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on air, on stageBig SqueezeRather than just being useful for ‘level housekeeping’,compression has much more musical use than it isoften credited for.Everything starts with carefully chosen microphonesand placement of course – and obviously the rightsource sound is of paramount importance. Don’tstand at front of house endlessly hacking at the EQ;with the right mics, a well-tuned PA, and a goodstage set-up you should be able to dial in your gains,push the faders, and be 90% of the way there.Compressors’ attack and release controls hold the keyto the BIG drum sounds we’re all now accustomed tohearing. Using these controls to shape the sound cancreate an illusion of power in your mix, rather thanhaving to over-EQ and push things hard resulting ina loss of headroom.The tools we have at front of house are sweeteners,not a back line tech’s ‘get out of jail free card’.Ben Hammond, FOH Engineer, The Blackout,c/o Audio-TechnicaDial 0800 PAEverything starts with carefullychosen microphones and placementof course – and obviously the rightsource sound is of paramount importance.Don’t stand at front of houseendlessly hacking at the EQ; withthe right mics, a well-tuned PA,and a good stage set-up you shouldbe able to dial in your gains, pushthe faders, and be 90% of the waythere.Ben Hammond, FOH engineer,The Blackout. C/O Audio-TechnicaVocal TrickFor vocals I alwaysuse a Manley VoxBox.Not only does it havea great pre-amp,compressor, and EQ,but what makes itso stand out is itsfrequency-dependentcompressor. For livesound this is a hugeadvantage. You cancompress only the 2-3k regions in the vocal through thePA, so when you mix loud, instead of the compressorbecoming more aggressive, the more you compress, thesofter it gets – and your voice is still where you want itto be in the mix.Patrick Demoustier, FOH EngineerAudio Media, May 2010iLive ExtraiLive Mixing System: If you are called on to providebroadcast mic splits and don’t have additionalactive/passive stage-box outputs, you can addin a second or third MixRack fitted with