Having taught thousands of students ranging from complete beginners to touring sound engineers Base Sound was contacted by the Welsh Millennium Centre to help train some of the existing sound engineers that work there. The Welsh Millennium Centre is a major venue for bands and performing artists in Cardiff and employs over 20 sound and audio visual technicians. Although they are all very experienced, many engineers wanted to improve their skills further to enable them to adapt to the broad variety of artists and bands they having to now work with.
With this in mind we delivered a bespoke sound engineering training day for them at our offices in Stroud, Gloucestershire. During the day we explored some of the acoustic challenges they faced in some of the rooms they work in and how to incorporate mic and speaker placement including delay lines, along with good use of EQ to improve the clarity and volume of the sound. We spent time using Noise, Gates, Compressors, Effects and Graphic Equalisers, combining them on both the Front of House and monitors to create a exciting front of house mix along with clear, crisp monitor sound for the bands to work from. The day was very productive and enjoyable and all the engineers said they felt a lot more confident and were relishing incorporating what we had covered as soon as they got back behind the desk.
A couple of days later I received this kind email from Diane Prentice or booked the training and attended her self.
Hi Howard,
I just wanted to drop you a line to tell you how much we all enjoyed the course on Wednesday. Everyone felt it was pitched just right, even those who thought they didn’t need the bit at the beginning of the day, learnt things that they didn’t know, especially about the octaves. The combination of hands on and theory worked really well, and your approach wasn’t ‘geeky’ at all which made it a comfortable way to learn for everyone.
Personally, I found the stuff about eq and compressors invaluable. I have a performer this afternoon who is using a DPA mic, so will put it into practice almost immediately and I’m already planning my business case for a new mixing desk in our foyer space….
If you are ever in Cardiff and want a look around our venue, give me a shout.
All the best
Diane
Diane Prentice
Production Assistant
Cynorthwywr Cynhyrchu
Canolfan Mileniwm Cymru
Wales Millennium Centre
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