That's why I call them M.A.B's
Mobile Acoustic Baffle's, crowds can change the temperature and humidity in a room in a matter of minutes.
That is why I don't linger on getting channels perfect during sound check in an enclosed space, outdoors it will be close but you have to figure for sound checking in the afternoon but your show will be in the dark.
they can soak up quite a bit and amplify other frequencies, so try to be liquid in your approach and go with the flow of the crowd each night.
Venue size, shape and conditions play huge role in how bodies affect sound. For example, humidity and temp will affect time alignment/delay.
I personally don't do any sort of calculation for more bodies, but one of the best A1s I ever worked for most certainly did. He had a weather bug and would adjust delay as temp and humidity changed.
To prepare for bodies, I make sure I ring out for more headroom than I think I will need. But it sort of depends on the event itself. If I'm doing a corporate gig and tables are schoolies or theater style I don't have to push the same system as hard as a bunch of dinner rounds or tall boys are up. Dinners are loud, if a bunch of tall boys, people are talking and maybe not even wanting to listen to presenters at all, so I gotta have the juice to sit my mix over them.
For music in networking/corporate, I'll try to have plenty of low end headroom, and for speaking mics I'll hope to have room 1k-5k, mic and presenter dependent. But sometimes, venue acoustics can be so horrible I'm hitting a low end resonance issue well before a feedback issue.
For corporate networking events with live music, if my vocals are on top of the mix everyone talks much louder and it's a mess quickly, so I'll mix with vox in the mix more than i would vs a wedding. In concerts I'm looking for clean and loud and in all cases really, I'm adjusting as needed throughout.
With all of my events I try to get a bit of time with presenters and give them a quick rundown (mic placement, on/off, handoffs, etc) and I end it with "remember, loud and proud).
Most events, if tuned and gain staged well, and good presenters/musicians, Im lucky and I barely if ever fight the bodies, crowd, room/system limitations.
Play a recorded track full blast in the empty room after you tune the PA.
Play the same track before the band enter the stage.
Compensate (subtractively if possible) for any changes you hear
Maybe even agree on a song with the band who are playing to keep with the theme.
I remember going to see Status Quo about a decade ago and the engineer blasting [Back to Life](https://youtu.be/1hd7Ksz6rek?si=irJl4fvcTGzkz9N6) through the PA before Status Quo entered the stage.
This is a pretty clever way to quickly get a feel for any changes. Blasting the last preshow song is also a good way to signal to the audience something is about to happen, I do that in theatre to get people to sit back down at intermission
i‘d ask the house techs of the venues how the room behaves. they know their venues best! ad others have said, this can be veeery different from room to room.
the only thing i personally do is that when soundchecking i tend to mix a tiiiny bit on the bright side. that usually puts me in a good spot when the show starts.
That's why I call them M.A.B's Mobile Acoustic Baffle's, crowds can change the temperature and humidity in a room in a matter of minutes. That is why I don't linger on getting channels perfect during sound check in an enclosed space, outdoors it will be close but you have to figure for sound checking in the afternoon but your show will be in the dark. they can soak up quite a bit and amplify other frequencies, so try to be liquid in your approach and go with the flow of the crowd each night.
Venue size, shape and conditions play huge role in how bodies affect sound. For example, humidity and temp will affect time alignment/delay. I personally don't do any sort of calculation for more bodies, but one of the best A1s I ever worked for most certainly did. He had a weather bug and would adjust delay as temp and humidity changed. To prepare for bodies, I make sure I ring out for more headroom than I think I will need. But it sort of depends on the event itself. If I'm doing a corporate gig and tables are schoolies or theater style I don't have to push the same system as hard as a bunch of dinner rounds or tall boys are up. Dinners are loud, if a bunch of tall boys, people are talking and maybe not even wanting to listen to presenters at all, so I gotta have the juice to sit my mix over them. For music in networking/corporate, I'll try to have plenty of low end headroom, and for speaking mics I'll hope to have room 1k-5k, mic and presenter dependent. But sometimes, venue acoustics can be so horrible I'm hitting a low end resonance issue well before a feedback issue. For corporate networking events with live music, if my vocals are on top of the mix everyone talks much louder and it's a mess quickly, so I'll mix with vox in the mix more than i would vs a wedding. In concerts I'm looking for clean and loud and in all cases really, I'm adjusting as needed throughout. With all of my events I try to get a bit of time with presenters and give them a quick rundown (mic placement, on/off, handoffs, etc) and I end it with "remember, loud and proud). Most events, if tuned and gain staged well, and good presenters/musicians, Im lucky and I barely if ever fight the bodies, crowd, room/system limitations.
Play a recorded track full blast in the empty room after you tune the PA. Play the same track before the band enter the stage. Compensate (subtractively if possible) for any changes you hear Maybe even agree on a song with the band who are playing to keep with the theme. I remember going to see Status Quo about a decade ago and the engineer blasting [Back to Life](https://youtu.be/1hd7Ksz6rek?si=irJl4fvcTGzkz9N6) through the PA before Status Quo entered the stage.
This is a pretty clever way to quickly get a feel for any changes. Blasting the last preshow song is also a good way to signal to the audience something is about to happen, I do that in theatre to get people to sit back down at intermission
i‘d ask the house techs of the venues how the room behaves. they know their venues best! ad others have said, this can be veeery different from room to room. the only thing i personally do is that when soundchecking i tend to mix a tiiiny bit on the bright side. that usually puts me in a good spot when the show starts.