challenge for the fourth season was to make it bigger than any other seasons, musically. This meant that the in house band came earlier in the season; there were more guest acts with more complicated switchovers and acts. In addition to this, 90% of the guest performers had to perform with a live band (any one who has followed the show’s history will know why this was such a big deal and in my opinion as to why the show this time was very good)
I was given the challenge to deliver 5 discreet mixes during every live show i.e.
- 1. Stereo Band mix for broadcast (later summed to a mono mix because Citizen TV like all other free to air TV stations still broadcast a mono audio signal and are not keen to change well done dinosaurs!)
- 2. Front of House Mix(F.O.H) for the Dome
- 3. MD Aaron’s mix
- 4. Band mix
- 5. Two monitor mixes for contestants/ Guest Performer’s on Stage
The ideal situation was to have had a stage split that allowed all mixes to be handled by different mixer and engineer but then again TIA (This is Africa).
Now this herculean task was made easier by one nifty gadget that the good people at Frame24 SA (thanks Tiens and Eugene) brought i.e. The LS932 Yamaha Digital Console. Any one who has used Live Gig’s Yamaha MCL7 or Yamaha PMD5 would find their way around this console in minutes as it is described as the baby brother of the larger format mixing consoles. The LS932 allowed me create all the mixes I needed and additional sub mixes and routing of effects. I had no need for outboard for this show as my LS32 allowed for 2 dynamics inserts per channel, multiple effects routing in additional to parametric and graphic EQ for the all master outs.
I had worked on TPF4 before but never in this capacity (F.O.H Live Sound Engineer) so it was definitely new ground. Another challenge was design of the dome and F.O.H position.
This is how we did it (get your pens and papers kids)
Gear List
1. 15 Sennheiser Mics (SKM300) + 6 A 1031-UFlap antennae
2. Shure Drum Kit PGDMK6 mics-
3. 5 Behringer ULTRA-DI DI100
4. Yamaha LS932 Digital Mixing console
5. Samson 50M 24 by 8* 8 multicore snake
6. Samson Power Amplifiers: SX 2400, SX 3200, SX 2600
7. Assorted Wharfdale Monitors and Speakers
Band
I. Yamaha Gig Maker Drum Kit
II. Yamaha ES8 Keyboard (Aarons)
III. Bass Amp - peavey max 115
IV. Guitar Amp - peavey bandit 112
V. Guitar Pedal – Digitech RP500 (Izzo Muganda’s)
VI. yamaha mg12xc Mixer
VII. Warfdale evp x15 pm - powered monitor 2
VIII. evp 12m 2
IX. Motif ex 8
Routing
The Ls932 handled all the routing; all mics old had a low cut, some compression and EQ and all performers' mics were patched into a reverb and/or delay; pity that the effect did not get broadcast. By the end of the Season when I was more comfortable with the console almost all signal patched in to the LS932 was going through some master buss compression,EQ and effect. I also really appreciated the tap tempo feature, because that I could assign it to any of my delays, which added extra spice to the performances
Below is the Channel Input List into the LS932
1-10 -
11 - VT
12 - MCR playback
13 - Mitch
14 -Sheila
15-17 - Judges
18 - Faculty
19-28 -Contestants/ Performers
29 - Mc
Master Output Routing
1-2- Band Only
3- Front Monitor
4. Back Monitors
5. Aaron’s Mix
6. Band mix
7. Delay Master
8. Long Reverb Master
9. Short Reverb Master
10-11 Reference Recording Stereo to M-Audio Fast Track Pro
14. Subs
15-16- F.O.H stereo mix
1. Light and Sound MUST have separate generators and their cabling must be routed way from each other. It a huge source of ghost buzzes and hums.
2. Battery checks (for mics and DIs) 30 mins before a show are mandatory...a lot of mics tend to die when the biggest act is on stage or when the MC has cracked his best joke yet.
3. The strongest link to any music for live TV production is the communication between backstage, stagehands and F.O.H. If there's no teamwork and clear responsibility lines between this guys then sit back and wait for disaster
4. There's nothing as too much rehearsal and proper practice. ( I now agree with you, Heidi)
5. A script can save your life and that of a show.
6. Always make sure the antennae are working. No one ever remembers that RF interference and irregular antennae placement can lead to dropped mic signals or even to complete death microphones that were previously working
7. Always record whatever your sending out (mixes, broadcast etc) as they make great reference points for your work, in addition to being irrefutable proof for solving any audio fidelty disputes
8. Your average "sound engineer" from any Kenyan TV station is an ex KBC electrician from Kenya Poly who wears a white lab-coat or safari khaki waist-coat with many pockets and carries a pliers........(kill me now.)
9. Some one somewhere will inevitably drop the ball and cause a crisis. Be calm. Trouble Shooting, Teamwork and delegation will solve it in minutes.
10. The true test of good work is; if no one remembers to give you a credit for great engineering. As a rule of thumb the audience and client will only remember the engineer if there were "technical problems".
11. Remember TIA: THIS IS AFRICA; make it work with what you have; demanding for a Digico D5 and $400 DIs is not clever… as no one has the budget; but also agreeing to deliver 15 mixes with Mackie 1202 mixer is could be considered as the height of engineering folly
By Tim Rimbui for TheMtaaBlog Copyright 2011
Director: Heidi Ulys
Producer: Matthew gray
F.O.H Dome: Tim Rimbui
Assistant F.O.H: Moses Onyango
Broadcast Mix: Martin Makasi and Tim Rimbui
System Tech: Eugene Koetze
Assistant System Tech: Brian Marende
Band Tech: Joe Were
Runners: Martin, Audi, Geideon, Lawi,Sharon, Lucy
Equipment and Backline Provided By: Frame 24- SA
LiveGigs
EnnovatorMusic
Joe Were
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