u/stonedmariguana

It's one of my favorite songs and I was vibing SO hard, but I regret not snagging a video of it. The show was insane last night.

Basically what the title says. I'm mixing spoken word in arena settings currently, and I had two separate performers barely break the noise floor. Poor mic technique and borderline whispers if not outright whispering without being in a position to actually give advice to the performers. I have a few more gigs on the books with both performers. Multiple people are mentioning AI defeedback, but I am extremely anti-AI. There is a way to make this work, I just can't figure it out.

My preamp is cranked to 45 dB, I have a separate channel strip covering monitors. I have a 5045 at my disposal, but they're not even giving me enough output to hit it. Compressed 5:1 with a 5ms attack and 10dB makeup gain. Running a de-esser down to 3k with 12dB reduction. I ring out the room while pushing as much as I can, but I am digging myself a hole while attempting to stabilize the mic. We're using a 58 and I'm not in a position to request different mics, and I'm mixing on an S6L.

Edit: I asked for advice regarding solutions that don't involve coaching/speaking with the talent because IT IS NOT AN OPTION. Please stick to ideas that keep that in mind.

I'll be hitting Primus up and most likely staying in River North. About a 40min walk. Anybody make that trek before? Any issues between the route itself or safety? Making my plans and getting bitched out about the safety of it. Thanks in advance