What's the loudest instrument on your stage? Many smaller venues deal with acoustical volume challenges from drums, guitar amps, and the indirect sound from monitors. In the venue I am most familiar with, the open hi-hat is the most problematic. It bleeds into the nearby vocalist's microphone, and just screams out in general.
We've done some work to reposition the drums to get better localization and to move away from the piano itself, and that has helped tremendously. From using the correct microphone, to moving instruments, to turning down guitar amps and overall stage volume, you can make a big difference in both feedback and microphone bleed (better isolation of sources) for free.
Read on to see how mix engineer Dave Stagl uses Waves plug-ins designed to solve unique live sound challenges.
Please let us know if you have questions about getting better sound from your systems.